In the 1950s Maida Butler deposited in the BL a TS of a family history of
the Rippon and Sargood families. In it she refers to various 19c diaries and
letters suggesting that there was some kind of family 'depository'. The
Sargoods had a mansion near Croyden called Broad Green Lodge up to the
1870s built with money made as haberdashers during the Australian
goldrushes. I wonder if anyone out there, by some fluke has any knowledge
of what happened to those papers. There were I think 5 Sargood daughters,
all of whom married. Maida Butler was descended from one of them,
probably Caroline Alexander. The other sisters were Rebecca Cooper, Emma
Williams, Louisa Peterson, and Gulielma Moss. The eldest son Frederick
Thomas Sargood remained in Australia to become an opulent merchant,
member of parliament, the first and only (?) minister of war in colonial
Victoria, and in 1901 one of the first Australian senators. The family is
thus of some interest to Australian cultural and political history. The
Rippon connection is of less interest, but is enshrined in the great
house Sargood built in Melbourne called 'Ripponlea' - presently a
National Trust property. His mother's father was Thomas Rippon, chief
cashier to the Bank of England - a source of much apparent pride within
the family. All their houses, except 'Broad Green Lodge' seem to have
incorporated the 'Rippon' element. I hope someone somewhere knows
something. I live in hope. Thanks. Ann
Ann Beedell
Humanities
Griffith University, Q. Australia 4111
A.Beedell@hum.gu.edu.au