Histories

Biographical Information: WILLIAM PURVIS, born 13th October 1796 at Fordel Sutlery, Fordel, Dalgety Parish, near Inverkeithing, Fife, Scotland, baptised 28th November 1796 at Mains of Kinnedder (Kinnedar), Saline, Fife, died 3rd December 1854 (aged 58) in Edinburgh, Scotland, of pneumonia. Memorial stone in Dunfermline Abbey burial ground (South side, lairs 517-518), Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Lieutenant, Royal Navy, when he first visited (1816) Sumatra, British (later Dutch) East Indies (Indonesia), and met his wife. From 1820 to 1824 he was in the service of the mercantile house called Van Der Kaa, Haste & Co., Batavia (Djakarta), Java, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), being master of their ship Baron Van Der Capellen trading in the Eastern Seas. In 1825 he went to Padang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), bought (1827) a 60 ton cutter called "Padang" and traded pepper with the adjacent islands. Being successful he then bought a 160 ton brig called "Norfolk" and was harbour master at Padang for a time, until c.1831/1833 when he moved his family to Edinburgh. [Note: Padang was a British possession until 1825 when it became Dutch under the Treaty of London (17th March 1824)]. In the 1830s the family was living in Inverkeithing, while their eldest son (Robert Raaff Purvis – see 1.1.3.5.2.1. below) attended school as a boarder at Madras College, St Andrews, Fife. He continued to trade with the Dutch East Indies through his company Purvis & Co. and purchased (1833) an important rice plantation called Soedimara (or Sudinara) 10 miles from Batavia (Djakarta) in Java. After his death this property and the trading company were mismanaged by his sons and Soedimara (Sudinara) was ultimately sold in 1898. Per Lloyds Register of Shipping, he was Owner and Captain of the 298 ton bark "Cinderella", registered in London and plying London-Sumatra in 1845. [Note: Victoria Mary Younghusband or Tucker (see 1.1.3.5.2.1.8.1.2.1. below) has a portrait of him in naval uniform but with birth date given as 1799 on the reverse]. Married (22nd December 1822 at Padang) Cornelia Louisa (or Louiza) In'tveld (see OA.36-1.8.) (born 1808 at Padang, baptised 26th February 1815 in Calcutta, India, aged 6 years, together with her elder sister Catherina Elisabeth (or Elisa) In'tveld (see 1.1.3.5.2.8. below and OA.36-1.7.), died 18th October 1857, aged 49, at Utrecht, Netherlands, memorial in the graveyard (South side) of Dunfermline Abbey, Dunfermline), sixth daughter of Theunis In'tveld (baptised 20th January 1768 at Hellevoetsluis, Netherlands, married 1792, died 15th July 1846 at Padang) who was Dutch Resident in Padang, but lived in Calcutta, between c.1808-1817, and of Anna Francina Carels (or Karels) (born 1776 at Padang, died 4th September 1833 at Padang), whose father Andries Carels was one of the first European inhabitants of Padang and whose mother was Indonesian reputedly from ? Nias Island, off the West coast of Sumatra, having fifteen children:-