Histories

Biographical Information: ROBERT RAAFF PURVIS of Java, born 6th September 1823 in Padang, West coast of Sumatra, a British possession (British East indies) which later (1825 per the Treaty of London (17th March 1824)) became part of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), baptised 28th December 1823 in Inverkeithing Parish, Fife, Scotland, died 30th June 1891 at Batavia (Djakarta), Java, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). He was probably buried originally in the Tanah Abang I Cemetery, Djakarta, Indonesia, and was moved (1975) to Tanah Kusir Cemetery, Djakarta, where he is thought to be in Block AAI (previously AII Block, plot 740). [Note: Lt. Col. Raaff was the military and civil administrator of Padang from 1821 until he died of rot fever in 1823, aged 27 - perhaps he was a friend of Robert Raaff Purvis' parents]. Educated in the 1830s at Madras College, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, while his home was with his mother in Inverkeithing, Fife. He was living in Padang in 1846 and took over the family business (Purvis & Co, Padang) on his father's death (1854), including management of the trading and shipping operations and Soedimara (Sudinara) plantation, Java. Retired comfortably "before he was 40" (i.e. before c.1863) to Ersham (? or Earsham), Hailsham, Sussex, England, which was sold 1871, with a home also (c.1865/66) in Ixelles (Elsene), Brussels, Belgium. On his retirement (1860s) it seems that management of Purvis & Co. was assumed by his brother John Purvis (see 1.1.3.5.2.7. below), who brought it to failure by 1877 and ended in prison for fraudulent bankruptcy, and Soedimara (Sudinara) plantation by his other brother Thomas Intveld Purvis (see 1.1.3.5.2.10. below) only to see the revenues drop off to near nothing by the late 1870s. He was at Soedimara (Sudinara) in 1869 and was British Vice-Consul at Padang (29th August 1872 to 12th March 1873). He moved (18th November 1873) to Rue Espagnole (Spaniardstraat) 25 (now No. 9), Bruges (Brugge), Belgium, which was presumably rented as it was owned (1872-95 per Bruges (Brugge) city archives (see OA. 1398)) by Alphonse Boone, a priest from the region of Ypres (Ieper), Belgium. He carried out major alterations to the façade of the house in the neo-gothic style, which are registered for 1872 in the Bruges (Brugge) city archives (see OA. 1398). However the family's finances became increasingly and catastrophically strained due to the failure of the family trading company (Purvis & Co.) and the poor performance of the Soedimara plantation in the period 1875-77. He therefore emigrated with all his family (and meeting up en route at Chicago, Illinois, with William Herbert Purvis (see 1.1.3.6.1.5. below), his 2nd cousin) to Kealia, Kauai, Hawaiian Islands (Hawaii), arriving 18th June 1878 at Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands (Hawaii), and then proceeding to Kealia, where his son Robert William Theodore Purvis (Theo) (see 1.1.3.5.2.1.2. below) had preceded them and started a struggling and ultimately unsuccessful sugar plantation. Because of these further losses, he sailed (19th August 1882) from Honolulu with his wife and three youngest surviving daughters (Edith (see her journal, item 310 in The Beatrice Holdsworth Greenwell Collection, Honolulu), Florence and Beatrice) to "India" (i.e. the Dutch East Indies) ostensibly to manage the family property Soedimara (Sudinara), Java, by taking over from his brother Thomas Intveld Purvis (see 1.1.3.5.2.10. below). En route to Java, they stopped off in Singapore and visited his 2nd cousin John Murray Purvis (see 1.1.3.4.1.1. above). Thomas Intveld Purvis had changed his mind by the time they arrived in Java and so Robert Raaff sold (1883) his share of Soedimara to "Gwynne", presumably James Eglinton Anderson Gwynne, husband of his sister Mary Earle Purvis (May) (see 1.1.3.5.2.12. below) and ended up (from 28th May 1883 until January 1886) Manager and Administrator on behalf of the Dutch Colonial Bank of another rice, tea and coffee plantation of 25,000 acres called Koeripan, 15 miles from Buitenzorg (or Beutenzorg), Java, and from where he witnessed the eruption of Krakatau (August 1883). Despite all the financial disasters and unfulfilled hopes of his life, which resulted in disillusion, loneliness and detachment from much of his immediate family, he paid off all his debts, maintained his dignity and left his two youngest daughters a small inheritance of £400. See A Scottish-Hawaiian Story, written and published 1994 by Nancy Oakley Hedemann (see OA.55). Married (19th September 1853 in Padang, Sumatra) Annie Silburn Marshall (born 26th October 1831, died 23rd May 1888 in Edinburgh, Scotland, having returned from Java, probably buried in the churchyard of the Belgrave Crescent Kirk, Edinburgh), daughter of Matthew Marshall (who had a sister Jane Marshall (living 1875 and 1890s at 85 Great King Street, Edinburgh, died 15th February 1894, buried near her niece probably in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Dean Bridge, Belgrave Crescent, Edinburgh), who corresponded regularly with her great-nieces and great-nephews Purvis and had Florence Forsyth Purvis (see 1.1.3.5.2.1.8. below) and Beatrice Constance Purvis (see 1.1.3.5.2.1.9. below) live with her (1888-94) in Edinburgh after their mother's death), whose father Joseph Marshall of Edrington, Foulden, Berwickshire, Scotland, had a sister Frances who married Robert Romer of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, and had a daughter Frances Romer who married Major General Charles Younghusband, parents of Charles Wright Younghusband and grandparents of Frank Campbell Younghusband (see 1.1.3.5.2.1.8. below), and of Sara ….., who were living (1871 and 1877) at Edrington House, Foulden, having nine children:-