Janet (Jenny) Ritchie
Janet Ritchie (Irving) was born in Scotland in 1792. She married Captain Colin Ritchie, of the 10th West Indian Regiment, in 1813, and was widowed in 1838. Her actual name was Jannet (Jenny) and the name on her marriage document was written as "Jenny Irvin".
Thomas Ritchie,
Frankston Fish Company 1867
Thomas Ritchie was the ninth of Janet and Colin’s 10 children.
He arrived in Australia on the "Isabella Watson" in 1852, and survived the shipwreck that occurred when that ship hit Corsair Rock, at the Heads - he was eighteen at the time.
Janet, and four of Thomas’ siblings, also migrated to Australia that same year.
Thomas married Margaret Kennedy, and they settled in Frankston in 1854.
Thomas was a man of great enterprise and matching energy. Some of these enterprises were making and maintenance of roads, cutting and supplying wood, and involvement in The Frankston Fish Co that for many years, transported fish from Hastings to the Melbourne markets.
Ritchie's Temperance Hotel
He built the Temperance Hotel in Frankston, later changing its name to Frankston House when he obtained a liquor licence for his Grocery business which was in the same building.
By 1870 he had a well established licensed grocery business trading. This was to go on to become the birthplace of today’s flourishing Ritchie’s Stores.
The Ritchies were living on the Mornington Road at Oliver’s Hill when, in 1863, tragedy struck.
Ritchie's
Margaret Ritchie’s cow had strayed during the night, and after seeing Thomas off for the day she had gone to find it.
Sadly whilst she was gone, the house caught fire, and four of the Ritchie children, Colin, Thomas, William and Janet died in the blaze - only the baby survived.
Thomas and Margaret’s resilience prevailed and they lived on in Frankston, succeeding in business. He refunded one shilling for every pound spent in his stores, which made shopping at Ritchie’s very popular.
Janet died at her son Thomas’s residence on 12 February, 1874, aged 82 years.
She is buried with the Ritchie children in the Mornington cemetery.
Sourced from: ‘The Other Side of the Counter – the History of Ritchies Stores’ by D. M. Carnegie
The wreck of the Isabella Watson, which winds later drove into
two feet of water. Spirits, silks, satins and broadcloth were still
floating in the bay a month later.
The unmarked plot at Mornington Cemetery where the Ritchie
children were buried. Their grandmother, Janet Ritchie’s
grave, is in the background.
Ritchie & Co, Chaff and Grain Merchants, in Frankston, c.1900,
with the family home Ballacrain visible on the right.
Source: "Ritchies – A Trolley Load of History" by Jenny Mountstephen.
