'Ninian Melville (1843-1897), cabinet maker, undertaker and politician, was born on 29 December 1843 in Sydney, son of Ninian Melville and his wife Catherine, née Hayes. His father came from Aberdeen and was sentenced on 20 April 1833 at the Perth Court of Justiciary to seven years transportation for stealing clothes; he reached Sydney in the Fairlie in February 1834, received a ticket-of-leave in 1838 and set up as a cabinet maker in the 1840s. Educated in Sydney, young Melville was apprenticed to the cabinet makers, John Hill & Sons. Early interested in public affairs he spoke with his father from platforms in the Domain. In 1862 he married Martha Heaton who died in September 1865.'
