Robert Sellar

Australia where he was the business partner of James McCulloch who went on to become a Premier of the state of Victoria.

Family

Robert Sellar was the fourth son of Patrick Sellar (1780–1851) and Ann Craig.

His father, was unpopular because he took an active part in the Highland Clearances, while employed as factor to the Duke of Sutherland.

Robert's brothers were Thomas, a merchant in New Orleans, Patrick Plenderleath, a farmer in Scotland, William Young, John Alexander, a merchant who moved to England, David Plenderleath, an American merchant, and the youngest Alexander Craig Sellar, Scottish Advocate and MP.

Robert's nephew Walter Carruthers Sellar, son of his brother Patrick, became a school teacher and well known humorist writer.

Robert's elder brother William Young Sellar (1825–1890), an academic, married 1852, Eleanor Mary Dennistoun, daughter of wealthy Glasgow merchant Alexander Dennistoun of Golfhill (1790–1874).

Life

Probably influenced by his sister's marriage into the Dennistoun family, Robert joined the mercantile firm of A J Dennistoun. Matilda's brother Charles Robert Swyer was a civil engineer who had emigrated from Manchester to St Kilda to build Christ Church where construction started about 1854.

The transcript begins,1=

Notice, Glasgow, September 30th 1861

The partnership carried on in Glasgow under the firm of Dennistoun, Inglis and Company and in Melbourne under the firm of Dennistoun Brothers and Company as merchants and commission merchants was this day dissolved by mutual consent.

The business will be carried on by the subscribers Messrs James McCulloch, Robert Sellar, and John Inglis (who have active management thereof) in conjunction with Messrs Leishman, Brothers and Company of London. Robert Sellar died at home in Malvern, Australia, a suburb of the city of Melbourne in the state of Victoria.

Robert was survived by his daughter Ella Matilda Sellar born 1866 at St Kilda. She married at St Georges Church, Malvern, in 1887, Francis Joseph Fisher who was born 24 Aug 1859 in South Australia. Francis was the son of Joseph Fisher, an accountant and politician who became a Member of the South Australian Legislative Council. Joseph was born Yorkshire, England in 1834, married Anne Wood Farrar in 1857, and died Fullarton, South Australia in 1907.