John Verge - Life and Career

Life and Career

John Verge was born in Christchurch, Hampshire. Many generations of the Verge family had been bricklayers and stonemasons. Verge married to Catherine Bowles at the age of twenty-two and went to London. From 1804 to 1828, he worked in London in the building trade, becoming a man of means. Verge's marriage eventually failed and, in 1828, he migrated to Sydney, Australia with his son George Philip, intending to take up a land grant. The First land grant in 1829, he took up land on the Williams River, south of Dungog, New South Wales called Lyndhurst Vale. The second land grant in 1838, he took up land on the Macleay River named Austral Eden. The Having insufficient capital to pursue pastoralism, Verge returned to the building industry between 1830 and 1837, fortuitously at a time when the colonial economy was prospering and designers and builders were in high demand. Between 1830 and 1834 was his maximum architectural activities. He was patronised by many of prominent businessmen and colonists. After 1837, his architectural work was decreasing and restricted. Retiring from architectural practice, he settled at 'Austral Eden', a pastoral property by the Macleay River in northern New South Wales. In 1858, Verge married Mary, 50-year-old daughter of John Alford at Austral Eden. Verge died on July 9, 1861 at the age of 79 in Austral Eden. He was buried as an Anglican in St. Thomas's burial ground in Port Macquarie.

In the 1830s Verge produced a number of fine houses in Sydney's eastern suburbs, notably several of the 'Villas of Woolloomooloo Hill', the spine of elegant villas largely built by the senior civil servants of the colony on a series of land grants that stretched from Darlinghurst Hill to Potts Point. These villas included Rockwall, built for surveyor John Busby, Tusculum for merchant Alexander Brodie Spark for whom Verge also designed Tempe House, and Goderich Lodge, for Thomas Macquoid. Others including Barham and Rose Bank have been attributed to his hand. Further east he built Rose Bay Lodge for James Holt. To the west of the town he built Lyndhurst, for Dr James Bowman, and Toxteth Park for George Allen, in Glebe. Verge is also credited with Elizabeth Bay House, built at adjacent Elizabeth Bay for Alexander Macleay, the Colonial Secretary. It is theorised that Verge largely worked on a plan provided by Macleay, as his business ledger does not denote amounts that would reflect a full commission. John Bibb, an accomplished draftsman employed by Verge, also worked on the project and James Hume from Scotland supervised the building. The relative contributions of Verge, Bibb and Hume are unknown. The house's beautiful oval saloon, with its geometric stair and domed lantern, is likely the most celebrated interior in early Australian architecture.

Verge's work was not confined to Sydney. 'Bedervale' homestead, near Braidwood, built in 1842, was designed by Verge. Aberglasslyn, built for George Hobler near Maitland, NSW, has been attributed to Verge. Like Elizabeth Bay House it never received its intended colonnade, the victim of the crippling colonial depression of the 1840s. Wyoming, 1837, is in the suburb of that name north of Gosford. The house he built for himself at Austral Eden was unfortunately destroyed by flood in 1864, three years after Verge's death, and no known sketches survive. Most of his papers were also lost in the flood.

Verge's best known work is Camden Park House, built south west of Sydney for John Macarthur, the wool pioneer and successful colonial businessman. As Macarthur was debilitated towards the end of his life with mental illness his son William seems to have administered much of the building, and is named in Verge's ledger rather than his father. This has caused confusion with some architectural historians as to the actual client.

• Rockwall House, Potts Point

• Elizabeth Bay House, Elizabeth Bay

• Tempe House, Arncliffe

• St Scholastica's College, Glebe, formerly Toxteth Park