John Mark Davies

John Mark Davies was born at Halstead in Essex in 1840, the second son and fifth child of Ebenezer Davies and Ruth Bartlett. The family, with nine surviving children emigrated to Victoria where they settled in Geelong.
John joined a solicitor's office in 1852 and was articled for six years. He was admitted to the Supreme Court as a solicitor and proctor in 1863 and moved to Melbourne as representative of his firm. He became engaged to Emily Frances Scales from Geelong a year later and they married in December 1865.
Initially they lived in a 5 room brick house near the railway station in Toorak Road, buying 11 acres of land in 1872 and building a 17 room house.
In 1873 he went into partnership with James Maitland Campbell, son of Rev. AJ Campbell of Geelong. At this time the Toorak Presbyterian Church was also built and he was part of the Board of Management for 20 years until after they moved to East Malvern where he built his Italian Renaissance style mansion on 25 acres.
He was elected to the Legislative Council in 1889 serving in various senior roles.
The family, with 5 children still living at home, moved to a smaller house on Wattletree Road in 1912.  and Valentines mansion was subdivided and sold.
He was appointed KCMG in January 1918 and resigned from the Legislative Council in June 1919, following a stroke. He died three months later and was given a State funeral. Although buried at St Kilda cemetery, there is no headstone.
Australian Dictionary of Biography