WOOLCOTT, Richard Robert (1836-1904)
Richard Woolcott owned View Hill from 1872 until 1893. He improved the property with an extensive drainage system on the river flats. Woolcott was a practising attorney who involved himself in many aspects of legal and civil affairs in the district. He served as both shire councillor and magistrate for over 15 years. He married Sarah Ann Smith in 1864 and they had seven children. Sarah died in 1882 and Richard married Margaret Henderson in 1884. In 1886 Woolcott donated land for the Anglican church to be built near the corner of Bell Street and Armstrong Grove, the church later being moved to its present site at the corner of Anzac Avenue.
Sources: Victoria and its metropolis: past and present, Melbourne, 1888, vol. 2, p. 415; Maxime Palmer, Tarrawarra: 130 years on a Victorian property, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 19-20
