John Purchase Public School

　　John Purchase Public School　takes its name from the original landholder of the area. John Purchase, his wife Betsey and son John, ages two years, arrived in Sydney on the “James Pattison”, on 17th December, 1838 as bounty immigrants from Somerset in the British Isles.

　　Whilst John was a stonemason by trade, he worked as a timber merchant felling trees on land that he bought and leased in Pennant Hills and Thornleigh. A small area of the land near the present Purchase Road was cleared and an orange orchard planted. A nursery was also established.

　　John became a lay preacher of the Parramatta Wesleyan Circuit and by 1858 had gained a place in the social standing of Parramatta. He was appointed a Foundation Trustee of Parramatta Park, the large estate of crown land on which Government House has stood since the 1790’s.