John Chandler was born on 22 May 1838 in Brighton, England where his father worked on a Sussex farm and his mother was a gardener's daughter. His parents sailed to Melbourne in September 1849. They arrived in January 1850. John received his education in England.

In Melbourne and aged eleven, he began work as a delivery boy. Within two years he was an experienced builder's labourer. He also worked with his father carting stone from a Brunswick quarry and later carting goods to and from the goldfields ('the diggings').

In 1852 John's father became seriously ill and with his older sister Mary Anne now looking after his father, John was the main money-earner in the family. His father had bought five acres (just over 2 hectares) of land at Preston which John worked without pay. When he complained of this, his father gave him half of their horse team and John began carting goods himself to and from the goldfields.

We know life was hard for people like the Chandler family. When John's father was working he earned one pound (20 shillings) a week. He paid seven shillings for the rent of a house in Melbourne. His mother tried to start her own school and later took in washing to help meet family expenses. Even when John and his father had earned good money, the cost of keeping their horse and cart in working condition was very high. And so was the cost of living. It was very difficult to save money to buy land.

In 1859 John turned 21 years of age. In 1860 he married an orphan, Ruth Harvey. Eight children followed. During the 1860s they bought a small farm near Melton where they had pigs and dairy cows and tried to grow wheat. A few bad seasons forced them off the land. They went looking for work in Melbourne but kept the land, which they did not farm.

In Melbourne John worked for William Newnham's piggery and bacon-curing business while Ruth took in sewing to earn extra money to make ends meet.

Their fortunes gradually changed. In the 1870s they bought a grocery and fuel merchants shop at the Railway Hotel, Burwood Road, Hawthorn. To do this, John mortgaged his farm to raise a loan of one hundred and fifty pounds from the Land Mortgage Bank. They worked long hours to pay off the mortgage and later bought a small farm in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

When he sold this business, John Chandler lost most of his money to a solicitor who was using other people's money to invest on the stock exchange. He later bought a 'marine store' in Cardigan Street, Carlton by again mortgaging his farms. As his business expanded, John moved to larger premises in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.

As his health failed he sold his business to one of his sons. He lived until 1919, his wife Ruth lived for another decade.

• Democracy
• Government
• Representative government
• Responsible government
• Self-government
• Structure of responsible government
• Towards responsible government
• The Constitution
• Lucy Bell
• Thomas Henty
• William Barak
• Elias Andrews
• John Chandler
• Frederick Thomas Sargood
• William Foster Stawell
• Acts of Parliament about Voting and becoming an MP
• Voting systems
• Acts relating to land use and care
• Consolidation Acts
• Land Acts in Victoria
• The Chaffey Agreement