| <tab>By 1880, Purcell was rumoured to be millionaire, (//Cornwall Freeholder// 31 Dec. 1880) An Alexandria columnist in a Cornwall newspaper rather obsequiously wrote that “Few men in this county have been more successful in business than Mr. Patrick Purcell… who by his shrewd attention to business has within a very few years amassed an immense fortune.” (//FH// 17 July 1885) He was certainly very wealthy by contemporary GC standards, but by these a little money went a long way. The inventory (Surrogate Court files) of 1894 prepared in connection with the settlement of his estate reported that monies secured by mortgages came to $444,400, real estate came to $35,800, and the total value of the property of the deceased came to $538,394.98. There were legal disputes about the status and intentions of the bequests in his will. A newspaper writer just after his death, who reported the belief that the estate would amount to more than a million, had said also that “with his body in possession of ghouls and his estate in the talons of the law, the spirit of the deceased must be sorely vexed.” (//FH// 29 May 1891) | <tab>By 1880, Purcell was rumoured to be millionaire, (//Cornwall Freeholder// 31 Dec. 1880) An Alexandria columnist in a Cornwall newspaper rather obsequiously wrote that “Few men in this county have been more successful in business than Mr. Patrick Purcell… who by his shrewd attention to business has within a very few years amassed an immense fortune.” (//FH// 17 July 1885) He was certainly very wealthy by contemporary GC standards, but by these a little money went a long way. The inventory (Surrogate Court files) of 1894 prepared in connection with the settlement of his estate reported that monies secured by mortgages came to $444,400, real estate came to $35,800, and the total value of the property of the deceased came to $538,394.98. There were legal disputes about the status and intentions of the bequests in his will. A newspaper writer just after his death, who reported the belief that the estate would amount to more than a million, had said also that “with his body in possession of ghouls and his estate in the talons of the law, the spirit of the deceased must be sorely vexed.” (//FH// 29 May 1891) |
| <tab>Purcell may appear, though not very closely drawn, as one of the characters in A.P. Gardiners’s novel, //The House of Cariboo// (1900). See also entries for Alexander Leclair, D.H. Mackenzie, T. Rousseau and C.J. Stilwell. There were other Patrick Purcells in the family, including a Patrick Purcell (d. 8 June 1910, aged 60) who was brought from Ireland by his relative the MP and “lived for many years near Summerstown Station.” (obituary //Cornwall Freeholder// 10 June 1910) | <tab>Purcell may appear, though not very closely drawn, as one of the characters in A.P. Gardiners’s novel, //The House of Cariboo// (1900). See also entries for [[leclair_alexander|Alexander Leclair]], [[mckenzie_duncan_h|D.H. Mackenzie]], [[rousseau_timothe_or_timothy|T. Rousseau]] and [[stilwell_charles_j|C.J. Stilwell]]. There were other Patrick Purcells in the family, including a Patrick Purcell (d. 8 June 1910, aged 60) who was brought from Ireland by his relative the MP and “lived for many years near Summerstown Station.” (obituary //Cornwall Freeholder// 10 June 1910) |
