Duppa, who called himself Lord Darrell Duppa, was the son of Baldwin Francis Duppa and Catherine née Darrell. The Duppa family home was
Hollingbourne House near Maidstone, Kent. He was born in
Paris, France, in 1832 where his father was a British Diplomat. He attended
Cambridge University and learned the classics and five languages. In the early 1860s he was working in New Zealand on the farm of his uncle George Duppa before leaving in early 1863 heading to California via Australia. He stated that he had been shipwrecked and wandered through South America for some time before he reached North America and
Prescott, Arizona, in 1863. He told
John G. Bourke that he had been born at
Marseille and that his family served in the diplomatic service. Having made friends with
Jack Swilling and realizing the value of land, drilling, and canal building, he moved to the future site of
Phoenix, Arizona, with Swilling in 1867. Duppa built one of the oldest homes in Phoenix in 1870. He later died in Phoenix in 1892, at the age of 59. He is buried at the small
Pioneer and Military Memorial Park a few blocks from the state
Capitol. ==Legacy==