John Beeby/Beebee

John Beeby/Beebee

Family History Research

I had always been interested in investigating the family history of my grandmother, Ethel, along the paternal line.  We were always told that her father, Samuel Beeby, was an orphan.  

No-one in the family seemed to know anything further of his family, or if they did, the information wasn’t revealed.

We did know that  my grandmother’s  father, Samuel Beeby, lost his mother, Elizabeth Charlotte,  at the age of 2.  She had died suddenly.  The inquest records show the cause as “visitation of God” which means the authorities had no idea as to the cause of death.

Samuel Beeby was later orphaned at the age of 12, when his father died following a dray accident.  His father, John Beeby/Beebee suffered a broken thigh, and several fingers were amputated, eventually dying from tetanus in 1860.

Samuel Beeby was then taken in by the Simpson family in North Wangaratta where he lived.  My grandmother did not know if any adoption had ever taken place.  When old enough to fend for himself,  Samuel had a garden on the bank of a creek at North Wangaratta growing fruit trees and vegetables.

What I have been able to ascertain is that John Beeby/Beebe was born 28 January 1798 in Castle Donnington, Leicestershire, England.  He was the son of John Beeby and Dorothy Bosworth.  

On 18 August 1821 at the Warwick Assizes John Beeby/Beebee was sentenced to 7 years for felony, for stealing a cow belonging to a man named Hart.

The convict ship “Sir Godfrey Webster” sailed on 4 August 1823  arriving in Van Diemen’s Land on 13 December 1823.  It carried 182 passengers, male convicts only.  There were 96 who carried life sentences.  The average sentence was 9 years.

John Beeby/Beebee was 29 years old and 5’4” tall.

John Beeby/Beebe  married his wife, Elizabeth, 20 years later in 1843 after making his way to Melbourne.  Their son, Samuel,  my great grandfather, was born in 1849.  Elizabeth, his wife then died when their son was aged  two.

I know there was an incident or two from when my grandmother was a girl that there were “skeletons” in the cupboard, as the saying goes.  My grandmother was not open to talking about such things, even in later years.  In fact, she became distressed and agitated if someone did try to broach the subject.  These days people wouldn’t even blink an eye!

A Surprising Reaction.

So, what to do with this information??   Mum said she had no idea about the family history.  I was hoping it would not be like a “closed shop” as her mother had done.

I worried over it for a couple of weeks, and in the end I thought you cannot change what is in the past.

So next time I was talking to Mum (not knowing what her reaction would be)  I said. “I have some good news and bad news.  The good news is that I have been able to trace your great-grandfather and have found his date and place of birth in England.  The bad news is that he arrived in Australia as a convict.”

Her reply utterly astounded me.  “Oh goodie, I’ve always wanted to have a convict in the family.”