Jemima Beatty - Citty Derry

[Pernille Clarke]

I can tell you all about Benjamin Bell Beattie and Jane Wells. They had 5 children born in Australia and Jemima is not one of them.

William Beattie b. 1835 married Catherine Delaney
Madeline Cecilia Beattie b. 1843 married William Barnett
Jane Elizabeth Beattie b. 1846 married Joseph Chatfeild Clarke (my Husbands greatgreat grandparents)
Elsie Beattie b. 1847 married John Driscoll
Georgiana Beattie b. 1854 married Isaac Levy

Benjamin Bell Beattie was a convict he came in the Ship "Georgiana II"
married Jane Wells in Sydney 1841
Jane Wells a free woman came on the  'Bussorah Merchant'  in 1833

Benjamin was married before in London 1822 to a Martha Richardson. I do not know of any children.

I have nothing on Benjamin Beattie's parents or grandparents. I would very much like to know anything about his life in Dumfries Scotland where he was born.

[Pernille Clarke]

I would love to have any info regarding Benjamin Beattie's Scottish family

[lipscombe]

Pernille, you will find that there are TWO Benjamin Beatties (or Beatty - the spelling is variable). For a while I was led on a wild goose chase in chasing 'your' Benjamin Beattie thinking he was my ancestor, and I accumulated some information on him and the rest of the family before I realized my mistake. I will try to dig out what I have on him if you want to PM me.

My immediate recollection is that there is little to tell about his earlier life because the records simply aren't there, but I will check. However, when I did my search I wasn't aware of Scotland's People, a very good website of Scottish BMD records. The one snag with Scotland's People is that it is a pay site (though initial searches are free, you will have to pay to see the detailed records).

For the record, Chester and I got in contact and have worked out the background (in considerable detail) of the other Benjamin Beatty. In brief, he was an Irish schoolmaster who came to Australia in his fifties along with the rest of his family. He worked in and around Brisbane (and from his official records, doesn't seem to have been particularly good at his job and possibly had a drink problem). Jemima got pregnant by a Mr Hamilton from Sydney (we have no positive proof, but we suspect Mr Hamilton was a trainee teacher working under Mr Beatty). Jemima had the first child out of wedlock, and then married Mr Hamilton. From all we can gather, the couple prospered and Mr Hamilton ended his days as Alderman Hamilton and was a fruit grower living near Sydney. We have very strong circumstantial evidence that the Hamiltons and the Beatty families knew each other before all this through a close relative of Benjamin, called Hugh Beattie (he changed the spelling of his name when he arrived in Australia). Hugh was either Benjamin's brother or a close cousin. Hugh was one of the earliest wine growers in Australia and one of his grandchildren was Mary Gilmore, a rather famous poet and writer whose face adorns the Australian 10 dollar note!

If anyone is reading this thread who wants more details of this branch, please PM me.

[Pernille Clarke]

Thank you for your reply. How do i PM you. I would like to have all the detail of you research as i could have missed something.
regards
pernille

[kingskerswell]

Hi,
   To use the PM system click on the green scroll under the name of the person you wish to contact and you can then send private messages.

Regards

[Pernille Clarke]

Thank you that is easy
regards
Pernille

[ccsmall1]

Hello,

I have been doing some searching for an ancestor of mine named Benjamin Beattie and I have managed to stumble into this chat.

My great-great-great grandmother was called Mary Beattie, her father was Benjamin Beattie and her mother Sarah Robertson.

On Mary's birth certificate in 1863, Benjamin is listed as deceased, and having been a Soldier in the Royal West India Rangers.

In the 1851 Census, he is not there and his wife is declared a widow. In his wife's death record, she is the widow of Benjamin Beattie, Chelsea Pensioner.

However I cannot find any death in those years, nor a record for a Chelsea Pensioner of that name in those years.
I wondered if somehow he had been convicted in London and then transported and he had his family informed that he was dead, rather than them know that he had been sent abroad.

A long shot I know, but you mention that he was born in Scotland, so it started to sound more and more likely.

Anyway, anything that anyone can tell me and shed any light would be much appreciated.

Best

Chris

[hem]

Hello Lipscombe

I am very interested in any information you might be able to share regarding Jemima Beatty.  I feel very certain that she is my husband's great, great great grandmother that I've managed to track down through a somewhat exhausting search.  Her first born son William John b.1867 on Dog Trap road married a Sarah Elizabeth Burless (B: 1871 in Wollongong) in Sydney 1891.  From what I have managed to find out without any real degrees of certainty is that Jemima's father Benjamin immigrated to Queensland aboard the "Queen of the Colonies" 1866 (I think that was the name of the ship)!  Jemima in 1865 aboard the "Light of Age" also to Queensland.  Then on the 13th June 1867 with her sister Sarah travelled from Brisbane to Sydney aboard the "Florence Irving".
Hopefully we are talking about the same Jemima Beatty, and I would be more than interested if you or anyone else has more information.  Thank you.

[Mehitabel]

Having found this website by chance I hope that I can learn a bit more about Jemima Hamilton née Beattie [or Beatty] from you. I am a descendant of Edward Hamilton (1882-1963), last-born child of Jemima and William.  The last posting on this site seems to have been 24 November 2013;  I hope that there is still someone who can help.   
I have found Jemima on the passenger list for the “Florence Irving” from Brisbane to Sydney, arriving 13 June 1867.   Also travelling on that ship is Sarah Beattie; perhaps they were sisters or otherwise related.  There is no William Hamilton on board.
However, I cannot find a passenger list for “Light of the Age” leaving the United Kingdom in late1865, on which it has been said that Jemima travelled to Australia, and as a paying passenger.  (Chester 2 February 2010).  However, I have found a reference to the arrival in Queensland of “Light of the Age” through Trove, in The Queenslander, Brisbane, 31 March 1866, page 4.  The article refers to the ship’s passage from the Clyde on December 10 1865 and arrival in Queensland in March 1866;  only the five saloon passengers are named;  the other passengers, some 507 immigrants, are identified as 383 males,124 females, and included 58 Irish persons.  There is also a health officer's report from the ship’s arrival Moreton Bay:  the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, Report dated 27th of March 1866.
Jemima appears to have spent April 1866 to early June 1867 in Queensland; precisely where is unknown.  Her son William was born on 18 July 1867, and so is likely to have been conceived in Queensland.
How and why Jemima arrived at Dog Trap Road in time for the birth of her son is a puzzle; perhaps there was s “lying-in” institution there and she had been informed of its existence;   she most likely travelled from the port of Sydney, possibly by train, to Parramatta; the first public railway line in NSW was built in 1854 from Sydney to Parramatta Junction, which was located where Granville is today;  the birth was attended by a Dr Pringle and a Mrs Hodgson (possibly a midwife).   
 It is possible that Sarah accompanied Jemima to the Parramatta region, because the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages index records the marriage of Sarah A. Beatty to Alexander Matheson in Parramatta in1867.  Alexander Matheson and Sarah Ann Beatty had a son, Alfred Alexander Matheson, in Queensland in 1871 May; the child died in November 1871.
There is no census for this period because, according to NSW BDM, a fire at the Garden Palace in 1882 destroyed the 50 years of census records held there.
How Jemima came to meet William Hamilton in the Parramatta region is also a puzzle.  He had a farm and/or orchard there so perhaps Jemima was seeking work; she had been a domestic servant.
I would also be interested in information of William Hamilton as alderman: [Lipscombe 10 February 2011]