Sir William a’Beckett, Jnr, Free Settler "City of Edinburgh" 1837

In 1863 when he moved to England.

He lived at Surbiton near Hampton Court Palace and later at Upper Norwood, Surrey, where he died on 27 June 1869.

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!MEMORIAL

William a'Beckett
Memorial
BIRTH unknown
DEATH 1869, West Norwood, London Borough of Lambeth, Greater London, England
BURIAL
West Norwood Cemetery and Crematorium, West Norwood, London Borough of Lambeth, Greater London, England
PLOT Square 52 & 52 Grave 11988
MEMORIAL ID 183910434 ·

À Beckett married firstly Emily Hayley in 1832. She died on 1 June 1841 and he married secondly Matilda Hayley, her sister, in 1849. They had 13 children, probably some from Emily. À Beckett died in London on 27 June 1869 and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery. He was survived by four sons, of whom William (1833-1901) married Emma Mills (1838-1906), the daughter of a convict who later founded a brewery in Melbourne. Their daughter Emma Minnie Boyd, a successful painter, married another painter Arthur Merric Boyd, to found the artistic Boyd dynasty. His nephew Thomas à Beckett, son of his brother Thomas, was also a puisne judge in Australia.
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Source: passages taken from 'The Matriarch' part one

'...When William à Beckett sailed in the relative comfort of a cabin class passage on the City of Edinburgh in January 1837 he brought substantial baggage of every kind. With him came his wife Emily and their three sons, Willie, who was three when they left London, Malwyn, just two years old, and the baby Edward. Emily’s mother and two sisters completed the family party, and there was a nurse to look after the children on the voyage. The family ties were unusually close because William à Beckett had married his first cousin, so that his mother-in-law was also his aunt, and her younger daughters were his cousins....'
'....The eldest son of a London solicitor, William à Beckett had an upper-class education at Westminster School, where he and his three brothers were well grounded in cricket and the classics. They endured some bullying there, for which their father offered neither defence nor sympathy: he thought it would toughen his sons. William read law in his father’s office in Golden Square, London, and was admitted to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1829....'
'....In Sydney, William à Beckett did well from the start. It took him less than four years to reach the position of acting solicitor general with a salary of £800 a year and the right of private practice. He became an acting judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1844 and a year later was given a provisional appointment as resident judge in the Port Phillip District.
The family moved to Melbourne in 1846, and à Beckett’s position was made permanent.By this time he was a widower, Emily having died in 1841 not long after the birth of their fourth son Reginald. In 1849 he married Matilda Hayley, the younger of his two sisters-in-law. He was free to do so because the Deceased Wife’s Sister Act of 1835 was not proclaimed in Australia, but it must have been embarrassing to return to England in later years with a marriage certificate which was valid only in the colonies. Matilda, her mother and her older sister helped to bring up the baby Reginald and the three older boys, William Arthur Callendar, Malwyn and Edward...'
'....During his first years in Melbourne, à Beckett won admiration for the soundness and clarity of his judgments and his skill in adapting English law to new situations and conditions of life. He loved music and poetry and theatre-going but these were not just his private enjoyments. He and his brother freely gave their time and energy to lecturing on the arts at Mechanics’ Institutes in an effort to improve working-class education....'
'....When the discovery of gold dislocated the colony’s social order he was horrified. Wealth so easily won was a curse to the individual and to society. His brother Thomas Turner à Beckett was equally conservative. He thought that the ‘universal and most pernicious excitement’ of the gold rushes threatened the colony’s social order.
Sir William was appalled at the social damage done by alcohol. As a regular speaker to meetings of the Total Abstinence League, he was eloquent in denouncing publicans and public houses: these were‘ plague - spots ’
'... While playing cricket at Lord’s many years earlier, he had injured his legs; later, paralysis set in and he could not walk unaided. In 1853 he took two years leave in order to seek medical advice in London. No cure was found and although he must have thought about permanent retirement in England, he resigned himself to his wheelchair and committed his future to Melbourne...'
'....Except for one lecture on English poets and poetry in November 1856, he made no more public appearances in Melbourne after his son’s wedding. His departure for England, where he spent his last years, was so unobtrusively made that his biographers disagree about the date. He travelled in Europe with his family in 1858–59 and subsequently settled at Surbiton, near Hampton Court and laterat Upper Norwood, Surrey, where he died in 1869. During his last years, distanced from Melbourne and no longer embarrassed by jibes about his son’s source of income, Sir William became Vice - President of the United Kingdom Alliance to procure the total and immediate legislative suppression of the traffic in 'Intoxicating Liquors as Beverages’.

Family links:
Spouse:
Emily A' Beckett
Children:
William Arthur Callander A' Beckett (1833 - 1901)
Arthur Heywood A' Beckett (1868 - 1939)*

Created by: Lilian Wheeler HUHN
Record added: Oct 02, 2017
Find A Grave Memorial# 183910434