This photo shows (back row, left to right): William Beaton, my g g g grandfather, James Beaton Snr., the 'head' of the family who travelled out to Australia from New Foundland in 1852 with his family, James Beaton, another one of the Beaton sons. (front row, left to right): Margaret Beaton nee Stevenson, William's wife and my g g g grandmother, Mary Ann Beaton nee Taylor, James' Beaton's wife. Click here or on the photo for a larger, better quality shot. Photo courtesy of Vicki Crawford

An article by ROBERT C. PARSONS called Heritage: to Australia's Shores appeared in a Canadian newspaper, The Telegram Sunday Digest, on May 14, 2000. The article has been reproduced on The Newfoundland and Labrador GenWeb site as well as on his Newfoundland Shipwrecks website* and contains information about the The Sybil which left St Johns in Newfoundland in 1852 with about 50 passengers aboard, amongst them my ancestors, the Beaton family.

An Error in Parson's Quotation of the Shipping List

Parsons internet search for the passengers of the Sybil has the Beaton family - "Mr. Charles and Mary Beaton with children, 5 boys and one girl " - at the top of the list. I am related to one of the boys, William Beaton.

There does, however, appear to be a error in the passenger list quoted in Parson's article. Mr. "Charles" Beaton is in fact, James Beaton. There may have been a transcription mistake or oversight when accessing the record - Charles Beaton is one of James and Mary Beaton's children. I have a copy of the Sybil's passenger list which clearly shows this.

Little William was born in Nova Scotia in 1836. He would have been quite a strapping lad on the Sybil being 16 years old when she set sail in 1852. The photo above, shows him in Australia some years later as a handsome and rather debonnaire older gentleman.

James and Mary Beaton - to the Goldfields

On arrival in Port Phillip - Geelong to be exact - the family left for the goldfields at Ballarat where William's parents, James and Mary (nee Mary Ann Taylor) lived out the rest of their lives. James Beaton died at the age of 87 and Mary died at the age of 84.

Update: 4 October, 2002 :

The 1833 Marriage of James Beaton and Mary Ann Taylor

A North American contact, Beaton researcher, Judie Ross-Kotras, was successful in locating the marriage of James Beaton and Mary Ann Taylor on The Index to Vital Stats from "The Colonial Patriot" 1827-1834. The Colonial Patriot was a newspaper printed in Pictou, Nova Scotia, at the time. The entry reads:

Source : The Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/GANS/

James Beaton was 42 years old when the Sybil sailed out of St Johns and Mary was 41. Many of those aboard the Sybil sailed not as passengers but as joint owners of the vessel. Parsons points out in his article:

As far as is known, only one ship in that era of colonization and gold rush left Newfoundland bound for Australia. In the summer of 1852, several opportunistic young men bought the 100-tonne brigantine Sybil, encouraged others to join them in their voyage– including several families

And most interestingly:

The passengers and crew sold 'Sybil' on arrival in Port Philip and received half their voyage expense money back.

It would be interesting to know if James was one of the "opportunistic young men" who became the owners of the ship. To have bought a share in the vessel, I imagine, would have implied that the owner had substantial assets in Canada (or had perhaps sold everything or took out a large loan to obtain one?) In any case, it seems the family made a mighty saving on the voyage out if Parson's claim about the half fare refund is correct!

Looking at the passenger list of the Sybil is fascinating. By my count, there were at least eight other children on board. The Beaton children would have undoubtedly played with the others for the 4 months the ship was at sea. There was also a schoolmaster amongst the passengers and I wonder if that gentleman may have taught the children during the journey? Other professions listed include: joiner, draper, watchmaker, plumber, cooper, architect, silversmith, barrister, artist and mariner. There seems to have been a range of skilled professionals aboard. The skills they possessed must have all surely been in demand in the economically flourishing colony that awaited them.

William Beaton (1836 - 1897) marries Margaret Stevenson

William Beaton married Margaret Stevenson on 25 December, 1867. Margaret was the daughter of my other ancestors, William Brown Stevenson and Isabella Stevenson nee Jamieson, whose journey to Australia in 1842 on the fever ship, the 'Manlius' could not have been more different than that of the Sybil. Their story is told in The Stevensons - Brave Bounty Immigrants.

Update: 4 October, 2002

William Beaton, a miner by trade, died at Ballarat East on 25 June, 1897. He was 61 years old.

William and Margaret had six children - James Norman (my direct ancestor who married Rose Emmeline nee Dober : see my story The Dober Brothers : Convict Guards from the 96th Regiment of Foot), John Jamieson, William John (who died age 7), William, Walter Hugh and Margaret Lillias.

Update 8 October, 2002

James Norman Beaton (1870 - 1948) - Another Mystery Solved

James Norman's marriage to Rose Emmeline was until very recently mysterious as it only lasted three years. Nobody on my side of the family, at least as far back as my mother's generation, knew - or admitted to knowing - anything about the reasons for James Norman's departure.

If you are interested in finding out what James Norman did next, please read my latest installment in the Beaton saga:

James Norman Beaton - A Man of Many Talents

The Sybil : the Voyage Out

Parsons marvels at the access the internet provides 'armchair travellers' to the rest of the world and I share his sense of wonderment. The information on the NLGenWeb site about the Sybil is indeed precious and has opened up a vista on the past for our family for which we should be very greatful.

The publication of a key primary source - a letter from one the passengers, Allan Fraser to the editor of The Nova Scotian newspaper in 1852 - recounts part of the extraordinary voyage from St Johns to Geelong. The letter was transcribed for NLGenWeb by a descendant of Fraser, John Oakes in 2001.

The letter had me imagining what life on board must have been like for the Beatons. The Beaton children, if not all of the passengers, must have been fascinated by the places and people they saw en route in locations like Trinidad and Cape Town.

Fraser's letter sent back to Canada from Cape Town in January, 1843 is full of close observations of life aboard the Sybil starting with the departure on November 18, 1852 :

The scene on board that night baffles description; but was just such as you could fancy in a small and crowded vessel, when women and children were all huddled together, each more sick than the other ...

There is a description of a wild storm in the Gulf of St Laurence that had everyone "very much alarmed for a short time". I particularly like Fraser's humour in regards to the loss of his prized boxing gloves! He tells us that the gale:

carried away the weather bulwark and rail from the Taffrail to the main Chains, the seats on the quarter deck, a lot of buckets, fowls and other et ceteras, including my boxing gloves, which latter I considered the greatest loss of the whole ... All next day the sea ran tremendously high, but our sweet little craft rode over them like a duck, and behaved herself most gallantly.

The ship stopped en route at Trindad and then Cape Town. The arrival in Table Bay, Cape Town, is very amusing and evocative. The writer opines:

The Bay, itself, is the prettiest I have ever seen, being almost circular, and surrounded on every side by lofty ranges of mountains, which eclipse our narrows altogether. They are not seen more than half the time, being so very lofty that the clouds cover them from the view, and come half way down their sides. The Table mountain is directly above the town. It is a long range of mountains, and its summit as level as a bowling green; from which circumstance it derives its name.

These bustling, balmy ports on the trade route to Australia must have seemed totally 'exotic' to those who came from the mostly cold and isolated environs of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Fraser seems to have found the obvious racial and cultural differences of the populace of Cape Town curious as you would expect of an Anglo 19th Century gentleman:

The inhabitants seem to me a quite well disposed people, but possessed of very little energy. The greater number are dark Malays, Hottentots, coolies, etc.&c, &c,&c. The European part of the population are principally Dutch. Their business is quietly conducted, and without much show.

What truly transported me though was to imagine James and Mary Beaton and their children leaving ship to tour the botanical gardens and township that Fraser marvels over:

Our passengers have all been on shore, enjoying a walk through the town and its suburbs. The Botanical Gardens are exceedingly fine, and far exceeds anything of the kind I have ever seen in America. These are open to travellers free, and of course were visited by our Sybilites.

The Beatons and other passengers of the Sybil arrived in the colony on St Patrick's day, March 17, 1853. According to Fraser, they were "all in excellent health and spirits - we had no serious illness on board."

From St Johns, Newfoundland to Geelong in the colony of Port Phillip, the family travelled half way around the world. I marvel at the scope of that incredible enterprise and in researching this family story begin to discern traces of our ancestors (the Rowes, the Dobers, the Beatons) in a family member I knew and loved - my great grandmother, Violet. In other words, the past is beginning to touch upon my own personal memories of a family member and seems very real within the present of my own lifetime. There is something gratifying and profound in being able to make this kind of personal connection.

Last updated: October 7, 2002

Allan Fraser's letter needs to be read in its entirety to gain a fuller sense of how the passengers of the Sybil would have experienced the voyage out.

http://www.huronweb.com/genweb/nfdata/045/shiplists/45_4au_sybil_1852.htm#1

Robert Parson's article, Heritage: to Australia's Shores, first published "The Telegram Sunday Digest", on May 14, 2000 can be found at:

http://www.huronweb.com/genweb/nfdata/045/shiplists/45_4au_sybil_1852.htm#2

* The story of the Sybil also appears in Parson's latest book, Between Sea and Sky: Strange and Unique Stories of the Sea. The book can be purchased online at Robert's NewFoundland Shipwrecks website : http://shipwrecks.nf.ca/

At the huronweb site, there is also "Geelong Burial Information" regarding the passengers on the Sybil who settled in the port city after their arrival. This may be useful to others researching the passengers of the Sybil

© Dale Pobega. Please respect the time and effort invested in the research and writing of this family history. Apart from reasonable quotation or linking to the material contained in this story for non-commerical, personal family research, no part of the text or any image, may be reproduced without the express written permission of Dale Pobega