HannahHaleFamily

HANNAH HALE.................=........1) JOHN MILLS

b.9 Sept.1821................................b. 1810 Yate Lower Common, Glos

Hawkesbury, Glos..........................d. 1841 Somerset Cottage, Collins St.

d. Travalgon, Vic.Aus......................Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

1911 aged 90yrs.............................married 21 Dec.1836 Launstone

............................................................ 2) THOS. GEO. WASHINGTON ROBINSON

.................................................................b.1817 Belfast, Ireland

_______________________________

JOHN GILBERT a'BECKETT BOYD....b.1886 / died 1896 in a riding accident

WILLIAM ( MERRIC BOYD ).............b.1888 / d.1959 / occ. Potter

|.................................................married DORIS GOUGH occ. Painter

THEODORE PENLEIGH BOYD...........b.1890 / d.1923 / occ. Painter

|.................................................married EDITH ANDERSON / occ. Painter

MARTIN a'BECKETT BOYD...............b.1893 / d.1972 / occ. Writer-novels based on the Boyd family

HELEN a'BECKETT BOYD.................b.1903 / d.1999 / occ. Painter

...................................................married NEVEN READ a Naval Officer.

Newspaper

Report of

Johns conviction

When John Mills died
Hannah married Tom
Robinson who proceeded to
spend his step child's
fortune to the extent that
Hannah left him. A series
of court cases ensued
where she accused Tom of
mismanaging her daughters
fortune while he insisted he
was due part of it

Emma, thanks to her father's insistence, had an upper class education then married the son
of the first Chief Justice in Victoria. The fact that her father had been a convict and two of
her aunts had also married convicts did not trouble William who continued to pursue her
despite her hesitation. The marriage was a cause of embarrassment to the a'Beckett family
and the constant litigation between Emma's mother, Hannah, and her step father was the
talk of Melbourne and uncomfortable for her and her husband, but mostly to that of her
father in law, who due to this, left Australia and his post to settle in England for the rest of
his life. Emma kept up the association with her half sisters and brothers and helped
support them, she was very generous to all her family and the fortune of John Mills enabled
her family and descendents to concentrate on their artistic inclinations without need for paid
employment. Her best friend was her cousin on her mothers side whose father was also a
convict and John Mills partner in the brewery. She was actually closer to her convict
relatives than the "elite" members of Melbourne society.

She kept diaries from 1855 to 1905 which all survived but for the year of 1856. The family
travelled widely and often, not staying any length of time in any one place. A Biography by
Brenda Niall and a book by Martin Boyd called much on the diaries for their entrance into
the lives of the a'Becketts and the Boyds.

daughter of GEORGE HALE and ANN FOX

EMMA MILLS..........=.......WILLIAM a'BECKETT

b.1838 N.S.W......................b.1833 Wiltshire, England

d.1906 Brighton,Vic.............d.1901 Brighton, Vic.Aus.

married 10 Jan.1858............son of Sir Wm. a'Beckett

Melbourne, Vic. Aus.............1st Justice of Supreme
occ.Painter.........................Court of Victoria, Aus.

_______________________________________________________

|................|..............|...............|............|................|..............|

GEORGE.....JAMES......ALFRED.....AFFRA.....ADELAIDE....THOMAS....ERNEST

1843..........1845.......1846..........1849.......1850...........1852.........1854

-1928.........-1926......-1847........-1918......-1892.........-1943........-1854

Vic.Aus.......Vic.Aus....Vic.Aus.....Vic.Aus....Vic.Aus......Vic.Aus......Vic.Aus

married......married....................married....................married.....married

John Mills Brewery

in Melbourne

_______________________________________________________________

|......................|......................|.......................|..................|....................|

EMILY..............EMMA...............CONSTANCE......WILLIAM........ARTHUR...........ETHEL

......................(MINNIE)...........MATILDA...........GILBERT...............................BEATRICE YSOBLE

b.1857.............b.1858..............b.1860.............b.1864...........b.1868............b.1870

Melbourne........Fitzroy.............Melbourne........Melbourne......Melbourne.......Melbourne

married............married............married............married.........married...........married

TALWORTH.......ARTHUR ............FRANK.............GERTRUDE......BEATRICE........CHARLES

BACKHOUSE.....MERRIC BOYD....BRETT..............WALSTAB.......WINDSOR........CHOLMLEY

an Architect.....a Painter...........A Lawyer.....................................................A Writer

7 children...................................................................................................4 children

In 1866 William Arthur Callendar a Beckett ordered a large rectangle of stained
glass to adorn the front entrance of his newly established family home, the
Grange in Berwick. Son of a highly respected judge, and conscious of his
family's elevated lineage in gentry-starved Melbourne, it displayed the a
Beckett coat of arms (along with the sundry other symbols of British rank -
scrolls, mitres, swords) and the Latin motto: Immemor Sepulchri Struis
Domos. In English the quotaton reads: "Forgetful of the tomb you build
houses" - an odd blend of optimism and morbidity for a house that already rang
with the cries of children.

Perhaps William a'Beckett made his choice hastily, for he certainly never
sought to explain the symbolism behind the motto; yet this obscure fragment
from Horace's Odes came to have a certain prescience. It would be the
governing impulse of several generations of this man's industrious, creative
family.

It was the union between William a'Beckett, son of a Chief Justice, and Emma
Mills, daughter of a convict-turned-successful brewer, that created the
conditions for future generations of artists - one of these being an effortless
flow of money. The a'Becketts would always be able to purchase houses for
their art-pursuing children - and in so doing, provide them with a domestic
stability they might not otherwise have had. In a curiously Australian class
reversal, however, the money that would allow such gestures, and would
sustain this family's art for nearly three generations, came not from the velvet-
lined a 'Beckett purse, but from the convict-tainted Mills one. It was the
shrewed early acquisition of inner-city property by a former convict and the
equally shrewed provisions of his will that kept the family afloat for several
decades. Without those decades of financial ease, the seeds of an astonishing
creativity might have withered before they bore fruit. As it was, the family
tree grew hardy and strong. Perhaps because it had, as its central support,
the impressive figure of Emma a'Beckett.

It is Emma, the convicts daughter, who emerges most strongly from the
shadow of her celebrated great grandchildren. A matriarch, who kept a firm
hand on her tainted inheritance of inner-city properties, it was her love of the
arts, and economic capacity to support her artistic children and grandchildren,
that set the stage for so many extraordinary careers. She was the first in a
line of shining-eyed, radiantly intelligent Boyd women, who treated marriae as
a creative partnership, and were fortunate enough to get husbands who felt the
same way.

However, Emma a'Beckett was no radical, and she recognised the value of the
right home - without such a thing, as she understood it, art and family seemed
doomed to incompatibility. As a core family value, this ideal survived with
remarkable tenacity. Yet it proved to be less advantageous to the artistic
careers of her daughters and grand-daughters. Among those who showed
promise was Emma's talented painter-daughter, Minnie, who went on to marry
Arthur Meric Boyd, and coin the celebrated surname, as well as Minnie's
daughters in law, Doris and Edith; and in turn their daughters, several of
whom showed precocious talent (in particular the 15 year old Mary Boyd).

But if the success of the Boyd men relied on the maintenance of harmonious
environments in which both artistic life and famuily life might flourish, there
was not space within this equation for two equally ambitious talents. Besides
the responisibilities of homemaking, for these women who didn't have nurses
for their children or maids for their kitchens, was a somewhat greater burden
than it was for Emma a'Beckett in the 1860's'

The Boyd wives of the 20th century were artistic helpmates, and decorative
artists, but they consistently depriortised their own art for the sake of their
husbands' However, the creative rewards of belonging to this warm, generous
family circle might have been ample compensation.

BASES OF CREATIVITY - BY EDWINA PRESTON - 2002

a synopsis of ' the boyds ' by brenda niall

EMMA MINNIE a'BECKETT.........=.......ARTHUR MERIC BOYD

b.23 Nov. 1858 Melbourne........................b.19 March 1862

Victoria, Australia....................................at Opaho, New Zealand

d.10th Sept.1936........ ............................married 14 January 1886

Sandringham, Vic.Aus..............................both established painters

occ.Watercolour Painter...........................at the time of marriage

shown at 3 exhibitions..............................d.30 July 1940

daughter of EMMA MILLS and WILLIAM a'BECKETT

ARTHUR MERIC BOYD moved from New Zealand to Australia in Jan. 1886 and married
EMMA MINNIE a'BECKETT, also an artist and daughter of HON. W.A.C. a'BECKETT of
Melbourne. Proceeding to England they lived for a time at Westbury, Wiltshire, and in 1891
they both each had a picture in the Royal Academy exhibition. Boyd then travelled and painted
a good deal on the continent of Europe, and returned to Australia about the end of 1893, where
he lived mostly in Sandringham and other suburbs of Melbourne for the rest of hs life. He
occasionally sent good work to the exhibitions of the Victorian Artists Society, but never mixed
much with the artistic life of this time.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Boyd are represented by a picture in the national gallery in Melbourne.

They were able to pursue their interests due to an allowance afforded to them by Minnie's
mother EMMA a'BECKETT who had inherited her considerable fortune from her father JOHN
MILLS. Both Arthur and Minnie studied at the National Gallery Art School where they had
both enrolled in 1877.

They purchased a property at Yarra Glen about 30 miles out from Melbourne which they called
'Tralee' after Arthur's father, John Boyd's birthplace in Ireland. This was in addition to their
Sandringham property and 3 Edward Street by the beach.

Emma died at Sandringham on 10th September 1936

Arthur died at Murrumbeena on 30 July 1940

They left three sons: THEODORE PENLEIGH BOYD, MARTIN a'BECKETT BOYD born
1893 a popular writer of fiction based on his family, and MERRIC BOYD, a potter, and a
daughter HELEN a'BECKETT BOYD, a painter.

His

Life

in brief

Emma with her
three grandsons

WILLIAM (MERRIC BOYD )............=.......DORIS GOUGH

b.24 June 1888 St.Kilda, Vic.Aus.....................1889-1960

d.1959 Victoria, Aus......................................married 12 Oct.1915

occ. Potter...................................................occ. Painter

son of EMMA MINNIE a'BECKETT and ARTHUR MERIC BOYD

______________________________________________

LUCY de GUZMAN BOYD....................(b.1916 - Ceramist / married HATTON BECK - Ceramist,Potter, Sculptor

ARTHUR MERRIC BLOOMFIELD BOYD..(1920-1999) - Painter / married YVONNE LENNIE

GUY MARTIN a'BECKETT BOYD...........(1923-1988) - Sculptor / married PHYLLIS EMMA NAIRN

DAVID FIELDING GOUGH BOYD..........(b.1924 - Painter / married HERMIA LLOYD-JONES - Ceramic artist

MARY ELIZABETH BOYD....................(b.1926 - Painter / married 1) JOHN PERCIVAL - Painter, Potter, Sculptor

......................................................married 2) SIR SIDNEY NOLAN - Painter and became Lady Mary Nolan.

MERRIC BOYD enrolled at St.John's Theological College in St.Kilda to pursue a religious vocation but this did not
last. After leaving St.Johns he returned home to Tralee. He then served with the Australian forces in the War of
1914-18 enlisting in the Flying Corps May 1917 and embarked in the August of that year.

At this point he was leaving his wife and year old first child Lucy behind and also his studio pottery in Mumumbeena
where he produced both sculpture and pottery. (He is known as the 'Father of Studio Pottery' in Australia) Merric
was late to join in the war due to his pacifist views - his wife Doris and her mother Evelyn Gough were committed
Christian Scientists and were pacifists. In the event he spent 1918 in routine tasks in England and was discharged
without having been in action. While in England he managed to study pottery at Wedgwood Potteries at Stoke on
Trent in one of the post-war rehabilitation schemes for servicemen where he acquired new ideas and techniques in
ceramics. On the voyage home in 1919 he gave pottery classes to fellow soldiers.

THEODORE (PENLEIGH BOYD).......=......EDITH ANDERSON

b.1890 Wiltshire, England

d.28 Nov.1928 Victoria, Australia....................occ. Painter

In a car accident driving to Sydney

occ. Landscape Painter

____________________________________________

PAMELA BOYD..............................................born and died 1913

JOHN a'BECKETT PENLEIGH (PAT) BOYD..........(1915-1980) - Painter and test pilot /married ANNE DAVEY

ROBIN GERAR PENLEIGH BOYD........................(1919-1971) - Architect and writer / married PATRICIA MADDER

HELEN a'BECKETT BOYD.......=......NEVEN READ

b.1903 - d.1999

occ. Painter........................................occ. Naval Officer

daughter of WILLIAM MERRIC BOYD and DORIS GOUGH

LUCY de GUZMAN BOYD........=......HATTON BECK

b.1916

occ. Ceramist......................................occ. Ceramist, Potter, Sculptor

_______________________________________

LAWRENCE HATTON BECK.....(1940 - Actor

ROBERT HATTON BECK..........(1942- Potter/Ceramist /

|........................................ married MARGOT GARDNER

|........................................(dau. of Painter Freidl Gardner)

|........................................issue 2 children

PAUL HATTON BECK.............(1948 - Musician

GUY MARTIN a'BECKETT BOYD=PHYLLIS EMMA NAIRN

(1923-1988)

OCC. Sculptor

___________________________________

POLLY BOYD....................(1946- Artist, Painter

JAMES PATRICK BOYD.......(1948- Painter and Sculptor

LUCY ELLEN BOYD............Painter

son of WILLIAM MERRIC BOYD and DORIS GOUGH

ARTHUR MERRIC BLOOMFIELD BOYD.....=.......YVONNE LENNIE

b.1920 - 1999

occ. Painter............................................................occ. Painter

___________________________________________

LENORE ANNE BOYD.......................b.1953 - Sculptor / had five children

SALLY DEIRDRE BOYD....................b.1956 - Sculptor / married BRUCE LAVERY BELLMAN - five children

DERRY CATHERINE BOYD................b.1957 - owner-operator of a graphic, web, and multimedia business

|.................................................married 1) VUTHICHAI SATIANYOT (also known as Yap Guan Soon)

|.................................................married 2) MICHAEL EVANS - 3 children

KIRSTIN DORIS BOYD.....................b.1960 - Author of children's literature

|.................................................married 1) JOHN MURRAY - graphic designer - 3 children

|.................................................married 2) KEN HARPER - drama teacher, playwright, gymnast, circus trainer

BENJAMIN MERRIC ELWYN BOYD.....b.1963 - one child

CHARLOTTE BEATRICE MAGDALEN...b.1968 - Potter and Sculptor - 2 children

|..................................................married JOHN O'DONOHUE - digital technician

MARTIN DUNCAN GOUGH................b.1970

son of WILLIAM MERRIC BOYD and DORIS GOUGH

DAVID FIELDING GOUGH BOYD.....=.......HERMIA LLOYD-JONES

b.1924

occ. Painter..................................................occ. Ceramic artist

______________________________

AMANDA BOYD..............Painter and Costume designer

LUCINDA BOYD..............Model and Painter

CASSANDRA BOYD.........Painter and Illustrator

daughter of WILLIAM MERRIC BOYD and DORIS GOUGH

(Lady) MARY ELIZABETH BOYD.....=.......1)...JOHN PERCEVAL

b.1926................................................................Painter, Potter and Sculptor

occ. Painter ...............................................2)...SIR SIDNEY NOLAN

..........................................................................Painter

______________________________

MATTHEW PERCEVAL......Painter / married UTA - 3 children

TESSA PERCEVAL............Painter

CELIA PERCEVAL............Painter

ALICE PERCEVAL............Painter / children - Shanthi, Marlow, Thomas and Kitty

son of EMMA MINNIE a'BECKETT and ARTHUR MERIC BOYD

_______________________________________________________________________

|................................|...........................................|...............................................|

GAYNER READ.............SUSAN READ.........................ANDREW READ............................PRUDENCE READ

(1936-1988)...............b.1939.................................b.1942.......................................b.1947

occ. Painter ...............married................................married.....................................occ. Graphic Artist

married......................1) DOUGLAS CARPENTER.........1) JENNIFER HELM......................married

DEREK HOOPER............2) THOMAS EASTON...................2) BARBARA HOLLINGDALE......ALYITE' CREPPY

.................................3) BARRY BRINKLEY

SIMON b.1957

occ. Painter

TIMOTHY b.1959

LUCINDA b.1961

SARAH b.1965

PENELOPE CARPENTER

b.1962

KENNETH EASTON

b.1965

GRAEME EASTON

b.1970

EMILY READ

b.1967

GEORGE READ

b.1969

ROSALIND READ

b.1976

ARTHUR READ

b.1979

Biography Synopsis

Minnie (a'Beckett) Boyd - her watercolours of Murrumbeena and of her
daughter in law, Doris nee Gough, sketching beside the Yarra River

Sculptor of Doris

by Merric Boyd

Link to bio of Theodore
Penleigh Boyd

Lucy Beck with her son Paul
decorating her husbands pottery

The Ancestry of Hannah Hale goes back to
the 1500's in Gloucestershire, U.K

Biography
Synopsis

Link to Biography of Guy

Link to Biography of Wm.Merric Boyd

Link to Biography of Arthur Merric Boyd

Link to Arthur Merric Boyd's Paintings

ROBIN GERAR PENLEIGH BOYD: Modernist Architect, critic and illustrator
and a prominent member of the artistic Boyd family dynasty,

regarded as one of Australia's most significant modernist architects

author of Australia's Homes and The Australian Ugliness

Low resolution, fair use of image of
"The Voyagers Near the Coast"
by the artist David Boyd for this
genealogy of his family.

In a September 2004 art review, Alex McDonald of State of the Arts
magazine stated that David Boyd's work was 'ahead of his time in
addressing the mistreatment of Indigenous people in [Australia]', but
commented that an 'explanation for his frosty reception from Australian
critics and dealers may have something to do with his choice of subject
matter'. McDonald explained that the controversy may have stemmed
from the fact that the 'legal system, race relations and religion' are 'not
exactly popular issues' and were not 'up for debate in the late 1950s'.

This page last modified on Sunday, March 01, 2009

Hawkesbury

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Low resolution, fair use of image of these watercolours
by Minnie Boyd for this genealogy of her family.

Low resolution, fair use of
image of Emma and
grandsons for this
genealogy of her family.

Low resolution, fair use of image of this
photograph for this genealogy of her family.