Vere Beck of Guernsey Cove, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Every five years, family reunions are held on Prince Edward Island, Canada. The next one is scheduled for 2008.
Jim Beck invented a numbering scheme which lists each person by their relationship to Vere Beck. For example, one number is 1.4.6. This means that this person (John Penny Beck) is descended from Vere Beck (1.) and John Beck (1.4. the fourth child of Vere Beck). To indicate gender, a period is used for men and a comma is used for women. If a person marries more than once, letters are used to indicate which marriage, such as 1.4.6.6.2A, to indicate the first marriage and 1.4.6.6.2B, to indicate the second marriage.
This system makes it relatively easy to trace someone's ancestry back to Vere Beck. As an example, consider the ancestry of Michelle Louise Beck.
Michelle Louise Beck, 1.4.6.6.1.2.1,
Douglas James Beck, 1.4.6.6.1.2. her father
James Vere Beck, 1.4.6.6.1. her grandfather
Peter Vere Beck, 1.4.6.6. her great-grandfather
John Penny Beck, 1.4.6. her great-great-grandfather
John Beck, 1.4. her great-great-great-grandfather
Vere Beck, 1. her great-great-great-great grandfather
Please contact Jim Beck for information on later generations.
They were witnessing the arrival of Vere Beck, his wife, Elizabeth and their two little girls, Elizabeth Emma, aged four, and Martha Lucy, aged two - and maybe Mary Ann. Only Vere and his family came ashore. Apparently, there was some banter from others going on to change his mind. Others felt he showed great determination to continue this planned course.
The ship was most likely owned by John Cambridge and sons and was one of several making voyages between England and the Colony here. Lumber was the main cargo eastbound. Since there was a great demand in the old country where much of the traditional source of supply, the Baltic countries, was cut off because of the continuing war with Napolean.
Cambridge was not one of the original lot owners. But he purchased three, Lot 14 at West Cape and Lots 63 and 64 in the Murray Harbour district.
Cambridge, the first merchant in the area, was not interested in collecting rent from tenant farmers. Rather he sold land to all comers, letting them pay in lumber cut from the property and by working for him in shipyards or sawmills. From 1811 on some 20 ships were built by Cambridge, most of them at Murray Harbour North. A sawmill was started at Murray River. Bristol, England was the stopping point for the Cambridge ships in the old country. A son, Artemas, managed the business there and another son, Leonard, was at Murray Harbour and Charlottetown. Most of the ships built were sold as soon as they reached England. This was said to be by far the most profitable portion of the business.
The first settlers, from the Channel Island of Guernsey (located in the English Channel) arrived, some seven years earlier. They started out for farms along Hillsborough River but didn't like the location since the land was one farm back from the waterfront. They finally located on the shores of Northumberland Strait, at a small cove they named Guernsey Cove. There were seven or eight families. They included LeLacheur, Phillips, Taudvin, Roberts, Marquand, DeJersey, Machon, and Brehaut families.
These Channel Island people were Methodists in religion. This could be the factor that decided Vere to locate where he did rather than go on with the ship for a West Cape settlement. He probably learned Guernsey Cove group were Methodists from the Cambridge son or agent in England.
Vere came from Crayford in Kent County, England and his wife from Mitcham, Surrey County. They are adjoining counties in South England. Both the Beck parents were originally members of the Church of England, but certainly in this country Vere at least was Methodist. Vere's wife was Sarah Elizabeth Marfleet. The family was said to have been displeased with the marriage and perhaps religion had something to do with that feeling. Certainly the Church of England was bitterly opposed to the Methodist denomination.
The 100 acre farm Vere selected was not far to the east from the small cove where they landed. The shoreline here, except at the cove, was lined with red sandstone cliffs some 30 feet high. This must have posed a problem for Mothers with small children. It was natural that the first cabins would be located near the shore. Most settlers would begin at the shore and work inland. Up until the 1970's, at least two depressions, where the early cabins were could be seen clearly in a field close to the shore on the old Beck property. One site was slightly further back from the shore. Windsor Beck, the owner in the 1970's, said he thought a third early dwelling had been built before the house that stands there now. Both these buildings are north of the public road that crosses the property.
Vere and his wife and growing family appear to have made good progress in clearing land and paying off the farm indebtedness. So much so that by 1847 they were able to sell the east 50 acres to the Brehauts and give a clear title.
Vere also interested himself in local politics and for a term, 1837-1840, was a member of the Provincial House of Assembly. (It met in a Charlottetown pub. The capital building which now stands was not built until later.)
There has been considerable comment from time to time of the great courage that Vere and Elizabeth displayed in leaving a settled place like Southern England and removing to an unknown wilderness like P.E.I. It certainly took courage, any move of that magnitude does, even today. But the rewards possible were also great. In those days a couple like the Becks, if they wanted to own land had almost no chance of obtaining it. Then along comes an offer like the Cambridges were able to make. Own your own farm, 100 acres or more, pay for it with lumber on the property, get a job in a sawmill or shipyard, and assistance in seed and tools for the first year. All that, and be able to join a community of people like yourself. An offer like that would be attract takers even today.
Travel, of course, was very difficult, very few public transit coaches on land and sailing ships at sea. The first experiments with steam to drive boats and ships were being made. Development was quite rapid and by sometime in the 1830's an ocean-going steamship built up the St. Lawrence River started an ocean crossing. Named the Royal William, itwas one of the first ships to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone. The ship called at Pictou, Nova Scotia to top up its bunkers and then passed down the Strait past Guernsey Cove. It must have been a sensation, those old coal-burning ships emitted an incredible volume of black smoke.
Railway development was a bit slower, but before Vere died in 1878 the Canadian Pacific Railway that was link the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada was well underway.
Two years after the Beck family left England, John A. MacDonald, the man who was to united the scattered colonies into the Dominion of Canada was born in Glasgow, Scotland. MacDonald became Canada's first Prime Minister.
Also the final battle, Waterloo, that put and end to the career of Napolean Bonaparate was to come in two years, 1815. During this same time period, England was at war with the United States. This placed a blockade on the American coast which made emigration or trade with the US impossible.
Vere Beck has been described as a worker in metals, others said simply "he was a silversmith".
When he came to North America, five other brothers are said to have crossed the ocean also. Vere Everett Beck of Murray Harbour said his father told him two boys went to the United States, but this must have been prior to be war which began in 1812. Two more, Charles and William, went to Ontario and a fifth either to Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. Only the two names are available.
There is some doubt about the birth date of the Beck's third child, Mary Ann. The Bible has 1813, but a stone at her grave says 1812. If she was born in 1813 it would appear likely that she arrived after the family reached Guernsey Cove. Likely the ship taking the family reached P.E.I. in May since the ship owners were anxious to start as early as possible to make two voyages before winter arrived again. There is some possibility that Mary Ann was born at sea.