Jessie Beagley Interview
The following notes were taken by Jenny Mitchell from an interview
perhaps 20 years ago
Stephen Vine was born in Camborne, Cornwall in 1829 of parents Stephen
Vine and Catherine, nee Evea. In 1851 he came to Australia.
He married Lavinia Ford at Beechworth in 1855. Jessie said that
Lavinia came out with Stephen and suggested that they were probably
married after the sea journey because the single quarters were better
than the ones for married people. She said that they both came
from the mining village of Pindurra, near St.Austel, Cornwall.
But the gap of four years between arrival and marriage possibly lessens
the likelihood of there being an established relationship between
Stephen and Lavinia in 1851. Stephen and Lavinia Vine from at
least 1874 to 1888 held the license of the new Butcher's Arms Hotel,
Beechworth. A photograph in the Beechworth Museum (May, 1975) is
titled "Albert Road, Beechworth, showing the Spring Creek Bridge, Ovens
and murray Home, the Butcher's Arms Hotel, Slaw Brothers' first store
and early mining cottages."
Extracts from records held at the museum:
"Quarterly Licensing Transfer Sitting and Annual Sitting of the
Licensing Court at Beechworth for the licensing district of Beechworth,
Stanley, Woolshed and Yackandandah, the tenth day of December, 1888,
Wm. H. Foster Esq, Chairman, G. M. H. Patterson Esq, G. L. Dobbin Esq."
Nov 30, 1868: Charles
Morrison/Joseph Duncan, transfer of license. B. A. H.
Dec, 1874: Stephen Vine, renewal
of license Butcher's Arms Hotel, Spring Creek.
1878: renewal,
Stephen Vine, granted by H. Foster.
Aug 14, 1880: Stephen Vine/Grace
Vine, transfer of application.
Dec 3, 1881: Grace Vine/Lavinia
Vine, transfer of application, fee paid 3/12/81, Foster police
magistrate.
Dec 12, 1887: Lavinia Vine,
license fee 30 pounds.
Dec 10, 1888: Lavinia Vine,
license fee, 30 pounds.
Records were unavailable immediately prior to 1874, between 1881 and
1887, and after 1888. Jessie described the hotel as a long, low
building with a main hall surrounded on all sides by smaller rooms.
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One corner room was "a big blue room lined with blue brocade.". The
hotel was standing in 1956, but it has since been burnt to the ground.
Lavinia used to make elderberry wine and only elderberry trees remain
on the site. Between 1854 and 1875 the present "Ovens and Murray
Advertiser" building was the closest state school to the Butchers Arms
Hotel, so it is likely that the children attended school there until
the school moved to a new (present) site, the centenary of which was
celebrated early in 1975..
It used to be said that every tradesman who came to
the hotel got a Vine daughter: Amplet a baker married Grace; Conacher a
grocer married Anne; Meston a butcher (?) married Jane; and Mitchell a
wheelwright married Katie. Stephen met Catherine Martin because
she was among the Vine girls' circle of friends. Dick Roach, who
married Hannah, came from South Africa where he had worked in the
mines. In Victoria (Australia) he was a bricklayer. He met
Hannah at Beechworth.
Jenny Mitchell's notes
Beechworth Museum Photograph 'Albert Road Beechworth in 1863 showing
the Spring Creek Bridge, Ovens and Murray home, the Butchers Arms Hotel
and early Miners Cottages'
Albert Road is the road from the main intersectio, going down the hill
with the Beechworth Bakery on your right. That Creek is Spring Creek
Another Note (Not sure of source) Says Stephen Vine came from Pindurra
Butcher's Arms at the head of the Buckland Gap, Standing 1956, now gone
for road - misleading in view of Beechworth Museum Photograph. Is
on the road
to the
Buckland Gap?
Dec 1874 Stephen Vine, renewal of license Butchers Arms Hotel, Spring
Creek
1878 renewed
Aug 1880 Transfer Stephen Vine to Grace Vine
Dec 1881 Grace Stephen Vine to Lavinia Vine
Dec 1888 Lavinia vine paid licence fee 30 pounds
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Jenny and Fred Mitchell for the input above, and to Jenny
Grainger for some Vine and Ford Dates
Research Notes
See George and Grace's page for a discussion of Lavinia's origins
Genes Reunited checked for Stephen and Lavinia
LDS checked
