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