Lorne Beal Family

Charles Beal was born in Sandwich in 1821 and sailed to Australia in 1840s and landed in Hobart. He couldn’t find work so Charles and a friend sailed to the mainland, landing at the mouth of the Yarra River. They trecked through bush for two days before reaching Melbourne and worked there for a while. Charles then travelled to Geelong then to Birregurra. He bought land and built ‘Bleak House’. He was one of the founders of Winchelsea and built the Barwon in 1842.

Charles married Amy and had four daughters, Nan, Nell, Ada and Blanch. Charles took the family to Europe, where Blanch met and married Harold, a sea captain, in about 1880.

Charles Beal and Sir Charles Sladen loved riding horses and would ride through the bush to camp on the beach at Lorne. When he was able Charles Beal bought sea front land and built ‘Varna’ as a holiday house in 1888 between Charles Street and Beal Street at 101 to 103 Smith Street Lorne in 1881.

Charles Beal built houses for his daughters, one of which made history. She was Ada of ‘Llandro’, who as an elderly crippled lady, hired a taxi to take herself, a nurse and a companion to Central Australia. They bought opals, one of which became a family ring.

Charles Beal died in a coach accident on the way to Lorne.

The Rules of Matrimony – 1878

While looking through the many documents from the donated Kenrick/Beal Collection, Jan Spring happened to come across a medium sized book which looked like a diary. On closer inspection it was found to be a notebook containing records of special occasions, dates of births, deaths and marriages and places visited. The booklet also contained some botanical specimens and a few drawings. The booklet was compiled by one of the five daughters of Charles and Amy Beal, possibly Eleanor or Annie Beal. One of the pages of interest contained thirty-one points for “Rules of Matrimony”. Some maybe a little outdated now, but it was interesting to understand the thoughts of young girls living around 1878.

Rules for Matrimony:

Those who marry for physical characteristics or external considerations will fail of happiness.
Marry in your own religion.
Never both be angry at once
Never taunt with a past mistake
Never let a kiss be the prelude of a rebuke.
Never allow a request to be repeated.
Let self abnegation be the habit of both.
A good wife is the greatest earthly being.
“I forgot” is never an acceptable excuse.
If you must criticise, do it lovingly.
Make marriage a matter of moral judgement.
Marry into a family that you have long known.
Never make a remark at the expense of the other.
Never talk at one another, either alone or in company.
Give the warmest sympathies for each other’s trials.
If one is angry part your lips only for a kiss.
Neglect the whole world besides, rather than one another.
Never speak loud to one another.
Always leave home with loving words for they maybe the last.
Marry into different blood and temperament to yourself.
Never deceive for the heart once misled can never trust wholly again.
It’s the mother who moulds the character and gives the destiny of the child.
Never find fault unless it is perfectly certain a fault has been committed.
Do not herald the sacrifices you make to each other’s tastes, habits and preferences.
Let all your marital accommodations be spontaneous whole souled and free as air.
The very felicity is in the mutual cultivation of usefulness.
Consult one another in all that comes within the experience, observation, or sphere of others.
A hesitation or glum yielding to the wishes of the other always greats on a loving heart.
Those who marry for traits of mind and heart will seldom fail of perennial enjoyment.
Those are the safest who marry from the standpoint of sentiment rather than of feeling, passion or mere love.
The beautification in heart is a million times more avail, as securing domestic happiness than the beautiful in person.

Of the five Beal girls three went on to marry and two remained unmarried.

Source:

Lorne A living History by Doug Stirling
Lorne Historical Society collections
June’s note on Beal Family