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James Birkett
James Birkett (1784-1837) arrived in February 1830, early enough to take advantage of grants of land with access to the Swan River – and his 1000 acre lot was in the Swan area: it ran across from what is now Bedford to Bayswater. Erickson mentions also his wife, two children, Edward and Mary, and one servant. A boat Edward was in capsized near the bar at the river mouth and he was drowned, and buried near the place. There is a Birkett Street where James's land grant was.
A clip from Roe's 'eye sketch' of 1829 showing, from left, the grants of Edward Birkett, that of his father James, Mr Darby's, that of Robert Thomson (the Rottnest guy), and that of Dr John Whatley, who left his name alongside the railway as the extant Whatley Crescent. The river shown is the Swan, at what is now Bayswater.
The next three entries are from the online version of the Dictionary of West Australians.
BIRKETT, James, b. 1784, d. ?11.1837, arr. 26.2.1830 per Protector with family & servant Mary Smith, m. (?U.K.) Josephine WEBB. Chd. Edward b. 1812 d. 1830, Mary Lucille b. 1813. Formerly Lt. 6th Royal M. Btn. Applied for 1000 acres at Peninsula on Swan for his son 1830. Fire destroyed all their possessions 16.3.1833. His widow bt. 1200 acres at Australind in 1840. Dep. 1.1848 per Arpenteur for S.A. The Australind estate was bt. by Waller Clifton c.1873.
BIRKETT, Edward, b. 1812, d. 2.10.1830, son of James & Josephine, arr. 26.2.1830 per Protector. Was granted 1026 acres. Was drowned near the bar of the Swan River when his boat was upset. He was buried there.
BIRKETT, Mary Lucille, b. 1813, dtr. of James, m. 1833 (St. James Perth) Edward Gascoyne COLLINSON b. c. 1810. [See below.]
This entry is from the printed volume 1 of the Dictionary of West Australians (ed. Statham).
BIRKETT James. Lt. b. 1784 (d. 1837). Retired army officer. Arrived per Protector from London on 20.2.1830 with his wife Josephine Webb b. 1785 and children; Edward b. 1812 (d. October 1830, in a boating accident), Mary Lucille b. 1813. Granted 1,000 acres in the Swan region in 1830, and a town allotment in Perth on 19.1.1833 (P.G.). Was employed as a labourer in Perth when he died in November 1837, aged 53. Mrs. Birkett was a midwife and after her husband's death applied for relief for herself and her daughter (CSR. 2/225). In 1841 she received a letter regarding a land claim of her late husband (CSR. 91. 10.5.1841), and in January 1848 she left per Arpenteur for S.A. with a female servant.
Edward Collinson was a clerk in J.S. Roe's office (Pauline Basso).
Erickson (online):
COLLINSON, Edward Gascoyne, b. 1810, arr. 9.1.1830 per Nancy with Lt. Bull, m. 23.11.1833 Perth (C/E) Mary Lucille BIRKETT b. 1813, dtr. of James & Josephine. Clerk in Civil Service 1830 & then employed by Lione1 Samson at Frem. His land grants included Avon Loc L, 1280 acres & Perth Town Lots 03, Xl, X5, S17 & L63-5. His wife was a midwife 1839. He left W.A. 12.1.1842 per Elizabeth & returned 21.2.1844 per Velocity from Sydney. Dep. again 12.1846 per Joseph Albino. His wife dep. 1.1848.
References and Links
SRO document partly shown above, filename 3423-134.jpg.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 26 June, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/birkettjames.html (it was last updated on 15 January, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.