Berry – Van Cooten Voices

William Berry Photograph

rodney — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 06:13:35 +0000

I’ve had an autosomal DNA test on Ancestry since 2019, although I tested earlier with FamilytreeDNA and the Geneographic Project.

I find the Ancestry ThruLines feature very useful in exploring matches, and I’ve been gradually trying to confirm the relationships and link the matches into my tree. It was a ThruLines connection that suggested that William and Margaret Berry (nee Greig) may have been accompanied to Australia by William’s sister Barbara. I reached out to Barbara’s descendant, who kindly replied, and I also explored the Hints for William Berry. One of these was a photo of a William Berry. I contacted the submitter of the photo, Lis Dempster, and she confirmed that she was a descendant of Barbara Berry,

Lis very graciously sent me a higher quality copy of the photo, and also the accompanying letter, transcribed below.

Burnett St. Ipswich 30/8/82
Mrs. W. Biddels
Dear Madam
I duly received yours of Decr. last and felt interested in your Narrative there are often many ups and downs in a lifetime & the early part of yours has not been an exception. I hope you are in better health than when you wrote & that husband & family are all well. When we enjoy this blessing we have heart to Brave trials that we think insurmountable – may you enjoy the fortitude not only to bear patiently present trials but to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, striving to bring up yours in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
The power of Sir Henry has brought your country under the notice of the world – his has been an eventful life and I reckon he is as poor as a church mouse as the saying is he nevertheless stands before kings and not before mean men.
I have been rather poorly lately but am pretty well again. I cannot expect robust health after 72 years I have had the alloted span, many and good days, many & great mercies and blessings which I cannot recount.
William has not wholly recovered yet he had to leave the Grammar School. He is secretary to our gas company. He has also taken his degree of M.A. We are all ploding along after a few unpropitious years but we must hope on. I have nothing particular to relate. We have had no news from Abdn. lately. I enclose my Photo. to show what I am like-it is a month old. Please show it to your mother. Give her my best respects. Her brother and sister would be glad to hear from her if she would condescend to write.
Wishing best blessings to you all
I remain your affectionate uncle
Wm. Berry.

William dies on 18 April 1887, so this letter is written just under five years before his death.

Mrs. W. Biddels is Barbara McKenzie Biddles (nee Munro), who married William Biddles on 15 August 1872 in Sydney, New South Wales. Barbara was the daughter of William Berry’s sister Barbara, who married William Munro on 3 August 1848 in Sydney, New South Wales.

The other William mentioned is his son, who died in 1884 at the age of 35. William, junr., was academically gifted, was one of the first pupils at Ipswich Grammar School, and became a staff member there. He obtained a B.A., and then M.A., from the University of Sydney, but suffered from ill-health.

William Berry, senior, clearly has contact with his family back in Aberdeen, and the brother and sisters referred to are likely to include John, Elspet, Isobel, and Jean.

The Sir Henry referred to is Sir Henry Parkes, father of Australian federation.

William Berry origins

rodney — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 11:57:53 +0000

William Berry is a very common name, and at first glance we have very few clues as to his origin in Scotland. His death certificate says that he was born in Burse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and that his father’s name was William. There is no origin on the immigration details. The marriage register entry suggests that he has a relative, John Berry, Wright in Durris.

William’s obituary¹ enlightens us little:

Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld. : 1861 – 1908), Tuesday 19 April 1887, page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS It is with regret that we record the death of Mr. W. Berry, sen., who died very suddenly of appoplexy at his residence, Denmark Hill, at half-past 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Mr. Berry had been ailing for some time past, and was rather feeble, being in his seventy-seventh year. Still, with the aid of walking sticks, he was able to walk a considerable distance, and his sudden decease was not expected by those who saw him in Brisbane-street a few days ago. However, yesterday afternoon, while sitting on his back steps he suddenly fell backwards, apparently in a fit. Mrs. Berry, who happened to be close by at the time, at once came to his aid, as did also a neighbour, who carried him inside the house. All present instinctively felt that the hour of death had come, and when Dr. Von Lossberg arrived, about five minutes later, he entered a home of mourning. Mr. Berry was a native of Aberdeenshire, in Scotland, and had been a colonist of forty years’ standing, having, during the whole of that time, been engaged in the grazing and dairying business, mostly in the vicinity of Ipswich. He and his good lady have brought up a large family, six of whom, with a widowed mother, are left to lament their loss, though, fortunately, they are all adults, and they are not sources of anxiety to their remaining parent. Mr. Berry’s funeral takes place to-day, and, being an old and respected resident, there will, doubtless, be a large gathering of sorrowing friends and acquaintances to assist at the last sad rites.

EXCEPT: The death of John Berry in Scotland² is reported in the Queensland Times,

DEATHS. On the 19th May, at Springburn, Kintore, Scotland, John Berry, formerly of Crossroads, Durris, only brother of the late William Berry, of Ipswich, Queensland, aged 79 years.

only six weeks after William’s death, and Williams obituary, with the addition of

We may add that Mr Berry was born at Mill of Blelack, Logie-Coldstone, and went to Australia on his marriage day over 40 years ago. It was his brother, Mr John Berry, late of Cross Roads, Durris, whose death was reported only six weeks ago.

is reported in the Aberdeenshire Aberdeen Press and Journal³. We now have a connection for William in Scotland. A search of ScotlandsPeople gives⁴:

May 20th 1810
Berry: William Berry in Mill of Blelack by his wife Jean Masson had a son baptized named William

and⁵

Oct 9th 1808
Berry: William Berry in Mill of Blelack, by his wife Jean Masson, had a son baptized & named John

and⁶

1807-8
William Berry in Mill of Blalack & Jean Masson in Collurdon both in this Parish having contracted in order for marriage & consigned pledges hereto were proclaimed on the 20th and 27th of Decr. 1807 & married after sermon.

and the following baptisms:

BERRY	JOHN	WILLIAM BERRY/JEAN MASSON FR104 (FR104)	M	09/10/1808	217	10 / 96	LOGIE COLDSTONE
BERRY	WILLIAM	WILLIAM BERRY/JEAN MASSON FR106 (FR106)	M	20/05/1810	217	10 / 98	LOGIE COLDSTONE
BERRY	BARBARA	WILLIAM BERRY/JEAN MASSON FR119 (FR119)	F	07/05/1815	217	10 / 111	LOGIE COLDSTONE
BERRY	ELSPET	WILLIAM BERRY/JEAN MASSON FR113 (FR113)	F	25/01/1813	217	10 / 105	LOGIE COLDSTONE
BERRY	ISOBEL	WILLIAM BERRY/JEAN MASSON FR124 (FR124)	F	02/06/1817	217	10 / 116	LOGIE COLDSTONE
BERRY	JEAN	WILLIAM BERRY/JEAN MASSON	F	30/09/1821	217	40 / 7	LOGIE COLDSTONE

At this point I need some more definite information to be able to find birth or baptism information for William and Jean.

William and Margaret Berry

rodney — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 04:09:30 +0000

I referred in an earlier post to the sale of the Berry House.

Elizabeth Berry married John Hughes Van Cooten at her father’s residence, Berry House, Ipswich, on 22 Jul 1880¹. The marriage certificate lists her parents as being William Berry, Farmer, and Margaret nee Greig.

In a newspaper article in 1909² Margaret reflects on her life in Australia.

Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld. : 1909 – 1954), Friday 9 April 1909, page 2

Glimpses of Early Ipswich.
OLD PLACE AND INCIDENTS.
LINKS WITH THE PAST.
1909 THE JUBILEE OF QUEENSLAND.
THE PIONEER FEMALE RESIDENT OF IPSWICH.
MRS. WM. BERRY, OF “BERRY’S HILL.” BURNETT-STREET.

…
Anent pioneer female residents, one of the oldest—if not, indeed, the oldest—is Mrs. William Berry (relict of the late Mr. William Berry), of “Berry’s Hill,” Burnett-street, who has resided continuously in Ipswich for 62 years, she, with her husband, having arrived here on the 8th of April, 1847. She is now in the 89th year of her age. Always a homely-inclined woman, Mrs. Berry never moved in public life : hence, I suppose—to a large extent, at any rate±is her presence being overlooked. Still, her name will always be an honoured one, from the fact that she was the parent of that brilliant Ipswich Grammar School scholar, the late Mr. William Berry, M.A., who was one of the first 19 pupils to attend that school, in 1863, and who, under the guidance of the late Mr. Stuart Hawthorne, M.A. (the first head master of the Ipswich Grammar School, gained the highest honours attainable up to 1866, and was “dux” of that institution. Here it might be stated that the four scholarships awarded, at the first examinations held, in February of 1864, in connection with the Ipswich Grammar School, were obtained by William Berry and T. B. Cribb (equal), Michael Connor, Francis Ewen Forbes, and Edward King Ogg. As regards Mr. and Mrs. William Berry, however, this worthy Scotch couple (just after their marriage) left Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the 10th of October, 1846, the minister of the Church (the Rev. Robert Sedgewitch) in which they were joined in matrimony giving them a reference to the effect that they were leaving Aberdeen with “an unblemished reputation.” Mrs. Berry’s maiden name was Margaret Greig. Another unique document in the possession of Mrs. Berry is the receipt, signed by one David Moore, of the money paid for a passage to Port Jackson (Sydney), on which is an embossed duty-stamp, bearing the figures ’46. They sailed for their destination over seas in the ship Fifeshire (Captain Punchard) on the 15th October, 1846. The voyage to Sydney, a very rough one, occupied between four and five months. The Fifeshire was a cargo-boat, and among the few passengers on board—other than Mr. and Mrs. Berry—were two brothers of the name of Broughton, one of whom (Mr. Alfred Delves Broughton) subsequently came on to Moreton Bay and, at a later period, settled in Ipswich, having been the head of the firm of Messrs. Broughton, Fattorini, and Co. ; he was also one of the first members of Parliament to represent West Moreton in 1860. On their arrival in Port Jackson, Mr. Berry, after having a brief look round, decided upon exploring still further “fresh fields and pastures new.” Moreton Bay was the chief topic of conversation in Sydney in those days, and to that destination Mr. Berry, accompanied by his wife, steeered his barque—or, rather, they journeyed to Brisbane in one of the then small steamers which ran between Sydney and Moreton Bay, the name of which vessel Mrs. Berry could not recall to memory. This she does recollect—that, on their arrival in Brisbane the story of the wreck of the steamer Sovereign, in Moreton Bay, was on everybody’s lips, the lamentable incident having occurred on the 11th of March, 1847. This event was indelibly impressed on Mrs. Berry’s memory owing to the fact that the small steamer in which she and her husband had journeyed to Brisbane experienced a terribly rough run to Moreton Bay, the voyage lasting nearly five days. Now the distance can be accomplished in 36 hours! Among their fellow-passengers from Sydney were Messrs. Gould and Munroe, who, subsequently coming on to Ipswich, were the contractors who erected the original stores, for Messrs. Walter Gray and Co., at the corner of Bell and Bremer Streets (the site, now, of the Central Girls’ State School). After a brief stay in Brisbane Mr. and Mrs. Berry came on to Ipswich in the old steamer Experiment, and landed, as stated above, on the 8th of April, 1847, that date being written in their family Bible. Their first place of residence in Ipswich was in a small cottage, in Bell-street, owned by the late Mr. John (“Schemer”) Smith. The date of the birth of their eldest son, William, is recorded as June 23, 1848.

Their place of residence, then, was in Limestone-street, almost on the site of the gateway leading to Mr. F. B. Stephens’s smithy, and Mr. and Mrs. Berry resided in one-half of a house occupied and owned by the late Mr. Michael Christie (an old identity—the individual, it is said, who lifted the late Hon. Geo. Thorn, when an infant, out of the punt which brought the Thorn family to “Limestone” in 1838) ; the Christie family are still represented in the locality of Upper Bundanba. The parents of the late Mr. John Kelly (who, on Tuesday last, so suddenly collapsed within a few hundred yards of the spot where he was born 63 years ago) were likewise residents of that locality in 1848, and had been so for some time previously. The parents of Mr. Michael M’Analen, of Warwick-road, also resided in the same vicinity at a later period—about 1849. Mr. Berry, however, subsequently removed to a site in Limestone-street about where the Baptist Sunday-School, is, having as a near neighbour the family of the late Mr. Michael M’Analen. Eventually Mr. Berry settled on the hill that now bears his name, junctioning with Lime-stone, Burnett, and Omar Streets, where Mrs. Berry has resided for quite 60 years. Ever an energetic and hard-working, but nevertheless an independent, man, Mr. Berry followed many occupations—contractor, timber-getter, dairying, cotton-growing, and farming. His taffy-pair of horses were identities during his career as a contractor, and one of his earliest experiences in that line of business was in building a wharf-shed for Messrs. Walter Gray and Co., when down came the Bremer River “a banker,” roaring and foaming at the speed of 60 knots an hour. Everything was swept away, Mr. Berry’s time, in that instance, being all lost. Oh, those periodical Bremer River “bankers,” following pluvial precipitation! How would a “banker” do just now? The vicinity of Berry’s Hill was, of course, all bush then. As a grower of cotton, “the staple of which is the only flower born in the shuttle of a sunbeam, and dies in a loom.” Mr. Berry owned and worked a farm beyond the Ipswich Cemetery. Here, again, he was a neighbour of the M’Analen family. After a plodding career of 40 years in Ipswich, Mr. Berry died at his residence, in Burnett-street, on the 18th of April, 1887, at the ripe age of 77. His brilliant eldest son, Mr. William Berry, predeceased him, the bright career of the latter having been cut off on the 5th of January, 1884. The last-named gentleman graduated, with honours, as B.A. of the Sydney University in 1880, and as M.A. in 1881. After leaving the Grammar School, however, he entered the service of the Board of General Education ; he subsequently engaged in Press-work on the Brisbane “Telegraph,” and then accepted the position of second master in the school in which he had so greatly distinguished himself as a pupil. This was during the regime of Mr. Donald Cameron, M.A. Hard study and partial loss of voice compelled Mr. Berry to relinquish tutorial duties, and he then accepted the position of secretary to the Ipswich Gas and Coke Company. Death claimed him, on the date given above, after a protracted illness. His son, Percy, survives him, and is engaged in the pearl-shelling industry in the Northern seas. Another five sons and three daughters, with Mrs. Berry, survive the late Mr. William Berry, sen. Two of the sons are well-known in our midst—Mr. Alec Berry, guard on the Brisbane-Ipswich Railway, and Mr. John Berry, of the Ipswich Post-Office. Two of the daughters are married—Mrs. Charles Wilson, now of Rockhampton, her husband being widely known in this district, he having been engaged in the pastoral industry nearly all his life; and Mrs. J. H. Van Cooten, of North Ipswich, Mr. J. H. Van Cooten being likewise favourably known in Ipswich. Miss Berry—a very active worker in the Congregational Church, was for years connected with the West Ipswich Church as organist and Sunday-School teacher—has the care of her aged mother.

Although much of this information can be corroborated, I suspect that the passage of time has clouded some memories.

William and Margaret were married on 10 October 1846:

After due proclamation of banns, William Berry, Woodsawyer in Aberdeen was, on the Tenth day of October One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty six years, married at Aberdeen to Margaret Greig there, Daughter of Alexander Greig, Farm Labourer, Parish of New Machar by the Reverend Robert Sedgwick, Minister of the Belmont Street Secession Church, Aberdeen.
In presence of the witnesses: Alexander Clark, Officer, New Market Aberdeen, and John Berry, Wright in Durris.³

The mention of Alfred Delves Broughton seems inconsistent. The arrival of the Fifeshire in Sydney is variously reported, for instance

March 21.— Fifeshire, ship, 472 tons, Captain Punchard, from London, having left the Downs the 25th October. Passengers — Mr. and Mrs. Berry, Miss Berry, Mr. Foster, Mr. Carter, Mr. Walker, Mr. Caruthers, and Mr. Belvidere.⁴.

but no passenger by the name of Broughton is listed. Curiously, no mention is made in the memoir of a Miss Berry, who I presume to to be William’s sister Barbara. Alfred Delves Broughton seems to have been active in New South Wales, being appointed Clerk of Petty Sessions in 1851, and appointed to be clerk to the Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands at Sofala, but doesn’t appear to be active in Queensland until 1857, although marrying in Sydney on 23 March 1858.

The wreck of the steamer Sovereign took place on 11 March 1847⁵ which would seem to correspond to the Berry’s arrival in Port Jackson, rather than in Brisbane. The 8th of April, 1847 was a Thursday. The steamer Experiment was advertised to be running from Brisbane on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and from Ipswich every alternate morning⁶, so this date recollection is slightly inconsistent.

William Berry’s birth on June 23, 1848 does not seem to have been officially registered.

Berry House

rodney — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 13:08:02 +0000

In February 2022, my cousin Judy alerted me to a real estate advertisement that she had seen in the local Ipswich newspaper concerning the sale of “Berry House.”

Berry House was built by William Berry, father of Elizabeth Berry, who married John Hughes Van Cooten.

Berry House

A Wikipedia article is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Berry_residence

The Queensland Heritage Register listing is at https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=600570

The photographs from the real estate listing show that the house has been stunningly renovated.

The history contained on the Queensland Heritage Register citation indicates that William Berry arrived in the colony by 1843, but my research indicates that this is unlikely, and suggests that this may be a conflation of two William Berrys, but that’s the subject of a future post.