Beazley is the maiden name of one of our paternal great-great-grandmothers, Elizabeth Beazley (c.1836-1919) who married Michael McCraith in 1853. The sequence of surnames in the four generations between us goes Beazley-McCraith-Dwyer-Dwyer-Dwyer.
Beazley or Beasley is a name of English origin dating back to the 13th century. It is a locational surname from the town of Beesley in Lancashire. In Ireland the name is fairly rare.
Our Beazleys came from County Cork, but are only known from the beginning of the 19th century and may have been recent arrivals in Ireland then.
Our great-great grandparents
There is only limited information about Andrew Beazley and Alice Newman, most of which comes from the Australian records of their daughters Elizabeth and Hannah.
Andrew and Alice were both probably born in the southwest of County Cork around 1800. This date is based on a death record for an Alice Beazley registered in Schull in 1872 giving the age at death as 72. The location of the Schull district is consistent with the only other specific place that the family can be linked to: the village of Ballydehob about 8 kilometers away.1 It can therefore probably be assumed that the Beazleys and Newmans came from that general area.
Schull was described in Samuel Lewis’ 1836 A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland:
…a parish, in the Western Division of the barony of WEST CARBERY, county of CORK, and province of MUNSTER, 11 ½ miles (W. S. W.) from Skibbereen, on the road to Crookhaven; containing, with several inhabited islands in Roaring Water bay, 15,252 inhabitants, of which number, 385 are in the village. It is exceedingly wild and uncultivated, and appears in the earlier periods of Irish history to have been regarded as of very great importance from its numerous defiles and strongholds amidst its rocks; and in later times, from the erection of several castles by the various native septs, which from their situation and great strength would appear to have been impregnable…
The parish forms the eastern portion of a peninsula extending from Dunmanus bay, on the north, to Roaring Water bay on the south, and comprising 84,000 statute acres, of which 24,204 are applotted under the tithe act, and valued at £7898 per annum. The surface is rocky and very uneven, rising in some parts into mountains of considerable elevation; the highest in a chain extending from east to west is Mount Gabriel, 1145 feet above the level of the sea; the whole are of the schistose formation, in some places passing into all the varieties of transition rock. About one-third of the land, consisting principally of small patches between the rocks, is under tillage; but the system of agriculture is in a very backward state, and spade husbandry is in general practice. There are some tracts of mountain which afford tolerable pasturage to numerous herds of young cattle; but the greater portion presents only a bare rocky surface, and appears to be wholly irreclaimable. There are also considerable tracts of bog, producing a good supply of peat, part of which might be reclaimed at a moderate expense…
A constabulary police force is stationed here and also at Ballydehob; and there are coast-guard stations on Long island and at Skull, which latter is a detachment from the station at Crookhaven, in the district of Skibbereen. A manorial court is held at Lemcon, every third Monday, at which debts under £5 are recoverable; there is also an ecclesiastical manor belonging to the bishop of Ross, for which a court is held occasionally; and petty sessions are held at Towermore every alternate week…
In the R. C. divisions the parish is divided into East and West Skull, which latter forms part of the union of Kilmore; in the eastern division are two chapels, one at Ballydehob and the other at Skull, in which also is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. About 340 children are taught in six public schools, of which three are supported by the rector; and there are nine private schools (in which are about 230 children), a Sunday school, and a dispensary.2
Andrew and Alice may have married in the 1820s or early 1830s. They had two known children:
On Hannah Beazley’s marriage record (PDF - 594k) it says that Andrew was a coastguard, although on Elizabeth Beazley’s death record it says that he was a fisherman.3 Perhaps at various times he had been both.
There is no record of an Andrew Beazley of County Cork in the Tithe Applotment Books.
In Griffiths Valuation there is only one Andrew Beazley recorded. He is shown residing in Crookhaven, a village about 30 kilometers west of Ballydehob which boasted a coastguard station and a good harbour. The Crookhaven location is consistent with occupations associated with Andrew, but may be too far from Ballydehob to be considered a certain location for our Beazley family. Griffith’s Valuation also lists an Alias Beasley at Schull, which also had a coastguard station.
Other researchers have linked Alice Newman to Woodlands, about 5 kilometers south west of Ballydehob on the road to Schull. Griffith’s Valuation shows a number of Newman families on the estate of the Earl of Bandon at Woodlands.
There is a civil death registration for an Alice Beazley registered in Schull in 1872. There is no record for Andrew Beazley.
1 This was the marriage place of their daughter Eliza to Michael McCraith, according to McCraith’s death record.
2 http://www.libraryireland.com/topog/S/Skull-West-Carbery-Cork.php
3 Hannah’s death record just says that he was a “gentleman”, which is odd considering the informant was her sister Elizabeth.