Free Settler or Felon
Convict and Colonial History




Bettington Family

Martindale - Map 6


James Brindley Bettington
James Brindley Bettington was born in 1796, the son of James Bettington, of Bristol, an East India merchant and Susanna, the daughter of James Brindley, the famous engineer who designed for the Duke of Bridgewater the Bridgewater Canal in England.

Arrival in Australia

J. B. Bettington arrived in Sydney on the Ionia on December 19, 1827. He began a business as a shipping agent and in the following year he was elected a director of the Bank of New South Wales.

In pastoral pursuits James Brindly Bettington was in partnership with his brother John Henshall Bettington who had been previously in the colony but resided in London until January 1836 when he arrived in New South Wales on the Lord William Bentick .[2]

Marriage

J. B. Bettington married Rebecca, the daughter of explorer William Lawson in June 1830. Some years later he took up land near Bathurst with his father-in-law William Lawson.

Brindley Park - Merriwa

This land was later relinquished and he leased and afterwards purchased land near Merriwa which he named Brindley Park. He formed a sheep stud from which many other studs and flocks in Northern New South Wales and Queensland originated.

Oatlands - Parramatta

J. B. Bettington purchased in 1840 a property called Oatlands, near Parramatta, from Lieut. Percy Simpson, who was well known as the founder of the convict settlement at Wellington and formerly owned of a grant of land near Eraring. The Bettingtons lived at Oatlands for many years.


One hundred years after J.B. Bettington's arrival in Australia an article was published in the Muswellbrook Chronicle reflecting on the contribution of the Bettington family to the sheep industry.....

For many years large estates have been the subject of much comment by politicians and others, who, while condemning their existence always fail to remember that the inclinations of the possessors of big holdings were the chief factors in numerous cases in the great work of nation building. The possessors of such character traits were men whose adventurous spirits prompted them to dare much in the search for golden treasure and the work of subdividing the wilderness in a new land for the raising of flocks and herds......The founding of the Brindley Park Estate at Merriwa is an admirable illustration of the forethought, enterprise, and general capability of a valiant pioneer. [1]

Martindale and Piercefield - Hunter Valley

Alexander Anderson J. Bettington George Blaxland Charles Cameron Peter Cunningham Cyrus Doyle John Hoskins John McGarvie William Ogilvie William Ogilvie Thomas Arndell James Arndell James Robertson Early Hunter Valley Settler Map 6

As well as the Brindley Park estate at Gummun Plains (Merriwa), in the 1830's the Bettington brothers William, John Henshall, Joseph Horton and James Brindley acquired pastoral estates in the Hunter Valley Piercefield and Martindale shown on the map above, that had formerly been in possession of William Carter.

In addition to the Hunter River property which covered over 80,000 acres J.B. Bettington held the following stations in the Castlereagh River district: Tura wandie, 15,360 acres, Ulo mogo, 19,200 acres, Turidgeree, 30,720 acres and Buckenbaa, 25,600 acres.

Death

While on a visit to England J. B. Bettington died at Plymouth in 1857. His son, also James Brindley Bettington, became manager at Brindley Park. [3]

Notes and Links

1) Pedigree of Brindley and Williamson.

References

[1] The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) Tue 19 Jan 1836 Page 2 Shipping Intelligence.

[2] The Muswellbrook Chronicle (NSW : 1898 - 1955) Tue 20 Nov 1928 Page 5 The History of Brindley Park.

[3] The Farmer and Settler (Sydney, NSW : 1906 - 1955) Fri 4 Mar 1955 Page 15 Week-end Magazine