Boyd family

The Boyd family is an Australian family whose members over several generations succeeded in distinguished effort in their contribution to the arts in the fields of painting, sculpture, pottery, ceramics, literature, architecture, poetry and music.

Family tree

The family is descended from four diverse immigrants to Victoria:

• William à Beckett (1806–1869), lawyer and Chief Justice of Victoria, arrived in New South Wales in 1837 with his wife, Emily à Beckett (née Hayley) and three young sons. His brother, Thomas Turner à Beckett, arrived in Australia in 1850 and was the father of Eliza à Beckett who married Charles Henry Chomley, a novelist and newspaper editor.
• John Mills (c1810-1841), a convict and brewer, was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1827 and married Hannah Hale in 1836. Arrived in Port Phillip District in 1837.
• Major Alexander Boyd (1792–1869), paymaster of the 11th Regiment of Foot (The North Devonshire Regiment of Foot), arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1845, possibly with his wife, Susan Boyd (née Brown).
• Robert Martin (1798–1874), medical practitioner and squatter, travelled by land from Sydney in 1839 to take up land at Mount Sturgeon near Dunkeld and Heidelberg. His wife Lucy Martin (née Gear) and family came from Sydney to join him soon after.

These four families were joined by marriages of their children in the young colony of Victoria in the 1850s:

• William à Beckett's son Hon. William Arthur Callendar à Beckett (1833–1901) married John Mills's daughter Emma Mills (1838–1906) in 1855, and had six children, including Emma Minnie à Beckett (1858–1936).
• Major Alexander Boyd's son Captain John Theodore Thomas Boyd (1825–1891) married Dr Robert Martin's daughter Lucy Charlotte Martin in 1857, and had 12 children, including Arthur Merric Boyd (1862–1940).

As may be seen from here-forward, the Boyd family as its members would be committed to art – and which commitment and exposition of its talents with each subsequent generation would reach a popular conception by the advent of the twenty-first century of an artistic dynasty – may be said to find its nascence in the 14 January 1886 marriage of Emma Minnie à Beckett (known as Minnie) and Arthur Merric Boyd. Both were already established painters at the time of their marriage.

They had five children, four of whom became prominent in the Australian artistic world:

• John Gilbert à Beckett Boyd (1886–1896) was killed in a riding accident.
• William Merric Boyd (1888–1959) [1], potter, married Doris Boyd (Doris Gough) (1889–1960) [2], painter.
• Theodore Penleigh Boyd (1890–1923), painter, married Edith Anderson, painter.
• Martin à Beckett Boyd (1893–1972) was a writer.
• Helen à Beckett Boyd (1903–1999), painter, married Neven Read, naval officer.

With Arthur Merric and Emma Minnie Boyd settled at "Open Country", the family estate within the outer Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena, and with Doris and Merric Boyd finding their home there, the artistic tradition continued into the next generations:

The children of (William) Merric Boyd and Doris (nee Gough) Boyd were:

• Lucy Evelyn Gough Boyd (1916–2009)[3], ceramist, married Hatton Beck (1901–1994) [4], ceramist, potter, sculptor.

Their children are:

• Laurence Hatton Beck (1940–)[5], layman, wayfarer and journeyman.
• Robert Hatton Beck (1942–), potter/ceramist, married Margot Gardner (daughter of painter Freidl Gardner) and they had two children.
• Paul Hatton Beck (1948–), musician

• Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (1920–1999), painter, married Yvonne Lennie, painter.

Their children are:

• Polly Boyd (1946–), artist and painter
• Jamie Patrick Boyd (1948–) [6][7], painter and sculptor
• Lucy Ellen Boyd, painter

• Guy Martin à Beckett Boyd (1923–1988), sculptor, married Phyllis Emma Nairn.

Their children are:

• Lenore Boyd (1953–)
• Sally Boyd (1956–)
• Derry Catherine (1957–), owner-operator of a graphic, web, and multimedia business, married (1)Vuthichai Satianyot (also known as Yap Guan Soon), and (2) Michael Evans. Derry and Michael had three children.
• Kirstin Doris (1960–), writer of children's literature, married (1) John Murray, graphic designer, and had three children. Kirstin married (2) Ken Harper, drama teacher, playwright, gymnast, and circus trainer.
• Ben
• Charlotte Beatrice Magdalen (1968–), potter and ceramist, married John O'Donohue, digital technician. They had two children.
• Martin Duncan Gough (1970–), writer and Spanish translator, married Paulina Derbez, violinist, and had one child.

• David Fielding Gough Boyd (1924–2011)[8], painter, married Hermia Lloyd-Jones, ceramic artist.

Their daughters are:

• Amanda, painter and costume designer
• Lucinda, model and painter
• Cassandra, painter and illustrator

• Mary Elizabeth Boyd (1926–), painter, married firstly, John Perceval, painter, potter, and sculptor, and had four children. Mary married secondly, in 1978, Sir Sidney Nolan, painter, and became Lady Nolan. (Media release April 2010 )

Mary and John's children are:

• Matthew, painter, married Jutta, and had three children.
• Tessa, painter
• Celia, painter
• Alice, painter, had four children.

The children of Penleigh and Edith Boyd were:

• Pamela Boyd (b & d 1913)
• John à Beckett Penleigh (Pat) Boyd (1915–1980), gift for painting, distinguished wartime pilot, then commercial aviation pilot, married Anne Davy.
• Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd (1919–1971), architect and writer, married Patricia Madder.

The children of Helen and Neven Read are:

• Gayner Read (1936–1988), painter. Gayner provided her parents with two lovely grandsons.
• Susan Read (1938–), children pennie beatson,ken easton,greame easton
• Andrew Read (1942–),athur read , rossie read
• Prudence Read (1947–)

See also

• Nasturtiums (E. Phillips Fox) . . . Edith Anderson, as model to E. Phillips Fox, later to be Mrs Penleigh Boyd.

References

• Brenda Niall, The Boyds: A Family Biography, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, July 2002. [9] ISBN 0-522-84871-0

External links

• The Boyds: A Family Biography
• Dynasties: The Boyd Family, ABC