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Title
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BELLETTE, George 1812–1885
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Description
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George Bellette/Billet was the son of former Norfolk Island convicts who became a respected farmer at Sorell and Bream Creek and raised a large family with his wife Jemima. He died at Bream Creek in 1885.
In 1852 CHT Costantini painted the family portrait – George, Jemima and seven of their eleven children. The National Portrait Gallery purchased the painting in 2016.
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Biographical text
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George Bellette (also Bellett, Billette, Billet) was the son of two ex-convicts who became a farmer, landowner and early settler of Sorell.
His parents were Jacob Bellett (1765–1813) and Ann Harper (1772–1842). Jacob was a Spitalfields weaver transported to New South Wales for seven years for stealing silk, who came to Sydney aboard the Scarborough, one of six convict transports among the vessels forming the First Fleet. Ann was found guilty of stealing silverware in Bristol in February 1788 and arrived in New South Wales in June 1790. Jacob and Ann were both sent to Norfolk Island, where they married and acquired land and, eventually, pardons. In 1808 they were relocated to Van Diemen’s Land following the British government’s decision to close the Norfolk Island settlement. Along with other evacuees, Jacob was granted land at Sandy Bay in compensation for the substantial Norfolk holding he had relinquished; later, he acquired 60 acres east of Hobart at Pitt Water (renamed Sorell in 1821).
George was the youngest of Jacob and Ann’s eight children and the only one of them born in Van Diemen’s Land. Following Jacob’s death in 1813, the family appear to have moved to the Pitt Water holding, nearby to where other Norfolk Island ex-convict families had previously settled. George’s marriage to a daughter of one such family, Jemima Larsom (1818–1891), is registered as having taken place in the school house at Clarence Plains in February 1835; and the record of the birth of their eldest child, Ann, in 1836, lists George as a farmer resident in the district. By the birth of their next child, James, in February 1838, George and Jemima are recorded as living at Sorell, where their further ten children were born between 1840 and 1858. The variant spellings of the family’s surname – whether through misspelling on the part of government clerks or an attempt to distinguish themselves from convict forebears – complicates the tracing of George and Jemima’s lives beyond the establishment of facts relating to births, deaths and marriages. Newspaper reports, however, offer the occasional proof that George maintained an active interest in local political and agricultural matters; served as a magistrate; and that he, along with his brothers John, Jacob, William and James, contributed significantly to farming activity in the district.
In 1880, George sold his property – ‘A Farm, 76 acres, situated on the Sorell Rivulet … Good four-roomed cottage, a barn, dairy and out-buildings’ – and relocated to one east of Sorell, at Bream Creek.
At George's request, a Deed of Conveyance on 3 May 1881 specifically includes both his and Jemima's names.
George’s death at Bream Creek in March 1885 was noted in the Hobart Mercury and other papers, suggesting that he was a considerable, if not distinguished, citizen. ‘The deceased was a quiet, inoffensive man, and had all his lifetime followed the pursuits of a farmer’, one obituary concluded, while that in the Mercury stated that during the 50 years of his ‘farming pursuits’, George had ‘gathered around him many friends, while enemies were almost unknown to him’. Jemima died at Bream Creek in August 1891, her death certificate stating that she was 72 years old and a ‘farmer’s widow’.
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Family name
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Bellette
(also Billet, Billett, Bellett)
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Given name
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George
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Date of birth
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1812
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Birthplace
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Hobart (Sandy Bay), Tasmania
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Child of
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Jacob and Ann Billet (Harper)
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Sibling of
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John, Jacob, William and James
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Gender
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Male
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Occupation
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Farmer
Magistrate
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Spouse of
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Jemima Bellette (Larsom)
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Parent of
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Eleven children including Ann (1836–?) and James (1838– ?)
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Date of death
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March 1885
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Contributor
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National Portrait Gallery
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Creator
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Melinda Reed
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Related Items
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COSTANTINI, Charles 1803–1860
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Mrs Bellettes boy on horse Dec 1910 [rocking hourse]
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Mr and Mrs Ernie Moore (ne Blanche Bellette) and child [parents of Marj Larson, Corrie Newitt, Clare Jones whose children were Neil, Errol, Ernie, Cliff, Bill, Phillip, Monare Lin?]
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BELLETTE, Jemima 1812–1885
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Sorell Heritage Study 1996 - JACOB BILLETT'S COTTAGE
ROSY VANYON
Sorell Heritage Study 1996 - ROSY VANYON