Joseph Beete of Demerary

Resident slave-owner in Demerara, uncle of Joseph Beete of Clifton (q.v.), who was his executor and to whose children he left monetary legacies. Joseph Beete was described as late of Grenada but now of Demerary in a deed of 17/07/1798 dealing with his purchase of lands and tenements on Grenada called Mathews Place from the heirs of Ashton Warner Byam (q.v.).

1. Joseph Beete of Demerary died 14/01/1815 at Henrietta Street in Bath aged 60.

2. The grandson of Joseph Beete (b. 1757, according to the entry), (Joseph) Beete Jukes, son of Sophia Beete and John Jukes, is in the ODNB as 'geologist'. The entry states that his maternal grandfather 'had been in trade in Demerara'. In light of the will of Joseph Beete of Clifton (q.v.), Joseph Beete of Demerara father of Sophia Beete was almost certainly the uncle of Joseph Beete of Clifton, and Sophia Beete the cousin of Joseph Beete of Clifton.

The deed of 17/07/1798 has been transcribed by Jim Smith who gave the reference as pp. 479-487 of the Grenada Registers of Records, Item 1 of the microfilm FHL [1563378], http://agenealogyhunt.blogspot.com/2011/06/part-528s-smith-robertson-genealogy.html [accessed 27/11/2020].

1. Caribbeana Vol. 2 p. 233, recording a monument in Bath Abbey, and referring also to a death notice in Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 181.

2. Gordon L. Herries Davies, ‘Jukes, (Joseph) Beete (1811–1869), geologist’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15162, accessed 31 Dec 2013]

We are grateful to Rob Oldfield for his assistance with compiling this entry.