his leg broke in the fall, and another named Vere Beck was severely
injured.”

There was no indication of what injury he suffered. It was a pretty
sketchy report but we know that the election was held in George-
town. John Kearney was a resident of that community and the Kings
County election was held there in 1830. Elections were far different
in those days. Voting in the election of 1830 started in late September
and finished in November. The first polling took place on Sept. 23
in Princetown Royalty in Prince County, followed by Charlottetown
on Sept. 27, and Georgetown Royalty on Sept. 30. The Kings County
election took place on Oct. 4, also in Georgetown, with the Queens
County voting on Oct. 7 and the Prince County voting on Nov. 8.
The staggered dates made it possible for government officials to trav-
el around the province and conduct polling at the different sites.

In those days all the voters would gather in one area, listen to
speeches from the candidates and then stand publicly and declare
who they were voting for. There was no such thing as a secret ballot
in those days. Until then only protestant men were allowed to vote,
but in 1830 Roman Catholic men were allowed to vote too.

Vere was injured when the house collapsed on Oct. 4, but the re-
port only appeared in the weekly newspaper 8 days later. Since the
injury was considered to be serious it’s quite likely that Elizabeth and
the children would be responsible for harvesting the crop that fall.

There were few roads on the Island at that time, so it’s likely that
Vere and other voters from the Murray Harbour area made the trip
by boat. We don’t know who Vere voted for, but the two elected repre-
sentatives for Kings County were Thomas Owen and Daniel Brenan.

Margaret, the last of the 12 Beck children, was born in 1833 and
by then it was possible to see just how big a rift there had been be-
tween Vere and his siblings back in England. It showed plainly in the
names of the children.

Angus Baxter in his book, “In Search of Your British and Irish
Roots” describes a pattern that was popular in England during the

years 1700-1875:
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