The Bell Family Web Page

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The purpose of this page is to try and gather more information on the descendants of Matthew Bell who emigrated from England in 1857.

I have been researching the Bell family for about 30 years.
Matthew emigrated to Australia from Yorkshire in Northern England in 1857 on the "Sir John Franklin", and on his arrival he journeyed to the goldfields at Daylesford in the Central Highlands of Victoria. (See this article on Wikipedia). He established himself on the outskirts of Daylesford, and in 1860 the rest of his family, - his wife Mary (ne๊ Dawson/Dowson), his sons and daughters, and their spouses - arrived on the "Hope", and were the early pioneers of the Daylesford district. Other members of the extended families arrived during 1864.

Matthew was born in Healaugh, North Yorkshire, (See this article on Wikipedia) - as were most of his family - in 1812. The family lived in various locations in North Yorkshire & Durham. He was obviously well off, as in his will he had property in Crook in Durham. They also spent time in Grinton, North Yorkshire.
He was a very astute person, as in his Will, he left his estate evenly between his wife and children, BUT if he pre-deceased his wife he made sure she didn't remarry because if she did, she got NOTHING!

Many members of the family went on to become professional and business people. Some examples are, Robert BELL (1836 - 1917) - my Great-Grandfather - was Shire President of Mount Franklin Shire in 1904 and served on the Glenlyon Shire when it amalgamted with with Mount Franklin in 1915. It is now the Shire of Hepburn.

Another son - Michael Dowson BELL (1838 - 1921) was well respected in the Gold Mining industry. He lived at Chewton opposite the Wattle Gully gold mine which is still in use today. One of his sons - Thomas (1867 - 1927) owned the General Store at Lauriston in the Castlemaine gold fields region of Victoria, Australia.

On this page I hope to provide information from anyone decscended from Matthew and Mary. Likewise if there are any errors it would be appreciated if I could be advised by Email at genealogyinfo@bigpond.com.