Bebe McIntyre

Surname:

McIntyre

Given names:

Bebe

Given address:

Begg Street Mussellburgh

Sheet No: 64

Town/Suburb:

Musselburgh

City/Region:

Dunedin

Notes:

Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley

Rebecca Allen was born about 1830 in England. She married John Murcott in London in 1847 and they had three children.

The family emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1855 on the Red Jacket and they had a further two children, one who died in infancy.

Rebecca and the children sailed for Otago in 1862 on the Aldinga, John had presumably gone earlier, and they settled in Dunedin.

By December 1867 the couple had parted company – on the 19th John placed an advertisement in the paper saying 'I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by my wife, Rebecca Murcott, at the Adelaide Hotel, Hanover street.' Two days later Rebecca place her own advertisement 'wanted known, that my husband, John Murcott, has neglected me for the period of one year and nine months, and has never contributed for the support of myself or our children. I will leave the public to judge.'

The following year, when Rebecca applied to renew the licence of the hotel, John objected but did not appear to support his case. She 'had been obliged to obtain a protection order against her husband, and she was supporting herself and her family by keeping the hotel.'

John disappears from the records after this - he may be the John Murcott who drowned while bathing in St Kilda, Melbourne in 1877.

Rebecca continued to run the Adelaide Hotel until her marriage to David McIntyre in 1875.

When Rebecca signed the suffrage petition she was living in Begg St, Musselburgh, Dunedin.

She died at her home on 25 October 1895.

At this time her husband David was 'a salesman residing abroad.'

She is buried with her daughter in the Southern Cemetery.