Joseph Andrew Lovell
the son of a wealthy Ryde orchardist, George Lovell, moved to Beecroft in 1890 with his wife Isabella (née Franks) and their first child George (born in 1889). Joseph purchased 16 acres of land between Albert and Chapman Roads, clearing part of it for orchards which were his livelihood. Five more children were born to Isabella and Joseph during their time in Beecroft: Mary (1891), Ethel (1892), Walter (1894), Margaret (1897) and Isabella (1900). Ethel was baptised by the Rev. George McIntosh at their home in Beecroft and Isabella at St John’s
Church, Beecroft.[1]
George Lovell, Mayor of Ryde from 1889 to 1891 and an initiator of new methods of orchard irrigation, was possibly a model for his son in the new suburb of Beecroft. In 1896 Joseph gave a donation to the tree planting on Arbor Day at Beecroft Public School and in 1900 he was President of the Parents’ and Residents’ Committee. He was a Justice of the Peace, a trustee of the Park and the Village Green and on the committee of the Progress Association.[2]
When he left Beecroft in 1901 after eleven years, Lovell resigned all his positions except that of
the Secretary of the Willis Memorial Committee, which he intended to retain until the memorial was completed.[3]
This was an obligation from which no public-spirited citizen could walk away. His Beecroft land was sold to his neighbour Lesley Herring, while he purchased a new orchard and built a house at Marsfield.[4]
[1] Land Titles Office 909/71; Philip G is, a Place of Pioneers, Ryde, 1970, page 143.
[2] Cumberland Argus, 3 September 1898, 24 February 1900, 20 April 1901.
[3] Cumberland Argus, 2 March 1901; David Willis was killed in the Boer War on 1 October 1900, a day short of his 20th birthday. The memorial was unveiled on 24 November 1901.
[4] Cumberland Argus, 20 April 1901.