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This is the re-evaluation on 30 July 2024 after discussions with Nancy Lees of the Nesbitt Family. We agree this grouping is not Bell-Irving but Nesbitt. Both families connected by Marriage to MacBean.

 

The connection between the two families is the marriage of William MacBean 1870-1923 to Martha E Nesbitt. The location is almost certainly in Minnesota in the winter of 1909-10. Nancy has the same photo. The error in my original caption which remains below this script is that I received it in a bundle of papers from the MacBean / White archive in a package labelled Bell-Irving and tried to make it fit that family who had the cabins on Pasley island, Vancouver.

 

From Nancy Lees in July 2024 - - - "I think William H. Nesbitt 1893-1967 had a copy because he was in it. I am 99.9% sure he is the young man, second in from the right, standing next to his older brother Henry Nesbitt.

 

On the other side of William "Bill" H. Nesbitt, I think the woman is his Aunt Frances Nesbitt. She never married or had children. I saw letters Bill Nesbitt kept written to him from his Aunt Frances. I vaguely remember one from Frances where she wrote about a couple traveling around Scotland on a motorcycle. "

 

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Amended captioning in late Aug 2022 and again July 2024.

 

All below this point is correct concerning Bell-Irving, but WRONG about this photo, which is of the B-I related Macbean/ Nesbitt's. I have kept all below to guide those who may have copied it already.

 

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Henry Ogle Bell Irving (2 = junior) and members of his family on Pasley island in Vancouver Sound, which he bought as a family summer retreat. The first cabin was built for Henry in the early 1920s. There after he had cabins built for all the 5 sons who survived WW1.

 

Henry stands on the left. He died from cancer age 75 on 19 Feb 31. He would be about 65 in this image.

 

Probably his 2nd son Lt Col Richard stands 2nd from left, looks like he is wearing his military issue RFC boots, last seen in the famous six fighting sons image of 1916. Richard ‘Dick’ BI was given control of his fathers main business after WW1 rather than Henry Beattie BI, who was not thought by his father to have enough business cut and thrust.

 

This image is not of Henry Ogles BI’s brother Dr Duncan Bell-Irving and his wife Ethel Hulbert (sometimes erroneously in records spelled Hujbert). Ethel was daughter of John Henville Hulbert, Solicitor. They had 5 children -Margaret, Duncan, Agnes, Dorothy and Robert.

 

Henry Ogle Bell Irving junior, also born in the year of his brother Duncan, 1856, emigrated via work on the CPR in the Rockies to Vancouver.

 

His mother, brother, and three sisters followed in the early 1880s. He was a civil engineer, architect, land and real estate speculator, salmon cannery monopolistic owner, 'Commission Agent’, and eventually multi millionaire.

 

He had bought Pasley Island in Vancouver Sound as a private rural retreat for his family in the early 1900s. It was frequently used, the large family yacht being used a ferry. It was a private island, visitors were discouraged. Eventually they erected cabins for 5 sons and families a tall flagpole, a tennis court, frazed a flock of sheep there, and created a landing stage. Duncan in later years used to fly his post WW2 float plane out to the island, it is said to deliver ice cream.

 

The connection that makes this image interesting to is that Duncan and Henry’s mother was Williamina MacBean who married Henry Ogle Bell Irving 1 They occupied the house at Milkburn, Dumfriesshire where Lachlan MacBean 10th of Tomatin was married. Henry Ogle Bell Irving (senior) died in his forties in Antrim, in circumstances not yet researched.

 

Williamina with financial difficulties appears to have leased the grand old house and estate to a cousin. It was then sold to another cousin who had been a successful Bombay banker in the Raj in India. He spent an absolute fortune on building a palatial new house. He enjoyed it only for a short period before dying. The house was de-roofed after WW2 for tax avoidance reasons, so rapidly after his death became ruined. It is now is favourite destination for photographers interested in dilapidated grandiose old homes and detailed Italian mosaic floors.

 

Henry (junior) had married Maria Isabel del Carmen Beattie, whose father had been Vice Consul in Cuba and was drowned at sea there. The Beattie family were originally and also like the Bell Irving family, farmers from Dumfriesshire. They bought an estate near Torbay, England. Henry junior kept a house near Torbay as a base when Mick, Duncan and Aeneas attended Loretto School, Musselburgh, Edinburgh.

 

After the death of her husband and having left old Milkbank house and estate , Williamina emigrated to Canada buying a property which she named ‘Bonny Blink’ between Calgary and Banff in the Canadian Rockies.

 

Both her sons, Dr Duncan and Henry Ogle had previously emigrated , Duncan as early as 1883, and were well established in Vancouver.

 

The man on the left with the cheroot, looks like Henry. One can speculate who the others are, and to which generations they belong.

 

This cabin would appear to be a summer dwelling. It is quite possibly spring as there has been a melt, very little snow on the trees , well trodden footsteps on the ground, the cabin has no chimney. So probably not an over wintering destination.

 

We have photos of the very grand large homes that both of the brothers owned and we know the addresses also in old Vancouver City. So this looks like a day outing with the skis with rudimentary Nordic heel lift bindings for touring and the ladies with snow shoes. I have a set of such skis from about the same time on my well here.

 

There must have been a fire hearth or range inside as the youngest boy holds a large kettle, for hots drinks or perhaps dispensing ‘grog’.

 

Williamina (1826-1906) was the eldest daughter of Duncan 7th of Tomatin. Her husband died in 1864, and she did not marry again. She gave birth to 14 children. She is buried in Alberta. The two brothers and families were resident and died in Vancouver and are intered in the Mountain View Cemetery.

 

So in this element of the family, the MacBean surname name being on the female side , does not continue. Yet the forenames Duncan, Aeneas and Adriana long established over centuries in the Macbean Clan repeated re-occur from this point onwards.

 

The Adriana name originates in St Eustatius in the Dutch West indies with Adriana Heyliger grandaughter of the Dutch Governor, who married Thomas Moore very much against her mothers wishes. Adriana’s planned intended husband was an elderly very rich Scottish merchant, Charles Hagart (1740-1813). Adriana’s widowed mother Elizebeth nee Molineux, thought the opportunity too good to miss and married Charles Hagart herself.

 

I don't believe Williamina (died 1906) is in this image.

 

Henry had made the most substantial part of his fortune from processing and selling of canned fish for export. He bought 9 separate canneries in the 1880s to create a virtual salmon supply monopoly. The cash for the purchases came from his cousins.

 

Initially he had his own ship for import and export through Vancouver, and used the newly opened Panama Canal to shorten the distance and costs to Britain.

 

Image with permission, from the family archives of Irene White.

Restored June 2022 by David Geddes.

Copyright: Irene White.

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