The Boyd family is an Australian family whose members over several generations succeeded in distinguished effort in their contribution to the arts in the fields of painting, sculpture, pottery, ceramics, literature, architecture, poetry and music.
The family is descended from four diverse immigrants to Victoria:
William à Beckett (1806–1869), lawyer and Chief Justice of Victoria, arrived in New South Wales in 1837 with his wife, Emily à Beckett (née Hayley) and three young sons. His brother, Thomas Turner à Beckett, arrived in Australia in 1850 and was the father of Eliza à Beckett who married Charles Henry Chomley, a novelist and newspaper editor.
John Mills (c1810-1841), a convict and brewer, was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1827 and married Hannah Hale in 1836. Arrived in Port Phillip District in 1837.
Major Alexander Boyd (1 August 1792 – 21 August 1869), paymaster of the 11th Regiment of Foot (The North Devonshire Regiment of Foot), arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1845, possibly with his wife, Susan Boyd, née Brown, (May 1796 – ).
Robert Martin (1798–1874), medical practitioner and squatter, travelled by land from Sydney in 1839 to take up land at Mount Sturgeon near Dunkeld and Heidelberg. His wife Lucy Martin (née Gear) and family came from Sydney to join him soon after.
These four families were joined by marriages of their children in the young colony of Victoria in the 1850s:
William à Beckett's son Hon. William Arthur Callendar à Beckett (1833–1901) married John Mills's daughter Emma Mills (1838–1906) in 1855, and had six children, including Emma Minnie à Beckett (1858–1936).
Major Alexander Boyd's son Captain John Theodore Thomas Boyd (1825–1891) married Dr Robert Martin's daughter Lucy Charlotte Martin in 1857, and had 12 children, including Arthur Merric Boyd (1862–1940).
As may be seen from here-forward, the Boyd family as its members would be committed to art – and which commitment and exposition of its talents with each subsequent generation would reach a popular conception by the advent of the twenty-first century of an artistic dynasty – may be said to find its nascence in the 14 January 1886 marriage of Emma Minnie à Beckett (known as Minnie) and Arthur Merric Boyd. Both were already established painters at the time of their marriage.
They had five children, four of whom became prominent in the Australian artistic world:
John Gilbert à Beckett Boyd (1886–1896) was killed in a riding accident.
William Merric Boyd (1888–1959) [1], potter, married Doris Boyd (Doris Gough) (1889–1960) [2], painter.
Theodore Penleigh Boyd (1890–1923), painter, married Edith Anderson, painter.
Martin à Beckett Boyd (1893–1972) was a writer.
Helen à Beckett Boyd (1903–1999), painter, married Neven Read, naval officer.
With Arthur Merric and Emma Minnie Boyd settled at "Open Country", the family estate within the outer Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena, and with Doris and Merric Boyd finding their home there, the artistic tradition continued into the next generations:
The children of (William) Merric Boyd and Doris (nee Gough) Boyd were:
The children of Penleigh and Edith Boyd were:
The children of Helen and Neven Read are:
