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| The genealogy of the Keasberry family |
| » Chapter C1 John Palmer Jr |
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John Palmer Keasberry Jr. (named after his grandfather) was born on 26 December 1848 in Singapore. Unkind tales said that he was not the son of Benjamin Peach Keasberry and Ellen Luise Scott. But this seems an absurd supposition, seeing the couple were just married and Benjamin Peach was a very pious person. And there were no other Keasberry's at that time.
We do not know anything about John Palmer's school training. However, in 1907 he was 'Builder and contractor' in Labuan, British North-Borneo1). When he was about 30 years old, he must have gone to Surabaya, possibly because his uncle William Henry lived there. He had a son by an unknown woman, Robert Scott Keasberry (see photo) named after his grandfather on his mother's side.
Six months later John Palmer Jr. married one Otteline Henrietta Jeane van Bennekom, who died two months after giving birth to Beatrice Keasberry. According to a story the two children, Robert Scott Keasberry and his half sister Beatrice Keasberry were looked after and brought up by a Madurese (the island Madura-East Java) woman. I have not been able to find out anything about what John Palmer Jr. did for living, nor about where and when he died; possibly after 1907 in British North-Borneo, where he lastly worked as a 'builder and contractor'.
Before retirement, Robert Scott Keasberry was a so-called practice engineer with the Dutch State Railways in Bandung. The son of Robert Scott, Robert Keasberry, was an officer in the Royal Netherlands-Indies Air Force. Peter Matthew Keasberry, the son of Robert, is the only surviving male descendant of this branch. The other descendants of Benjamin Peach form part of the other branches and are living in Singapore, Australia and East Malaysia.
Note 1: British North Borneo and Sarawak are now called East Malaysia.
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