Jennet Kerr

     Jennet Kerr was born circa 1783 at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.¹ She was the daughter of James Kerr and Elizabeth Brown. Jennet Kerr married James Beckwith, son of Asa Beckwith and Mary Morton, in 1808. Jennet Kerr died on 16 May 1852 at Cornwallis, Kings Co, Nova Scotia; She was age 69, widow of James Beckwith, Esq., Collectors of Customs at Miramichi, the eldest daughter of the late Col. James Kerr.¹
     Jennet Kerr was born in Ecclefechan, and we may assume that it was between August and December of 1783 since, as Archie Gates pointed out [Notes on James Kerr, dated 13 September 1989], declarations made by James Kerr in support of Margaret Brown indicate the family reached Scotland in August of that year.
After her husband James Beckwith died in 1815, Jennet and her children moved into her parents' home at Fox River. James Kerr's letter to Nicholas Olding states she had four boys and a girl, and that the eldest and youngest sons, as well as the girl died while living with them. The oldest of the surviving sons, Kerr, was in his 16th year, and was then (1826) living with his uncle, Rev. William Forsythe in Cornwallis. The younger son, Asa, was living with his uncle Asa Beckwith and wife Mary Spoor.
Jennet was an invalid during her later life. Even in 1826, he father wrote she had been confined for the majority of the past seven years due to rheumatism. She later moved to Berwick, where she died aged 68, survived by two sons and nine grandchildren.