Like all the early settlers in the Swan River Colony the Beacham family faced adversity. William had married Mary Scott on the 29 July 1818 at Torrington, West Sussex. William and Mary Ann arrived from Barnham, Sussex on the 'Lotus' in October 1829 after about 5 months at sea with five children aged from 11 years to 1 year. Unfortunately William's wife Mary Ann died at Clarence on 25 January 1830 aged 33 years and their youngest daughter Elizabeth died on 10 May 1830 aged 1 and a half years. By mid 1830 Governor Stirling released William from his indentures as Colonel Latour's attempts to establish a farming scheme had failed. Such release allowed William to find alternative work in the young colony. William never remarried; his daughter Jane ran his house until her marriage in 1836. William and his children were living in Guildford prior to 1832. Tragedy struck on the 3 February 1832, when Reuben, William's eldest son was speared to death by aborigines at Greenmount, aged 11 years. He was accompanying John Chipper to York with a cart of flour. Chipper though wounded leapt from a large rock to safety and ran to Governor Stirling's farm at Woodbridge, a distance of some seven miles to alert everyone to the tragedy. Hence the name Chipper's Leap. Reuben's father William and a party of settlers found the boy's body the next day with many spear wounds and his skull clubbed in. A temporary grave was made at the bottom of Greenmount as the ground was too stony at the murder site. Around 1834 William acquired a block of land in Perth. James and Levi are listed as attending Perth School in 1834 aged 11 and 8 years respectively. First born Jane married George Green at Mongers Lake on 21 February 1836. Jane went on to bear 11 children who reached adulthood. She passed away on the 11 October1910 aged 92 years. A long time for those hard times. By 1836 William was employed as a farm servant and stock agent for Charles Browne at Jim Jam on the Murray River. In 1841 William and his son-in-law George Green purchased Jim Jam for six hundred pounds. Later William bought George's share. William (farmer) James (cattle keeper) and Levi (11 years old) are included on the Murray 1837 census. Sons James and Levi also helped operate a small boat and collected Guanot to try on their crops but with little success. Levi married and left in 1853. Levi was master of the vessel 'Gold Digger' which could have foundered in the Great Australian Bight. No further data has been found on this ship. Aboard were Levi's bride Matilda and his nephew Reuben Green. This is still a mystery. Son James stayed on with William and married Elizabeth Thorpe in 1862. The farm was passed down through the family till the mid to late 1950's. William stayed on the farm until his death on the 28 December 1875.