Joseph Beswick

Joseph Sutton Beswick (1831 – 3 June 1888) was a 19th-century politician and a magistrate in Canterbury, New Zealand. Of entrepreneurial spirit, he was involved with various rural sheep stations and involved in business dealings with John Hall. He and three of his brothers had emigrated to New Zealand from Yorkshire in 1853. Beswick was involved in politics at the local, provincial, and national level. He represented the Kaiapoi electorate for one year in the House of Representatives.

Private life Beswick was born in 1831 in Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire. and Captain William Cockerill Beswick and Joseph Beswick came to Canterbury on the John Taylor, which arrived in Lyttelton on 18 October 1853. Their father was Samuel Beswick of Scarborough. Beswick leased the Mount Hutt run from John Hall in March 1856 but Hall cancelled the lease soon after as Beswick was unable to find stock for the station. In 1858, he took over the Glenmore Run in South Canterbury's Mackenzie Country. He held this station until he sold it in 1866 to John Hall.

Beswick returned home to Kingston upon Hull to marry Matilda Emily Horncastle at Christ Church on 18 July 1857. His wife was the daughter of Thomas Horncastle; they were also from Kingston upon Hull.

Beswick later traded as a merchant in Ashburton and then lived in Timaru. He was resident magistrate in Lyttelton and then in Timaru. In January 1864, the Mandeville and Rangiora Road Board was established by the Canterbury Provincial Council. Beswick was elected onto the initial board.

He represented the Kaiapoi electorate in the House of Representatives from to 24 April 1867, when he resigned. He stood unsuccessfully in the for ; he was beaten by Charles Bowen.

Later life and death He had been a magistrate in Lyttelton and Timaru. He died in Timaru after a long illness. His wife had died in January 1886.

His son Harry Beswick was mayor of Christchurch in 1896. Beswick Street in Kaiapoi was named after the four brothers; Beswick Street in Timaru also commemorates the Beswicks.