James Rigby Beevor (1811–1849) was a pioneer colonist and pastoralist of South Australia and a murder victim of the Australian frontier wars.
[4] In 1835 he eschewed the regular army to join the British Auxiliary Legion in the First Carlist War in Spain, serving as a cavalry captain in the 2nd Regiment Queen's Own Irish Lancers.
He there became firm friends with neighbouring pioneering pastoralists, the brothers Edward and Alexander Blucher Lodwick, who had arrived from London as cabin passengers aboard the ship Ganges in June 1839, about the same time that Beevor had landed.
Known generally as Captain Beevor he took a prominent role in civic affairs, attending Government House levees and serving on grand juries, though not holding any official office.
[7] He therefore quit his Mount Beevor Station in 1844 with the intention of forming another at distant Eyre Peninsula in partnership with John Charles Darke.
He instead went into partnership with his former neighbour Alex Lodwick, the pair transferring their pastoralist operations to pioneer a remote sheep station about 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Port Lincoln at Mount Drummond.
On 3 May 1849 Lodwick spent the day out with sheep while Beevor attended to chores at their Taunto hut, including making a rough bush chair.
[9] Colonists were shocked at this treachery because Beevor had a reputation for being a quiet, unassuming and kindly fellow who had extended great generosity toward Aboriginal people.
On 9 November 1849 they were there hanged from a gum tree using a spring cart scaffold in front of assembled Aboriginal witnesses, for whom this was intended to serve as a salutary warning.
[10] Eight weeks later, in January 1850, Beevor's disheartened partner Alexander Lodwick left South Australia forever, sailing to the California Gold Rush.