In 1813, a ship entered the Northumberland Strait and anchored at Guernsey Cove on the Island's south eastern shore. The ship belonged to John Cambridge and carried settlers from England to develop his land on the Island. One look at the virgin wilderness was enough for most of them, and they refused to go ashore. Only Vere Beck, his wife, Elizabeth Marfleet and their two little girls, Elizabeth Emma, 4, and Martha Lucy, 2, landed there. Guernsey Cove got its name in 1806 when some settlers from the Isle of Guernsey stopped there to look around. They didn't like what they saw and kept going to Machon's Point in Murray Harbour.
Vere (1783-1878) was from Crayford in Kent County, England and Elizabeth, (1788-1867) was from Mitcham, in adjoining Surrey County. Vere had his pick of the land and selected a 100 acre farm and by 1835 had clear title by cutting and selling lumber to Cambridge, who built ships and sold them in England. Vere was believed to have been an engraver but in P.E.I. he was a farmer, a politician, and a leader in the land reform movement. The Becks had 12 children - 6 boys and 6 girls. Their eighth child, Eliza, died as an infant. The rest thrived in their wilderness home and from there thousands of descendants have spread across North America and beyond.

This is an illustration of the fourth and final home that Vere Beck built on his farm in Guernsey Cove. The first one was quite small and was built near the water. The second was larger and built farther inland, and the same goes for the third one. The fourth was finished sometime before 1878 when Vere died. This is probably how it looked in the early 1900s. It was done in Cross Stitch by Sheila Munn (1.4.2.2,2.2.) from a photo supplied by Ernie Beck (1.4.3A.3.4.) of Alliston. Sheila consulted Windsor Beck, (1.10B.7.8.) the last resident of the house, about the colour scheme and used a magnifying glass to study the photo on the cover of the 1983 Beck book for features that were lost over the years. The colourful fanlight and side lights at the front door, for example. Lorin Brehaut, Jr. (1.4.4,7,3,2.1.) bought the house in the late 1990s and moved it up the road about half-a-mile and joined it to the Brehaut homestead. He restored both buildings and had the units available for rent to tourists.