KEETS, James ( 1830-1911)
James Keets, born at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, England, came to Australia in 1849. He resided at Glen Vale in Whittlesea for two years and then moved to Portland for eighteen months. In 1852 he spent seven months on the Bendigo goldfields and from there he went to the Plenty River district where he rented a farm from James Patton. In 1853 he married Catherine Martha Cullis with whom he had four sons and two daughters. They lived on the Plenty for nine years. In 1865 he moved again, this time to Yarra Flats, and rented a hundred acres from Joseph Hutchinson for three years. In 1868 he selected 80 acres under the terms of Grants Act and from time to time selected and purchased parcels of land to the total of 200 acres. The land has remained in the Keets family ever since.
Sources: Victoria and its metropolis: past and present, Melbourne, 1888, vol. 2, p. 411
