My father's 100th Birthday

Today is 18 February 2016, my father's 100th birthday.

"Happy Birthday," Diddy, wherever you are!

Probably taken at Wollaton at the house where he was born - (in his own words) "shortly after a Zeppelin attack on the Ordnance Factory at Chilwell, nearby."

L-R Richard H. Beaumont, Archdeacon Egbert Hacking, Tom Beaumont, Winifred Hacking, Margaret Hacking, Richard M. Beaumont, Edith Beaumont
A family group from about 1920, with parents, Uncle Richard, grandparents, and Aunt Win.

Probably taken in Eritrea in early 1941

Mowing the lawn in 1957 or 1958 (not wanting to lose a moment's time - whilst waiting for Mum to get ready, before going to Glyndebourne?)

Cooking sausages in the wood at Pulborough with William and me in the early 1960s.

The Beaumonts and the Ironworks (3)

Here is a picture of one of the cast iron slabs in Darton Church

(Picture: Tony Warden, with thanks)

It looks to me as though the slabs were commissioned by Thomas Beaumont (c.1675-1731) and his nephew George (1696-1736) quite soon after the four deaths that occurred in 1712 and 1713.

Other evidence suggests that there is a vault beneath the floor into which the coffins were placed. The wording of a memorial on the wall in the same chapel suggests that several more Beaumonts were placed into the vault but that by 1731 (the date of the next burial after 1713) marble was used, and inscriptions were in latin.

Also in Darton church is another cast-iron memorial slab, in the floor near the main altar. This is for William Cotton, who died in 1703. He was involved in various iron-related enterprises. The slab gives the name of his wife but not the date of her death, which was in 1721 when she was also buried at Darton. This suggests that the Cotton slab was made between 1703 and 1721.

William Cotton junior, who had the middle name Westby from his mother, was also much involved in ironworks in the early and mid 18th century. He knew the Beaumonts at least a little later on; this is revealed by a letter from Revd. Thomas Cockshutt of Cawthorne in 1739 stating that the two then parentless Beaumont boys – Thomas and George – were then staying in his house at Haigh (Yorks. Arch.Soc. DD70 93/3).

Matthew Wilson of Wortley Forge and his partner James Oates must also have been known to the Beaumonts, as both men owed substantial sums to George Beaumont's executors in the late 1730s (see list of securities; YAS DD70). Accounts kept for the boys reveal that interest was being paid on several hundred pounds of such borrowings in the early 1740s (Accounts kept for William Wrightson, who took over as executor, now in Doncaster Archives DD/BW/T/3) (Accounts kept for George Beaumont himself, now in this Archive, Box 1/001).

What is not known is how long the Beaumonts had been acting as financiers for the ironworks. My supposition is that the connection went back some years and was to do with land owned by the family, and the demand for firewood for the forges.

That we have some detailed accounts for the period from 1736 is due to the children being in the hands of guardians. I don't think we have any earlier accounts of financial or business transactions.

The two further fine cast iron slabs in the church at Sandal Magna near Wakefield remember some of the children of George Beaumont of Chapelthorpe. These were not cast until after 1712 because of the wording that states that George lies in Darton church. Moreover I don't think that these can have been made before 1723 because the heraldic device they carry is that associated with the Beaumonts of Whitley Hall, with whom the Beaumonts of Darton had no family connection till that year.

The Beaumonts and the Ironworks (2)

This is the wording from the iron slabs at Darton - They are in the floor at the east end of the north aisle of the church, called the Beaumont chapel.

Geo Beaumont of Darton Gt was buried here Apr 29 1664. His Grandfon Geo Beaumont of Chapplthorp Gt in ye same Grave June 4 1712 in ye 49 yr of his Age. Willm Beaumont of Darton Gt son to ye Former and Father to Ye later G.B. was buried at their Feet Decr Ye 8 1713 in ye 76^th Year of his Age.

Sarah ye Wife of Geo Beaumont Senr was buried here Oct 15 1646. Jane ye Wife of Mr Wm Beaumont and Daughter of Mr Wm Milner of Burton Abby in ye same Grave May 29 1713 in ye 69 Year of her Age. Gertrude ye Wife of Mr Geo Beaumont Junr and Daughter of Jo Bagshaw of Great Hucklow in Derbyshr Esq at their Feet Sept 11^th 1713.

I myself have never seen these slabs. Transcripts have been made by several people, notably the antiquary R.H. Beaumont of Whitley (in Nov.1805), by Joseph Hunter (and published in his “South Yorkshire” c.1831) and most recently by Tony Warden, of Darton, c.2007. The slabs are, I think, not recorded in the work of [James and Hilda Dearnley] on the Monumental Inscriptions at Darton (copy of which is available in various places) presumably because they did not know they were there.

And from the slabs at Sandal, which were on the wall in the south side of the church when I last visited.

Here Lies the body of

Sarah Beaumont

Who departed this life July 14

1695

Also the body of

Frances Beaumont

Who departed January 31^st

1705

Also the body of

Ann Beaumont

Who departed August 14^th

1710

Daughters of

Mr GEORGE BEAUMONT

Of Chapelthorp

In Memory of

William Beaumont

Who departed this life Sept 28

1695

Also of

IOHN BEAUMONT

Who departed July the 26:

1695

Sons of

Mr GEORGE BEAUMONT of Chapelthorp

Who lies interred

In the North Isle of

DARTON CHURCH