Monday 15 April 2019

Darton Hall - concluding chapter

I wrote about Darton Hall on 28 May 2017. The story there went down to the mid nineteenth century when it had become a farmhouse occupied by a tenant. Here in brief are some more pages of the Darton Hall story:-

1883. It was advertised for sale in Febr. 1883 when it was said to have an area of 1a 1r, 18p and to be conveniently close to the station (Barnsley Chronicle 24 Feb. 1883).

1887. It was advertised again for letting or sale in February 1887, with stabling, cowhouse and other conveniences, and large walled garden (Barnsley Chronicle 22 January and 5 and 12 Feb. 1887).



1887 or 1888 Wentworth Blackett Beaumont [1829-1907] [from 1906, Lord Allendale] sold Darton Hall to Emily Lavinia Fountain, wife of Henry Fountain of Birthwaite (what was BEA/CB/B11/4 in the Allendale Archives). The item - a duplicate conveyance - has apparently been withdrawn from the [former] Bretton Hall archives. But it must be about 1887 or 1888. In the new classification at West Yorks Archives I understand the reference to this item - albeit without the document! - will be WYW1849/2/1/5/116. (My thanks to WYAS for sending me a spreadsheet of the whole catalogue).

1888. Barnsley Chronicle 12 May 1888 reported on plans by Mr Henry Fountain to build a house on a plot of ground adjoining Darton Hall, on the site of part of the garden.

1892 Several papers of September 1892 report the death of Mr Fountain at Darton Hall (the residence of a Mr Poole or Pool) after being taken ill after walking from Barnsley to look at some alterations being done there.

It is not yet clear whether the Fountain family sold Darton Hall - whether the various doctors (see next) were tenants or owners. Miss Fountain who married Sir William Sutherland at Darton church in 1921, might have been the owner.

Sometime after this Darton Hall became the residence of doctors, several in succession:- Dr Walter White - he died 1899 aged only 49.....  Dr Pearce c.1907.... Dr & Mrs Ramsay Millar in the 1920s and 1930s. Dr Drake in the 1940s was advertising for an assistant. Panel and private practice. Car provided (Tel. 8) (all from various newspapers).


Image: thanks to British Newspaper Archive
1953 Yorkshire Evening Post 18 Sept, 1953 carried a photo of the "400-year old mansion" and a report that Mr C M Sunderland the caretaker of the nearby school had bought it after it had stood empty for a year or so, and had planned to live in it with his family, but, being required by his employers to live in the caretaker's house on the school site, he was now trying to sell it for £2,000 but was finding that people said it was too big. Another newspaper report about a month later states that Mr Sunderland had sold it to J Graham (Furnishers) Ltd of Barnsley.

In August 1955 Darton Hall was for sale again, described as a charming old world residence of character, part believed built in 1492, freehold, six bedrooms, room for garage, very reasonable price. (Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer 13 Aug. 1955).

1964. Coal Board Records in Nat Archives:- Alleged subsidence damage: G W E Craven; Darton Hall. Includes 46 photographs depicting: Subsidence damage at Darton Hall, near Barnsley. I have not seen these.

Tuesday 26 February 2019

George Beaumont Rector of St.Nicholas - Mourning Rings

Something I found:


from this book:

I did not know that any memorial or mourning rings had been given out after George died in 1773. I thought it interesting and odd that the initials on the ring should have been W.B..

This archive Box 1-062:-
Probate copy of Will dated 24th October 1771 and codicil dated 29th January 1773 of the Revd. George Beaumont Rector of St. Nicholas.


Unless I missed something, it doesn't actually call for rings to be given to anyone.

(In passing, Mr Crisp's note contains two oft-repeated errors: 1. the whole business about "Oaks," which I have written about on this blog, and 2. about George being Rector of Gedling, which he was never. He had been at Gedling as curate).

Sunday 24 February 2019

Susanna Beaumont's Account Book c.1703-1714

This important document resides in West Yorkshire Archives where it has reference WBH/71. It has been copied and images of the pages can be seen on the historytoherstory website (see note below). I have been looking at the images recently.

The book used to belong to Mr Desmond Gilbart-Denham. He lent it to my father, who took some notes out of it. Box 14/051 in this archive contains my father's notes and Mr Gilbart-Denham's letter (June 1977) after my father returned the book to him.

The notes were useful but there was nothing like seeing the images of the pages!

Here was page 6, the first proper page of accounts of what Susanna spent:
(I deleted the image because West Yorkshire Archives (Kirklees) wanted me to pay)

I was struck both by the overall consistency of the writing and its similarity to that of the later antiquary R.H. Beaumont ("RHB").

I started looking some more, and found several things. I will just mention these:-

1. Near the beginning of the book there is some genealogical information which goes much later than Susannah's lifetime. These notes do look very like things that RHB did. And not what one would expect to find in a book of accounts.

2. Towards the end, it gets quite scrappy, with entries in two columns rather than one, and looking rather incomplete - the kind of thing a copyist might do if (a) his interest was fading, and (b) he could see that there was not enough room in the book to fit everything in.

3. On page 62 there is an interlineated entry identifying "Bro: Jack" as "her husband's brother." This is all in the same handwriting and would have read "my husband's brother" if Susanna herself had written it. Here was page 62:-

(I deleted the image because West Yorkshire Archives (Kirklees) wanted me to pay)


It would seem worth considering the possibility that this document is largely, perhaps entirely, a transcript by RHB, not an original autograph account book at all. If so, it doesn't make it much less important, does it?

Here was a page from near the end, to show the decline in standard of writing:
(I deleted the image because West Yorkshire Archives (Kirklees) wanted me to pay)

The lady whose accounts these are, is of course, Susanna 1683-1731 (nee Horton) the wife of Richard Beaumont of Lascelles Hall and Whitley c.1670-1723. She is my own ancestor, through her daughter Frances (Fanny) who married George Beaumont of Darton. Historytoherstory call her Suzanna Horton.

Desmond Gilbart-Denham was a descendant of the later Beaumonts and closely related to Miss Joan Barnes-Gorell, whose Beaumont portraits were left to the National Trust for Ormesby Hall. My father knew Miss Barnes-Gorell. I remember her very well too. That is no doubt the connexion explaining why the book was lent to my father.

Mr Gilbart-Denham's letter is dated 14 June 1977, from 12 Spencer Road, SW18, in a neat hand, it says:

"I will certainly send this book, together with the confirmation of the crest (which has now come to light), to the Museum in Huddersfield.  In fact, if it weren't for you, I should not have known that Huddersfield had a collection of Beaumont family papers etc. Thank you very much for your help and advice in this matter."

February / March 2019

Friday 8 February 2019

Letter to Revd John Walter about his sister's death (1796-1797)


As I have referred to this in several pieces I am giving the full text of it. 

It is Box 18/03/09 now. When the papers in question were at Nottinghamshire Archives it was DD/2184/3/9 and I think is still in their catalogue as such.
The sender is Thomas Beaumont Burnaby, brother of Anna Maria who has died. She being the widow of Richard Walter, late brother of the addressee Rev. John Walter.
I suppose the letter will have been found when John Walter died, and retained by his executor Thomas Beaumont.
************
Reverend Mr. Walter, Bingham, Nottinghamshire
Asfordby January 2nd 1797
Dear Sir,
The last melancholy scene at Handsworth closed on Monday last about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
Mr. Winfield and Mr. Richard Beaumont, according to the request of Sister Walter, attended; and after the funeral, her Will was opened and read by Mr. Richard Beaumont. Thinking it may be some satisfaction to you and Mrs Walter to know how she has disposed of her property, I have extracted [?] the principal parts of it ; which are as follows :
She has left to the poor of Handsworth to be distributed
as her executors think proper £ 100-0-0
To the general hospital at Birmingham £ 100-0-0
To the Blue Coat Charity £ 50-0-0
To William Dickinson in trust for Sister Gallaway £1,500-0-0
To her niece Maria Gallaway £ 500-0-0
To Nancy Gallaway £ 500-0-0
To her nephew Thomas Gallaway £ 105-0-0
To her niece Harriett Burnaby £ 500-0-0
To nephew Thomas Burnaby of Leicester £ 300-0-0
To Beaumont Burnaby of ditto £ 105-0-0
Carried forward £3,760-0-0

New page on original …/…
Brought forward £3,760-0-0
To my brother Andrew Burnaby £ 105-0-0
To you and Mrs Walter £ 105-0-0
And she directed a 5 guinea piece which your father
gave her on his deathbed to be given to you £ 5-5-0

Amongst the five daughters of late Sister Clayton
and her wearing apparel £2,500-0-0
But as Mrs Vann is amply provided for, she has left her only 100 guineas of the above and no part of her apparel
To Mr. John Winfield the price of some houses lately disposed of £ 472-10-0
To her five servants £10 each £ 50-0-0
And over and above to her maid who chiefly attended upon her £ 20-0-0
To Wm or Mr. [illegible due to page damage] Dickinson
for the trouble he may have in executing trust £ 52-10-0
Total £7,070-5-0
Annuities
To Sister Hannah £100-0-0
To Mrs Taylor £ 10-0-0
To Sarah Piddoch £ 5-0-0

New page on original …/…
Sister Walter has left her estates real and personal to my brother Robert and to me subject to ye legacies and annuities as tenants in common and not as joint tenants, and has appointed us her executors.
It appears by Sister’s books that she has received your rents and that there is a long account to be settled. As I have her books at this time at Asfordby, I wish it may be convenient to you to take a ride and meet my brother Robert here next week and spend a few days with us, and we will examine into the account, and what is to be done in future – We shall [illeg due to loss of part word] ha… [the] necessity of returning to Handsworth the week after next. Mrs Burnaby desires to [illeg due to under seal] [u]nite with me in respectful compliments to Mrs Walter (tho’ at present she has not the happiness of knowing her) and yourself wishing you both many happy returns of this season and I remain etc etc Your very affectionate etc Thomas Beaumont Burnaby.
*******
Notes
(1) The Nottingham archive listing on this (not online) reads: Letter from Thomas Beaumont Burnaby of Asfordby, Leics., to Revd Walter of Bingham concerning the contents of his sister's
 will. But the deceased lady is the sister of the author of the letter and sister-in-law of the addressee. 
(2) John Walter's wife Susannah (nee Beaumont) is the aunt of Richard Beaumont of Birmingham. Anna Maria Burnaby witnessed the marriage of John and Susannah in 1767.
(3) Hannah (nee Beaumont) the wife of Andrew Burnaby and mother of both Anna Maria and Thomas Beaumont Burnaby was the aunt of Susannah and great aunt of Richard.
(4) Anna Maria Burnaby married Richard Walter in April 1773 at Asfordby (IGI).
(5) Monument then at Handsworth, Staffordshire.... against the south wall of the chancel, a white table for Richard Walter, gent., who died August 3rd, 1788 aged 50 (Gents Magazine 1794 p.712)..

(6) This letter could be compared with - Will of Anna Maria Walter, widow, of Handsworth [proved in] 1797 (PRO).
(7) Incidentally John Walter's own will, which he made in 1807 (Box 18/201) shows that he had a godson called John Walter Winfield, then still under 21.
8 February 2019. EMB

Henry Beaumont of Nottingham 1762-1784

I mentioned Henry in my recent piece on his elder brother Richard (1761-1828).

Henry was the fifth son and sixth child of George and Betty and was christened at Gedling in November 1762 (Note below).
He was the younger brother of (in order), Thomas, Frances (Mrs Elliott), George, William, and Richard.
He was the older brother of Charlotte (Mrs Swete), Walter, and Abel.

His father died in 1773 and then presumably Henry remained with his mother in Nottingham.

The Family Tree of c.1873 says of him merely "died young."

Much of what little is known comes from letters from Mary Smith (nee Bird), wife of the well-known banker Abel Smith, to her son George, at school, giving him news from Nottingham. George Smith (1765-1836) was about three years younger than Henry.  The Smith boys and Beaumont boys were second cousins as they were all great-grandchildren of George Beaumont of Chapelthorpe. Also, presumably, they lived "round the corner" from one another.

I have not yet been to look at these letters, but have taken information simply from the (very detailed) catalogue. I must find the time to go and look!

In early 1779 Mary Smith gave George news of H[enry] Beaumont, who is at Deptford “waiting the success of an application for the place of midshipman, in a vessel bound for the West Indies.” (Notts Archives DD/SMT/290).

In another letter dated November 1779 Mary Smith told George that “Dick Beaumont wishes to go to sea.” (DD/SMT/294). “Dick” is presumably Henry's brother, Richard.  It crosses my mind to wonder whether the “H” in the first letter might be a misreading of an “R.”

In February 1780 Mary wrote again to George in which she says that Henry Beaumont was sent the previous day by stagecoach to "Bob" - “who is to return him to his Master ...... He threatens to decamp again, terrible will be the consequences to himself” (DD/SMT/296).

I think that this last letter was written from Nottingham, and that Bob means Robert Smith - George's elder brother, the future Lord Carrington - who was based at that time at the bank's office in London.

It looks as though Henry is apprenticed to someone in London and is unhappy in that position, has taken himself home to Nottingham, and has now been sent back.....  presumably by his mother and the Smiths.

In late 1783 Henry had his twenty first birthday. He would have got his £500 under his great-uncle's will (Box 12/017). Quite a lot of money. Assuming it was paid to him, it seems to have disappeared.

Clearly, Henry had died before 4 December 1784. I have a copy of the Inventory taken that day which states merely that Henry Beaumont late of the Town of Nottingham deceased had "purse and apparel" - £20 and "household goods" - £30. This is signed by Francis Stephenson and and John Tennant, and does not give an address, so I don't know if Henry lived with his mother or had a place of his own.

The Bond for the Administration was signed by Betty, described explicitly as Henry's mother, and by Francis Stephenson (here given as gentleman, of Nottm) and by Stephen Todd (yeoman, of Nottm.), on the same day, 4 December, and the Administration was dated 5 February 1785 (Nottinghamshire Archives Ref. PR/NW; images and transcript:- see Box-12-026).

I found an early 1785 reference to one Robert Ferryman (of Shoreditch, brewer) (a bankrupt) as having partners called William Henshaw and Henry Beaumont (London Gazette 1 February 1785 12618/71)….. Several earlier entries show Ferryman as bankrupt but I have found no other mention of Beaumont or Henshaw in that context….

Robert Ferryman's bankruptcy is quite widely reported, even in the provincial papers such as Derby Mercury of 15 July 1784. But:-
(a) I found no other London Gazette references to this William Henshaw or Henry Beaumont, and
(b) there were people called Henshaw at Nottingham.

I wonder if Ferryman enlisted a pair of youngsters with money?

Henry Beaumont's life seems to have ended in confusion and tragedy.  Interesting that the family, until now, should really have forgotten about him, to the point of including his name only (and wrongly) as the (in fact non-existent) middle name of his older brother!

Henry is shown as “dsp” in the 1796 pedigree written by R.H.Beaumont of Whitley - typical of his accuracy. I found no notice of Henry's death (search in BNA 27 April 2018 and again today - but maybe they don't have the Nottm papers of that date)….

Also I have no information at present on exactly where he died or where he was buried.

(Note on his baptism at Gedling. I have noted this as 4 Nov. 1762 from a transcript at Notts Archives. I once found it apparently as 2 Nov. 1762 in the IGI but cannot find it there today at all. His father was curate at Gedling 1759-1764).

EMB 8 February 2019


Thursday 7 February 2019

The "Nimble Chops" at Vauxhall


I thought this handbill deserves a note all to itself!


The text reads:-
A WONDERFUL PHENOMENON OF NATURE
to be Seen Alive at Vauxhall, between the Hours of Four and Nine O'clock each Evening
a MOST VORACIOUS ANIMAL CALLED
THE
NIMBLE CHOPS
This Animal is from the remotest parts of Barbary, in the Human Shape, and very Muscular, stands near Six Feet high, walks very erect, although corpulent, very quick in his Actions and the only one ever seen in this Country.
CAUTION
EVERY PERSON who passes this way must be very peaceable, so as not to give the least Alarm, as, a short time back (from the Report of a Gun), this Animal broke loose from his Den, and evaded his Keepers, rushed out with such Velocity as to level to the Ground all that Plantation, called the SMALL-WOOD, and afterwards made for the other called the HAY-WOOD: however, fortunately it happened, this Animal returned again to his Den, without doing any more injury; therefore, should this Animal break loose again, he will tear up all that old Plantation at Vauxhall, unless they confine him to One Room by himself, or have him in strong Chains, and muzzled.
THE FOOD of this Animal is lately changed, to that of ROTTEN MUTTON, which he thinks makes the BEST SOUP, therefore the Dealers in this Article will have a Wonderful Demand, for he is very Voracious.


The back sheet shows that it was sent to [Richard] Beaumont at Ashted, perhaps in 1826, though the postmark is not clear.

Some questions I have about this:
1. Was this sent, to Richard, simply for its own sake, as something informative, or even as something amusing - perhaps by one of his sons?
2. Or was it perhaps used merely as a wrapper, to enclose something else?
3. Why was it kept? No doubt the person who kept it was George, who is known to have had a quirky sense of humour. There were a few things that George kept of his father's.
4. It seems to have been posted at Birmingham. So does it refer to Vauxhall there, or to Vauxhall in London? I am inclined to think, Birmingham.
5. Has anyone any information that would be relevant - eg any other similar handbills? Would this have been a travelling show?
6. What, at that time, did people really think about this treatment of the poor gorilla, orang-utang, or whatever it was?

(Beaumont Archives, Box 1/122)
February 2019




Ashted Row, Birmingham, and the Beaumonts

This should be read after the piece on Richard Beaumont of Birmingham 1761-1828, who is known to have moved out of the town into the new suburb of Ashted before about 1810. He lived at No. 15 Ashted Row, one of the earliest of the houses.

Box-1-086
The reverse (address side) of an undated letter to Richard from his son George, from school at Castle Bromwich. Assuming George to be about ten to twelve years old, the date is between 1806 x 1809.

After 1828 Richard's widow Ann was living at Meriden, but she returned to Ashted Row by 1841 and lived at No. 89 until her death in 1864.

I have been digging around, so to speak, about this place, which is now largely lost near the "Ashted Circus" roundabout. Much has been written about Ashted, and what I say here is by no means definitive.

The spelling is very variable, with the old form of s sometimes used, so we need to look for Ashted, Afhted, Afhsted, Afhstead, and so on.

A lease of the estate had belonged from 1788 to a man named John Brooke about much has also been written. Brooke is said to have bought the lease from an eminent doctor called John Ash and to have converted the doctor's own house into a chapel. Brooke also leased off a large plot to H.M. Government for building barracks, and embarked on a programme of development of the area, supposedly - initially - as an upmarket suburb.

But John Brooke was made bankrupt in summer 1793, after which his assets were in the hands of "Assignees." These people (whose names I do not know) tried to sell what they could, including even the chapel! It was cynically described as generating £250 a year from the "kneelings," and with the expectation of larger income to come, as the population of the area was growing! (see eg Oxford Journal 19 October 1793). The chapel was being offered for an 80 year term, which would thus have run until about 1873. I don't know who (if anyone) bought it.

The earliest reference to Ashted Row I have found is in 1798. I suspect it marked the northern boundary of the Ash / Brooke estate. The street numbering in this road started from the Birmingham end. The numbers ran up the right hand side, reaching 101. Crossing the road there the numbers then ran back on the other side, reaching just over 200 back at the Birmingham end.

Thus, the oldest houses were on the south side, and the oldest of all were those at the Birmingham end. Perhaps the original Ashted Row was just a "row" of houses. Richard Beaumont lived at no.15 Ashted Row. It is hard to figure out exactly where that was. But very near the canal and the junction with Great Brook[e] Street.


The red circle is a guess. The road going to the NE is Ashted Row, and the one going ENE is Great Brooke Street. The problem is not knowing whether Ashted Row started at that junction, or (as I suspect) a few houses nearer Birmingham. It depends where Prospect Row ended.

The houses were sold by the "Assignees" on leases, sometimes it seems in "blocks" of several houses which were then presumably sub-leased one by one.

A sale in January 1800 was advertised in the local papers and the London Gazette, describing John Brooke as dealer and chapman. This sale was to comprise ground rents of £345-8-10 per annum payable by several people and two Building Societies, in respect of leases of plots at Ashted let on building leases which at that time had 75 years unexpired, and on which several valuable buildings had already been erected (London Gazette 5 Oct. 1799).

Notices of that 1800 sale show that houses numbered up to 47 in Ashted Row had been built by that time. That means, some way along the southern side of the road but not I think as far as Windsor Street.
1839 Map of Ashted (SDUK)
The Ashted Row area from Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge map of Birmingham, 1839. I would not have known about this but for Bill Dargue's Birmingham history website. The map shows that by 1839 houses had been built all along the southern side of the road.

The estate does not seem to have remained very upmarket, as the spread of Birmingham meant that within a few years, many of the houses were being used for business purposes, and/or were in multiple occupation. The canal passing underneath the west end entailed industrial activity nearby. And the available leases may have seemed rather too short. Also the prevailing winds meant that smoke and pollution were carried more this way than the other side of town.

Ashted in the early c20
Richard Beaumont died in 1828. Until very recently I thought that his widow Ann continued to live in the same house for a few years. However, she moved to Meriden (see the other piece). A directory dated 1835 shows Mrs Beaumont at no.15;  but I think it must have been out of date when it was printed.

By 1841 however Ann returned to Ashted Row, to a newer house, no. 89, where she lived until her death in 1864. Being further out of town, this was still fairly genteel, with houses used by school-teachers or doctors as well as shops, craftsmen, boarding-houses, private residences etc. I have seen it suggested that no. 89 was a big house on the corner of Willis Street, but actually I think that one was no. 90, known as Ashted House, which was a school in the mid nineteenth century, and later occupied by doctors.

A good drawing of the house in the above photo is on the Birmingham & Five Counties Architectural Association Trust website, saying there that it is no. 89; but I think it is no. 90, which means that we can see the front of no. 89 behind (we are looking from NE to SW across the junction with Willis Street).

(The notices of the 1800 sale expressly mention the house on the corner of Willis St & Ashted [Afhsted] Row which is occupied by Mrs Jarvis  - the one I think became No.90. At that date this house may have been all on its own - out in the country! During the c19 the housebuilding caught up with it. A comparison of the maps shows that by 1839 Willis Street between Great Brook Street and Ashted Row had been shifted a few yards to the east, giving no. 90 its front driveway)

Plan dated 1819. North is to the right. I got this from the
excellent mapping birmingham blog.
It seems a fair bet that when Ann Beaumont died in 1864 the lease of no. 89 had so few years to run that it was worth very little. George Beaumont being a Land Surveyor, albeit with a rural practice, will have understood the situation far better than I have been able to work out. By 1871 no. 89 was occupied by a doctor called Clement Hadley, and within a few more years he was in No.90 - Ashted House - as well.

A Postscript on the term of the leases:
Two properties on the south side of Ashted Row which were advertised for sale in 1865 - the Ashted Tavern, which I think was no 71, and No. 101 at the end of the street, were described as leasehold with eight and a half years to run (Birm. Daily Post 17 Aug. 1865). Presumably none of the leases could outlast the original lease that Dr Ash had had, which I suspect (I do not know) may have been 99 years, from the 1770s.

Date: February 2019
Revisions:

Richard Beaumont of Birmingham 1761-1828 (life & career)



Richard was born on February 21, 1761 when his father (George) was curate at Gedling near Nottingham, and was christened there just over a month later.

(He was the fifth child of his parents George and Betty. Soon afterwards he had a brother named Henry). 

There has been long-standing confusion, as to whether Henry was Richard's middle name. I have found no contemporary mentions of him having any middle name. As suggested in an earlier piece on errors in the family tree, the muddle is due to someone seeing a list of the brothers in birth order without realising that Henry was another person.

I mean to write up after this what I know of Henry Beaumont (1762-1784); his life was one of confusion, rebellion, and apparently unhappiness.

When Richard was about three the family moved to Bingham, where his father was a kind of temporary curate. The Rector of Gedling had been living at Bingham but now went to his own parish, and "booted out" Richard's father, who was sent to Bingham to stand in till a new Rector was appointed there. 

Bingham's new Rector was John Walter, a wealthy man originally from Birmingham who came to know the Beaumonts well, and who in due course married Richard's aunt, Susannah.

(See my note on John Walter. John and Susannah Walter were childless, and I have a number of clues that they treated Richard very kindly).

Richard's father, mother, and the rest of the family then moved to Nottingham, where (with the help of Abel Smith, the banker) George was appointed Rector of St. Nicholas. I think they lived in Castle-gate near the church.

I don't know where Richard went to school. He had an old great-uncle in Nottingham who died in 1771 leaving him £500 at age 21, and in 1773 when Richard was only twelve his father died also. It appears that Richard's mother Betty - who had several younger children to look after -  remained in Nottingham rather than (as I once thought) returning to her home town, Leeds.

Unlike his eldest brother Thomas, Richard did not go to University. He started to look in the direction of Derby and Birmingham, and I believe this happened through his uncle, John Walter, introducing him to people from there including his lawyer brother Richard Walter. The Walter family owned a house in a prestigious and elegant square in the best part of Birmingham.


The Walters' house was no.15, the low one on the right with tall chimneys
J.Hill and R.K.Dent, "Memorials of the Old Square."
(From the "Old Square" the Walters moved to Handsworth, outside Birmingham. Richard Walter's wife Anna Maria (nee Burnaby) was the daughter of Richard Beaumont's great-aunt, the Hannah Beaumont whose marriage Abel Smith (sr) had arranged in 1728 (see earlier notice in this blog)).

Other influential people included Girton and Sarah Peake, who had a house in Nottingham but many connections to Birmingham, where they moved in the same circles as the Walters.

(Mrs Peake was from a Birmingham family called Rann. Her husband Girton Peake, a lawyer and property speculator, was a trustee of the settlement in 1767 when John Walter and Susannah Beaumont married. When Sarah Peake died at the end of 1784 her finances and those of her late husband unravelled and their Nottingham house was sold. It was in Angel Row very near Bromley House, which had been built for Sir George Smith, whose second wife Catherine was the daughter of the Birmingham clergyman (William Vyse) in whose church the Peakes had married. A report of litigation in the early c.19 - Carver -v- Vyse - hints at the family and financial connexions. Another example is the case of Mark Huish, a Nottingham hosier, who married a Birmingham girl. Abigail Gawthern in her diary says that "Mrs Peak" - undoubtedly the same - was responsible for the match. There is a volume of circumstantial evidence to connect all these parties, indeed some of them were related to one another. The Walter family's Birmingham town house was in "Old Square," a development of sixteen houses, two of which had belonged to people called Pemberton, the same name as Richard Beaumont's first wife - see J.Hill & R.K.Dent, "Memorials of the Old Square" - passim for the Pembertons, and pp.110-115 for the Walters).

It seems that at one time Richard considered going to sea. This information emerges from a letter written from Nottingham in late 1779 by Mary Smith, wife of Abel Smith, to her son George. The Smiths and Beaumonts were closely related and in touch with one another. In the next sentence after saying that "Dick Beaumont wishes to go to sea," Mary tells her son that "Mrs Peak" has gone to Bath, for her health (Notts Archives DD/SMT/294).

A little later, perhaps a military career was considered. I know little about that side but I wonder if the £500 - hopefully not all of it - may have helped to get the Commission that was granted to Richard in 1782. This was in the Derby Militia.

(For this document dated 25 January 1782 - Box 1/121 in our Archives - see an earlier notice).

Almost immediately it seems Richard would have set off with his military unit to the south-west of England - Plymouth area - for much of 1782....

(Newspaper Reports in eg the Derby Mercury).

... but in 1783 the unit was disbanded (stood down) and this is when I think Richard must have gone to Birmingham to take up some employment. He soon married Ann Pemberton, at Aston parish church in October 1784. His witness was not a member of his own family but a woman called Sarah Hallen. 

Added this 16 July 2022:- I now know that Ann's father was called Abraham or Abram Pemberton. His will, proved in 1792, makes that clear. At about the time his daughter met Richard, Abram was running Vauxhall Gardens (Duddeston, NE of Birmingham centre, and near to the [future] Ashted suburb) as what might be called an entertainment venue.

(Sarah was the widow of John Clay Hallen and mother of John Boylston Hallen, both lawyers in Birmingham).

Within a short time it would appear that Richard was working as a druggist or chemist at New Street in the centre of Birmingham.

(Pye's Directory, and a report in the Derby Mercury that his warehouse was broken into and robbed).

However Richard's military career had not ended for he was promoted from ensign to lieutenant in 1789. 


From Derby Mercury 25 June 1789.  Also of
course in the London Gazette.
Richard and his wife lived at Great Charles Street in the town. A son was born in October 1792 but died at the age of four days. Another child was conceived but, in October 1793, Ann herself died "in childe-bede."

(Aston Parish Register. Both apparently buried "north side" or "north corner."  I think this means the old church of Aston, where they had married).

Whether, or when, Richard remarried is one of the mysteries. His son George (our ancestor) was born in February 1796. George's mother might well have been Ann Walford, who Richard actually married many years later!! 

Richard became involved in the affairs of Anna Maria Walter, at Handsworth, attending at her deathbed on behalf of the extended family. This was at the end of 1796. After the funeral he was asked to read the Will.

(Letter from Thomas Beaumont Burnaby to John Walter at Bingham, 18/309 in this Archive).

Richard must have sometimes gone back to Nottingham. I am thinking of family occasions such as the deaths of his brother Henry (late 1784), the death of his mother (1792), the death of his brother Thomas' daughter (1786), and the weddings of his sisters Frances (Fanny) (1788) and Charlotte (1784).


St.Nicholas' Church, Nottingham, from Deering. Mid c18 and so, much as Richard will have known it.
(Abigail Gawthern's note of Betty's death, and the announcement of it in the Derby Mercury, show that she still lived in Castle-gate, the street leading past her late husband's church and towards the castle. Betty was buried in that church, with her husband. I am sure that Richard would also likely have gone to Bingham for the funerals of his aunt (1804) and uncle (1810), the Walters - he received a very substantial legacy - £3,000 - from John Walter).

Richard still worked in Birmingham - being noted as a wholesale dealer in Porter at Snow Hill and a little later as a woollen draper at 44 High Street.

(Pye, New Birmingham, and Chapman Directories 1797-1801, and 1808. Being a woollen draper may fit with his brothers George and Walter in Yorkshire, about whom I have written a special piece).


Richard's connexions with the Derby Militia appear to have ended and in 1803 he was made a Captain in the Loyal Birmingham Infantry, a role which I feel sure must have been "part-time." This may coincide with his move to Ashted, where there was a barracks. There is another Commission issued to him in 1808, again as Captain, this time in the Second Regiment of the Warwickshire Militia.




(Commissions: 1803 - newspapers; 1808 - Box 1/123. The old idea that he was a Captain in the 84th Regiment is wrong, confusing him with his brother, who was connected with that Regiment as chaplain - not captain)

Richard now had another son, named Henry (born in March 1801), and very soon after this moved to a new suburb, at that time a genteel and upmarket one, where he would live for the rest of his life. I intend to put up a piece shortly after this about Ashted. The house was in Ashted Row. Numbers were rarely used but later evidence is that it was No.15.

The elder boy George was sent to a school owned by a Mr Townsend at Castle Bromwich from where he wrote what is to modern eyes a hilariously formal letter to his "Honoured Father" about the timing of the school holidays.

(Letter from Castle Bromwich - Box 1/86. The letter is not dated but must I think be of about 1808-1810. It is addressed to Ashted Row).

At Ashted, Richard helped to run a soup kitchen for the poor (remembered over 20 years after his death)... Here is his own recipe:-


Put into a boiler on the previous evening, and there to remain until the next morning, sixty gallons of soft water, 2 pecks of peas, 6 ounces of pearl ashes. On the following morning place the fire underneath the boiler, and then add, 36 pounds of beef, cut into pieces of not more than 3 ounces each; 6 ounces of ground black pepper; 6 ounces of celery seed; 1 peck of onions, 2 pecks of Swede turnips, cut into small pieces. The whole of the above to be boiled throughout the day and frequently stirred, until evening, when the fire should be removed from under the boiler. On the following morning let the furnace be again heated. When the ingredients above named are well-boiled, put in gradually four pounds of oatmeal and 4 pounds of salt, and continue stirring, without ceasing, full one hour after the last-named have been added. Particular care must be observed not to leave the boiler after oatmeal is put in, lest it should adhere to the bottom of the boiler, and spoil the flavour of the soup. The fire may be removed after the lapse of one hour from the oatmeal being mixed.

9 January 1854
The anonymous informant added that at the Ashted Soup Shop each adult had to pay a penny, for which they got a quart of the soup and piece of bread about four ounces in weight...."the late Captain Beaumont of Ashted-row".... “a most benevolent gentleman,” who “every day regulated and superintended the admixtures of the various ingredients, according to his own recipe.” 


Box 1/124 Toast List
And he was a Committee Member of the (Tory) Birmingham Pitt Club and attended its dinners. 

The Toast List above is from this Archive, and the details below are from the New Monthly Magazine (both dating from 1816).




In 1811 Richard arranged for his eldest son George to be articled to a land surveyor called Richard Court at Bewdley on the river Severn. After his training George returned to Ashted and had some sort of practice there for a short time before he married. 

(Articles of Agreement - Box 1/105)

Then at the very end of 1815 or beginning of 1815 Richard and his wife - identified as called Ann - had another son, a poor little one who lived only a month and five days.

Another Parish Register entry is that in 1817 that Richard, described as widower, married Ann Walford, described as spinster. Recall that his first wife Ann (Pemberton) died way back in 1793. Now, either (a) he and Ann (Walford) have been together since the mid 1790s and he is now making her an "honest woman," or (b) there was an unknown second wife called Ann who has died and he is now marrying for the third time. I suppose (a) to be more likely!

(Usually books assign only one wife - Ann Walford - to Richard. His son George (1796-1882) had some correspondence with the editor of "County Families" - who was called Edward Walford. Perhaps George was hoping to get his family into this book. "County Families" appeared annually from 1860 for about 50 years. I have looked at several (but not all) editions. The editions I have seen do not mention Richard's wife but they do contain some muddle and error about him (eg the middle name, and his being in the 84th Regiment). I am afraid this is down to George. The statement that Richard married Ann Walford, and that she was the daughter of William Walford of Penn Bank, Staffordshire, first appears in print in a Family Tree which (from its own internal evidence) was produced in about 1873, and which accordingly must also have had input from George himself. Here also it is stated that they married in 1795. From the Family Tree it has been picked up in E.T. Beaumont's book, in Burke's Peerage, and in other derivative works. If George Beaumont did not think that Ann (Walford) was his actual mother it would not have been necessary for him to say that she had married his father the year before his own birth).

Richard was an active investor in canals. A canal that still exists, in a tunnel close to the Ashted Circus roundabout, was very near to his house!


Looking NNW to where the tunnel goes under the A47 Jennens Road,
very near (formerly) the west end of Ashted Row.
Aris's Birmingham Gazette, 31 October 1825 contains a notice by the Proprietors of the Birmingham Canal Navigations calling a meeting to elect a new clerk. The notice was signed by "Rd. Beaumont" and others.

His eldest son's wedding took place in July 1821 at Redmile, Leicestershire. A couple of years later George brought his own family to Ashted where Richard's grandson was christened. 

(This was the eldest grandson, another Richard, who did have the middle name Henry. He had already been christened at Winthorpe.)

Here is the address side of something sent to Richard perhaps by his son George. The date on the postmark is hard to read but looks like ?6FE26.


Box 1/122
The younger son Henry married Elizabeth, nee Taylor, in 1823 in Birmingham. I plan to write something about him too. It seems that the Taylors ran a timber and boat-building yard in Birmingham, and that Henry was (briefly) in that business.

We don't have a portrait of Richard Beaumont of Birmingham (see discussion elsewhere), but there are one or two things that we do have that must have belonged to him and been in his hands, and we have one or two scraps of his handwriting.


Part of the note in Richard's writing about the baptisms
of his sons George (1796) and Henry (1801) from Box 1/126
Describing himself as "Richard Beaumont of Ashted," he made his will 28 April 1828…. his wife Ann to receive dividends on Old Birmingham Canal shares and to have the right to live in house and have use of furniture, plate, linen, china…. wine in “my house” to be divided between her and his sons George (of Winthorpe, Notts., Land Surveyor) and Henry (of Birmingham, Timber Merchant)….legacy to “faithful servant” Phoebe Walford…. residue to George and Henry….witnesses John Arnall, Samuel Hobday, Joseph Stedman… proved by George and Henry in September 1828…

Richard died in July 1828 aged 67 and was buried at Ashted. Ann survived him for many years. She went first, I think, to live with Henry and his wife at Meriden, between Birmingham and Coventry. 

The move to Meriden came to light in a curious way. I knew that Ann was a shareholder or partner in the Coventry Union Banking Company, as various publications listed her in that context, giving her address as 89 Ashted Row. But I noticed that Marchant, List of Country Banks (1838) gives her address as Meriden. I then found that Henry Beaumont lived there in the 1830s. Henry's wife Elizabeth became ill and I suppose they all returned to Birmingham more or less at the same time, late 1830s.


Anyway by 1841 Ann had returned to Ashted Row, now in No.89 where she would remain for the rest of her life. Her niece Phoebe Walford lived with her. 

Evidently the Nottinghamshire family came to visit sometimes. George and his son were staying in the Ashted Row house on census night in 1851.

When Ann died in 1864, her age stated on the death certificate was 91.

Her will was proved by her son Henry Beaumont now of Frederick Street, Edgbaston, here referred to as Gentleman. Power was reserved to George. The will had been made in 1855, and a codicil shows that George and Henry had later made provision for Phoebe, so a legacy to her was revoked. The will shows that Ann had another niece called Harriet Walker, of Wolverhampton.

(All of which together tends to make it look very likely that Ann's parents were William Walford and Phoebe Clark, who had married at Wombourne near Wolverhampton in 1761, Ann being baptised at Penn on 14 October 1772 (from Family Search site)).

Ann's death was registered by a neighbour, Mary Parker, referring to her as "widow of Richard Beaumont, proprietor of houses." Her will likewise speaks of "real property" but I do not know what property this means, if any. 

As I will explain, I think that some of the Ashted houses were on leases which by the 1860s had very little time left to run, and so must have been almost valueless.

Date: February 2019
Revisions on: 22 July 2022


Wednesday 30 January 2019

J.T.Becher, the Workhouse, and Southwell Minster

I put up a piece last year in which, right at the bottom, I touched on this portrait, displayed by the National Trust at The Workhouse, Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Here is the great man:

Portrait of Rev. J.T. Becher (from Wikipedia)
I will call him JTB for short. He was born about 1770* and died in early 1848, at Southwell. The portrait is usually said to be by Thomas Barber, and this seems likely.

The portrait was hanging in Mrs G.V. Becher's house in Southwell when she died in early 1970 (Note 1). As she was the widow of JTB's direct descendant (Note 2), the picture had in all likelihood been passed down the generations of this distinguished Southwell family.

A few months after Mrs Becher's death the Minster owned the portrait. They had sent it to be hung at Hill House in Southwell (Note 3). Hill House, which had been JTB's own home, was at that time a boarding house for the Minster [Grammar] School. (Note 4).

There can be very little doubt that the portrait was given to Southwell Minster by Mrs Becher's daughters (Note 5), the last representatives of that family, very shortly after their mother's death, i.e. between March and June 1970.

Subsequently the National Trust has opened the Workhouse, and Southwell Minster has lent the portrait to be displayed there. The Bechers would be pleased.

But I think it would be nice if the National Trust and Southwell Minster between them would give information about the provenance of the portrait and say something specific about how it was given by JTB's descendants. I have been in correspondence with both organisations.

It would also be nice if Artuk would pick up on this, although they cannot be expected to change the details they display unless Southwell Minster so requests.

Perhaps a few people will google the question, and find this information.

And/or if Southwell Minster or the National Trust, or anyone else, provides any relevant information, I will update or correct this as appropriate.
.........................

* In Ireland, I think. The timing is based on his being 18 when he matriculated in 1788, and being admitted to Lincoln's Inn that year, whilst still a student. I think he had been brought up in England.

Note 1. "An oil painting of Reverend John Thomas Becher" 30 x 24 inches. Probate Valuation by Walker, Walton & Hanson dated 17 March 1970 (Notts Archives). The house was called Popely's Piece. It was hard by the Minster, in Bishop's Drive. Mrs Becher had moved there from a house in Church Street, called Minster Lodge.

Note 2. Major John Pickard Becher 1880-1916. He died on 1 Jan. 1916, from wounds received.

Note 3. Letter of 19 June 1970 from the Headmaster to Mrs Beaumont (Notts Archives). 

Note 4. Also in the 1920s and 1930s the home of Archdeacon & Mrs Hacking, my great-grandparents!

Note 5. Mary Veronica Becher (Mrs Beaumont - she died in 1997 and I was her executor), and Joan (Margaret Joan) Becher who died in 1995. Their only brother Squadron Leader John Henry Becher was killed in Yemen in 1940. Neither Mary nor Joan had children. Mary's husband was my uncle.

Wedding of R.M. Beaumont and Miss Mary V. Becher
(inter alia) - the Groom and Bride (standing, centre),
Miss Joan Becher (standing, right side as viewed),
Mrs Gertrude V. Becher (seated, right side as viewed)
Mrs Edith Beaumont (nee Hacking) (seated, left side)
EMB (seated on ground)
In the garden of Minster Lodge, Church Street, Southwell
30 May 1960
General Notes:
The Nottinghamshire Archives items are held as Accession No. 8454. I deposited them there in 2013. I looked at them there in August 2018.

The Dean and Chapter are the present day successors of the Provost and Chapter of Southwell Minster, to whom the picture was given.

The National Trust eventually said to me:-
...... our arrangement regarding the loan of the portrait is direct with The Minster and we have to adhere to how they wish things to be acknowledged etc as per our agreement with them. (Alison Mitchelson, East Midlands Collections Registrar, to EMB 7 Nov. 2018)

I don't have any substantive response from Southwell Minster, following my having first written to them in November 2018 and followed up several times. I hope to be able to add something, depending on what if anything they do say.

EMB
30 January 2019