Foreman Shillbottle-Felton-Brainshough

[JosiahS]

Hi Chris

Welcome to Rootschat!

You are probably better off starting a new thread with this one.  You should also give as much information as you have about their places of birth etc to help people narrow it down.  Bell is a very common name.

Cheers

Ashley

[Elenor]

Hey Chris,

Not sure that you'll get this message, in reply to such an old posting of yours. I emailed you some years ago but didn't hear back; your email address might have changed by then, since there'd been a long gap in correspondence.

BUT ...

I've begun looking at the Bell-Foreman line again and have spent nearly an hour today feeling appalled re the low standards on one site (which I won't name). Time after time a person will use another member's family tree as a citation ... so that it all goes in one enormous loop. <shudder>

I've always questioned the Jane Archbold-William Foreman parentage for Jane Foreman, and now my suspicions are heightened. I can find no authority for that relationship, only the coincidence of time and place, but in a region full of Foremans and Archbolds. Meanwhile, I have some rather compelling clues that point in another direction (although they don't dismiss the possibility that a couple named William Foreman and Jane Archbold were Jane's parents, that William would not have died in 1782 nor would that Jane Archbold have died in 1793 ...).

Well, if you ever read this and are interested, please post to that effect. I can find no one else who wants to pursue this particular research topic beyond cutting-and-pasting from other people's trees.

Patricia

[Craclyn]

If they were living at Brainshaugh then baptisms could be at Felton, Shilbottle or Warkworth if they went for CofE or Alnwick if they were non-conformist.

[Craclyn]

Since you indicated that the family used Alnwick Presbyterian it may also be worth taking a closer look at two Foreman baptisms at the Groat Market Meeting House in Newcastle. William in 1782 and Jane in 1776. Parents Thomas and Jane. May be nothing to do with yours, but you may just hit on lucky. If they were wealthy enough to educate William to be a doctor then they could afford to travel to Newcastle to find a baptism of their liking.

[Elenor]

Hi Craclyn -- That was a surprisingly speedy reply to a desultory posting (I periodically give up and then later revive this research for short spurts of time). Thanks!

Chris and I are both descended, along different lines, from Jane Foreman Bell, and we've each done plenty of research, though we haven't corresponded in about six years. I live in the US, but I know he visited Alnwick & Shilbottle and did some thorough research on-site, including at the Durham archives and the churches in the Alnwick/Shilbottle area, that I was unable to do. It was he who discovered the birth and death in infancy of the otherwise unknown first daughter "baby Jane," whose short existence threw a proverbial wrench into the naming pattern we'd previously been working with. But Jane (the mother) Foreman's family was definitely Nonconformist and we've found no birth record anywhere for her. (And now I'll stop writing "we" and take responsibility for my own research.)

I have in my possession a copy of a photo of Jane as an old woman. Her granddaughter wrote on the back of it sometime during the late 1800s: "Mrs. Robert Bell of Alnwick, Northumberland, England, Jane Foreman -- Born at Shilbottle near Alnwick 1778 -- Died at Alnwick March 3, 1866, aged 88 years. Photo taken at 84 years."

The death date is correct so I assume that the birth data is also correct, or close enough. (Others believe she was born in 1780.)

That same granddaughter received a letter from a sibling in 1886 noting that "Grandmother Bell was known as the bonny lass of Coquet-side, so she must have been born there I presume; where she was married I do not know. Her father & mother being dead before I was born. Dr. Foreman was grandmother’s brother, it seems to me he had something to do with some West India Island, but I forget what...."

Other family mentions in that 1886 letter are accurate, so again I'm assuming that the quote above is as well. Aside from her 1802 marriage certificate, the 1841-1861 census listings, and her 1866 death certificate, that's it for records.

Since then the few clues I've been pursuing are the "doctor brother" and the witnesses to Jane's marriage (William Foreman and Thomas Johnson). I'm fairly certain that I've identified the doctor brother, who was indeed the son of a William Foreman but by a second marriage of William's in 1781 in Perth (they moved from there to Glasgow). Just enough time for William to meet and marry a new wife after the apparent death of Jane's mother sometime between 1778 and 1781. Either William senior -- or a brother named William -- could have been witness to Jane's wedding in 1802. But ... I have no idea what the Thomas Johnson connection is unless Jane's mother was a Jane or Eleanor Johnson, or had a maternal grandmother named Johnson. I haven't found a candidate yet. (Hmm, I see you have Johnsons listed as an area of interest!)

As for the Groat Market Meeting House baptisms, 1776 seems too early for Jane, and there is no Thomas among her children or grandchildren, so it doesn't ring true. But thank you for pointing to that possibility.

(Note: the candidate "doctor brother" was born in Glasgow in 1794 and was later president of the Swedenborgian church there. How's that for Nonconformist?!)

Patricia

[Elenor]

PS, oops! August 1802 marriage in Felton!   

[Craclyn]

Hei Patricia,
Well spotted that I have Johnsons on my list. My 5th great grandmother was Sarah Johnson baptized at Shilbottle in 1744, so maybe there is a connection to your Thomas Johnson there somewhere.

[Elenor]

That's how life seems to work, isn't it? It's all patterns and synchronicities (if only I could find the thread!). Yep, probably cousins (probably never prove it though, sigh).

Off to dreamland now .... maybe to the ancient dales of the Coquet. That sounds peaceful!

[Craclyn]

Sweet dreams I am just getting organised for a physical trip over there and will be hitting the archives at Woodhorn. Will keep my eyes open for your Foremans while I am browsing the microfilms.