Origin of Bitchenors of Kempston late 1600's

[vivijune]

I know we should be thankful that we've managed to trace the Bitchenor (er) family back to the late 1600's with a William Bitchenor born at Kempston in 1692, who married a Constance Houghton of Kempston in 1716, but we'd love to know his fathers name and where he came from, probably a neighboring village. There are records from the 1550's of Bitchenors in Flitwick and some a little later in Goldington and North Crawley.

Yesterday I found a Robert Bitchenor on familysearch born in 1698, also at Kempston who could have been William's brother. This was a new find.

In looking at Family Trees on Ancestry, it seems that several trees hit the wall with that 1692 birth. Any suggestions for going back further or trying to look in those other villages for a Bitchenor (er) man probably born around 1670. Is it now possible to purchase the individual village record for example Flitwick? Would William 1692's father's name have been recorded at his birth?

Would appreciate any help or discovery.

[johnP-bedford]

Morning, the Beds FHS have produced a series of parish registers CDs for Bedfordshire parishes including Flitwick.  Checkout their website for details.

regards John

[bedfordshire boy]

Virtually all baptisms pre 1813 in Beds have been extracted onto the IGI. If the baptism isn't on the IGI then you're unlikely to find it in a transcript, from which most of Beds entries on the IGI were taken. There was no birth record at that time (not until 1837), just the baptism.

It's a big gap to fill from the 1550s to 1692.

The first Bitchiner burial that I can find in Kempston wasn't until 1720, implying to me that they came from elsewhere. Look also for spelling variations eg bichinol

What you found on the IGI in 1698 was a member submission of the type that's not worth the paper it's written on. Someone found Robert's marriage in Kempston in 1723, and it being a well known fact in the LDS church that ALL males marry at age 25, has deducted 25 from the marriage year and assumed he was born in the same parish as he was married in, hence Robert Bichener born 1698 in Kempton. Pure fiction. There was more than one Bitchener baptising children in Kempston from 1719 onwards. I'm sure they were connected. As Robert is a slightly less common name than William I'd look laterally and concentrate on finding Robert, and then see if he had a brother.

William was a tailor by the way, in case you didn't know, and Robert was a blacksmith.

David

[vivijune]

David and John.

Nice to hear back from you. You were both so helpful to me last spring when I started my family search so your input here is very useful. One of the benefits of this board is I've been reunited with long lost cousins and it turns out that one of them has the same passion for ancestry as I do. In fact she spent 2002-2004 doing painstaking research into the Bitchenors, so I've been able to verify the information you helped me accumulate which was spot on! Thanks again.

I'll talk to her and go ahead and order the FHS parish records for villages around Kempston where there are early members of the family. Good idea and glad it's available.

My father came upon a reference in a history book to say that Bechnoirs were persecuted Huguenots from Flanders... Flemish weavers, who dispersed (not going all that far) for fear of persecution, crossing the channel sometime in the 1400's. Bechnoirs settled along the slow meandering River Ouse, which is why there are Bichenos from St Neots who founded Becheno Bay in Tasmania. My lot who seem to have settled between Newport Pagnell and Bedford with those two possible brothers you looked up coming to Kempston and raising families. Obtaining Goldington, Newport Pagnell and Flitwick and North Crawley is probably the most likely place to start to dig back further.

In case there is anyone out there with an interest, children of William (1692) who married Constance Houghton in Kempston in 1716, had children who founded different family subsets in Kempston, Biddenham and Cranfield. Our interest moving forward is in the Cranfield Bitchenors. 

Maybe it's a stretch but William listed as working as a tailor isn't that far a progression from weaving the actual cloth. Since I only found the existence of Robert this week I had no idea he was a blacksmith, so thanks for that. We will look for Robert as the best course of action as you suggest and see if he had a brother.

We appreciate your suggestions and insight.

[joyoust]

Hi there

i have a line of descent through my grandmother from the Bitchener family of Kempston so i've dug out my research notes.  My descent is from Robert Bitchener, blacksmith who married Elizabeth Crick in Kempston in 1723.  The other early marriage entry I have on my notes is William (not Robert) marrying Constance Houghton in 1716.

I have a hunch (as yet unproven) that they may be the sons of a Robert Bitchino of Crawley, Bucks who married Anne Church at Hardmead, Bucks in 1691.  These parishes are very close to Kempston but researching this family has proved a bit tricky due to the surname variations and going over the county boundaries.  They did have a son Thomas baptised at Crawley and there is a Thomas in the Kempston records.

Let me know if I can help any further.

Joy   

[bedfordshire boy]

Welcome to Rootschat Joy

Do you know if Robert Bitchino of Crawley left a will?

David

[joyoust]

Hi there

No, have not been able to find a will so far but have just sent for a baptism search in Crawley as the transcript I checked in Milton Keynes library only went back to 1700 and there are earlier Bitchenor wills on the Bucks database for Crawley so I think this may be their 'home' parish in the 1500 and 1600's.  Must say the surname variants (bychenowe, bichenoe, bykonowe etc) are quite eye-popping and not helping with this search.
Will post further when I get the results back.

Joy

[vivijune]

Thank you both for your input here. It would be very exciting for my family to peel back another layer of the family ancestry beyond the last thread which for my branch is the William Bitchenor / Constance Houghton marriage in Kempston who we believe is Robert's brother.

Based on what I could see on ancestry the Bitchenor/ Bitchener/Bichenor family trees all stop at William and Constance with their families living in Cranfield, Biddenham and Kempston in the next generations.

My sons had been encouraging me to try to dig back further (carefully of course) but if this North Crawley connection pans out it would be exciting. As you say, the variation on names is imaginative and challenging as well as the Beds/ Bucks border record issue. I don't live in the UK so I appreciate what you've been able to do so far and look forward to hearing the outcome of wills or anything else you find out.

[johnP-bedford]

Afternoon, been looking at Bucks Poor Law Records CD -  there's an entry for North Crawley dated 1781 with a ref PR 156/15/1/4 - not sure what this means ? It says -----

Mary Summerfield & Henry BITCHINER of Stepporly (sic) BDF; Also bound is William BITCHINER of Cosgrave, NTH.

Any links to you families ?

Regards John