Freelove Clark - St Cuthbert, Bedford

[ATGoldsmith]

Hello! 

I am looking for more information about my 6x great grandmother, Freelove Clark (neé Berwick) and her family.

Freelove married John Clark on 17th January 1803 at St Cuthbert, Bedford and they baptised their only child (that I can find), William Clark, on 20th March 1803 at St Cuthbert as well.

For some reason Freelove is registered twice on the National Burial Index for England & Wales!  It claims she was buried on 7th June 1839 at the "Workhouse" (although this may just be a record from the Workhouse saying she's died) and there's an entry two days later saying she was buried in St Cuthbert's.  The two records also give different ages: the workhouse burial claims she was 76 and the St Cuthbert burial claims she was 78!

I'm also having trouble locating any further records for John Clark (probably because of his really annoyingly common name!) so any further information on him would be great...!

William Clark, the son of John and Freelove, went on to marry Charlotte Burton from Tunbridge Wells, Kent and they had four girls and two boys together, five of them surviving infancy.

Thanks!

ATG

[Schoch]

Hi ATG,

Just a thought but do you think that her nee` name might not be Berwick.  Could it be possible that she was married before and was maybe a "widow" when she married John.
If you do the math she would have been rather older at the time of this marriage?


Richard

[ATGoldsmith]

Hi Richard,

Yes, I did think that might have been the case, however I didn't see that she married aged ~40 which must be the reason why she only had one child with John.  I have had a look for Freeloves marrying Berwicks but nothing comes up in the indexes.  I've also looked for deaths for Berwicks before 1803 but they all seem to be outside of Bedfordshire therefore I reckon Freelove came from elsewhere...!

Thanks for your help!

ATG