BECKWITH/BECKWORTH/COATES

[Elliven]

There is a great deal of confusion between two familes in the Shotley Bridge and Benfieldside areas of County Durham.  They were all heavily involved in the licensed trade over a  period of half a century from 1804 - 1856 but I cannot find a direct connection between the families.

The details I have are Thomason/Thomasina Beckwith 1804 -1828
Emmerson Beckwith around 1851
William Beckworth (might be just a spelling mistake) 1856
John Coates 1851 - 1856

Any ideas how they might be linked?  I think it might be a confusion in the pub names George III, William IV, Bridge End - all of which I believe to be nicknames - and the real name which is the Kings Head.  I believe they were all licensees of this one pub but I can't positively link them.  Any ideas?  Many thanks

Elliven

[Malcolm33]

There is a great deal of confusion between two familes in the Shotley Bridge and Benfieldside areas of County Durham.  They were all heavily involved in the licensed trade over a  period of half a century from 1804 - 1856 but I cannot find a direct connection between the families.

The details I have are Thomason/Thomasina Beckwith 1804 -1828
Emmerson Beckwith around 1851
William Beckworth (might be just a spelling mistake) 1856
John Coates 1851 - 1856

Any ideas how they might be linked?  I think it might be a confusion in the pub names George III, William IV, Bridge End - all of which I believe to be nicknames - and the real name which is the Kings Head.  I believe they were all licensees of this one pub but I can't positively link them.  Any ideas?  Many thanks

Elliven

     I spent a lot of time two or three years ago searching the Beckwith families of Shotley Bridge, and the Five Generals of Shotley Bridge named Beckwith, e.g. General George Beckwith.   I may have some answers and perhaps should send you some of my files on the main family who go back to Cuthbert -

Name:   Cuthbert Beckwith
Gender:   Male
Christening Date:   1745
Christening Place:   MEDOMSLEY,DURHAM,ENGLAND
Father's Name:   William Beckwith
Mother's Name:   Thomasin

There was also a Cuthbert Beckwith who married Anna Shaw in 1707 at Medomsley.

There were Beckwith's or Backworth's in Shotley Bridge in the late 1500's:

Extract from History of Shotley Spa and Vicinity of Shotley Bridge
By The Rev John Ryan
1 January 1841

It is said that the Beckwiths also are Germans, which, if true, would prove that the emigrants had come from the continent before 1580, for there was a “Cuthbert Backworth, of Shotley Bridge, yeoman,” in 1584, manifestly the progenitor of the present family, as the name soon after occurs in the local registers, and was of old written as the common people now pronounce it—Backworth. Among those who claim the honour of having found the spa at Shotley, Mr. William Beckwith is clearly the successful claimant, who after having drained the water so many years before, was most likely to fix upon the precise place. He is a man of very considerable natural ability, has held many places of great trust in the neighbourhood, and brings to the discharge of his duties a body of most extraordinary dimensions.   A friend of the author's having one day observed to him, that a history of Shotley Bridge which should not notice Mr. Beckwith would be defective, a plain person present, of good sense, replied, perhaps unconscious of her wit, “I’m sure monny a less thing has been noticed.”    And I am sure all who see him will feel the force of the witty reply.

Page Lxx     At a few hundred yards distance from Shotley, on the Medomsley road, you see the rural hamlet of Snows-Green, placed on the centre of a slope, whence a beautiful and extensive prospect is obtained; and where among other cottages, which bear evidence of some antiquity, stands an imposing old house in which General Beckwith resided several years after his gallant and successful services for his country in the West Indies, for which he was suitably rewarded.

     Hope this helps a little.   Malcolm Melbourne, Australia, but born Consett.

[trish1120]

I presume those dates mentioned are when they were operating?

Burials;
THOMASIN Beckwith 21 Feb 1833, St Ebba, Ebchester, age 81, abode Shotley Bridge
EMMERSON Beckwith same Church 12 Mar 1816 age 67 same abode
Could they be Husband/Wife?

1841 Census Emmerson B. occp Brewer born c 1796, seems to be the Son of Emerson/Hannah nee FOSTER who married    15 Sep 1789 Medomsley.
He was Bapt same place 08 Nov 1795
He married May TINDAL 29 Mar 1831. There is a Dorothy Tinadal with the in 1841 age 70

Malcolm seems to be the expert but just wanted to say FreeREG has a few records that night help.

Trish

[Elliven]

To Malcolm and Trish

Many thanks to you both for the amazing details you have supplied.  I am more used to researching buildings rather than people. 

Malcolm's idea of the family being German is not unreasonable and Shotley Bridge has a considerable history of German immigrants.  The 1500's dating would also suggest that they [the family] were very early landlords - if not the original owners as part of the building does date back to that time.

Trish, Yes!  I believe Emmerson and Thomasin were a married couple and certainly fit the bill.  The Emmerson you found in the 1841 Census being a brewer makes me sure that he is part of the same family.  I don't need a detailed family tree, but the information you have both supplied suggests that all these people were part of the same broad family and helps me put the history of the building in some perspective.

The pub is still referred to by some locals as The Bridge End although its name was officially changed to the King's Head over 120 years ago! 

Many thanks to you both.

Elliven

[Malcolm33]

Only too pleased to be able to help with some background on the Beckwith Family of Shotley Bridge.    They are most remarkable when we look at them and I have already mentioned that they were quite famous as Generals - no less than 5 of them with that name including General George Beckwith who is the General referred to in the book(s) about Shotley Bridge.   See - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Beckwith_(British_Army_officer).   This George Beckwith took part in the American war of revolution and then cleared the French out of one important Caribbean Island.

My own connection is only through marriages - at least one of those bigamous - and also circuitous as I find Hannah Beckwith of Shotley Bridge, who married George Winter father of the Poacher Isaac via two separate directions.     The stories of all that happened would fill a book and include a man dropping dead having drunk too much in the Station Hotel Benfieldside (now the Cricketers Arms), a young widow only five weeks into her second marriage going mental and attacking her husband my gt.grandfather with a knife - only a few months after her release from a mental hospital in Scotland.    Unfortunately he didn't know what had happened since he last saw her, plus an attempted suicide some years later.

  Malcolm

[trish1120]

Wow that is quite a story you uncovered.

Trish

[Malcolm33]

Wow that is quite a story you uncovered.

Trish

   That is what makes family history research so incredibly rich and fascinating, but you will know that Trish.    There is hardly one branch of my lot that hasn't had some amazing find in the leaves of the tree.    I hardly expected a possible link to William Wallace but that could be for my great grandfather James Currie Draffan was born in Lesmahagow in 1846 and Alicia Draffan, a grandmother of Wallace was also from Lesmahagow.   Could be a case of people taking on surnames from a locality such as Draffan Castle which is very close to Lesmahagow, but then again a photo of my cousin's son Richard Draffan is uncanningly like Braveheart.

   In the circular family lines I posted before you will see there is a Matthew Swainston.    He was crucial in solving another great find.    My mother was raised by her great aunt Emma Wilson nee Oliver (as was I myself during the War years) and Aunt Emma told my Mam all about her brother John Oliver who had gone off to Australia years before - actually 1876 on the Gulf St. Vincent.  Mam would only have been about 12 years old when told these stories, thus circa 1920.    All she could remember when she told me was that she thought they had gone to Melbourne because she remembered a photo of said John Oliver with three or four ladies (actually his wife and 3 daughters) and she thought it had the name of a photographer in Melbourne on the back.

    So I began my search to find John Oliver's family around the mid 1980's.   Eventually the Victorian Record Office sent me his death certificate - Spanish 'flu 13th July 1918, Spencer Street Melbourne and this opened all the doors for it named his wife and daughters and said he was from Durham and was an Iron Worker.    Within a matter of hours I was looking at the obits in the Age and the Argus and these gave me the married names of the daughters but much more startling was that one of them lived in Mordialloc.

     I first came to Melbourne in 1956 and stayed from March to November that year before returning to England,  with a family my parents had put up before they migrated, the Bartholomews of John Street Mordialloc.    I took a chance and 'phoned some one with the Atkins surname listed in Mordialloc and was lucky first time.   He put me on to his aunt 'Nora in Geelong.

     So one fine Sunday I decided to drive over to the other side of Philip Bay and chat to Aunt 'Nora who was a grand-daughter of John Oliver.    But first I had with me a letter from my Mam in which she wrote that something else she could remember was a man called Matthew Swainston coming to visit Aunt Emma after he had returned after some time in Melbourne.    She recalled him telling Aunt Emma that he had seen John Oliver while he was in Melbourne.   Later on I found that the Swainston's lived in Aynsley Terrace in Consett and the house was for many years still called 'Melbourne' - just yards from us at 11 Newmarket Street.

       When I knocked on Aunt 'Nora's door she invited me in but was very dubious about any connection.   As she boiled the kettle and produced some cakes she told me that one thing she could remember was that when she was a small girl they had had a visitor from England who was called 'Matt' Swainston.     I quickly excused myself saying I had to get a letter from the car and when she read my mother's letters there were I think tears in her eyes.

       Aunt 'Nora has since passed on but I am still in touch with her daughter Dorothy who is well into her Nineties.

       Now here is the sad part of the story.    My Mam and Dad came and stayed with us for about 13 months after he retired early in 1969.    If only we had found this all out by then, because one of John Oliver's daughters was still alive in 1969, and was living just around the corner from John Street Mordialloc, where I had lived in 1956.

       This is why I urge everyone never to leave family history until it is too late to ask all the questions.    My Mam would have been thrilled to the core to have met that lost daughter of John Oliver.

       The copy of the photo of John Oliver and his wife Jane Perry was given to me by Aunt 'Nora.

      Malcolm

PS When all leads fail to get through the Wall - just meditate.   I have told the story of how I got help from the grave of Benjamin Willis before, but if you missed it Trish I think it could help with future dead ends!

[trish1120]

What a fascinating story and I totally agree with you that asking questions is important.

I didnt and therefore have a small brick wall with my Mothers line. I never spoke to her about her Ancestry and my Father was orphaned young so never spoke about his.
I wont do that and will pass on all info to my children.

Trish