Need help to solve family Puzzle!

[rot1927]

Hi,

Can anyone add more and maybe provide a conclusion. Thank You.

I would like to give Great Thanks to Mckha489 for the time and effort in putting this together for me.

I would appreciate some more eyes on this family.  There is a name change as outlined below (I am sorry there is a lot of information, but don’t want to leave anything out)


A - are the conclusions drawn here correct?  and
B.  WHY did the BENNISON children decide to change to BRUCE when they were registered and known as BENNISON at least until 1861 but some until after 1871?

Fanny HEBB married Robert BRUCE 11 Dec 1836  at Hull

They had a son Robert baptised 12 June 1837  at St Mary & St Nicholas, Beverley, York son of Frances BRUCE a widow.

Robert BRUCE senior  (age 20) had died in February 1837 and was buried St John’s Beverley 12 Feb 1837. Of Lairgate

1841

William BENNISON - 30
Fanny BRUCE -20
John BRUCE 5 **
Robert BRUCE 4 ***
Elizabeth BRUCE 6 months  (she is in GRO as BENNISON Elizabeth Bruce   1840, D Quarter, Beverley Union, Vol 23 page 8 MMN HEBB)

there is no marriage for Fanny BRUCE to William BENNISON

1851

William BENNISON 45
Fanny BENNISON 35 (wife)
John BRUCE  16 son-in-law  (= stepson)   
Robert BRUCE 14 son-in-law (= stepson)
Elizabeth BENNISON 10 daughter 
William  BENNISON 7 son
James BENNISON 5  son
Thomas BENNISON 3 son
Hannah BENNISON 6mths   daughter  (these 5 children are all in the GRO as BENNISON,  MMN  HEBB
Rosa  BENNISON  68  mother,  widow of John BENNISON, mariner

1861

William BENNISON 55
Fanny BENNISON 45   Wife
Elizabeth BENNISON 20  daughter
William  BENNISON 17 son
James BENNISON 15 son
Thomas BENNISON 13 son
Hannah BENNISON 10 daughter
Henry BENNISON 8 son
George BENNISON 5 son    these last two also in GRO as BENNISON MMN HEBB

Now, suddenly the BRUCE surname reappears


1864

Elizabeth BRUCE  24, of Keldgate  Father, William BRUCE married James LYON , 19, a collier. witness Hannay MAYHAM and Robert TOWSE

1868
Sept 11, 1868, Hannah BRUCE of Friars Lane was buried

And yet in 1871 we have

1871
William, Fanny, Tom, Harry  and George  BENNISON are all at Friars Lane, Beverley St Martin

while James, BRUCE a joiner, is a boarder in the household of Benjamin LOFT a joiner

William junior b 1844 I cannot see in the 1871 census but on 21 June 1871 a William BRUCE (father William BRUCE) married Caroline WILKINSON   (yorkshire marriages FindMyPast)  witnesses John TUTING and Eliza TUTING

1874
Henry BRUCE married March 8th 1874, labourer of Friars Lane, (see 1871 census) father William BRUCE to Alice GRIFFIN
witnesses Charles GRIFFIN and Mary FOSTER

George BRUCE married 27 Dec 1874 gardener of Friars Lane father William to Eliza Ann STIMPSON. witnesses Mary Ann & R…STIMPSON
 
1875
James BRUCE, joiner (father William BRUCE) married 25 Dec 1875 to Annie Elizabeth MALTON
witnesses Margaret SAXBY and John TUTING

1876
Beverley and East Riding Recorder 05 August 1876
William BENNISON of Friars Lane - up for not paying his rates of 13s 3d

1881
Mar 5 1881 William BENNISON of Dog and Duck Lane buried age 79

Census 1881 at Dog and Duck Lane in “Old Oak Tree Gatehouse”  are George BRUCE his wife Eliza BRUCE  3 children, his mother Frances BRUCE and his unmarried brother Thomas BRUCE

Thereafter everyone keeps their name as BRUCE.  Except for John who reverted to HEBB **

Fanny is buried as Frances BRUCE  of Dog & Duck Lane 14 Jan 1889


**
John BRUCE was obviously born before Fanny’s marriage to Robert BRUCE baptised as John HEBB North Frodingham 6 Sep 1835,  mother Frances HEBB, no father named and noted as illegitimate. He marries in 1859 under the name of HEBB  which he keeps thereafter  (But says his father is William HEBB a mariner) 

***
Robert BRUCE married in 1860 and of course is also BRUCE.

Once again thank you for taking your time in reading this, any help to solve the puzzle will be
greatly appreciated. 

 

[philipsearching]

Looking at it by the children:

John HEBB b c1836 named as BRUCE 1841-51, marries as HEBB 1859
Robert BRUCE b c1837
Elizabeth BENNISON b c1840 named as BRUCE 1841, marries as BRUCE in 1864
William BENNISON b c1844 married as BRUCE 1871
James BENNISON b c1846 named as BRUCE in 1871
Thomas BENNISON b c1848
Hannah BENNISON b1850 d 1868 buried as BRUCE
Henry BENNISON b c1853 married as BRUCE 1874
George BENNISON b c1856 married as BRUCE 1874

It looks to me as though it's an assumed surname for civil (births and censuses) and perhaps to avoid awkward questions, and a true name for religious (marriages).  If there wasn't a BENNISON/BRUCE marriage the local cleric may not have allowed ceremonies under the father's name.

It would be interesting to find out if the children were baptised and, if so, what surname was used.


Philip

[mckha489]

Well!  I've just found the baptism of Elizabeth Bruce BENNISON at Beverley 13th November 1840
She has been indexed as BERRISON
her parents are  named William, Labourer, Beck tide  and Fanny (transcribed as Mary, but I think it does say Fanny)
for those with FindMyPast https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=s2%2fgbprs%2fyorkshire%2f007909160%2f00914

[mckha489]

William and James both bapt April 14 1848  as BENISON
sons of William, Labourer,  and Fanny.  Grove Hill Farm

[mckha489]

am struggling to find baptisms for the rest of them

[Rosinish]

I don't know what the rules were in England but in Scotland if a couple had 'illegitimate' children & the father attended the baptism/birth the child would be entitled to use either surname as is the law here to this day?

Even if the father didn't attend, children were very often brought up with their fathers' surname.

Annie

Edit to clarify...birth (registration)

[philipsearching]

I don't know what the rules were in England but in Scotland if a couple had 'illegitimate' children & the father attended the baptism/birth the child would be entitled to use either surname as is the law here to this day?

Even if the father didn't attend, children were very often brought up with their fathers' surname.

Annie

I don't know if the Church had definite rules, but I have seen several baptisms in England of the type "John Jones, son of Jane Jones, alleged father Sam Smith".  The Church would, of course, have no control over the surname the child used in everyday life.

Philip