Obed Beddoes - Do I have the relationships right?

[M_ONeill]

Hi all, I'm hoping to get some fresh eyes on this part of my tree to 'check my working', so to speak, and see whether I have the relationships right.

To begin, I'm fairly sure I have this particular line of my tree correct back to my 4x great grandparents Elisha Howells and Anne Beddoes, married on the 23rd of May 1791 in Culmington Shropshire. The signed witnesses were 'Obad. Beddoes and Thos. Pearce'. At first I assumed 'Obad.' was short for 'Obadiah', but when I looked into the various local records I found that the given name was most likely actually 'Obed', a different biblical name.

Where I'm not sure if I'm right is my assertion that this Obed was Anne's father. When I first added Anne to my tree, Ancestry suggested a number of trees which had her parents listed as a John Beddoes and Elizabeth Brookes, with their daughter Anne being baptised on the 10th Nov 1776 in Diddlebury.

I was initially somewhat doubtful about this parentage, as it would make Anne 15 at the time of her marriage to Elisha. I instead found a baptism of an Anne Beddoes in Edgton on 21st June 1774, parents Obed Beddose [sic] and his wife Mary, which would make Anne 19 at the time of the later marriage.

Now Diddlebury is closer to Culmington than Edgton, but I think that Obed may have moved to the latter location when he married. There is a 31st January 1772 marriage between Obed Beddoes of Seifton and Mary Griffiths of Edgton. Seifton is right next to Culmington.

While there are a number of later Obed Beddoes born in the area over the following decades (likely all in the same wider family) as far as I can see, there is only one candidate for the birth record of this eldest and seemingly first Obed, namely a Quaker birth record in 1741, in Seifton, parents Richard and Mary Beddoes. To my mind the Quaker faith likely explains the choice of name. Obed was baptised into the Anglican church on 2nd of Nov 1817, just a few days before his death. The parish record mentions his being resident in Seifton Batch and his previous Quaker religion.

So that's where I currently stand. I've pencilled in Obed as Anne's father because there are only a certain number of local baptismal records for Anne Beddoes between the 1740s, when Obed was born, and the cut-off point of around the 1770s where the prospective Annes become too young for the later marriage.

I'm interested to know what other Rootschatters think. Do I have a strong enough case to pin Obed as a direct ancestor and the father of Anne?

[Ashtone]

Family Search has the Banns record image (listing the dates of 22 Dec 1771, 29 Dec 1771, and 5 Jan 1772) and stating "Obed Beddoes of the parish of Culminton". The record image also includes confirmation of the marriage which took place on 13 January 1772 (not 31 January).

[M_ONeill]

Thanks for the reply, Ashtone, and thanks for correcting the date of the marriage; that was a typo on my part in the initial post!

There is also a second Obed Beddoes marriage in Culmington on the 26th of April in 1796, Eleanor Phillips the bride. What I've yet to figure out is whether this is the same Obed with a later second marriage, or whether it's a different man entirely. If it is someone different, then it would imply that there are some missing Beddoes baptisms, at least in Shropshire (perhaps born elsewhere? In different Quaker record sets?).

As far as I can see, Obed and Eleanor's children are as follows (names given as they appear in records):

• Ann Beddoes - bap. 1797, Wellington, Salop
• John Beddows - bap. 1799, Wellington, Salop
• Mary Beddow - bap. 1802, Wednesbury, Staffs
• Thomas Beddows - bap. 1803, Wednesbury, Staffs
• Obed Beddos - bap. 1807, Wolverhampton, Staffs
• Benjamin Bedduss - b.1808
• William Bedduss - b.1811
• Eleanor Beddow - bap. 1813, Wednesbury, Staffs (father listed as a carpenter)

Benjamin and William were both baptised in Wednesbury on the same day, in 1812 - perhaps born elsewhere?

Now some of these names overlap with the names of the children I have written down as the children of the Obed who married Mary Griffiths, making me think that they may indeed be two separate men. If so, then it raises the possibility that the Obed who witnessed Anne Beddoes' marriage was a brother or other male relation, rather than her father.

As mentioned, there seems to be no record of the baptism of this other Obed Beddoes, but there is an 1841 census record that might be relevant. There is an Obe and Eleanor Beddows living in Aston Warwickshire with two children Eleanor (20) and John (15). Obe is listed as being of Independent means. The younger Eleanor (with the leeway in 1841 census ages) is in the right ballpark to be the youngest child in the list above, but John is way too young to be the same John born 1799.

The Obe in the 1841 record obviously can't be the same Obed who died in 1817. Obe's age is listed as 80 giving a rough birth year of 1761. As yet, my searches have found no baptismal records for Obed/Obe/Obediah Beddoes in that time period.

[rosie99]

There is also a second Obed Beddoes marriage in Culmington on the 26th of April in 1796, Eleanor Phillips the bride.

Did you notice that the following marriage on that page was the same day and was for a Mary Beddoes with witnesses Mary Beddoes and Ann Beddoes

[M_ONeill]

I did notice the second Beddoes marriage, of Mary Beddoes of Culmington and Edward Haynes of the parish of Diddlebury. Checking the original record, the witnesses were actually Thomas Haynes and Ann Beddoes. Given the date of the marriage, this would be a different Anne Beddoes than the one in my direct line ancestry, as she would have been Anne Howells by this point.

As it happens I was just looking at this old thread here which links to Edward and Mary's marriage. Edward and Mary apparently had two children, Elizabeth (who later married Thomas Whiteman) and a Sarah. Mary Haynes Beddoes later remarried to a Francis Tipton by license in Culmington, 8th May 1806, witnesses Sarah Beddoes and Benjamin Morris.

It would seem likely that the two Beddoes marriages on the same day in 1796 show a pretty close familial relationship. The information about the Beddoes/Haynes might at least help me sketch out what some of those relationships are!
 

[rosie99]

Sorry about Mary Beddoes 

The Mary Beddoes one was by Licence, I wonder if the licences are still available