Blasted Bodycotes again!

[Anstey Nomad]

Still battling with the Bodycotes, but have made no real progress in the last 12 months.

We still need to find if there is any connection between Charles Bodycote (b Berhampore Bengal 1821) and Robert and Henry Bodycote, allegedly born in St Lucia in the years immediately following. It is physically impossible for these three to be brothers, although everybody researching this line assumes they are, and I have not yet been able to identify the fathers of the other two.

We still need to find the forebears of Ann Elizabeth Beckwith (Charles Bodycote's mother), born Madras c1803 and whether she has any family connection to the Mr Beckwith who was Registrar of BMD in Leeds in 1881 and officiated at the wedding of Ann Elizabeth's grand-daughter. I have her marriage entry, but annoyingly it gives no details of the parents of either Ann Elizabeth or her husband Joseph Bodycote.

I posted on another forum about the St Lucia end and got a lot of irrelevant stuff back, but I did get this:

"Leicester Chronicle 9th May 1829

Joseph Bodycote was brought up for leaving his wife and family chargeable to St Leonards parish. It appeared that the defendant had offended four different times in this respect, and had cost the parish about twenty pounds. He brought his wife from the East Indies, and has since been cohabiting with another woman, who has had one child, and is again pregnant by him. The prisoner was sentenced to hard labour for three months."

That's my Joseph (4 x GGF) all right and this makes sense of all the census entries.

I'm now venturing into unknown territory, but presumably if he'd abandoned his wife and family to the parish there will be something in the Poor Law books or whatever they're called?

Would someone be able to clarify this and/or point me in the right direction?

I have a week's leave coming up and could spend the day in the Record Office.

Thanks

AN

[kiterunner]

I was going to say the nearest I can see on FamilySearch is Elizabeth Beckworth born 16 Jun 1805 Madras, baptised 29 Jun 1805 Ft St George, Madras, parents John and Elizabeth, but I see they have her listed as plain Elizabeth on the marriage to Joseph Bodycott, so it (the Elizabeth Beckworth entry) looks much likelier to be her than I thought. Does it say Ann Elizabeth on the actual marriage entry?

Edit - they also have her as just Elizabeth on Charles and Amelia's baptisms.

[Anstey Nomad]

She is Elizabeth Beckwith of Fort William, spinster on the marriage entry and she is known merely as Elizabeth thereafter until she dies in Leicester in 1884.

We got the Ann Elizabeth b Tamil Nadu 1803 from the IGI. The 1803 birth would tie in with the quoted age through to death.

AN

[Anstey Nomad]

Currently searching the Record Office catalogue to see if they have any Poor Law stuff - what key words should I be using. I've tried Parish Relief and Poor Law and nothing's coming up?

AN

[kiterunner]

She is Elizabeth Beckwith of Fort William, spinster on the marriage entry and she is known merely as Elizabeth thereafter until she dies in Leicester in 1884.

We got the Ann Elizabeth b Tamil Nadu 1803 from the IGI. The 1803 birth would tie in with the quoted age through to death.

AN

I would think she's that Elizabeth whose birth I found, then.

[Mary from Italy]

I have the Leics Poor Law CD, but I can't find anything that seems to be relevant to your people; there are several Bodycotes, with different spellings, but not a Joseph.

The index contains the following collections, plus a name index:

Leicester Division Bastardy Book 1844-1874
Order Books Bastardy 1678-1832
Order Books Removal & Settlement 1678-1832
Quarter Sessions 1714-1844 - Surname

Anyway, as it's an unusual name, if you'd like to send me a PM with your e-mail address, I can send you the Bodycote entries from the disc.

There's a Poor Law card index at the Record Office in Wigston (in the second room, not the one with the fiche readers); I assume the CD I have contains what's on the card index, but I'm not sure, so it's probably worth a visit to the RO anyway.

[kiterunner]

whether she has any family connection to the Mr Beckwith who was Registrar of BMD in Leeds in 1881 and officiated at the wedding of Ann Elizabeth's grand-daughter.

1881 census:
10 Byron St., Leeds
George Beckwith Head Mar 65 Registrar Birth Death Mar York Leeds
Eleanor Do Wife Mar 57 Middlesex Shadwell
Thomas Do Son Visitor Mar 31 Printer / News Agent Yorkshire Leeds

[kiterunner]

We got the Ann Elizabeth b Tamil Nadu 1803 from the IGI. The 1803 birth would tie in with the quoted age through to death.

AN

That's just a submitted entry and since it has no details of her parents but does give her husband's name, it isn't taken from a baptism or birth registration but surmised from the information that they had about her from her marriage etc.

[kiterunner]

There are some John Beckwith military records on findmypast including one born 1779 Middleton, Yorkshire. I haven't got a sub to check whether he served in India.

[kiterunner]

Possible baptism for George Beckwith the registrar is 4 Jul 1816 St Peter Leeds, parents Thomas and Hannah.

[kiterunner]

The British Library India Office website has Beckworth as an alternative spelling of Elizabeth's surname on her marriage.

[Margaret in Burton]

There are some John Beckwith military records on findmypast including one born 1779 Middleton, Yorkshire. I haven't got a sub to check whether he served in India.

I'll look at that in a minute

[Margaret in Burton]

First name(s): John

Last name: BECKWITH

Calculated year of birth: 1779

Parish of birth: Middleton

Town of birth: Middleton

County of birth: Yorkshire

Age at attestation: 28 years

Attestation date: 20 June 1807

Attestation corps:

Attestation soldier number:

Discharge rank: Corporal

Discharge corps: 8th (King's Royal Irish) Hussars

Discharge soldier number:

The National Archives reference: WO97 / 18 / 18

It says he served in the East or West Indies from 30th Nov 1808 to 4th May 1823 (doesn't say which)

PM me AN with your email addy if you want the image

[kiterunner]

That would mean he started in India a few years after Elizabeth's baptism, so I guess he's not the one.

[kiterunner]

I can't think of anything at the moment, Marg.

[Anstey Nomad]

Thanks for all your responses. I have been head down with this impossible family now since before lunch. I hesitate to inflict on you all either the 1841 or 1851 census entries for Joseph's households, which are full of his rellies (apparently) but no obvious clues as to how they are related!

I've looked again at Joseph's grand-daughter's marriage certificate. The registrar was indeed George Beckwith and the witnesses are W(?) H Beckwith, who I think I have previously identified as a son of George, and Robert George Sedgwick, but the certificate appears to be counter-signed by Robert J H Sedgwick Superintendent Registrar. Not sure what that is all about.

All this does of course divert me neatly from the two original questions!

AN

[kiterunner]

I think register office marriage certs are always signed by both the registrar and the superintendant registrar. I found this on one of the local council sites:

The ceremony is conducted by the Superintendent Registrar and registered by the Registrar, who is also responsible for ensuring that all information which is to be entered into the Marriage Register is correct on the day.

[JayG]

I've just had a look at some of my RO marriages & they are all either signed by the Deputy Registrar & Superintendent Registrar or the Registrar & Superintendent Registrar.

[Anstey Nomad]

We still need to find if there is any connection between Charles Bodycote (b Berhampore Bengal 1821) and Robert and Henry Bodycote, allegedly born in St Lucia in the years immediately following. It is physically impossible for these three to be brothers, although everybody researching this line assumes they are, and I have not yet been able to identify the fathers of the other two.

We still need to find the forebears of Ann Elizabeth Beckwith (Charles Bodycote's mother), born Madras c1803 and whether she has any family connection to the Mr Beckwith who was Registrar of BMD in Leeds in 1881 and officiated at the wedding of Ann Elizabeth's grand-daughter. I have her marriage entry, but annoyingly it gives no details of the parents of either Ann Elizabeth or her husband Joseph Bodycote.

AN

[kiterunner]

I thought I found a likely baptism for her already under the name Elizabeth Beckworth? She's more likely to be plain Elizabeth at birth than Ann Elizabeth, isn't she?

[Anstey Nomad]

I wasn't sure about that one because of the disparity in name and date. I know all the arguments, but her age was always the same throughout and points to the 1803 birth being her, rather than the 1805. Yet another annoying little loose end with this lot.

AN

[kiterunner]

But the 1803 birth was just made up by someone to fit the info they have - they didn't get it from an actual birth or baptism record.

[Anstey Nomad]

Was it? How does that work then?

AN

[kiterunner]

It says "Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church. No additional information is available. Ancestral File may list the same family and the submitter." It gives her name and year and place of birth and spouse's name, but not her parents' names, so what it means is that someone who has her in their tree uploaded the record based on the information they have from her marriage, her children's baptisms, censuses, or whatever.

There are also submitted records on the IGI for Charles, Robert and Henry, giving their parents' names as Joseph Bodicot and Ann Elizabeth Beckwith, presumably submitted by the same person who submitted the Ann Elizabeth Beckwith birth entry. That should show you how reliable or unreliable the "submitted" entries are!

One good thing about the new FamilySearch site is that this type of record is not included in with the "extracted" records, i.e. records transcribed from registers.

[kiterunner]

Have you got witnesses' names from Joseph and Elizabeth's marriage, AN?

[kiterunner]

Okay, looking through FamilySearch, there is an Amelia Bodycote baptised 8 Dec 1822 Fort William, Bengal, India, parents Joseph and Elizabeth. Presumably you have this already.

Also Thomas John Beckwith born 13 May 1809 St George, Madras, parents John and Catherine. Could be Elizabeth's half-brother? He died 11 Oct 1902 Salt Lake City, Utah, and he married a Catherine Spurdel and had a daughter Amelia Beckwith born 1844 Southampton, England (according to her death registration). On the marriage entry, Catherine is Catherine Burridge, father's name John Spurdel. Their marriage was at St Mary Lambeth 11 Oct 1842, so the marriage is in the LMA records on ancestry. His father John Beckwith deceased, Officer in the Army. Witnesses F Romney and Edwd Powell (bother, I was hoping your Elizabeth might be a witness!)

[kiterunner]

Another child of John Beckwith and Catherine - "Emilia Beckwith", according to FamilySearch, born 23 Dec 1810 and baptised 17 Mar 1811 Calcutta. I would think her name is a variation of Amelia, and I'm thinking that both your Elizabeth's daughter Amelia and Thomas John Beckwith's daughter Amelia might be named after her. I know it's all very tenuous so far!

[kiterunner]

From the British Library India Office site - Catharine Beckwith, widow, married Thomas Gepp, widower, Sgt, HM 17th Ft, 19 Nov 1816 Ghazeepore, Bengal. Just putting this here in case she turns out to be Elizabeth's stepmother. Son Henry Gepp baptised 14 Sep 1817 Ghazeepore.

[Uncle John]

As an aside, I'm finding the Indian records on familysearch.com to be really useful.

[Anstey Nomad]

Thanks everyone. This gets even more confusing.

Again, I don't know a lot about the army, but this was before the reforms wasn't it, when you had to buy a commission?

That would imply money in the family and indeed the story in another branch of the Bodycote family is that Elizabeth could not do anything for herself when she came to the UK, because she had always had servants.

So this army officer's daughter marries a private soldier when she is only 15 at most, she comes back to the UK with him after he is invalided out of the army, they may have had more children, by 1829 he has abandoned her to the parish on 4 occasions and he is doing three months hard labour. They are living apart on all the censuses, she is doing menial work and she lives until 1884, when she dies in Leicester workhouse.

If there is a connection between Elizabeth and the registrar who married her granddaughter, why did her family not rescue her from this ignominy?

As you can see, this woman is really getting to me.

As I have said before, everyone researching this family believes that Charles, Robert and Henry were brothers, but that was physically impossible.

Bangs head on brick wall

AN

[Anstey Nomad]

PS

There was Amelia born to Joseph and Elizabeth in India, who appears to have died there.

There was a second Amelia born to Joseph and Elizabeth in Sutton in Ashfield/Mansfield Notts in 1827, but whether she is a child of Joseph and the original Elizabeth or Joseph and the woman he ran off with, I do not know. Amelia the Second died childless in 1901.

Witnesses to Joseph and Elizabeth's marriage are James and Susannah Palmer, who both made their marks.

AN

[kiterunner]

I was wondering whether that "officer in the Army" was a bit of an exaggeration.

The girls in India did tend to get married very young; I have a few in my family.

Yes, since Amelia was born in India at about the same time that the two boys are supposed to have been born in the West Indies, that (the two boys being in the same family) doesn't seem to make sense!

[Margaret in Burton]

Instead of brothers could they be cousins?

[Anstey Nomad]

Quite easily Marg, even though Robert and Henry appear to come from two different families.

In those two adjoining parishes, St Leonard and St Margaret, there were a number of parallel families.

AN

[Anstey Nomad]

What of Thomas Beckwith, born c 1810, 41 in 1851 census where he is in Canal Walk Southampton with his wife Catherine, their son George Robert Burridge Beckwith and their daughter Amelia! Thomas was born in Madras, Catherine and George in Poole and Amelia in Thames Ditton.

Rats! This looks like the Utah one before he emigrated...and also as if Catherine was a widow with a son when he married her.

I got quite excited there for a minute.

AN

[Anstey Nomad]

Found Thomas again on the 1841, living in Thames Ditton, but not, annoyingly, with his family.

AN

[Anstey Nomad]

Spent half the day in the Record Office today without moving any further on. There are some mentions of the wider family in the church's accounts, but nothing I can pin down to 'my' Joseph, no Court records, no gaol records, so I'm no further on.

I despair of this one.

AN