 |
|
BEASTALL family (Grantham and Nottingham)
|
![]() |
|
The surname is variously recorded as Bestall, Bestell, Beastall and Beastale.
My direct forebear was Maria Beastall (see end note), mother of two children born at Grantham in Lincolnshire. The elder, William, was born 8 January 1803 and baptised at St Wulfram’s church ten days later ( - he was probably the infant buried there in September that year). His sister, from whom I am descended, was Elizabeth, born 1 November 1808 and baptised at St Wulfram’s three days later. Both were illegitimate.
Elizabeth married John Fitch at Grantham on 1 February 1830 – see FITCH family. She had previously been a witness to two marriages at St Wulfram's: that of William Burnett to Elizabeth Shaw (19 Jan 1829) and William Woods to Mary Cant (2 Mar 1829).
Another member of the family, William Beastall, married Sarah Taylor at Grantham on 25 June 1821. Their firstborn child was Matilda, baptised at St Wulfram’s on 17 March 1822. The parish register gives father’s occupation as fruiterer.
Shortly afterwards the family moved to Nottingham, and on the 1841 census they were living at Parliament Street, where William, aged 45, was now working as a lacemaker. With them on the census were their children Lucy Clarissa (bp 14 Feb 1831) and Betsey Stott (bp 27 July 1836; buried 29 Sept 1844). Their older children, all baptised at Nottingham, were Augusta (20 Oct 1823 - see end note), Frederick William (18 May 1825; buried 21 May aged one month), William Edwin (5 Sept 1827), and Charles Herbert (25 Feb 1830). For these baptisms the church register gives the family address as Long Row and then Parliament Street, and father's occupation as twist hand and then lace manufacturer.
On the 1841 census William and Sarah Beastall's eldest child, Matilda, was working as a servant at Melton Mowbray. The census gives her address as Beast Market (this was a wide pavement on the north side of Sherrard Street). She married Edward Simpson, a cooper, at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in the last quarter of 1850, following the birth of their son George Simpson Beastall, who was baptised at St Mary's, Nottingham, on 10 February 1850. The parish register names the mother as Matilda Beastall, of Parliament Street, her parents' address.
On the 1851 census Matilda and Edward were living at Mansfield Woodhouse with their year-old son George.
By the time of the 1861 census, when she was 39, Matilda had been recently widowed and was living at Ecclesall Bierlow, Yorkshire, where her sister Augusta had married in 1852. With her were her sons George 11, Edward 9, Frederick 4, and William 1. Her occupation is recorded as beerhouse keeper.
In the last quarter of 1864 she married Henry Ormiston, and in 1867 had a daughter Mary Ann, only to be widowed a second time two years later in 1869.
On the 1871 census Matilda was aged 49 and living at 9 Hill Street, Ecclesall Bierlow, with her son Edward Simpson, 19, a spring knife cutler born Mansfield, and her daughter Mary Ann Ormiston, aged 7, born Sheffield.
On the 1881 census she was 59, living at London Road, Ecclesall Bierlow, with her daughter Mary Ann Ormiston, 17, born Sheffield, and her unmarried son Edward Simpson, 29, a spring knife cutler, born Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottingham.
Matilda died at Ecclesall Bierlow in the final quarter of 1886, aged 64.
Augusta Beastall (born 1823) daughter of William & Sarah, and sister of Matilda, married Richard Lane, a cooper, at Ecclesall Bierlow in 1852. Their children were William (born 1854 Sheffield), Arthur Edward (1857 Holbeach, Lincs), Septimus Herbert (1860 Sheffield), Burnett (1862 Nottingham), and Lilias (1867 Mile End, London). On the 1881 census the family were living at Hart, Durham. Augusta died in 1895.
MARIA BESTALL
The mother of my forebear Elizabeth whose name is shown as Maria Bestall in St Wulfram’s parish register, Grantham, may possibly have been Mary Bestall baptised on 22 June 1783 at Screveton, Nottinghamshire, about twelve miles north-west of Grantham. She was a daughter of William Bestall and Mary Fisher, married by licence at neighbouring Thoroton on 13 August 1771. Their other children were Joseph (13 Nov 1774), Elizabeth (4 Feb 1776), William (6 June 1779), Robert (6 July 1781), Richard (1785 – died in infancy), Ann (3 June 1787) and Richard (16 Aug 1789).
Mary/Maria Bestall appears to have moved to Scarborough, Yorkshire, where she is recorded as Maria in the 1841 census, aged 60, living at Town Hall Yard and born outside the county. Ten years later in the 1851 census her details are shown as Maria Bestall, aged 73, living at 3 Henrietta Court, off St Thomas Street, Scarborough. Her occupation is given as nurse, and her place of birth as Screveton, Nottinghamshire.
She died at Scarborough in June Q 1855.
OTHER BEASTALL CONNECTIONS
Edward Beastall, of Eaton, Leicestershire, married Mary Anne Healey at Grantham on 3 September 1822. Their witnesses were William Beastall and Amelia Hare. On the 1841 census they were living at Eaton, not far from Melton Mowbray: Edward Beastale, 45, farmer, and Mary Beastale, 40.
There were no children from the marriage, although Edward had an illegitimate child, Jane Swain, born at Eaton before his marriage.
Edward died on 13 Feb 1860, aged 67. On the 1861 census his widow was shown as aged 63, farmer’s widow, born at Burton Coggles, Lincolnshire, living as boarder at Eaton with Thomas Matthew Beastall, unmarried, aged 28, farmer of 138 acres employing 5 men and a boy. This Thomas Beastall, who had clearly inherited the farm from his uncle, the late Edward Beastall, had been born at Muckton, Lincolnshire (see below).
Thomas Matthew Beastall married Mary Beastall at Eaton on 9 December 1865. The marriage certificate names his father as Francis Beastall, farmer, and his bride’s father as Francis Beastall, hosier. Mary Beastall had been baptised at St Mary’s Nottingham on 31 August 1820, daughter of Francis and Anne. On the marriage certificate she gives her place of residence as Theddlethorpe, Lincolnshire.
At Eaton on the 1871 census:
Thomas Matthew Beastale, aged 41, farmer of 158 acres employing four labourers and three boys, born Muckton, Lincs
Mary, wife, aged 48, born Nottingham
Mary Ann, aunt, aged 74, farmer’s widow, born Burton, Lincs
Sarah Goddard, visitor, u., aged 53, born Kingston, Hants
Ann Jesson, w., aged 68, assistant (on farm), born Leicester
Catherine Darby, servant, aged 16, born Eaton.
Mary Ann Beastall died 5 December 1873 aged 77.
On the 1881 census Thomas Matthew was recorded still at Eaton:
Thomas Matthew Beastale, aged 51, born Muckton, farmer of 165 acres employing 4 men and one boy
Mary, wife, aged 58, born Nottingham
Thomas Matthew Beastale, nephew, aged 15, born Theddlethorpe, Lincs (see 1871 census below).
Mary Beastall died Dec Q 1895 aged 75. Thomas Matthew Beastall died June Q 1907 aged 76.
On the 1871 census Thomas Matthew jnr had been living at South Reston, Lincs, with his parents:
William Beastall, aged 35, farmer & coal merchant, born Reston
Catherine, wife, aged 30, born Melton Mowbray
Clara, daughter, aged 8, born Theddlethorpe, Lincs
Thomas, son, aged 5 ditto
Catherine Mary, daughter, aged 3 ditto
Katie, daughter, aged 1 ditto
In 1841 13-year-old William Beastall had been living at Sherrard Street, Melton Mowbray, in the home of Richard Gibbs, a saddler. Richard Gibbs had married Clarissa Beastall at St Nicholas, Nottingham, on 3 July 1823. The youngest of the Gibbs children in 1841 was Catherine, aged 8 months. This William appears to have been the uncle of William Samuel Beastall who married Catherine Gibbs at Melton Mowbray Sept Q 1861.
William Samuel had been baptised at South Reston on 29 Sept 1834, son of Francis & Dorothy Beastall, and was brother to Thomas Matthew, born c.1831.
William Samuel Beastall died at Reston in Dec Q 1874 aged 39. He had been recorded aged 6 on the 1841 census at South Reston with his father Francis, a farmer, (40), mother Dorothy (35) and brother Thomas (11). Their neighbours were William Beastall, also a farmer, (40), his wife Martha (30) and daughter Ann (14). This appears to have been the William who married Azubah Ann Farrow (below) at Muckton in 1824 – their daughter Ann was baptised at South Reston on 10 Dec 1826 - so presumably Martha was his second wife. Martha died Dec Q 1849.
Burials in Eaton churchyard, Leicestershire:
John Beastall, died 10 Jan 1815, aged 56 years; also five of his children who died in their infancy.
Mary, relict of John Beastall, died 23 Apr 1829, aged 61 years.
Thomas, of Nottingham, son of John and Mary, buried 22 July 1826, aged 27.
Francis Beastall, died 19 July 1826, aged 27; Edmund his son, died 15 Dec 1821, aged two years.
Lucy, wife of John Denner of Nottingham, daughter of the late John and Mary Beastall ‘of this place’, died 5 Oct 1833, aged 37 years.
Edward Beastall, died 13 Feb 1860, aged 67 years; Mary Ann, relict of the above, died 5 Dec 1873, aged 77 years.
Matthew Beastal, late of London, died 20 May 1882, aged 80 years.
|
|
|
|
