The Beckingham One-Name Study


           
           

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Beckingham

Beckingham One-Name Study

The Beckingham Pedigrees:-

Blewbury/Sutton

Clyffe Pypard

Great Hidden

Hagbourne

Kent

London/Newcastle

Monmouth

Salisbury

Savernake

Other Pedigrees

Place Names

Wiltshire map c. 1773

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Place names and their history

Beckingham, Lincolnshire

(Taken from Lincolnshire History, Gazeteer and Directory 1856 - A History of Boston)

BECKINGHAM is a well built village, pleasantly situated on a gentle acclivity, on the east side of the river Witham, near the borders of Nottinghamshire, five miles east of Newark.

The Parish contains 450 inhabitants and 1853 acres, 2 roods and 18 perches of land, including the hamlet of Sutton, one mile south of the village. The soil is fertile, and the pastures near the river are excellent feeding grounds. The Rev George Marsland is Lord of the Manor, but a great part of the soil belongs to the Trustees of the Late C G Milnes Esq., who are owners of Beckingham Hall, now unoccupied. Here are also several smaller freeholders, among whom are the families of Hebb, Else, Martin, Johnson and Handley. About 155 acres belong to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The Church, All Saints, is a large Gothic structure consisting of a nave with aisles, a chancel, a fine tower, and a south porch. It has been recently been repaired and a stained glass window inserted. It is a rectory, with the curacies of Fenton and Stragglethorpe annexed to it, valued in KB at £41.6s.8d., and now at £750, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev George Marsland MA, the Lord of the Manor, who has 432 acres of glebe, mostly allotted at the enclosure in 1770, in lieu of tithes. Here is a small Wesleyan Chapel and also a handsome National School built by the patron and rector in 1840. In 1691 Randolph Pattinson left to the poor the fourth part of an oxgang of land which was exchanged at the enclosure for 1 acre, 3 roods, 11 perch of land, let for £7 per annum. The poor have also the interest of £25 left by an unknown donor.

Tolleshunt Magna (or Major or Beckingham), Essex

(Taken from Kelly' s Directory - Essex 1882)

TOLLESHUNT MAGNA (or MAJOR) an appellative corrupted from one Malgere who held it at the time of the Doomsday survey, was also afterwards known as BECKINGHAM, and is a parish in the Eastern Division of the County, Thurstable hundred, Maldon union and county court district, rural deanery of Hatfield Peverel, archdeaconry of Colchester and diocese of St Albans, 47 1/2 miles from London, 5 north east from Maldon, and 8 south east from Witham. The Church of St Nicholas is half a mile south east of the village and comprises a chancel, nave and brick tower with 3 bells: in the church is a memorial with effigies and an inscription to Robert Higham and his wife: he died 23 June 1427: and other inscriptions to Robert Higham, secondus, 10 August 1429 and Margaret his wife: and Robert Higham, tertious, 4 February 1460 and Johanna his wife, daughter of Thomas Barrington.

There was formerly a chapel on the north of the chancel containing a stately monument to Stephen Beckingham (1550 - 1611) of Tolleshunt D'Arcy and Avis his wife, daughter of Sir Henry Tyrell, Kt of Thorne.

The register of baptisms dates from 1589; burials from 1559 and marriages 1561. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £187, in the gift of and held by Rev George Henry Turner. Here is a Congregational Chapel. An ancient brick gateway, with four embattled turrets, is all that remains of the Manor House, formerly the seat of the Beckingham family. The New England Company, who are lords of the manor, Jeffrey G Grimwood esq, Robert Francis esq, and the Rev C L Leigh are the principal land owners. The soil is various; subsoil, loam and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, beans and barley. The area is 2184 acres; rateable value £3288 and the population in 1882 was 405.

Parish clerk- John Grant. Letters through Witham by foot post. A letterbox is cleared at 5pm, Sundays at 11am. Tolleshunt D'Arcy is the nearest money order & telegraph office. National School (mixed) - built in 1878, for 70 children with an average attendance of 50; Miss Emma Chatterson, mistress.

An article in The Times on December 3rd 1912 reported recent acquisitions of The Victoria and Albert Museum which included -

"A fine piece of panelling, bearing the date 1546, has been purchased from a house known as Beckingham Hall at Tolleshunt Major, Essex (Room 52). It is elaborately carved with decorations in the style of the Renaissance, among which are the Royal Arms as borne by Henry VIII, and those of Stephen Beckingham. The old Hall at Beckingham from which the panelling originally came was built by Richard Beckingham on an estate granted to him by Henry VIII in 1543".  However, earlier sources show that Bukenham or Beckingham Hall was granted to Stephen Beckingham  (1518 - 1558) and his wife Anne (Unton) - Arch Cantiana vol XLVI pp 116 et seq.

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