Olive Dale to George Beardmore, 27 March 1955
Transcription
Telephone: Newcastle, Staffs. 69015
“Kingsley,” 92 Hassam Parade, Newcastle, Staffs.
27th March, 1955.
Dear Mr. Beardmore,
I was glad to hear that your nephew Richard Beardmore is interested in his family tree. Oddly enough, I had just had a letter from my only nephew asking how I was getting on with my digging into the past history, and asking me not to go too far, otherwise I might find our ancestors wearing tails and swinging from trees – in the next line stating that I was not to worry, as they were not believers in the Darwin theory!
You may tell your nephew Richard that the first definite ancestor of the Beardmores that I have so far traced was Richard de Berdmor (or Bordmor) acting as a Juror in 1280 at the time that Edmund the King’s brother proposed to endow a chantry at St. Mary’s, Tutbury; this Richard died in 1295, leaving a son Richard by his first wife Matilda, and sons William and Robert by his second wife Philippa. My working out of dates, etc., makes me believe that the William was the one who was Rector of Leek, stated by Jeremiah in 1905 to have become Bishop of Llandaff. I have looked up the Llandaff Bishops, and oddly enough one was appointed in 1361, whilst William is supposed to have died 1360, but no note of William de Berdmor amongst the list of Bishops. I went to Llandaff Cathedral last Whit.; three generations of us went; my sister her son and his wife and three boys, my husband and myself. It was badly bombed in 1940, but services are held in part of it. However, I have now got acquainted with the Diocesan Registrar’s Secretary at Lichfield, and knowing that the secret of William de Berdmor must lie entombed in two large volumes lying there – the registers of the then Bishop, Roger de Norbury (Northburgh, Northbury) I shall make another endeavour to find definite information.
With regard to his crest, I can find nothing as to where Jeremiah got this from – nor the motto. A Bishop’s mitre is not handed down to descendants, and in any case William a priest at that period, would hardly be married. Another crest, the stag’s head, which my uncle claimed we had, (also another, a boar’s head my sister vaguely recalls) is given on a seal attached to documents bearing this William’s name, as “W. de Leke”, but it might have been a Rudierd, of Rudyard. A stag’s head caboshed is also the crest of the de Bougheys of Whitmore, and one John Berdmor of Frogholle (with “lands lying in the lordshippe of Kingsley”) married Margaret Boughey. I enclose a draft of his will which I have examined at the Probate Office, B’ham, which may be the son of John and Margaret, or the Elizabeth mentioned may be John’s second wife. However, I am again “taking steps” to see what I can prove about this. I wondered whether Jeremiah’s notes might be a bit of “wishful thinking” and taken from Sleigh’s book, which is not too well-referenced, but I have examined both Sleigh’s big and little volume for all the references to William de Berdmor, but nary a mention of any crest or motto.
Jeremiah was an educated man, an architect, and of good position, and his sister is quoted on two occasions in the history of the Adams family, as Percy Adams visited her when writing it. She is referred to as Miss Helen, which might be correct, but the usual spelling in their branch was Ellen.
In Jeremiah’s notes which you quote, he was evidently trying to attach both John and Uncle George’s branch far too soon. On the copy I sent you, I think I had written “No.” where Jeremiah asks about the old will possibly being Uncle George’s g.g.g’fth’s. I did not know then that Ralph’s wife (my great-great-grandmother) was a Beardmore before she married Ralph, so that sent me off on another branch of the Beardmores, to discover that the will is that of her grand-father, therefore my four-greats and a grandfather’s. To be clear, I am the seventh generation from the Thomas, whose will it is in that branch, whereas Ralph’s immediate ancestors for three grandfathers, that is his father Thomas’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all George Beardmores.
Going back to Jeremiah and his note, he asks “Where do Robert and Mary come in”? Well, Robert and Mary were the parents of Mary who married Ralph, as you will see from the enclosed sheet, quoting notes from the will dated 1742. Unfortunately, Mary’s two brothers Robert and Thomas died in infancy, so your line is not connected through them nor is Jeremiah’s. I have had one or two Wills of Jeremiah’s line out, and found out the information about his family through these and the registers, which gives a lot more information about him that he knew before, but still nothing whatever to shew who were the parents of your William born 1759. Have none of your family any idea at all? However, I shall be getting hold of the Cheadle registers sometime and will let you know if I have any success there. He was not bap. at Alton, nor Kingsley; of course, he might not have been born at Cotton, although living there when he married. We might have to advertise yet, but shall see.
Rychard Berdmore [handwritten: bur. at K. 1575. I have seen his will at B’ham] was the Lord of the Manor of Lutley, otherwise Litley, Cheadle, in Elizabeth’s day, and you may tell Richard that there was a Richard and also a Robert from the Hundred of Totmanslow mentioned in the famous Muster Roll of 1539 as being liable for “a hors and harnesse for a man” which meant all war-harness for the horse and man, and this was the height of importance, some only producing a “bowe” or a “chiefe of arrowes”, or a “byll”. I feel so frustrated sometimes, but progress keeps progressing slowly. Shall eventually write a book on the Beardmores, I think. What do you say? I have a large family tree written out of my own folks, and you have William’s from 1759, and I have some of Jeremiah’s, but want William’s parents!
Yours sincerely,
O. A. Dale
What the letter tells us
Rick started it. Olive was writing because George’s nephew Richard (Rick) had become interested in the family tree.
The earliest Beardmore. Richard de Berdmor, a juror in 1280, who died in 1295, is the Richard de Berdmore mentioned on Thomas Beardmore’s page.
Jeremiah’s 1905 notes. (A copy of his notes is on William’s page.) Olive describes Jeremiah as an architect whose sister was Miss Helen or Ellen. He is very probably the Jeremiah born in 1844, with a sister Helen, at the foot of Olive’s sheet on Jeremiah of Kingsley’s family. She doubted his claims that William de Berdmor became Bishop of Llandaff and that the family had a crest and motto.
The enclosed will. The “draft of his will” she enclosed is very probably her sheet on the Bougheys of Whitmore and John Berdmor, which asks the same question: were the two Johns one man, or father and son?
Olive’s own descent. Her great-great-grandmother Mary Beardmore, daughter of Robert and Mary Beardmore (whose will is dated 1742), married Ralph Beardmore, whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all called George. Mary’s brothers died as infants, so Olive concluded that neither our line nor Jeremiah’s joined hers there. This is the “but no” in her note on the Kingsley sheet.
William’s parents. In 1955 Olive could find nothing to show who the parents of William (1759–1824) were. He was not baptised at Alton or Kingsley. Our tree now makes him a son of Robert (1719) and Grace, who married at Leigh, where William was living when he married; the evidence for that step still needs to be pinned down, and her later letters may show how it was found.
Rychard Berdmore, Lord of the Manor of Lutley (Litley), Cheadle, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, was buried at Kingsley in 1575. A Richard and a Robert Berdmore of Totmonslow Hundred appear in the Muster Roll of 1539.