Olive Dale to George Beardmore, 20 December 1967
Olive’s Christmas letter, with the long-sought record of William and Mary’s marriage. The first page has been joined from two scans.
Transcription
92 Hassam Parade, Newcastle, Staffs. 20th December, 1967.
My dear George,
I am just sending you a few lines to let you know that I have made a little progress regarding your old WILLIAM BEARDMORE, died at Audley. I found at long last an entry in LEIGH Register (of which we now have the original books at the County Record Office) stating that Banns were read for WILLIAM BEARDMORE of the par. of Leigh, and MARY CRITCHLEY of the par. of DRAYCOTT-IN-THE-MOORS, during December, 1780, but no mention of the marriage having taken place. I therefore found out the name of the Rector at Draycott-in-the-Moors, wrote and gave him the exact date Dec. 26, 1780, and asked him please to check if they were married there. I hoped that the entry might give a clue to father’s name. I also asked him to please make any charge necessary. I received the following reply.
“22nd November, 67. Dear Mrs. Dale,
Thank you v. much for yr. letter of yesterday, & I have spent part of this morning in looking up our registers. Your luck is in & I enclose a copy of the entry 107, entered in our Marriage register started 2 Nov. 1754.
The name of your ancestor is clearly CRITCHLEY, like the great majority of people (esp. the women) then she could not sign her name but made her mark & the name of the second witness appears to me to be NEWTON IKIN but the forename is not clear. It may be a family name. We have a Doomsday farm here in Totmonslow called NEWTON.
Strangely enough you live in a Parade called after my father’s cousin (his mother & my grandmother were sisters, BURGESS) and I have his gold pencil & pen (this unserviceable) in my desk at this moment. He died in June 1926 & I came down from University to his funeral at S. George’s, N.C., at my father’s urgent request.
As regards payment, make it what you like & divide it into 2 equal parts, one for me & one for the church of S. Margaret’s, Draycott. Best Wishes, (sd) Charles Healy, Rector.
P.S. The two slips in the copying are mine. Sorry. I will keep the book (a most interesting volume from other points of view) at the Rectory for a week or so, & if you could care to run over you can see it in my study. We are usually in (one of us), but it would be wise to ring first. Many years ago I knew a Miss Beardmore who married Cyril Shingler. They were both in the Repertory players & I remember that she was related to (? niece) Arnold Bennett.
Extract from Marriage Register: “Banns of Marriage between WILLIAM BEARDMORE & MARY CRITCHLEY were published on the 3rd, 10th & 17th of Decr. 1780. No. 107. The said WILLIAM BEARDMORE of the parish of Leigh, Farmer, and MARY CRITCHLEY of this parish, Spinster, were married in this church by banns this twenty-sixth day of December in the year One thousand seven hundred and eighty – by me, J. Bill, Rector. This marriage was solemnised between us, WILLIAM BEARDMORE. The mark X of MARY CRITCHLEY. In the presence of WILLIAM ASTON, NEWTON IKIN. C. W. Healey, 22. Nov. 67.”
In view of the above, I was rather bothered as to what sum to remit to the Rector, but as I had given him the exact date and he had only to consult that book and check the entry, I eventually decided to send him 10s. (Previous parsons have charged say 1s. 6d. per entry if one examines the book oneself.) I have also recently had four entries sent by a friend who paid 3s. 5d. to the Rector there – at that parish I mean. I never heard again from the Rector, even an acknowledgment, so do not know whether he was offended at the smallness of the sum or not. However, this verifies that WILLIAM seemed to be of age on marr. and was evidently living at Leigh at the moment, as their first child Francis was bap. there in July, 1781.
I have studied the pages of the “Staffordshire Advertiser” Births, Marriages and Deaths, and found the following three entries:
1834. Sept. 6. At Burslem, on the 27th ult., George, son of Mr. George Beardmore, builder, aged 21.
1836. Oct. 15. At the Parish Church, Burslem, on Tuesday, Mr. J. Beardmore, blacksmith, to Miss Mary Lea, daughter of Mr. Lea, of the Old Crown, of Burslem. (Presumably “Billy Lear”.) (Entry states “Lea”.)
1839. Feb. 23. On the 17th instant, at Burslem, Mr. George Beardmore, aged 51, late of that place, builder.
If I can get any other information of help, I will write again.
In the meantime, I am busy spending millions with other members of the County Educn. Cttee, and struggling through the horrid fog, working all day and earning nothing.
So cheerio for the moment, – wishing you everything you wish yourself for a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year.
Best Love, Olive
What the letter tells us
The Draycott marriage. After years of searching, Olive found the banns at Leigh and then, through the Rector of Draycott-in-the-Moors, the marriage itself on 26 December 1780. This is the Rector’s transcription quoted on William’s page. It does not name William’s father, but shows him as a farmer of Leigh, of age, and still living at Leigh, where their first son Francis was baptised in 1781.
George the builder. The Staffordshire Advertiser records the deaths of George Beardmore (1787–1839), builder, of Burslem, aged 51, and of his son George, aged 21, in 1834 – matching the entries in George’s Bible.
Margaret and Cyril. The Rector, Charles Healey, remembered Margaret Beardmore and Cyril Shingler from their days in the Repertory players, and that she was related to Arnold Bennett.
The 1836 marriage of “Mr. J. Beardmore, blacksmith” to Mary Lea of the Old Crown, Burslem, is almost certainly that of Thomas Beardmore (1813–1884), who married Mary, only daughter of Billy Lear of the Old Crown – as Olive herself guessed (“Presumably ‘Billy Lear’”). The initial may have been misprinted.
Hassam Parade. Olive’s road was named after the Rector’s father’s cousin, who died in 1926.