Boswell B Beddome

We have made one or two entries about the third Beddome son. In the Dissenting Academies database here we learn that somewhere around 1784 BBB studied at Bristol at his father's expense. His birth date being around 1763 he would have been in his twenties.

Heskins, Beddome and Norton

We know that Robert Norton was in business with John Heskins and a Beddome son. This notice in the Gazette noting the move from Bristol to Nailsea cast s a little more light

THE Partnership between John Heskins, Boswell Brandon Beddome, and Robert Norton, all of Nailsworth, in the Parish of Horsley, in the County of Gloucester, Clothiers and Partners, was, by mutual Content, dissolved on the 21st Day of December last. NB The business will in future be carried on at Nailsworth aforesaid, by Heskins and Norton only, to whom all Persons to whom the Paid Partnership is indebted are desired to apply for Payment of their respective Debts; and all Persons who are indebted to the Said Partnership arc desired to pay the same to Heskins and Norton only, who are duly authorized to receive the same: Witness our Hands this 12th Day of March, 1791, 

John Heskins

Boswell Brandon Beddome

Robert Norton

Boswell Beddome's will

Will of Boswell Brandon Beddome, Benjamin's son.

I Boswell Brandon Beddome of Walworth Surrey duly considering the uncertainty (of) life do while in health of body and mind make this my last Will and Testament. I commit my body to the dust hoping that through the works and mediation of Jesus the Son of God it will be raised a glorious body and united to the spirit will enjoy complete and eternal happiness.

I give and bequeath to my beloved sons

John Reynolds Beddome,

William Beddome and

Olinthus G. Gregory,

whom I hereby appoint Executors to this my last Will and Testament all my freehold leasehold and personal property of every description including my share in the Equitable Insurance Office in Trust for for the use and purpose of my last Will and Testament

And first I will that my said Executors and Trustees do as much as they possibly can to advantage convert all my property into money and first discharge all my lawful debts and burial expenses

And secondly provide for the due payment of an annuity for my beloved wife Sarah agreeable to her marriage settlement

Thirdly I will my said Executors and Trustees do pay to my beloved sons

William Beddome,

Samuel Beddome

and Boswell Beddome

five hundred pounds each, also to my daughter Jane Beddome five hundred pounds, and to my daughter Sophie Beddome five hundred pounds.

The remainder of my property after paying my debts and the above legacies I do give and bequeath and request may be paid to my said Executors and Trustees in manner following:

to my son John Reynolds Beddome one share

to my son William Beddome one share

to my son Samuel Beddome one share

to my son Boswell Beddome one share

to my daughter Anne Gregory one share

to my daughter Jane Beddome one share

to my daughter Sophia Beddome one share

and lastly I do by these presents revoke any former Will and Testament

In witness thereof I sign this my last Will and Testament signed and sealed with my own hand this twentieth day of July in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and thirteen

B.B.Beddome LS Signed and delivered in the presence of us

Josh Hackson Gracechurch St, Suzette Maria Jackon, William Taylor

Proved at London 21st. November 1816 before the worshipful John Danbury Dr. Of Laws, sworn by the oaths of William Beddome the son, Olinthus Gilbert Gregory Dr. of Laws two of the Execotors to whom Admon was granted, having first sworn duly to execute power reserved to John Reynolds Beddome the son & other Executor.

Boswell Beddome

Beddome, Boswell (1763-1816) was the son of the Baptist minister and hymnwriter, Benjamin Beddome (1717-95) of Bourton-on-the-Water, one time suitor of Mary Steele’s aunt, Anne Steele. In 1797, Boswell joined the Baptist congregation at Maze Pond in Southwark, London; unfortunately, his wife, the former Anne Wilkins (sister of William Wilkins, who had asked for Mary Steele’s hand in marriage in 1777), died shortly thereafter at the age of thirty-three, leaving him with several young children. He remarried in January 1800 to Anne Parsons and that July was elected a deacon at Maze Pond, along with Joseph Wickenden, both men being friends of Benjamin Flower, radical newspaper/ magazine editor at Cambridge and later at Harlow. Beddome was active in Baptist affairs, serving as a deputy to the Protestant Dissenter’s Fund in 1803. His business partner was Mr. Fysh (also a member at Maze Pond) in Fenchurch Street, London. Robert Hall had been intimate with the Boswell family for many years. Beddome’s father partially supported Hall during the early years of the latter’s ministry with the interest from a £600 legacy (MS., Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, shelfmark 41.3.4[t.]). Hall and Boswell Beddome maintained a close friendship throughout their lives. Writing to Olinthus Gregory on 2 November 1816, three days after Beddome’s death, Hall laments, Alas! my dear friend Boswell Beddome—my eyes will see thee no more! The place which once knew thee will know thee no more! How many delightful hours have I spent in thy society, hours never more to return! That countenance beaming with benevolence &tc; friendship will be beheld no more until the Resurrection morn, when it will rise to view radiant with immortal brightness and beauty. (MS., Bristol Baptist College Library, acc. no. OSG.95B, box A) See Maze Pond 2.f.213, 221; CI 15 July 1797, 25 January 1800.

Anne Wilkins

There is no portrait of Beddome as we have said but Mrs N informs me that she was recently sent, by a Beddome descendant in Canada, this portrait of a lady who is probably Beddome's daughter-in-law, Anne Wilkins (she was married to Boswell Brandon Beddome). On the reverse it says

Grandmother Beddome

to Ellen Octavia

Ash ... ?

10 July

husband dies

October

L...st

According to an entry in the family Bible, Anne Beddome (nee Wilkins) died at 1 am on July 10, 1797. Boswell Brandon Beddome died on October 29, 1816. Ellen Octavia (b 1831) was the daughter of William Wilkins Beddome (1782-1858).

Boswell Brandon Beddome

This obituary appeared in the Baptist Magazine at the time. It begins:

Mr B B BEDDOME

Died on Tuesday, October 29, 1816, at the house of his son-in-law Dr Gregory, of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Mr Boswell Brandon Beddome, of Walworth, aged 54 years.

Mr Beddome was the third son of the late Rev B Beddome, AM of Bourton-on-the-water, Gloucestershire, a minister well known in most of our churches, and by whose admirable sermons now publishing, he, "being dead, yet speaketh." He had, therefore, enjoyed the benefit of the early and constant instruction of a parent of great piety and correctness of sentiment; and having thus been trained up in the fear of God, he always chose his principal associates among persons of professed piety. This circumstance, together with an accurate knowledge of the theory of religion, and much frankness and benevolence of character, led him, in his own estimation, and, perhaps, in truth, to satisfy himself for years, with the form of godliness, while he was destitute of the power.

It pleased God, however, by the dissolution of the tenderest of earthly ties, nearly twenty years ago, to convince him of the vanity of all mere notional religion, at once to wean him from all earthly and mistaken dependencies, and bring him to an intimate acquaintance with himself, and a cordial acquiescence in the plan of salvation through the atonement of "God's dear Son." At that period he joined the Baptist church at Maze-pond, Southwark, then under the pastoral care of the Rev James Dore, AM; of which church he was chosen a deacon about three years afterwards: and during greater part of the sixteen years in which he filled that office, he devoted himself most conscientiously, and, (considering the way in which his time was necessarily employed in secular occupations,) most sedulously to promoting the interests of religion generally, of that church in particular, and especially to the encouragement and guidance of the younger members of that community. Animated by a like spirit, he for many years took an active part in the concerns of the "Baptist Fund," and of the "Deputies appointed to protect the Civil Rights of Protestant Dissenters." Since the establishment of the "Stepney Academical Institution," he had also, from a persuasion of the advantages likely to accrue from such a seminary in the vicinity of the metropolis, readily devoted himself, as a member of the committee, to the promotion of its important objects.

The rest is here. See page 23.