More on Family Members who Subscribed to the Sermon Collection

With help from my Beddome descendant friend I have now identified the family members who subscribed to the book.

Mrs Ashwin, Mrs, Bourton-on-the-Water

The Ashwins were connected with the Boswells. On July 1 1709, William Ashwin of Bretforton married Ruth Boswell at Bourton on the Water. Ruth was a daughter of Samuel Boswell, a sister of Richard Boswell and an aunt to Elizabeth Boswell, Beddome's wife. William and Ruth lived at Bretforton and had at least 6 children. Their eldest son was James Ashwin born in 1710 and buried in the Baptist Cemetery at Bourton on the September 8, 1801 at the great age of 91. Presumably Mrs Ashwin of Bourton is of the same family.

Beddome, Mr Benjamin, Manchester (1784-1869) – Grandson. His parents were Samuel Beddome (1756-1815) and Jane Wilkins (1758-1827). He was a member of a Baptist congregation in Manchester where he had a drysalting business.

Beddome, John Reynolds Esq, Romsey (1787-1859) – Grandson. His parents were Boswell Brandon Beddome (1763-1816) and Anne Wilkins (1765-1797). He became a doctor and was mayor of Romsey 6 times.

Beddome, Mr William, London (1788-1858) – Grandson. Brother of John Reynolds Beddome, so son of Boswell Brandon and Anne Wilkins. Full name - Willliam Wilkins Beddome.

Beddome, Miss Jane, London (1792-1865) – Granddaughter. Sister to John Reynolds and William Wilkins, so parents as above. She never married.

Beddome, Mrs Boswell, Weymouth (1805-1884) – Wife of grandson. Born Elizabeth Ellary, she was the wife of Boswell Beddome (1794-1834). Boswell was another sibling of John Reynolds etc, and therefore a grandson of Beddome. He died at a fairly young age and Elizabeth later remarried to Francis Flink Davis.

Beddome, Mr Samuel, Camberwell (1791-1866) – Grandson. Another of the siblings of John Reynolds Beddome etc. He wrote a book about the Beddome family now held in the Angus Library. Elected Common Crier and Sergeant at Arms, London.

Beddome, Mr Richard B(oswell), Clapham (1797-1881) – Grandson – another son of Samuel Beddome and Jane Wilkins. He became a solicitor.

Beddome, Mr Josephus, Leamington (1808-1854) – Grandson/ He was the eldest son of Josephus Beddome (1779-1834) who was Benjamin’s youngest son. In 1839 he was listed as a tea dealer and seedsman of 24 Upper Parade, Leamington Spa. He never married and at some stage went to Canada, which is where the rest of the family had settled following the death of their father. Josephus junior died at the home of his brother in London, Ontario.

Beddome, Elizabeth Favell, Camberwell (1832-1927) – Great granddaughter. She was a daughter of Samuel Beddome of Camberwell above and Elizabeth Muriel (1796-1880). In 1874, at the age of about 42, she married Rev Clement Poynder at Bourton-on-the-Water. Oddly, she is only 3 in 1835, so presumably her father subscribed in her name, similarly for her sister Annie Muriel below.

Beddome, Annie Muriel, Camberwell (1834-1920) – Great granddaughter. Another daughter of Samuel Beddome above and Elizabeth Muriel. She never married and with a younger sister, Mary Muriel Beddome (1836-1933), she ended her days in Bourton on the Water.

Charlesworth, Rev John, Ipswich (1782-1864) – married to Elizabeth Beddome below.

Charlesworth, Mrs (Elizabeth) Ipswich (1783-1869) – granddaughter. She was another daughter of Samuel Beddome and Jane Wilkins. Her son, Samuel Beddome Charlesworth, married Maria Amelia Beddome, daughter of Richard Boswell Beddome. Their daughter, Florence Louisa Charlesworth, married Charles Wright Barclay.

Favell, Mrs (Elizabeth), London (1765-1849) – daughter. She had married Samuel Favell (1760-1830).

Gregory, Olinthus, Woolwich (1774-1841) – his second wife was Anne Beddome (1789-1855), who was a granddaughter of Beddome and the daughter of Boswell Brandon Beddome and Anne Wilkins.

Stephenson, Mrs, Clapham (1764-1841) – probably the mother of George Stephenson below. She was born Alice Ruth Lucy Booth.

Stephenson, George Esq, Taunton (1790-1860) – husband of Jane Beddome below.

Stephenson, Mrs G, Taunton (1793 -1877) – Granddaughter, born Jane Beddome. Daughter of Samuel Beddome and Jane Wilkins.

Mrs Robert Winter, London is indeed the widow of Rev Robert Winter (1762-1833). She is also the mother-in-law of John Reynolds Beddome who married her daughter Rebecca about 1812.

Beddome Sermons Subscribers Part 2

Others

The MPs are the brothers Charles Barclay (1780-1855) and David Barclay (1784-1861) whose wife is also listed. Both MPs, like the publisher, had a Quaker background. Charles of Bury Hill, Surrey, was a brewer and landowner and Tory MP for West Surrey (1835–1837, previously of Southwark 1815–1818 and Dundalk 1826–1830). David was Whig MP for Penryn, Cornwall, 1828-1830 when he resigned. After two unsuccessful attempts to take the Sunderland seat, he eventually won it in 1835, only to lose it in 1837. He was re-elected as MP for Sunderland in 1841 and held it until he resigned in 1847.

The Beddome family is well represented in the list, unsurprisingly. Ten sons, daughters-in-law and grandsons bear the Beddome name but others may be missed, such as Olinthus Gregory LLD FRAS (1774-1841) the mathematician, whose second marriage was to Beddome's granddaughter Anne Beddome (b 1789). Another grand daughter, Elizabeth Charlesworth, has already been mentioned.

The medical doctors are Samuel Ashwell (1798-1857) a leading London gynaecologist and Bourton based Nathaniel Stenson (1776-1862). The other Bourton resident is Mrs Elizabeth Ashwin (1775-1855) probably the daughter of deacon James Ashwin (1710-1801). Also listed are John Reynolds (1776-1854) of Lower Slaughter and his two daughters or granddaughters at Sondes Place, Dorking, where Charles Barclay's wife and a Mrs Crawford, another subscriber, are all also said to be living and Richard Cooper (1757-1848) of Little Rissington, converted from Anglicanism in Beddome's time and a member at Bourton.

Other identifiable individuals include William Bury (1785-1839) of Fox-hill Bank, Blackburn; clothier and art collector E A Butler (c 1802-1886); William Romaine Callender (d 1872) and his wife, Hannah (nee Pope) of Manchester (who also paid for two further copies for a friend); the Manchester Quakers, Isaac Crewdson (1760-1844) Wilson Crewdson (1790-1871) and David Dockray (1778-1853); the businessman George Hillhouse (c 1778-1844) of Combe-house, Bristol; the clothiers, William and Nathaniel Marling, who owned mills in the Stroud area; the widows of Francis Paynter (1762-1835) of Denmark Hill, the successful Cornish builder and of the Independent minister Robert Winter (1762-1833) from London. Others with a Stroud connection include Henry Whyatt (1783-1847); the local historian Paul Hawkins Fisher (1779-1873) and Lindsey Winterbotham (1799-1871) a banker and landowner, then of Tewkesbury but later of Stroud.

The only non-personal subscriber is The Nailsworth Reading Society. This is a Quaker group started in 1818 and still very active at this time. Individuals from Nailsworth, near Stroud, include the clothier Baptist deacons, Samuel Enoch Francis (d 1858), the son of the pastor there, Benjamin Francis (1734-1799) and Edward Barnard (1796-1867). Mary Bliss of Pensile House, the widow of Baptist deacon, Edward Bliss. Her sister Ann Bliss is also listed and Thomas Overbury. Another two London men called Bliss also appear.

The name Mrs W Brock, Norwich, is interesting as William Brock (1807-1875) had settled in the Baptist church there, St Mary's, in 1833. In 1834 he married Mary Bliss of Nailsworth, whose family was just mentioned.

The Baptist minister George Cole has been mentioned. He was in Leamington as was Josephus Beddome (1808-1854), Beddome's youngest son. So also were the subscribers, John Walter Sherer (1776-1846), Mrs Way and the Misses Phelp and Pimlott.

The naval officer James Masters (1787-1863) was living then on the Isle of Wight.

Thirty subscribers are from Manchester and thirteen from London. Only a few subscribers are from outside England. William Petrie (1821-1908), the inventor of the arc lamp, was then a medical student in the Cape of Good Hope (Beddome's grandson Josephus married a Sophia Petrie); there is also Mrs Poole and Miss E Wallis in Waterford, Ireland and the Quaker bookseller and stationer, Richard Moore Tims of Grafton Street, Dublin; in Haverfors West, Miss Maelor and, in Edinburgh, Mrs John Anderson and the Misses Saville.

Beddome's support by this time was coming from family and old friends, one or two from among the great and the good and others whose connection it is difficult at this remote time to work out.

Beddome Sermons Subscribers Part 1

In 1835, about forty years after his death, a volume of sermons by Benjamin Beddome was published with a memoir. The book was published by means of subscription and the 175 or so subscribers are listed in the book. Most signed up for one copy but some signed for two, three, four, six or even in two cases, eight copies. This meant that when Quaker publisher William Ball (1801-1878) of Aldine Chambers, Paternoster Row, London sent his copy off to Richard Clay (1789-1877) for printing in Bread Street Hill he could be sure that approaching 300 copies were already sold.

Understandably, most of those found on the list are by now to us mere names. Some can be traced, however - people such as the many ministers, the two MPs, various members of Beddome's family and at least two medical doctors.

Ministers

Unsurprisingly, among the ministers, Baptists are in the majority. Perhaps the best known of these is William Steadman (1764-1837) from Bradford, pastor of Westgate Baptist Church and president of the academy there. It is no surprise to see the name of Thomas Coles (1779-1840), then minister in Bourton and Benjamin Snook Hall (1787-1859), a former Bourton member who became pastor at nearby Burford.

Other Baptist ministers include Steadman's long lived son-in-law, John Aldis (1808-1907) father of the inventor of the aldis lamp, who, in a 47 year long ministry, served in Manchester, Maze Pond in London, Reading and Plymouth; George Cole (1798-1857) at Leamington at this time but previously in nearby Kenilworth and later in Evesham, Blackfriars in London, Exeter and, finally, Naunton, Gloucestershire; James Hoby (1788-1871) Birmingham; Richard Pryce (1780-1865) Cote, Oxfordshire; Edward Steane (1798-1882) Camberwell, one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance, and William Stephens (1765-1839) West Street church, Rochdale.

The Independents or Congregationalists are John Burder MA (1785-1867) Stroud; John Addison Coombs (1788-1856) Manchester; John Herbert, Long Itchington, Warwickshire; Thomas Jackson (1770-1837) Bamford Independent Chapel, Heywood, Lancashire and Robert Stephens McCall LLD (1782-1838) Moseley Street, Manchester. Another Coombs also listed is W H Coombs, a Baptist minister in Taunton.

There are also several Anglicans - Thomas Blundell (1786–1861) All Cannings, Wiltshire, eldest son of the Baptist minister, Thomas Blundell (1752–1824); Isaac Bowman, Formby (whose brother John is also listed); Henry Gwyther (1815-1844) Yardley, Worcestershire and William Renton (1788-1857) Tilstock, Shropshire. Also, John Charlesworth (1782-1864) Flowton near Ipswich. His wife Elizabeth is also listed. She was one of Beddome's grand daughters.

There is also an H H Jones, another Manchester minister and a J Watts from London.