Richard Goring's Personal Family History

Richard was born Richard John Beardmore on 22 Apr 1941 in Army Quarters at Pirbright, Surrey

Names being researched include:

CLARK - specifically John Morris CLARK, born 23 Dec 1917, possibly in Saskatchewan, Canada. One-time Private B94664, 2 Army Field Workshop, Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps (1940-44). Traced to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Jan 1951. Any information most gratefully received.

BEARDMORE - ancestors and descendants of Edward (born c.1735, died before 1777, gunlock filer) and Mary née JACKSON (born c. 1740), who were married at All Saints, Sedgely, Staffs, on 23 Jun 1760.

Their two known children were George, baptised at All Saints 19 Jan 1761 (married twice and had at least five children, all but one of whom died in infancy/childhood) and William, baptised All Saints 6 Feb 1763, a pencil case maker) married Sarah STANLEY at St Peter, Wolverhampton, Staffs, 3 Oct 1796. She died c. 1840.

Their three known children (of at least seven) were Martin, baptised 17 Feb 1799 at Cosely Old Meeting House (Presbyterian), Staffs, James, baptised at the same place as the "6th child of..." 26 Oct 1806, and Anne, also baptised there 23 Jan 1809 (and buried there 1 sep 1811, recorded as "burnt to death").

Martin married Ellen SMITH at St Peter, Harborne, Staffs, on 26 Aug 1822. He was a german silver polisher in Birmingham for many years, then latterly a milkman and cow keeper before his death on 11 Aug 1879. His three children were William, born 13 Jun 1823 in Birmingham, James, born 11 Oct 1825, and Ellen, born 10 Sep 1838. His wife Ellen died 3 Jan 1868.

William married Sarah HORNER at St Peter, Harborne, on 22 Sep 1846. They had five children, Eliza (married Thomas ARNOLD), Ellen (married John CULM), Walter, William and Arthur. It is believed William and Arthur both died comparitively young, and unmarried. Initially a saddle tree maker, William (and then Sarah after his death on 18 Mar 1898) became licencee of the Half-Moon public house in Irving Street, Birmingham. Sarah died 20 Dec 1917.

James married Hannah YATES at All Saints, Birmingham, on Christmas Day 1847. He was a silversmith all his working life. He and Hannah had only one known child, William, born 19 Jun 1850. He followed in his father's footsteps and became a jeweller, living and working in Birmingham's jewellery quarter. He married Sarah Ann HOWE (born 22 Jan 1851 in Birmingham) at St Peter & St Paul, Aston, on 24 May 1869. They seemed to change address every year or two, so that their 11 children were nearly all born at different places in and around an area of a square mile or so. Arthur James, Alfred Herbert, Howard, twins Edwin William (my grandfather) and Walter Charles (died in infancy), Eveline May, Ada, Albert, Herbert, Lillian Florence and Harold, were born between 1869-1889.

Edwin William joined the army and saw service as Edward William BEARDMORE from 1897-1907, including two years in the Boer War with the Army Service Corps. Later he married Ethel WOODWARD and they had 11 children (one died in infancy), the youngest being my mother, Phyllis Elaine, born at Ash, Surrey, 1 May 1921. After his army service, William became a civilian employee, a range worker and target maker for the army in the Aldershot/Bisley/Pirbright area. He died in Jan 1961. Ethel died on 20 May 1964 in Hambledon, Hants.

WOODWARD - specifically the mysterious Henry James, born out of wedlock at Shinfield, Berks, on 11 Jul 1847, baptised at the parish church as James Henry on 15 Aug 1847. In the 1851 census (HO 107/1725), Henry, age 4, born Reading (Shinfield is just a little south of Reading), was a visitor (along with a possible sister Emily WOODWARD, age 3) at the home of William and Mary SMITH just over the county border (and immediately north of Reading) at Caversham, Oxford. In the same census, his mother, Susan WOODWARD, age 27, unmarried, born at Caversham, was a lodger at 13 Thorn Street, Reading St Mary (HO 107/1692), occupation Nurse Maid. With her was William WOODWARD, aged 4 months, also born at Caversham. It is not clear from the entry whether William was another child of hers, but presumably so.

I have not been able to locate Henry James/James Henry in subsequent censuses before his marriage to Charlotte BIRD at All Saints, Epping, on 22 Jan 1876. They had four children, including my grandmother, Ethel, mentioned above. He appears only as Henry on their birth certificates and was variously a labourer, (nursery) gardener and domestic servant.

BIRD and HAGGER - both these Essex families were in and around Epping throughout the 19th Century, and the BIRDs seem to have moved there from Great Canfield in the early 1800s, the HAGGERs from Stanford Rivers some time later. The text of an article on these families, written for the Essex Society.for Family History's journal, may be viewed by clicking here now

If you can add any further information to any of the above, or want to enquire about any name, please contact me at: esx at goring1941 dot freeserve dot co dot uk ('tweak' the foregoing to turn it into a real e-mail address).

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Last updated: 16 Jul 2005