Introduction

Other articles within the website which relate to particular aspects of this story are noted within square brackets in the text. Links to these articles can be found in the table towards the bottom of column 2

This article is a continuation of "Following the Beadsworth family to Cottingham: Part 1 Arrival" [Article A.] which tracked the progress of Anthony Beesworth and his wife Elizabeth Hipwell from his roots in the village Bringhurst in Leicestershire at the beginning of the nineteenth century and his family after he had settled in the viilage of Cottingham, Northamptonshire. This current article concentrates on their fourth son Anthony. As in the previous articles, research into this family is bedevilled by the many ways in which the family's surname has been entered into historical documents. For simplicity the version given in the title will be used throughout the narrative, although the majority of Anthony and Elizabeth's children were baptised as Beesworth.

The family of Anthony Beesworth and Mary Henrietta Mayes

Anthony was born in Cottingham on November 13th 1838, the eighth child of Anthony Beesworth and Elizabeth Hipwell. He was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in the village on January 24th 1839. Anthony was born into a household in Dag (later called School) Lane and grew up surrounded by siblings. At the time of the census taken on June 6th 1841 there were three older sisters and an older brother still at home and his mother had presented him with a baby brother, Joseph, just two months previously. Over the course of the next decade all his sisters had left to get married or move into service and he had been joined by another brother, John. His parents also were providing a home for Mary, the illegitimate daughter of his big sister Alice. Living next door was sister Ann, now married to Edward Binley. Anthony had taken up work as a farm labourer.

On December 5th 1858, Anthony married Mary Henrietta Mayes at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, her sister Elizabeth standing as a witness. She born in 1838 in Middleton, was the daughter of John Mayes, who was originally from Sudborough, Northamptonshire and Ann Claypole from Great Easton. John was originally a tailor but had to give up this trade when in his middle age he became blind. Ann was the daughter of John Claypole and Sarah Ashby (See: Claypole - Nutt: A saga of Findedon) [Article B.] ) and the aunt of Sarah Ann Claypole who will figure prominently later in this story. Mary Henrietta was one of the couple's six children (two sons and four daughters). John Mayes' younger brother, Samuel, also a tailor, had married Ann Claypole's younger sister, Elizabeth in 1843. It is also of note that Mary Henrietta's youngest brother, John Thomas Mayes (born in 1847) married Mary Ann Elizabeth Scott Beesworth. the illegitimate daughter of Alice Beadsworth, Anthony's first cousin in 1871.

By the age of fourteen years, Mary Henrietta was earning a living as a lace runner (someone, usually a young girl, who embroiders patterns or designs on stockings). She had moved out of the family home and was lodging in George Street (which ultimately became Corby Road) with widow Ann Sudborough. They had members of the Crane family as next door neighbours on both side: Amos Crane with his wife Sophia and their two sons and unmarried Mary Crane with her three children. Next door but one resided grocer and draper Elizabeth Rayson. Ann was born in 1824, the eldest daughter of shoemaker Benjamin Curtis and Elizabeth Vickers. She was 24 yerars old when she married 25 years old labourer James Sudborough on October 19th 1847. They had a son, Alfred, in 1848. Sadly, James died on May 23rd 1850 of "inflammation of the liver" (although the actual cause of the condition was not known). Even at her young age Mary Henrietta would have been fully aware of the terrible and repeated tragedies and early deaths inflicted on the occupants of the village by recurrent epidemics and other traumas. (For an account of how this affected the family of Amos and his brother Thomas in the 1840s and 1850s, see "The Crane family of Cottingham. Part 1: Victim or Villain [Article C.])

Immediately after their marriage Anthony and Mary Henrietta moved into a house at the bottom of Rockingham Road near The Cross. Mary Henrietta was already pregnant at the time of the wedding and gave birth to a son at the beginning of 1859. He was baptised Henry on April 24th that same year. Within a year, Mary Henrietta was pregnant again and a daughter was born in the summer of 1860. The infant was baptised Anne on August 5th 1860 but was never well. For the next nine months she failed to thrive and her condition went pogressively downhill. She died on May 12th 1861. The death certificate recorded the cause to be the nonspecific diagnosis of "Atrophy". By the census of 1871, the twelve year old Henry had followed his father working in the fields. No further entries have been discovered for him after that date in any of the record sources.

During the 1860s and the 1870s, Anthony and Mary Henrietta had another five sons and three daughters. Sometime during the 1860s the family moved back from Rockingham Road into a cottage in Barrack Yard in Blind Lane (An account of life in Barrack Yard is given in [Article D:]). During the following decade he took over the management and driving of a threshing machine on the land. During the 1870s a number of the dwellings in Barrack Yard were at times empty. However to one side their near neighbours were farm labourer and gamekeeper John Claypole with his wife Mary Ann Tansley and next door to them, John's brother Thomas Bellamy Claypole with his wife Alice Baker. On the other side of Anthony and Mary Henrietta three doors away was John and Thomas' blacksmith father John Claypole whilst next door to him was Anthony's niece Alice Rebecca Beadsworth with her two infants. It was in this enviornment that on May 1st 1875 an event took place which shattered the peace and understanding of the village and reverberated for miles around. Thomas Christopher Claypole, the young son of Sarah Ann Claypole who had married John Craxford in August 1972, was murdered in Blind Lane by their next door neighbour, Henry Crane. Crane had enticed him into his cottage with "suckers" (sweets) and had savagely cut the boy's throat. He was arrested and sent to Broadmoor for the rest of his life.

Anthony remained in Barrack Yard until his death in March 1894. During his middle years, Anthony had piled on weight and became increasingly unfit. He was subject to shortness of breath on even moderate exertion. He died suddenly on the morning of Tuesday 6th March 1894. He had been travelling to work at Neville Holt with a colleague. After getting out of the cart he started walking up a hill but collapsed and died within minutes. An inquest was held before Coroner Parker at the Royal George Inn the following morning when medical evidence was given that his death was attributable to syncope (2). He was buried in the churchyard on the seventh day of that month. Around the turn of the century, Mary Henrietta moved over to Corby Road. She remained there until her own death in the spring of 1919.

Sarah Ann (1862 - 1923)

Mary Henrietta became pregnant again almost at the same time that baby Anne died. She duly gave birth to another daughter at the turn of the year and Sarah Ann was baptised on April 20th 1862. As a teenager she trained as a tailoress, presumably working at the Wallis and Linnell clothing factory in Rockingham Road. She also caught the eye of Alfred Jarman, who in 1881 was working as an agricultural labourer. The Jarman family lived a few doors away in Corby Road. Headed by William Jarman, a journeyman bricklayer, and his wife Mary Ann Coles, who also worked at the clothing factory, they had produced a large household of twelve children in their twenty years of marriage. Mary Ann's mother was Susannah Claypole who in turn was a second cousin once removed from Sarah Ann Claypole (See: A History of the Tilley family: Cottingham Part 2b [Article E:]).

Alfred and Sarah Ann were married at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on March 26th 1883, his sister Clara acting as one of the witnesses. After the ceremony Alfred changed his job, becoming a bricklayer and moved his new wife eight miles south to a new house in Jubilee Street in the small town of Rothwell on the outskirts of Kettering. The couple were slow to have a family, producing a daughter, Eva, in 1892 and a son, Laurence Alfred in 1907. Before the first World War the family were living in Glendon Road. Sarah Ann died towards the end of June 1923. She was buried at Rothwell on July 2nd 1923. After her death, Arthur moved to a house in Crispin Street closer to the centre of the town. He died there on November 26th 1934 and was buried two days later.

Eva Jarman married Horace Simpson Tomlinson, a hairdresser originally from Market Harborough, in Rothwell in 1920. By the start of the second World War they had made their home in Crispin Street. At the time of the complilation of the 1939 Register, Eva's brother Laurence, a boot clicker, was living with them. He was an energetic worker for the local Methodist Church and was actively associated with the town's Cricket Club (3). Laurence married Grace Evelyn Chapman at Rothwell Methodist Chapel on January 17th 1942. However married life was cut short very quickly when he contracted influenza which progressed to pneumonia from which he died on March 2nd 1942.

John (1863 - 1882)

Next son John was born in the autumn of 1863. As soon as he was able he joined his father working in the fields. In his late teens he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. His condition deteriorated over the space of about a year and he died from this complaint on March 16th 1882. He was buried in Cottingham three days later.

Alfred (1866 - 1924)

Alfred, the third son of Anthony and Mary Henrietta to be born arrived in Cottingham in 1866. The story of his marriage and his seven offspring will be told later in the article.

Clara (1868 - 1873) and Lydia (1870 - 1888)

The couple's next daughter, Clara, was born in Barrack Yard early 1968. The little girl became sick in the winter of 1873, presumably from one of the many childhood epidemics which passed through the village. She had increasing difficulty breathing and died on February 2nd 1873: the diagnosis registered as "Congestion of the lungs". She was just five years old. She was buried three days later.

Another daughter followed Clara about two and a half years later. Born in October 1870 she was named Lydia. Little is known of her childhood or teenage years. Around the age of sixteen years she contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. This followed a course akin to that of her deceased brother John and after a period of increasing symptoms she died on January 28th 1888. She was buried in the village on February 1st 1888.

Samuel George (1873 - 1957)

Mary Henrietta's eighth child, a boy they named Samuel but who in later life was often known by his second name George, was born towards the end of 1873. Initially he joined his brothers on the land as a farm servant. However in his early twenties he decided to leave the village and strike out on his own. He headed south to London. By the end of the 1890s he had taken a job with a builder and was living in Queens Road, Chelsea. Whilst there he met Ellenor (usually known as Ellen) Mary Ann, who had been born in the Whitechapel district of the city in 1872, the daughter of messenger Robert Sewell. The couple were married at St Luke's Church, Chelsea on Christmas Day 1899.

They made their initial home in one of the apartments of the West Block of the Peabody Buildings in Laurence Street in the St Luke's district of Chelsea. Around Christmas 1901, Ellen became pregnant and on August 16th 1902 she gave birth to a son. The boy was baptised Ernest Edward on September 28th 1902 in honour of his uncle at All Saints Church, Battersea. The parish record reports that their address had changed to nearby Alfred Street.

A further change of address occurred before the end of the decade to Gladstone Street in the borough. Ellen conceived again in 1909 and gave birth to another son, Samuel, in early 1910 - the birth registered in the Lambeth district. At the census of 1911 George recorded his occupation as a "labourer in tarless fuels". Towards the end of the first World War years, Ellen became progressively unwell. She was admitted to St James Infirmary in Wandsworth where she died on October 6th 1918 from cardiac and renal disease. By this time George had moved again and was living in Landseer Street, Battersea. George lived on in London surviving his wife by over 30 years. He died in the Southwark region in 1951.

Tragedy struck the family in 1915. On March 31st of that year 12 year old Ernest Edward was knocked down in the road by a motor car, suffering from shock and fractures of the ribs. He was taken to Battersea General Hospital but died that night from his injuries. An inquest was held the following day before S Ingleby Oddie, the Coroner for London where a verdict of accidental death was recorded. Nothing is known of the life of second son Samuel.

Arthur (1876 - 1947)

Penultimate son Arthur was born in the village in 1876. He married Louisa in 1902 and together produced a large family. Their story will follow later in the article.

Ernest Edward (1880 - 1955)

Anthony and Mary Henrietta's final son, Ernest Edward Beadsworth was born on February 21st 1880. He was to remain in Cottingham his whole life. After his father died in 1894, the young Ernest remained with his mother and Arthur, his older brother in the house on Blind Lane. He took up work as an ironstone labourer. On October 8th 1903 he married Grace Rosina Binley, the youngest daughter of Lewis Binley and Matilda Tansley. Born in March 1878, she had grown up in a house on Water Lane and at the turn of the century was working as a tailoress at the clothing factory on Rockingham Road. The newlyweds set up their home in Water Lane and by 1911, their neighbours to one side were the family of his brother Arthur and to the other side was Grace's brother John Lewis Binley's family and housekeeper Carrie Townsin.

They had a single daughter, Rosalie Vera, who was born on August 10th 1913. Rosalie married Roland Hammond in 1935. Ernest continued working at the ironstone quarry operating heavy digging equipment. At the outbreak of the second World War they were still living in Water Lane whilst Roland and Rosalie had a house on Pinfold Bank at the Corby Road end of Blind Lane.

Ernest died in the village and was buried in plot 168 of Row G 11 of the churchyard on April 4th 1955. He named his wife and their daughter Rosalie as beneficiaries in his will. Grace died eighteen months later and was buried next to her husband on November 2nd 1956.

The family of Alfred Beadsworth and Mary Rowlett

The third son (and fifth child) to be born to Anthony and Mary Henrietta arrived in the spring of 1866. In common with his brothers he started working as an agricultural labourer but during the 1890s he transferred to labouring work at the ironstone quarry. On May 19th 1894 he married Mary Rowlett at Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell. Mary, born on January 2nd 1869, was the daughter of ironstone moulder William Rowlett and Susannah Linnett. After the service the couple made their initial home in Jubilee Street, Rothwell but by the turn of the century had moved back to a house in Rockingham Road, Cottingham. The couple were to have eight children (five sons and three daughters).

After the first World War, Alfred and Mary were living in council cottages in the village. He was now working as a furnace labourer. Alfred collapsed and died suddenly whilst out walking and collecting sticks with a fellow ironstone labourer, James Thomas, on June 20th 1924. At an inquest held on Monday June 23rd 1924, Mary reported that her husband had not been in his normal health for the previous few weeks. Alfred had not received any medical attention in the recent past and his death was attributed to heart failure. He was buried in plot 22 of Row B2 of St Mary Magdelane churchyard. Mary continued to live in Rockingham Road and in 1939 still had three of her now adult children living with her. She finally died at the age of 81 years on March 14th 1950. She was buried with her husband.

Anthony William (1894 - 1979)

The first of Alfred and Mary's children was a son born in Rothwell on September 4th 1894. He was baptised Anthony William at Holy Trinity Church on November 25th 1894. When his parents made the move back to Cottingham, Anthony was sent to live with his Rowlett grandparents. The census of 1901 found him at their house in Gas Street, Rothwell. Known by his second given name, William, he grew up in the Rowlett household. By the age of sixteen he was employed as a groom looking after horses at a local stable. At the outbreak of the first World War he joined the Army and signed his attestation papers in Northampton on September 5th 1914. His medical examination showed him to be a slight man, 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing 9 stones 9 pounds. He was initially seconded as Private 5648 to the East Surrey Regiment. He joined the British Expeditionary Forces in France on July 27th 1915. For a short period at the end of hostilities he was transferred to the East Kent Regiment before being demobilised back to Rothwell on March 13th 1919.

After the end of the war, Anthony returned to farm work. He married Fanny Chapman in Cottingham in the spring of 1929. Fanny, born on July 23rd 1890, was the tenth of eleven children of farmer, John Chapman and Eliza Rose whose family lived in Driffield Lodge, Middleton. Notable amongst Fanny's sisters was Mary Lizzie Chapman who married Harry Cannam from Middleton in 1904 and settled on Pinfold Bank, Blind Lane. After their marriage, Anthony and Fanny settled in Main Street and towards the end of the 1930s their next door neighbour was a distant cousin, Clara Jarman. Clara was also the first cousin, once removed, of Beatrice Edith Tilley who married Louisa Craxford's brother William in 1912. The 1939 Register also shows a third person living in Anthony and Fanny's household whose identity is redacted. As far as is known the couple had no children but the Kettering birth indexes suggest that Fanny may have had a daughter, Cynthia, in the winter of 1927. Cynthia Chapman married Ronald Tarry in 1955.

After the second World War Harry and Mary Lizzie Cannam's now married daughter Dorothy (to Sydney Lambert Perkins) were their next door neighbours. Of inter-marriage note here is that two of Sydney Perkins brothers had married two of Harry Cannam's sisters (Alfred Perkins to Mary Elizabeth Cannam in 1909 and Ernest Henry Perkins to Emily Cannam in 1912). Fanny died in Middleton in the winter of 1971. Anthony lived another seven years, dying at his Main Street address on March 13th 1979. In his will made on February 18th 1956 it was noted that the sole beneficiary was his wife Fanny who had died during his lifetime. Letters of Administration were granted to his surviving brother Charles Edgar when the will was published in the District Probate Registry at Ipswich on March 13th 1979.

Henry (1896 - 1974); Mary Susannah Henrietta (1907 - 2003); Charles Edgar (1912 - 2006)

Next son Henry was born on February 5th and baptised on July 26th 1896 in Rothwell. He did move to Cottingham with his parents when they moved at the turn of the century. In his early teens he had become a labourer on a farm. He remained at home during the years of the first World War and became a plate layer at the iron and steel works. He died on February 4th 1974 and was buried in Cottingham three days later. Youngest of Alfred and Mary's three daughters, Mary Susannah, was born on July 27th 1907. In her adult years she became a machinist and tailoress at the Wallis and Linnell clothing factory. She died in January 2003. Last born son, Charles Edgar, arrived on March 13th 1912. He followed a similar path to his brother Henry becoming a plate layer at the iron foundry. He lived on into his nineties after his siblings had died and he finally joined them on March 16th 2006.

None of these three children married and they continued to live with their mother in Rockingham Road after their father died in 1924. They continued living together in the same house after their mother died too. They were a pleasant family who seemed close and kept mainly to themselves. Sue became very friendly with Nell Chambers, their close neighbour, and both women worked together at the factory. Harry appeared to be a quiet man whilst Edgar was quite lively and could often be seen taking Sue shopping in his car. After Harry died and Sue and Edgar began ailing their neighbour took over tending their garden and provided them with some meals. Their care of Edgar increased after Sue died and Edgar showed his appreciation for their help by leaving his house to them.

Violet Lilian (1897 - 1981) and Ernest Edward (1899 - 1959)

Sister and brother Violet and Ernest Beadsworth were born within two years of each other. They are considered together in this section as they married uncle and niece Thomas Albert and Elsie Ellen Liquorish. The Liquorish family were based in Rockingham, Northamptonshire, and came into this orbit of interest when William Liquorish married Lucy Craxford at the Church of St James the Great, Gretton on January 15th 1847. They had twelve children and it was their third son, Charles William, who made the move to Cottingham in the 1870s. He had ten children with his wife Ellen Joyce and Thomas Albert was his fifth born son. Elsie was the eldest daughter of Charles' third son, George Alfred. Other marriage interconnections with this family include the union of Charles' second daughter Edith Julia to John Albert Binley Townsin and his fourth son Charles Herbert to Edith Rosina Towsin, the son and daughter respectively of John Lewis Binley and Carrie Townsin.

Violet Lilian was born in Cottingham on October 13th 1897 very soon after the family moved from Rothwell back to Cottingham. As a fourteen year old she was listed on the census of 1911 as a nurse maid. Thomas Albert Liquorish (known in later life as Albert) was born on May 18th 1894. The Liquorish family lived in one of the Brickfield Cottages on Rockingham Road whose construction is attributed to John Neville Chamberlain. As he approached manhood Thomas took up gardening, presumably alongside his father Charles. At the same time he became attracted to Violet and they married in the village in the spring of 1918. In commmon with many of the liaisons in the village, the couple were distantly related. Violet was niece of Louisa Craxford (half sister of the murdered Thomas Christopher Claypole). In turn Louisa was the second cousin once removed of Lucy Craxford, Albert's grandmother. The couple made their home in Chamberlain's Yard off Church Street and Albert was employed as a slagger at the iron and steel works. Violet and Thomas had two children, a daughter Evelyn (1920) and a son Donald (1937). Thomas died in the village in 1958. Violet lived another 22 years, finally dying in Cottingham in 1981.

Albert and Violet's daughter Evelyn, who worked as a machinist, married Bernard Crane in 1941. He was living with his parents Frederick Crane and Florence Minns in the High Street and was a partner in the family's coal merchants business. Bernard's great grandfather was the Henry Crane mentioned above. When the Barrack Yard area was demolished in the early 1960s, the Crane family built a single detached property on the land. Bernard died in September 1991.

Ernest Edward was Alfred and Mary's third son born on February 7th 1899. In the 1920s he became a roadman for the County Council. He married Elsie Ellen Liquorish in Cottingham in the spring of 1933. She was eleven years his junior having been born on March 11th 1910. In 1939 they were living in Church Street, Cottingham, four doors away from Violet and Albert. They had two sons, Michael born before and Paul after the second World War. Edward died on Janury 24th 1959 and was buried in plot 177 of Row G 11 of St Mary Magdalene churchyard: the plot next to his parents in law. Elsie Ellen died on August 1st 1992 and was buried next to him.

5. Irene Annie (1905 - 1981)

Middle daughter "Rene" was born on July 31st 1905. As a young woman she was taken on as a tailoress at the Rockingham Road clothing family. In 1935 she married Francis John (Jack) Glover, an excavator driver from Godmanchester near Huntingdon. He was four years younger than she was. They too lived in Rockingham Road. They had one daughter, Ann, born in the summer of 1944 but the infant died from a congenital heart defect aged 5 months on December 11th 1944. Jack was on Cottingham Parish Council for years and was well respected for his efforts on behalf of the village. So much so that they named Glover Court in Middleton after him. Irene died in the spring of 1981; Jack survived unil March 2002. They share plot 112 of Row G7 of St Mary Magdalene churchyard.

Continued in column 2...

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The family of Arthur Beadsworth and Louisa Craxford

Penultimate son of Anthony and Mary Henrietta Beadsworth was born on February 21st 1876 and named Arthur. As a teenager his first job was in the boot and shoe trade as a rivetter and at the time of the census of 1891 he was lodging with his married sister Sarah Ann and husband Alfred Jarman in Rothwell. However the employment and location away from home did not last for long and he ultimately returned to Cottingham and took up work as an ironstone labourer. He would have been aware of the local girls and attracted the eye of Louisa Craxford whose family lived next door in Barrack Yard. They were married at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on December 29th 1902. Their witnesses were his brother Ernest Edward Beadsworth and Grace Rosina Binley, the daughter of Lewis Binley and Matilda Tansley and Edward's wife the following year.

Louisa, born on October 21st 1877, was one of the daughters of John Craxford and Sarah Ann Claypole. The couple had married on August 7th 1871 but John had died of a brain tumour in the Northampton County Asylum, Berrywood on July 15th 1898. They had two sons (James Ernest, born 1872 and William, 1885) both of whom moved to Leicester around the turn of the century and four daughters (Henrietta, born 1874; Louisa; Sarah Ann, 1879 and Florence, 1882). Florence was just two years old when she died on June 29th 1884. Her death was attributed to chronic epilepsy suggesting that she may have suffered from a brain injury or anoxia at birth The other girls remained in the Cottingham area. Sarah Ann had had two children before she had married John Craxford. Both persisted with her maiden name of Claypole. Her daughter Elizabeth Alice was left to grow up with her grandparents John Claypole and Ann Bellamy Munton. She married in October 1890 and moved with her husband William Hobbs to Swingfield in Kent. Sarah Ann's son, Thomas Christopher Claypole, was the tragic lad who was murdered in Blind Lane on May 1st 1875 by next door neightbour Henry Crane.

The Craxford family hailed from the village of Gretton, some five miles east along the Welland valley. It was John Craxford's grandfather (also John) who moved into the hamlet of Middleton sometime around 1800 and where John's father, William, and three other sons were born. William stayed in the village but two of his brothers moved to the south coast near Uxbridge and a third set up a Craxford dynasty in Monmouth, South Wales. John senior died in 1848 aged 74 from multiple injuries when he was run over by a cart. John Craxford's brother, Thomas, was the proprietor of the Three Horseshoes in Cottingham. Claypole (and its derivative spellings) is a common enough surname in Northamptonshire and some branches, particularly in the eastern side of the county, claim descendency from the union of Sir John Claypole and Elizabeth Cromwell (daughter of Oliver Cromwell) in 1646. Our own lineage has been traced back to the middle of the seventeenth century when Robert Claypole lived in the village of Medbourne in Leicestershire. Descendents of his moved to the neighbouring village of Great Easton which stands on the border with Northamptonshire and ultimately John Claypole (born in Great Easton in 1816) moved to Middleton and then settled in Cottingham in the 1840s. There were other Claypoles in the village at the time (Samuel Claypole was born in Middleton in 1824) but they were no closer than second cousins.

In the late 1890s, Louisa had been working in London. The 1901 census found her to be living at 60, Pont Street, Chelsea, the home of Sir William Hart Dyke, 7th Baronet, Privvy Counsellor and Conservative Member of Parliament, his wife Lady Emily Montague, the daughter of the 7th Earl of Sandwich, and family. One of their daughters held the post of Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria. Louisa was part of an establishment of eleven domestic servants of which she was a kitchen maid.

After their marriage, they moved into the house in Water Lane previously occupied by Louisa's parents. Over the course of their twenty year marriage the couple had nine children: five sons and four daughters. During the war years, Louisa began to develop weakness in her legs with intermittent muscle spasms which slowly progressed to affect her arms and hands and then the muscles of the chest which controlled her respiration. She would have experienced difficulty walking and maintaining her balance.

By the spring of 1920 she was experiencing increasing difficulty breathing and was unable to cope at home. She was admitted to the infirmary of the Kettering Union Workhouse on London Road (the institution became known as St Mary's Hospital at the inception of the National Health Service). She died there on June 11th 1920. The formal diagnosis was given as Lateral Sclerosis (8) (a form of Motor Neurone Disease) and failure of respiration. She was buried in plot 34 of Row B2 of Cottingham Churchyard.

After Louisa's death, Arthur took in a housekeeper, a married woman named Evelyn Maria Walker, to look after him. A child registered as Lance Albert Beadsworth Walker (whose mother's maiden name was Phillips) was born on November 17th 1922. Evelyn Phillips was born in Braybrooke, Northamptonshire, in 1887 to Alfred Phillips and Maria Townsend Gibbs. She married Joseph Albert Janig Walker in Lincoln in 1911. They had two daughters: Emmeline born in 1911 and died in 1912 and Josephine Louise in 1914. Evelyn Maria died in Kettering General Hospital on March 20th 1939.

Arthur continued to live in Water Lane. In the Register of 1939, Arthur's household included his now married daughter Clara Walsh with her husband and two infant children and also 17 year old Lance, now using Beadsworth as his surname. Arthur was described as a "Digger bottom man at Iron Quarry" and Lance was a shop assistant at the Co-operative Grocery Store. Arthur died at home on February 22nd 1947. He was laid to rest alongside Louisa three days later.

Eva May (1903 - 1979)

Arthur and Louisa's first born child arrived on May 17th 1903 and was named Eva May. She was just seventeen years old when she married Leonard Crane in Cottingham in the autumn of 1920. Eva was already in mid term pregnancy at the time of the service and a son they named Reginald Arthur was born on November 1st 1920. The infant only survived for about three weeks and died on November 21st 1920. Dr Harold Adcock certified that death was due to malnutrition and cardiac failure. Leonard, who was born on November 15th 1897, was the son of Charles Crane and Eva's first cousin once removed Alice Rebecca Beadsworth. This made Leonard and Eva's relationship second cousins. Leonard's great uncle was Henry Crane. The couple made their home on The Hill in Middleton.

Leonard and Eva had four further children: Marjorie Louisa, born on November 12th 1922 who married Aubrey Payne in 1944; Doreen, born in 1929, who married Dennis Gardiner and went to live in Market Harborough; Donald, born in 1933, who married Margaretta Waterfield in 1963 and Anthony, born in 1939, who married Kathleen Russell in 1964. At the outbreak of the second World War, Leonard and Eva were still resident in Middleton and Eva's brother Denis was lodging with them. Leonard died on July 4th 1962; Eva died on June 11th 1979. Both were buried in plot 188 of Row G12 of the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene.

Cecil Arthur (1904 - 1974)

Cecil was born in Cottingham on November 19th 1904. For a time in the late 1920s he lived in Sidlesham, a village a few miles south of Chichester in West Sussex. There he met Edith Hutchins, the daughter of agricultural labourer Percy Hiutchins and Ada Chitty, who had been born in the village of Buriton, Hampshire. Cecil and Edith were married at the Church of St Mary Our Lady in Sidlesham in the spring of 1931. Their first two children (a daughter, Stella in 1932 and a son, Norman in 1934) were born in Sussex. Before the outbreak of the second World War, Cecil moved the family back to Northamptonshire were he took on a job as slinger at the steel works. They made their home on The Hill, Middleton. Edith became pregnant for the third time in the early part of 1941. A little girl, they named Myrtle Ann was born prematurely on October 28th 1941 but survived only three days.

Edith died sometime during the 1950s. Daughter Stella married Clifford Ward in Cottingham in 1953 and together produced two daughters and a son. Son Norman married Barbara Russell in 1956, having a daughter, Carol in 1961. Barbara was the older daughter of John R. Russell and Mabel Brooks who had married in Market Harborough in 1934. Mabel, born in 1916 was the youngest child of William Brooks and Eliza Ireland. Eliza was 45 years old when Mabel was born. Barbara Russell's younger sister Kathleen married Anthony Crane, the son of Leonard Crane and Cecil's sister, Eva May Beadsworth as noted above. John Russell died in 1959 and to complete this family circle, Cecil married Mabel in 1963. They moved to Ripley Road in Cottingham. Cecil died on September 10th 1974, his funeral taking place at the Kettering Crematorium on Rothwell Road three days later. Mabel survived for more than twenty more years, finally dying on October 30th 1997. She followed Cecil to Kettering Crematorium on November 5th 1997.

Maurice Roland (1906 - 1972)

Arthur and Louisa's second son, Maurice Roland, was born on March 26th 1906. In adulthood he became a limestone quarry worker. He never married. He was a keen gardener with whichever brother he lived with. Gardens were large and everyone grew their own vegetables. By the time of the outbreak of the second World War he was living with Cecil and Edith on The Hill in Middleton. He was also in residence with Cecil and his second wife Mabel in Ripley Road in Cottingham when he died on September 24th 1972. His funeral was held three days later at the Kettering Crematorium.

Denis Alec (1907 - 1994)

Next son to be born was Denis Alec on May 21st 1907. Like his brother Cecil he spent time during the 1920s working near Chichester in West Sussex. He had returned to Northamptonshire during the 1930s when he was working as a limestone quarry loader. He was lodging with his married sister Eva May Crane. It seems likely that whilst in Sussex, he had met the family of Ernest Terry, a shipyard worker, and May Hurd who lived in Westhampnett, a small village about one mile north of Chichester. They had two sons (Ernest, 1920 and Herbert, 1924) and a daughter, Vera Rose who was born on February 4th 1926.

In the summer of 1947 Denis returned to Sussex and married Vera Rose in St Peter's Church, Westhampnett. The couple returned to Middleton setting up home in Main Street. Their daughter Gillian was born in 1955. Denis died on July 4th 1994; Rose eighteen months later on January 16th 1996. Both were cremated at the Kettering Crematorium.

Constance Clara (1908 - 1992)

Arthur and Louisa's next child was a daughter, Constance Clara, who was born on November 4th 1908. In the spring of 1937 she married 25 year old steel foundry plate layer Richard Walsh. Initially the couple lived with her widower father Arthur and his adopted son Lance. The couple had two children very quickly: Sheila, born in 1938 and Patrick in 1939. A second son Raymond followed in 1942. Little more is known of this branch of the family. Constance's death is registered in the Peterborough area, dying on April 23rd 1992. Her cremation took place at the Kettering Crematorium on May 1st 1992.

Frederick Laurence (1910 - 1998)

Frederick was the fourth son (sixth child) to be born and arrived on March 26th 1910. He became a scrap burner at the local blast furnace. He married Eileen Ashwell, who had been born in Bedford on February 12th 1916, in Cottingham on November 20th 1937. They made their home in Chamberlain's Yard off Church Street. Their near neighbours in the Yard included John and Edith Jarvis (three doors away) and Albert Liquorish and Violet Lilian Beadsworth (four doors away). Violet was Frederick's first cousin whilst Albert was the brother of John Jarvis' sister Annie's husband George Alfred Liquorish. The Yard was so named for John Neville Chamberlain, shopkeeper and entrepreneur who built several houses and the Wallis and Linnell clothing factory which employed so many of the girls of the village. He was also married to Elizabeth Tilley, the great grandaunt of Louisa's brother William Craxford's wife Beatrice. The entrance to the Yard was also opposite Chamberlain's shop where young Thomas Claypole bought his "suckers" (sweets) on the morning he was murdered (See [ARTICLES F, G, H: ]). Just around the corner in Church Street lived Frederick's first cousin Ernest Edward Beadsworth and his wife Elsie who was the daughter of George Alfred Liquorice and Annie Jarvis.

Frederick and Eileen had two children. Son, Charles Laurence, was born in the spring of 1939 just before the Register for England and Wales was compiled. He was known throughout his life as Laurie. He married Irene Ansell from Bedford in 1961. They continued to live in Corby Road in Cottingham and had two daughters. Laurie died on March 18th 2020. A bench in his memory has now been placed in The Dale, Cottingham. Frederick and Eileen's daughter, Mary Ann, was born on February 27th 1945. She married Norman Needham in Cottingham in the fourth quarter of 1968. She died on March 8th 2012. An In Memorial piece about her can be found at [ARTICLE I].

Margaret Ellen (1911 - ) and Hilda Louisa (1919 - 2009)

Two daughters were born, one before the first World War and one after, and will be considered together because of a degree of shared history. Margaret was born at the end of 1911. Little concrete is known of her and spent most of her life in the Republic of Ireland. She married Maurice Kealey from that country in 1938 and had four daughters (Margaret, 1938; Constance, 1941; Bridget, 1944 and Rosina, 1947).

Hilda Louisa was born on January 24th 1919. In 1937 she married Douglas Frederick Marshall, a shunter at the iron foundry, who was born on April 28th 1918. In 1939 they made their home in Studfall Avenue in Corby. They were to have three children, two sons (Brian, 1938 and Douglas Alan, September 1944) and a daughter (Margaret, 1941). Little Douglas developed a chest infection which turned into bronchopneumonia at the beginning of 1945. He was admitted to Kettering General Hospital but sadly died on February 17th of that year. The marriage between Hilda and Douglas appears to have broken down and like her sister, Hilda spent some time in Ireland. She married for a second time in 1947 to Malachy Lavery and had a son named Terence in 1947 but returned to Corby many years later. It is noted that Douglas Marshall died in the spring of 1973. Hilda died in the town on February 6th 2009.

Bernard (1913 - 2005)

Arthur and Louisa's final son was born on December 7th 1913. Knowledge of his life, too, is somewhat patchy. He married Lillian Flint at the Register Office in Kettering on August 30th 1941 by special licence. Lillian, the daughter of Robert Flint and Rosa Minnie Ratford was born in Derby on June 5th 1916. At the outbreak of the second World War she was living in Byron Street, Derby and working as a confectionery cake packer. They had two sons: Stewart, born in the Yeovil District in the opening years of 1945, and Peter, born in the Kettering District in 1952. Lillian died on March 11th 1996 and her body was cremated at the Kettering Crematorium eight days later. In the new millenium, Bernard was living in Neale Avenue where he died nine years to the day after his wife. His funeral took place at the Kettering Crematorium on March 18th 2005.

A Beadsworth Family Gathering

Photographs from a meeting of Beadsworth and Craxford descendants which took place at the Royal George, Cottingham in August 2005. Access the full size image to view the key.

Links to the articles mentioned in the text are in italic capitals below:

Article A: Papa Anthony and Mama Priscilla Following the Beadsworth family in Cottingham - Part 1 Arrival
Article B: Trials and tribulations in the shoe trade Claypole - Nutt: A Saga of Finedon
Article C: The Crane family of Cottingham Part 1: Victim or villain
Article D: Life on Blind Lane and Barrack Yard We are the Barrack Yard Preservation Society
Article E: Jarman in A History of the Tilley Family: Cottingham Part 2b, the family of Samuel and Mary Ann Tilley
Article F: The association with John Neville Chamberlain: Elizabeth Tilley and the grocery connection
Article G: A walking tour of the village: My Cottingham
Article H: The short life of Thomas Christopher Claypole Death for threeha'p'orth of suckers
Article I: In Memoriam: Mary Anne Needham (nee Beadsworth) 1945 - 2012

References

1. Family tree graphic: Freeware Graphics: Vintage Kin Design Studio, Australia
2. Sudden death at Cottingham: Report of inquest on Anthony Beesworth. Northampton Mercury Page 5 March 9th 1894 The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
3. Death in Rothwell: Northampton Mercury Page 2 March 13th 1942. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
4. Photograph of St Luke's Church, Chelsea from an old colourised postcard at The Royal Borough if Kensington and Chelsea: The Library Time Machine
5. Photograph of Battersea, All Saints Church from an old postcard. London Metropolitan Archives
6. Photograph: Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell © John Davidson on Geograph and licenced for reuse under this Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Licence by Creative Commons
7. Portrait of William Hart Dyke by George W Baldry. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
8. Primary Lateral Sclerosis - Symptoms and signs: Rare Disease Database NORD The National Organization for Rare Disease
9. Photograph: Yhe Parish Church of St Mary Our Lady, Sidlesham © Jeff Gogarty on Geograph and licenced for reuse under this Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Licence by Creative Commons

Added - November 1st 2020
Revised and updated: May 17th 20254

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