Beaford, Devon

Ian’s family has an interesting connection to Beaford. I would almost call it ‘strong’ but no one in his direct family has lived there since Catherine and John Heard (John Heard died there on 26 August 1859, unfortunately I can’t find a record for Catherine).  However, both Catherine (nee Folland) and John Heard had family connections going back for generations. I have transcribed all of the baptisms in Beaford parish church from 1729 to 1837, and the surnames of Folland and Heard are the two most common surnames in the register. From 1729 to 1808, of the approximate 1000 baptisms, with over 250 different surnames, 52 were for infants with the surname Folland and 56 were for infants with the surname Heard. I have established a relationship to either Catherine or John’s family for almost all of these entries. I’ve put a list below for interest of the most common names in Beaford.

The family was in Beaford prior to 1729. I possess the earlier Beaford records, from 1653 to 1729, but they are much more difficult to read, and because they had already been transcribed and put onto FamilySearch, I did not “re-transcribe,” although I often refer to them. On the first page of these records is the baptism of Alice Malles in 1653, who subsequently married George Heard in Beaford in 1679, and it is from this couple that I can trace most of the other entries for the surname Heard in Beaford.

Beaford Baptism Records from 1729 to 1807 (1000 entries)

Most common names: 24 names represent just over half (507) of the entries

Heard – 56

Folland – 52

Dyment (or variations) – 42

Bright – 39

Snell – 34

Marshall – 29

Johns – 27

Webber – 22

Handford – 19

Ashplant – 18

Ashton – 18

Pincombe – 14

Mill – 13

Moore – 13

Vodden – 13

Lock – 12

Saunders – 12

Squance – 12

Cole – 11

Dunn – 11

Baker – 10

Burd – 10

Jury – 10

Spicer – 10

I must admit that the connection has always made me interested in finding out much more about Beaford itself, and so I have collected information over the years regarding the town itself. That can be the subject of another blog!

Elizabeth Cook (1703) and George Heard (1687 - 1778)

George Heard was born in June 1687 in Beaford, Devon, England. He was the third child and first son of Alice (nee Malles) and George Heard.

Elizabeth Cook was born in December 1704 in Beaford, Devon. She was the daughter of Margaret and Francis Cook.

On 3 July 1720 when George was 33 and Elizabeth was 16, they married in Beaford Parish Church.

Their first child was baptised nine months later: a daughter Elizabeth. Their second child was born the following year: a son Thomas who was also baptised in Beaford on 5 January 1722/3. A third child, daughter Hannah, was baptised in Beaford on 23 March 1725/6. There are no further children baptised in Beaford to the couple. It is possible they moved away at some stage.

George Heard must have been in Beaford at the time of his death, as it is believed he was buried on the Church grounds on 15 January 1778 (11 days before the first fleet arrived in Australia).  

It is not known when Elizabeth died.

Alice Malles (and her husband George Heard) (1653 to 1721)

Quite a number of Samantha, Natasha and Rachel’s descendents lived in Beaford, Devon. The Beaford Parish Records have been retained from early 1653.  On the first page of these records it is noted that William Malles baptised his daughter Alice on 3 October 1653. The entry is in Latin, but it is interesting to know that the family was in Beaford from the earliest recorded entries at the Parish Church until about 1810: at least 150 years.

We don’t know anything about Alice’s childhood.

On 9 December 1679, at the age of 26, Alice married George Heard in Beaford.  George may have been born in Beaford as well.  We can only assume that if he was he must have been slightly older than his wife, because there is no record of his baptism.  The couple baptised six children at Beaford:

• Elizabeth – September 1680
• Alice – July 1685
• George – June 1687
• Silas – June 1691
• Thomas – Dec 1693
• Lewis – September 1696.

Lewis died as an infant and was buried on 16 April 1697. Very little is known of the children, particularly their daughters. 

Alice died in Beaford, Devon, England, in late December 1721; she was 68. This must have been a difficult time for the family as her son, Thomas, was buried a week beforehand!  The records don’t indicate whether the two deaths were related, and there is no record of a catastrophic event in Devon at that time. Because information is not available about her two eldest children, it is now known if Alice got to meet any grandchildren.  

Alice was buried on 1 Jan 1721 in the grounds of All Saints Parish Church, Beaford, Devon, England.  It is not known when George died.

Relationship to SNR = Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother

Arthur Folland - 1749 to 1830

It’s hard to imagine spending your entire life in one small village in the middle of Devon.  But it was also very common – at least it was in the 17^th and 18 Centuries.  Arthur Folland is one such person.  He was born in early 1749 and was baptised on 15 February 1749 at Beaford Parish Church, Devon.  His parents were Hester (nee Knott) and Henry Folland; Arthur was their first child, born nine months after his parents wedding, which also took place in Beaford.  Ten more children were born to the couple over the next twenty years.  

On 9 April 1777 Arthur married Elizabeth Fry in Merton, Devon.  I suspect that Elizabeth was from Merton.  When Sarah, the couple’s first child was born in late 1778, the family was living in Beaford.  Sarah was baptised on 6 December 1778 at Beaford Parish Church.  (Sarah later married John Ashplant, and their youngest child, Maria, married John Milton, who was widowed and then married Jane Heard who was Maria's cousin, but that's all in Jane's story and just included here to show how close knit these families from small villages could be).   Arthur and Elizabeth had six known children, all baptised in Beaford.  One, a son also named Arthur died when he was five years old.

Arthur lived until June 1830 and was buried at the Beaford Parish Church on 3 June 1830.  He was 81 – relatively old for the time!

[Relationship to SNR = Great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather]

Jane Heard - 1824 to 1882

Some of her story...

On 15 August 1824, Catherine and John Heard baptised their new baby daughter in the Parish Church at Dolton, Devon, England.   She was their eighth child (although one daughter had already died as a child) and was their last - Catherine was 42.   Jane grew up in Dolton, which is a small village, in the south west of England. A very normal, little Devon village!

On 7 March 1846 she married John Spicer, a bootmaker, in the Parish Church.  John had been living in Dolton with his parents for a number of years.  He had just turned 22 and she was 21.  Over the next 15 years she gave birth to at least nine children, including one set of twins.  Six of these children survived childhood.   The two eldest children were baptised in Dolton; then more children were baptised in Devonport, 70 kilometres south, on the coast, and finally some children were baptised in Winkleigh, 10 kilometres from Dolton.   So Jane and John appear to have been zipping up and down Devon!  But ultimately spending more time on the south coast.  John Spicer died in 1870, when he was 46, at Stoke Damerel, a few kilometres from Devonport.  1870 was also significant because Jane became a grandmother – her eldest son and his wife had a daughter named Elizabeth Jane.    

This period was also interesting - decisions were made to leave England for the sunny shores of Australia. George, Jane’s second child, was the first to leave – on the True Briton, which sailed in January 1871.  William (the eldest son) and Henry (the surviving twin) were next to leave – along with William’s wife (also Jane) and baby Elizabeth - in October 1871 on the Colonial Empire.   Finally, in September 1873, Jane left England for Australia on the Somersetshire with her three remaining children:  John (the 3^rd son), age 22; Edwin, age 15 and Emily, age 12.  They all arrived as unassisted passengers.  This means that the government did not pay for their fares.

It’s hard to imagine what Jane was thinking when she arrived in her new country.  She was a 50 year old widow and still had dependent children.  It is possible that her sons supported her.  It doesn’t appear that any of her siblings were in Australia – although at least one cousin had also come to Australia. 

Maria Ashplant, Jane’s cousin, had arrived in 1859 with her husband and son.  They also went to Victoria.  However, before Jane had even left England, Maria died.  She was struck by lightning while working in the paddock near her home.  In any case, Jane must have met Maria’s husband, John Milton, who was farming.  On 26 October 1875 Jane and John married at Runnymede, a little village north east of Bendigo.  It’s impossible to know what happened to Jane from this time until her death in Melbourne on 16 September 1882, when she was 58.   John Milton appears to have remained in rural Victoria.  Potentially they were not living together as Jane died in Melbourne and didn’t have a gravestone on her death – she’s a mention on her son’s gravestone but he didn’t die until 1915.  

I called this some of her story, because I believe that the information unknown could be a lot more interesting that the known.  What was Jane’s childhood like?  What happened to Jane's parents?  Why did Jane and John Spicer keep moving?  How well did Jane know Maria Ashplant?  Did Jane and John Milton stay together?  Was Jane happy? 

[Relationship to SNR =  great, great, grandmother]