5

March Tree

MICHAEL BELSOM and SARAH P(R)EDDAR (10)

 

MICHAEL BELSOM. We first meet Michael at his marriage in 1751. He is said to be “of Woolwich, Batch(elor) & Blacksmith”. There is an identical description of a Michael Bellson who married in 1688. This could be our Michael’s grandfather.

The date of his wedding would lead us to expect a baptism for Michael around 1725. No such baptism has been found. Research is hampered by the loss of some early registers. Others, particularly in London, may not yet have been digitised.

Woolwich lies on the banks of the Thames, and at that time was nine miles from London. The parish is bounded on the north by the river Thames, except in that part where it extends on the opposite side of the river into Essex. There was considerable marshland, as well as arable and market gardening. The rest was upland pasture.

It owed its great growth in population to the dockyard and the arsenal.

It first came to prominence with the building of the Harry, Grace de Dieu for Henry VIII in 1512, though she was accidentally burnt there in 1554. The dockyard included a smith’s shop, with several forges for making anchors. As a blacksmith,  Michael may well have been employed there.

We have found no Belsoms, or alternative spellings, in Woolwich before the 19^th century.

Woolwich is 16 miles north of Sarah’s parish of Brasted.

We find the name again with the baptism of Michael son of Michael Belsham in Fawkham in 1699. This is a parish 7 miles east of Orpington in West Kent. It is nearly 10 miles NE of

Brasted, where we find our Belsoms later. There were Belshams in Fawkham at least as early as 1643, with many entries in the parish register. But there is a gap in the entries between 1711 and 1743, indicating that at least some of the family may have moved elsewhere.

 

SARAH P(R)EDDAR. In one record of her marriage she is Sarah Peddar, in another her surname is Preddar. Both are highly unusual names. We have found no entries for it in the parish registers of Kent. It may be a misspelling.

 

Michael and Sarah married, not in Sarah’s parish church of St Martin, Brasted, but in a clandestine marriage near the Fleet Prison in London.
Fleet Prison Clandestine Marriage. St Bride’s New Chapel.
1751 Jun 27  Michael Bellson of Woolwich, Kent, Batch, Blacksmith & Sarah P(r)eddar of Brestid, Spinster.
There are two versions of the marriage record. In one the bride’s surname is Preddar, in the other it is Peddar.
“Brestid” is Brasted.

Weddings usually took place at the bride’s parish church, after the reading of banns on three Sundays. An alternative was to marry by licence, without the need to call banns. But this was expensive.

A third possibility was an irregular or “clandestine” marriage. These were ceremonies conducted by an ordained clergyman, but without banns or licence, and generally not in a church, usually away from the parish of the bride or groom. The couple may not have been able to afford a licence, or wished to marry without parental consent or to hide a prenuptial pregnancy. Sarah was heavily pregnant at this time.

One of the most common venues for such marriages was the Fleet Prison in London, or places nearby. St Bride’s Chapel is in Fleet Street.

This record is curiously similar to an earlier clandestine marriage.

Fleet Prison Clandestine Marriage. The Cock.
1689 Apr 23  Michael Bellson of Woolwich, Kent, Batch & Blacksmith & Sarah Peddar of the sd County, Spinstr.

We could explain the similarity between the bridegrooms as being grandfather and grandson. But it is hard to account for both brides having the same highly unusual name.

The Cock tavern in Fleet Street, near Fleet Bridge, was a frequent venue for Fleet clandestine marriages.

Michael and Sarah were one of the last couples to benefit from a clandestine marriage. The practice was banned in 1754.

 

Their first child was baptised in Sarah’s parish of Brasted, less than three months after the wedding.
Baptism. St Martin, Brasted.
1751 Sep 1  Sarah
Brasted is a parish in North Kent, 4 m west of Sevenoaks. It lies between a range of chalk and sand hills.

Allowing for variant spellings, such as Belsham, the couple seem to have moved home several times.

In 1753 we find them in Knockholt, 3 m north of Brasted. This is a hilly, rural location, on the top of the dip slope of the North Downs, with views over London.
Baptisms. St Katharine, Knockholt.
1753 Apr 22  Michael son of Michael Belsom and Sarah his wife.
1754 Oct 20  Lucaser
1756 Aug 12  Elizabeth

In the same year that Michael junior was born, we have the following apprenticeship.
Apprenticeship. 1753 Master: Michael Belsom. Cordwainer. Nockholt. James Blake. £1.0.0d.

The occupation of cordwainer (shoemaker) does not fit with the description of Michael as a blacksmith at his wedding. He would still have been quite young at this time, and perhaps not yet a master craftsman able to take on an apprentice. Perhaps this is his father, or another relative.

The family moved on to Sundridge for the births of their two youngest children.
Baptism. St Mary, Sundridge.
1762 Aug 15  Thomas
Ten-year-old Lucy was buried in Sundridge on 17 Dec 1764.
1765 Jan 9  Mary

Sundridge is a village less than a mile east of Brasted, on the main Sevenoaks road.

Sarah died here the following year.
Burial. St Mary, Sundridge.
1766 May 12  Sarah the wife of Michael Belsom.
We would estimate her age as around 40.

By the time of his burial eight years later, Michael may have moved back to Brasted, since he was buried there. Perhaps he moved in with one of his children living there. But the two villages of Sundridge and Brasted are so close that he may still have been living in Sundridge.

Burial. St Martin, Brasted.
1774 Sep  Michael Belsom
He was probably about 50 years old.

  

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