5
Alan March’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back many generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from Alan’s as (1)
GEORGE BELSOM and MARY SMITH LEIGH (8)
GEORGE BELSOM. He was 56 at his burial in 1834, giving him a birth date of 1777-8. This matches the following:
Baptism. St Peter, Limpsfield.
1778 born May 17, bapt Jun 28 George son of Michael & Ann Belsom.
Limpsfield is a village in north Surrey four miles west of Caterham, where George raised his family. It lies just short of the border between Surrey and Kent.
His mother was Ann Jackson and both his parents were from Limpsfield.
George was less than 3 months old when his father died. He would have had no memory of him.
Two years later, George’s mother remarried to the bachelor John Sutton, also of Limpsfield. Three half-siblings were born there.
When George was around ten, his family moved 3 miles west to the village of Westerham in Kent. Here, another three children were born.
Like so many others, George became an agricultural labourer.
It was here that he met Mary Smith Leigh.
MARY SMITH LEIGH. We know from the 1851 census that Mary was born in Hever, Kent, around 1779.
Baptism. St Peter, Hever, Kent.
1780 May 25 Mary Smith the Daughter of Elizabeth Leigh of Brasted (base born). By leave of the Minister of Brasted.
Her middle name Smith gives us a clue to who her father was. This is confirmed in the will of her paternal grandfather, Robert Smith, yeoman of Brasted:
“I give and bequeath unto Mary Leigh natural daughter of my son John Smith by Elizh Leigh the sum of one hundred pounds to be paid to her arriving at the age of twenty and five years.
In future records her full given name of Mary Smith often given.
Her mother Elizabeth Leigh had gone back to her birthplace of Hever for Mary’s birth, but was said to be a resident of Brasted. This is a village just west of Westerham, where George spent his teenage years.
The Smiths were wealthy farmers, owning several farms. It is likely that Elizabeth Leigh worked on one of these.
It is unclear what happened to Mary’s mother after that. She may be the Elizabeth Leigh who was given a pauper’s burial in Brasted in 1787, or the Elizabeth Leigh who married Thomas Pain in 1783.
The fact that Robert Smith acknowledged her as his grandchild, and made a generous provision for her in his will, means that he is likely to have been involved in her upbringing, and provided funds for this.
Mary gave the middle name Smith to two of her daughters.
The couple married in Lambeth, for reasons that are unclear.
Marriage. St Mary, Lambeth.
1798 Dec 25 George Belsom and Mary Smith Lee. Both were of that parish.
It is not clear what they were doing so far from the villages where they grew up. We might have thought this was one of the “clandestine” marriages popular at the time, where couples could marry at certain venues in London more cheaply than in their parish church, and without the necessity of banns being read, which was usually only possible with an expensive marriage licence. But the marriage index here says that they were married by banns.
It is possible that a daughter was born here. We have been unable to trace the baptism of Eliza Smith Belsom, whose son was living with Mary in the 1841 census.
Whatever the reason for the Lambeth marriage, they raised their family in Caterham. This was then the village now known as Caterham on the Hill. The modern town in the valley is a product of Victorian times.
Eleven children were baptised here.
Baptisms. St Lawrence, Caterham.
1800 Aug 7 Sophia Smith, daughter of George Bellsom & Mary his wife, late Mary Smith, spinster, was born Jul 2nd, privately baptized Aug 7th & received into the church Nov 2nd.
Mary’s maiden name was really Leigh. Mary Smith was her given name.
1805 Jan 20 George
This was the year when Mary became 25 and came into the legacy bequeathed by her grandfather Robert Smith. £100 in 1805 would be worth more than £10,800 in the 2020s, so this was a major windfall for the young couple.
1806 Apr 1 William, privately bapt. Received into Church Jul 20.
1808 Jul 5 Michael, privately bapt. Received into Church Nov 13.
1811 Sep 1 Mark. Mark was buried on 22 Feb 1812, aged 5 months.
1813 May 13 Harriet. This is the first of the baptisms to record their residence and George’s occupation. They were living in Caterham itself, not in a rural hamlet, and George was a husbandman. By this time, the word had come to mean an agricultural labourer.
1816 Jan 11. Mark. George is still a husbandman.
Later that year, Mary’s father John Smith died. His father had left Mary a generous legacy, but John Smith makes no mention of his natural daughter in his will.
1818 Apr 5 Luke. We now have a change of occupation. The family are still living in Caterham, but George has become a butcher. It was probably Mary’s legacy that helped George to acquire a trade.
1820 Mar 4 Reuben. Butcher.
1822 Mar 20 James. Butcher.
i1826 Jan 29 Fanny. Butcher.
The same year, on 12 May 1826, Harriet was buried, aged 13 years.
George did not live to see the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 or the 1841 census.
Burial. St Lawrence, Caterham.
1834 Dec 7 George Belsom. Caterham. 56 yrs.
Mary married again, to a widowed agricultural labourer.
Marriage. St Lawrence, Caterham.
1836 Sep 20 Thomas Bentley of this parish widower and Mary Smith Belsom of this parish widow.
Both sign their names. Mary spells hers “Marey Smith Belsam”.
Witnesses: Philadephia Gadd and John Gadd, who both make their marks.
The following year, King William IV died and the young Queen Victoria ascended the throne.
In the 1841 Census, Mary and Thomas Bently are living in Half Moon Cottage, Caterham, with one of Thomas’s daughters from his first marriage and two of Mary’s children from hers. Also with them is John, the natural son of Eliza Smith Belsom of Clerkenwell and a young lodger.
We have not been able to trace Eliza Smith Belsom, but the middle name Smith strongly suggests that this was another of Mary’s daughters, born soon after their marriage.
1841 Census. Half Moon Cottage, Caterham.
Thomas Bently 60 Ag lab Y
Mary Bently 60 Y
Ann Bently 10 Y
Fanny Belsom 15 F.S. Y
Luke Belsom 20 Ag lab Y
John Belsom 10 Y
John Tulet 15 Ag lab Y.
F.S. is a farm servant.
Half Moon Cottage was on the Croydon Road, next to Half Moon Farm and the Half Moon Inn.
In 1844, Thomas’s son John married Mary’s daughter Fanny.
Marriage. St Lawrence, Caterham.
1844 Nov 30 John Bently of full age Bachelor Labourer Caterham Thomas Bently Labourer
Fanny Belsom under age Spinster Caterham George Belsom Butcher
John Bently makes his mark X. Fanny, like her mother, is literate and signs her name.
Fanny’s brother Luke was a witness.
By the next census they have moved to Pepper Alley. This was in Caterham Valley, where the railway would arrive in 1856.
1851 Census. Pepper Alley, Caterham.
Thomas Bently Head Mar 70 Ag labr Caterham
Mary S Bently Wife Mar 72 Hever, Kent
John Bently Son Mar 28 Ag labr Caterham
Fanny Bently Daur Mar 24 Caterham
Mary died later that year.
Burial. Caterham.
1851 Sep 18 Mary Smith Bently Caterham 72yrs
Thomas outlived her by six years.
1858 Feb 21 Thomas Bently Caterham 77.
NEXT GENERATION: 7. HERSEY-BELSOM
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 9. BELSOM-JACKSON