5

March Tree

MICHAEL BELSOM and ANN JACKSON (9)

 

MICHAEL BELSOM. We have traced the Belsom family back to the north Kent village of Knockholt, where Michael was baptised in 1753.
Baptism. St Katherine, Knockholt.
1753 Apr 22  Michael son of Michael Belsom and Sarah his wife.

His mother was Sarah Peddar or Preddar.

His father a was a blacksmith at the time of his marriage. There is evidence of a Michael Belsom, cordwainer (shoemaker), in Knockholt in the 1750s, but this is probably an older man.

Michael was the second of six children, and the eldest son.

He was between three and nine when the family moved three miles south to the village of Sundridge. It was here that his younger sister Lucy died in 1764. Two years later, his mother Sarah died. Michael was 13.

We know from his father-in-law’s will that Michael, too, became a blacksmith, like a number of his forbears.

 

ANN JACKSON. Ann was said to be 76 when she died in 1826. This puts her birth at 1749-50. But ages of elderly people are often inaccurate. The nearest baptism would be the following.
Baptism. St Peter, Limpsfield.
1747 Oct 8  Ann the daughter of George and Elizabeth Jackson of the parish of Westerham.
This is confirmed by George Jackson’s will, which names Ann and her husband Michael Belsom.

Ann was the ninth of ten children. Her mother was Elizabeth Stiles, and her father was a tailor.

The family used the St Peter’s church in Limpsfield. This is a village 6 miles west of Sundridge, where Michael grew up. It is in the extreme east of Surrey, just inside the border with Kent, at the foot of the North Downs. But their home was in the neighbouring parish of Westerham in Kent, whose village centre is 3 miles east of Limpsfield and only 3 miles from Sundridge.

One of her siblings died when Ann was five. The Limpsfield burial register is short on details, so it is not clear whether others died in infancy.

Ann was 29 when she married Michael, six years older than him.
Marriage. St Peter, Limpsfield.
1776 Dec 26  Michael Belsom of this parish bachelor and Ann Jackson of this parish spinster.
Michael makes his mark X. Ann signs.
Witnesses: John Belsom, George Harding

They appear to have made their home in Limpsfield, where their first and only child was baptised eighteen months later. He was named after Ann’s father.
Baptism. St Peter, Limpsfield.
1778 Jun 28  George

In December of 1777, Ann’s father, George Jackson made his will. He named as his executors his two sons-in-law, Thomas Rimington, gardener, husband of Ann’s sister Fanny, and Ann’s husband Michael Belsom, blacksmith. George died in April the following year, but by the time his will was proved in Dec 1778, Michael himself had died.

Burial. St Peter, Limpsfield.
1778 Aug 5  Michael Belsom

 Despite the large number of George Jackson’s children, only two of them received legacies in his will. Three grandchildren, children of his dead son John, each received a guinea. The remainder his estate he left to be shared equally between his two youngest daughters, Fanny and Ann. This makes it likely that all Ann’s other siblings were now dead, or perhaps had received substantial payments in their father’s lifetime. Her brother-in-law was now the sole executor.

Ann was with a two-month-old child. Two years later, she married again.
Marriage. St Peter, Limpsfield.
1780 Jul 25  John Sutton of this parish bachelor and Ann Belsom of this parish widow
As with her first marriage, John makes his mark X, while Ann signs.

Their first three children were baptised in Limpsfield.
Baptisms. St Peter, Limpsfield.
1781 born Feb 9, bapt Mar 11  Mary
1782 born Dec 22, 1783 bapt Jan 12  John
1786 born Oct 14, bapt Nov 11  Richard

From there, they moved a short distance east across the county border to Westerham.

Baptisms. Westerham.
1791 Apr 20  William
1799 Jan 20  Harriet
1802 Aug 8  Sarah

Richard was buried on 15 Jul 1809 aged 23.

It was another sixteen years before Ann died.
Burial. Westerham.
1826 Jan 20  Anne Sutton wife of John. Westerham. Aged 76.

Five years later, John Sutton died. He was then living in Westerham Alms Houses.

 

NEXT GENERATION: 8. BELSOM-LEIGH

PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 10. BELSOM-PEDDAR

March Tree