13. BEERE-CRISPE

Baker  Tree

 JOHN BEERE and SARA CRISPE (13)

 

JOHN BEERE. His wedding to Sarah Crispe took place in her parish church of St Clement, Sandwich. John was also said to be living in St Clement at the time. This was probably his family home then.

No likely baptism has been found for him in Sandwich. There is John Burry who was baptised there on 24 Nov 1577. But this would make him 18 at the time of his wedding, which is unusually young. Sarah was a more typical 24.

The nearest baptism found to his expected birth date around 1570 would be 9 miles away, at St Nicholas, Sturry, near Canterbury. John Berry was baptised there on 12 June 1569. No father’s name is given. It is more likely that John’s baptism was in a register now lost or partly illegible.

 

SARAH CRISPE. We have had more success with Sarah. From the date of her wedding we should expect her too to be born around 1570. This fits nicely with the following baptism.

Baptism. St Clement, Sandwich.
1571 Sep 30  Sarah daughter of Thom Crispe

The baptismal register of St Clement’s at this time rarely names the parents. We are fortunate with Sarah because two Crispe children were baptised on the same day: “Sarah, daughter of Thom Crispe” and “John sonne of Willi Crispe”. If it had not been for the need to distinguish between them, we should not have known who her father was. That leaves us uncertain about how many of the other Crispe children baptised at St Clement’s around this time were her siblings. She could be the third of four children, but some of these may be the children of William Crispe.

We have no information about her mother’s name.

 

As a child, Sarah, and possibly John, would have seen the building of the Guildhall in the town square of Sandwich in 1579. The courtroom has a modern stained glass window depicting the visit of Queen Elizabeth I to Sandwich in 1573.

 

John Beere married Sara Crispe on 20 July 1595 at St Clement, Sandwich.

Sandwich had three parish churches: St Clement, St Peter and St May the Virgin. The parish of St Clement covered the south-east part of the town, with St Peter to the north and St Mary the Virgin on the west.

The couple set up home in the neighbouring parish of St Peter.

They had  least five children baptised at the church of St Peter, Sandwich: four daughters and finally a son. But given the gap between the wedding in 1595 and the first of these baptisms in 1599, there may have been others whose records have been lost.

There is a burial for Katherine  daughter of  John Beere on 6 Apr 1599. The next daughter was given the same name.
Baptisms. St Peter, Sandwich.
1599 Oct 14  Katheren.
1602 Oct 3  Susan
1606 Sep 14  Sara
1610 Jul 1  Helen. There is a burial for Helen, daughter of John Beere, on 14 Jul 1611 at St Mary’s. Burials of infants usually took place soon after death, even the same day. St Peter’s may not have been available.
1611 Nov 17  John

In 1605 the country was shaken by the Gunpower Plot. A group of Catholics planned to kill King James I, the royal family and the members of Parliament by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 Nov. The plotters sought to overturn decades of religious persecution by installing James’s 9-year-old daughter Elizabeth as a Catholic monarch. The plot was betrayed. Thereafter, services of thanksgiving were held in churches every 5 Nov, with special prayers written into the Prayer Book.

We do not know whether John and Sarah lived long enough to see the Civil War that began in 1642. The Protestation Return for Sandwich, taken shortly before the war, is missing. This would have listed all the men who took the oath of loyalty.

No convincing burial has been found for John or Sara in Sandwich.

 

[1] https://sandwichtowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/court-room2.jpg