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John Becher’s
family
Early period
1761-76
Naval status
Discharged from the Ambuscade
in May 1761, John Becher
marries Ann Haysham in August. He spends the next fifteen years on half pay, before his services
are needed in the struggle to put down America's rebellious colonists.
First phase
The first phase
of the marriage’s early period covers the birth of the three eldest children:
Michael Thomas, John Harman and Henry Hopson.
Henry’s birthplace has been identified as Park Hall, Kidderminster. There is no information on birthplace for the
first two, but they are baptised simultaneously at Bristol St Augustine on 24
May 1764. On first reading, the record
appears to quote John Harman’s birth date as 26 June 1762, implying that he is
the elder, but all other accounts put Michael first: indeed, John Harman’s 1799
will, which states his exact age at the time it is made, implies birth in March
1764. This anomaly may account for secretive behaviour by their mother in later years.
That date, 26
June 1762, is worth noting: exactly nine months after his parents’
marriage. Since there is another account
giving Michael’s birth date as 20 March 1762, we may suspect a subterfuge to cover the result of premarital sex.
There is another possibility: that Michael and
Harman were both born in 1764. It’s
notable that records of Michael’s academic career and death both assume he was
born in 1764 and the “June 1762” entry was made by a recorder who had been
bribed to conceal an incriminating truth.
Does this mean they were twins? Not necessarily. All family documents and accounts place
Michael before Harman. Whoever told
Harman he was born in March 1764 may have been trying to perpetuate other
falsehoods about their birth. There is
also a possibility that Harman
was adopted.
Two possible
narratives emerge of where the family has been living when these two are born.
The first
narrative locates them in Bristol, where John’s widowed mother is living. Not only are the children baptised there in
May 1764, but two months earlier John is accepted as a burgess of the
town. This is a matter of lineage:
grandfather’s status as burgess is grounds for his sons to claim the title,
which can similarly be claimed by descendants like John.
An informant at Bristol Record Office tells me that
the status doesn’t always imply residence in Bristol (except on the date of the
award). Indeed, there are numerous
examples, from electoral records, of votes cast by burgesses who were living
elsewhere at the time (although they, too, would have had to travel to the city
to cast their votes).
One further clue
that may support this narrative is the description of John as "Captain
John Becher" in the record of his fourth child’s baptism, although his
rank in His Majesty's Navy is lieutenant.
Since Bristol is a great mercantile centre, it’s possible he has taken a
post as captain of a merchant ship. Some
source of extra income seems desirable for someone trying to raise a family on
a lieutenant's half pay (£52 a year in 1767).
The alternative
narrative assumes that John is using his mother’s residence in Bristol as a
convenience, much as he has used Admiral Thomas Smith’s residence in Hagley as
a convenience for his marriage. He is
actually living somewhere else: most likely Kidderminster, since it is there
that the third son is born and baptised (11 April 1765).
The children’s
names offer a clue.
For the eldest
child, “Michael” is the name of John’s brother, who
died in 1760. “Thomas” is likely as
remembrance to their patron, Admiral Thomas Smith. Indeed it is likely that John Becher wanted
Smith as the child’s godfather, and may even have promised him the role. Smith dies in August 1762, so he is alive
when the child is born, but dead by the time of baptism.
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Michael Thomas 1762-1809 m
Jane Scott John Harman 1764-1800 m
Harriet son & 3 dtrs Henry Hopson b 1765 Anna Maria 1767-18 Elizabeth Cort 1768-1841 m
John Turner several children Alexander 1770-1827 m Frances Scott several children Robert Charles 1772-93 |
For the next
child, “John” is his father’s name, but “Harman”
raises some interesting possibilities.
Likeliest origin is with Captain William Harman: although there is no
evidence that he and John Becher were ever shipmates, Harman has served under
Smith. When Lieutenant
Alexander Hood receives orders in May 1756 to join Smith’s fleet in the
channel, he is told to report to “Captain Harman in HMS Oxford“. Given Smith’s habit of fraternising with
officers who have served under him, Harman may well have spent time at
Smith’s residence at Rockingham Hall, Hagley (as Hood, Michael Becher and
George Hamilton are recorded as doing).
We can
therefore postulate that John Becher has seen Smith periodically during this
period, and that he has struck up a friendship with William Harman in the
process. Harman may even have been present
on the occasion of John’s marriage, since he was on half pay (i.e. not
serving on any ship) at the time. He
is also on half pay at the time of John Harman Becher’s baptism, so may well
be a godfather. The evidence
from these children’s names point to a Becher residence near Hagley:
Kidderminster fits the bill nicely.
Probably John is a tenant on the Park Hall estate. The Hall at the time is owned by the Foley
family, who in the previous century had made their fortunes in the iron
trade. Suggestion of an iron-related
link here, to back up other evidence that one source of John’s income is as
West Midlands agent for William Attwick’s
ironmongery business in Gosport The fact that
Alexander Hood later becomes godfather to John’s sixth child tends to confirm
a link between the Bechers and Hagley.
Elsewhere we see the possibility of a
connection between John’s father and George Lyttelton, Smith’s half-brother
and owner of Hagley Hall: yet another, albeit tenuous, Becher-Hagley
link. Hood features here also, since
he has met his future bride, Lyttelton’s cousin Mary West, at Hagley, and
married her there. |
Other names John
and Ann Becher choose for their children offer interesting pointers. For the third child, “Henry” was the name of
John’s father. The origin of “Hopson”
has not yet emerged, but may well have a nautical connection. No officer named Hopson is recorded at the
time of the baptism, but there are some of lower rank: notably Able Seaman
Thomas Hopson, discharged from the Buckingham on 2nd March
1763. Sixty years earlier there was a
Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Hopson.
Second
(Kingswinford) phase
The next three
children are baptised in Kingswinford, where the family home has been
identified as Shut End House. The name
suggests a significant upward move in the family’s fortunes: the location is
nearer the centre of the Staffordshire iron industry
but is still close enough to Hagley to maintain links.
Kingswinford parish
circa 1670
Map from The Blackcountryman
(1988) used by permission of Peter Chandler
First baptism is Anna Maria (18 January
1767). We may note an Italianisation of
the names of John’s wife Ann and his mother Mary, who is still alive (and who
indeed outlives him).
On 16 March 1768, John and Ann
Becher are in London for her sister Elizabeth’s wedding to Henry Cort, and John
becomes a trustee for the marriage settlement. This seems to be the only event other than
Becher baptisms chronicled during this period.
Next baptism is for Elizabeth Cort Becher (26 August 1768), so we can
surmise that the Corts are present in Kingswinford for the baptism.
Third Kingswinford
baptism is for Alexander Becher (17 April 1770). Godfather is Alexander Hood, appropriate in
that he is the only one of John Becher’s
children to achieve a commission in the navy. A warning for the keen researcher: his entry in Marshall's compendium gives his birthplace as
"Sheet End". An obvious case of handwriting being misread.
The youngest child, Robert Charles Becher, is
baptised at Brierley Hill (23 October 1772).
Someone with local knowledge may be able to fathom why he is not at
Kingswinford, as his parents are still living at Shut End House. The origins of the names Robert and Charles
is not yet evident.
American war
period 1777-9
John Becher and
four of his children are recorded as playing a part in
the American war, third son Henry Hopson making an appearance in the
Caribbean in 1782. He transfers to the Alfred
shortly after Thomas Morgan leaves.
John, having
returned to England in 1779, makes a will in December. All seven of his children are mentioned in
it.
We know that the
eldest, Michael Thomas, has won a scholarship to Eton, and proceeds to Kings
College, Cambridge in November 1781.
John Harman has landed a job as a writer with the East India Company and
taken off for Calcutta.
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To become a covenanted
servant a man had to be nominated by one of the Directors of the Company...
By the eighteenth century most servants going out to India on their first
appointment were young men with the rank of Writer. In 1751 the qualifications for a Writer were
formally fixed at a minimum age of sixteen with proof being required that the
boy had been through ‘a regular course if arithmetick and merchants’
accounts’. From P J Marshall, East Indian Fortunes:
The British in Bengal in the eighteenth century (Oxford, 1976) |
We may note that
John Harman is only fifteen when he is accepted as a writer. He is privileged: a relation, Richard Becher,
is a director of the Company.
Last years of
John Becher
After his discharge
from active service, the family continue to live at Shut End House. There is evidence that John is involved in
recruiting for the Navy, as well as procuring ironmongery for the Gosport business.
In January 1782 he adds a codicil to his will.
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Whereas I have met with losses since the making this my Will I
leave my two daughters sixteen hundred pounds each my son Michael Thos
five hundred my son John Harman one hundred my son Henry Hopson five hundred
my son Alexander six hundred my son Robert Charles seven hundred pounds
instead of the sums mentioned in my Will and I declare this to be a Codicil
to my will this 27th day of January 1782. From codicil to
John Becher’s will. |
John Becher’s
death and aftermath
In November 1783
comes the Cort demonstration
at Stourton (on the river, just beyond the
western extremity of the Kingswinford map), the accident and the
(coincidental?) death of John Becher.
Cort visits again on business the following June. A letter from Joseph Black in Edinburgh is
addressed to "Mr. Cort at Mrs. Bicker's, Stourbridge,
Worcestershire". One wonders
whether it reaches its intended destination: somehow it ends up in the
Boulton-Watt collection in Birmingham.
Another business
visit from Cort comes in November. Soon
after this John Becher’s widow ups sticks and moves to Fareham.
From this point
it’s easiest to follow the children’s fortunes a few at a time. Anna Maria (sometimes called Ann) evidently
stays with her mother: she is certainly there when William
Thackeray turns up nearly thirty years later. John Harman’s later history is covered elsewhere.
Little further to
tell of Henry Hopson, said to die at sea in Africa – sounds as though his navy
career continues. Likewise Robert
Charles: only death in 1793 is recorded.
Michael Thomas
qualifies for the priesthood, which later brings him two disparate jobs: head
of a school in Bury St Edmunds, and Vicar of Wootton Wawen, dozens of miles
away in Warwickshire. It is in Wootton
that he marries Jane Scott (7th August 1806), a widow several years
his senior: one child by her previous marriage is Alexander John Scott, a
notable cleric whose service in the Navy has included ministering to Nelson on
his deathbed.
It’s interesting
to compare Michael’s marriage to his brother Alexander’s.
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He married, in 1793, Frances, daughter of the Rev. – Scott, of
Queen's College, Oxford, Rector of Kingston and Port Royal in Jamaica (and
brother of the present Countess of Oxford), by whom he has issue Alexander
Bridport, a Lieutenant R.N. and acting pro tempore as Hydrographer to
the Admiralty…
From entry in Marshall's compendium of sea officers for Cort's nephew
Alexander Becher. |
Piquant! Both brothers marry a woman called
Scott. Michael, a cleric, marries the
widow of a naval officer. Alexander, a
naval officer, marries the daughter of a cleric.
Another marriage:
Elizabeth Cort Becher to Rev John Turner, who turns out to be an alumnus of a
school in Bury St Edmunds – presumably the same one where Michael Thomas
becomes head.
Widow Ann Becher
eventually returns to Gosport. She dies
there in 1825, but is buried in Fareham, where Anna Maria lives out the rest of
her life.
A curious
postscript. The will of Henry Cort’s son Frederick
leaves £200 each to his “cousin Ann Becher of Fareham and her sister Mrs
Elizabeth Turner in gratitude to their deceased brother Rev Michael Becher of
Bury St Edmunds”. The deed which earned
this gratitude may have been connected with the baptism
of Frederick’s niece Frances Cort.
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RELATED
TOPICS Thomas
Lyttelton: a fantastic narrative Henry Cort’s marriage to Ann Becher’s sister Rickman
& Scott: two contrasting naval careers |
henrycort.net
hq