Beaminster, Dorset Family History Guide

BEAMINSTER is a market and union town and parish, polling place for the county, in the petty sessional division and county court district of Bridport, hundred of Beaminster Forum, diocese of Salisbury, archdeaconry of Dorset and rural deanery of Bridport fourth portion, 18 miles west by north from Dorchester, 6 north from Bridport station, 6 south from Crewkerne station and 133 by road from London.

Beaminster is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Dorset, created in 1849 from a chapelry in Netherbury Ancient Parish.

Other places in the parish include: Parnham, North Mapperton, Wansley, Axknoll, Langdon, Marsh, and Meerhay.

Parish church: St Mary

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1585
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1585

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

BEAMINSTER, pronounced Bemminster a small town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Dorset. The town stands on the river Birt, near the confluence. of its headstreams, among high environing hills, 4¾ miles NW of Powerstock r. station, and 6 NNE of Bridport.

It is a place of considerable antiquity; but it was burnt to the ground by the troops of Prince Manrice in 1644, and again much destroyed by fire in 1684 and in 1781; and it now presents a modern and neat appearance.

It has a post office under Bridport, a banking office., a hotel, a townhall, a church, a chapel of ease, an Independent chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, a free school, and alms houses with £173, and other charities with £99; and is a polling-place for the county.

The church is later English and large; contains tombs of the Strodes of Parnham; has a tower nearly 100 feet high, with curious sculpture on the western side; and was restored in 1862. A weekly market is held on Thursday; and a fair on 19 Sept. A good trade exists in double Dorset or mould cheese; and the manufacture of sailcloth, sacking, and pottery is carried on. The Rev. T. Hood, father of Lords Hood and Bridport, was master of the free school; and Bishop Spratt the poet, and Russell who defended Warton’s History, were natives.

The parish includes also the tything of Langdon, and the hamlets of Axknoll, Marsh, Meerhay, North Mapperton, Parnham, and Wansley. Acres, 5,118. Real property, £13,632. Pop., 2,614. Houses, 590. The property is much subdivided. The manor belongs to the prebends of Beaminster Prima and Beaminster Secunda in the cathedral of Salisbury. Parnham House, formerly the seat of the Strodes, now the seat of Sir Henry Oglander, Bart., is an old Tudor edifice, and contains a fine hall, with gallery of portraits.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £246. Patron, the bishop of Salisbury.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

BEAMINSTER, a market-town and parish, in the union and hundred of Beaminster, Bridport division of Dorset, 17½ miles (W. N. W.) from Dorchester, and 137¼ (W. S. W.) from London; containing, with the tything of Langdon, 3270 inhabitants.

During the civil war in the reign of Charles I., Prince Maurice, commanding a party of royalists engaged in besieging Lyme, took up his quarters in this town, which, a few days after, was nearly reduced to ashes by fire, stated by some historians to have been occasioned by accident, and by others to have been the result of a quarrel between the French and the Cornish men in the service of the king, who set fire to it in five different places.

It was rebuilt by means of a parliamentary grant of £2000, but was again nearly destroyed by a fire which occurred in 1684: in 1781, it experienced a similar calamity, but the greater part of the buildings having been insured, it soon recovered its former prosperity.

The town is pleasantly situated on the river Birt, which is formed by the union of several small springs that rise in the immediate vicinity; the houses are in general modern and well built, and the inhabitants are amply supplied with water.

The manufacture of woollen-cloth, which formerly flourished here, is at present on the decline, and that of sail-cloth is now the principal source of employment; there is also a pottery for the coarser kinds of earthenware. The market, granted to William Ewel, prebendary of Sarum, in the 12th of Edward I., is on Thursday; and a fair is held on Sept. 19th, for cattle. Constables and other officers are appointed at the court leet of the lord of the hundred.

The quarter-sessions for the county, now held at Dorchester, were formerly held here; and in 1638, an order of session was issued for building a house of correction at the expense of the division. The town-hall is a neat and commodious edifice, in which the public business is transacted.

The parish contains the manors of Beaminster Prima and Secunda, both till lately forming prebends in the Cathedral of Salisbury; the former valued in the king’s books at £20. 2. 6., and the latter at £22. 5. 7½.

The Living is a vicarage, annexed to that of Netherbury: the great tithes have been commuted for £220, and those of the incumbent for £300. The church, founded in honour of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, is a stately edifice in the later style of English architecture, with a fine tower 100 feet high, richly ornamented with sculptured designs of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and other subjects of scriptural history.

There is a place of worship for Independents. The free school was founded in 1684, by Mrs. Frances Tucker, who endowed it with £20 per annum for the master, leaving also £30 per annum for apprenticing boys: the endowment now produces about £140, and the number of scholars is 100. The Rev. Samuel Hood, father of Lords Hood and Bridport, was master of the school early in the eighteenth century.

An almshouse for eight aged persons was founded in 1630, by Sir John Strode, of Parnham, Knt., the income of which amounts to £20. Gilbert Adams, Esq., in 1626, gave £200 to the poor; and the Rev. William Hillary, in 1712, bequeathed the reversion, after ninety-nine years, of land in the parish of Carscombe, worth £35 per annum, for the benefit of twelve distressed families.

The Knowle estate, in the parish, has been in the possession of the Daniels since the reign of Henry VIII., and there is a burial-ground for the family upon it. Dr. Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester; and the Rev. Thomas Russel, Fellow of New College, Oxford, who distinguished himself by his defence of Warton’s History of English Poetry, were natives of the town.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Records

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Kelly’s Directory of Dorsetshire 1880

The town is of considerable antiquity: in Domesday Book it is classed amongst lands belonging to the Bishopric of Sarum: it was given in 1091 to Bishop Osmund to augment two of the prebends of his cathedral: it is pleasantly situated in a fertile and beautiful valley, through which runs the river Birt, which issues from several springs about one mile north from the town and flows into the English Channel at Bridport Harbour. The town is paved and lighted with gas.

At East Axe Knoll, one of the highest hills in this county, two rivers take their source – the Axe and the Birt. There are many good residences and the modern appearance of the town may be attributed to the destruction of the old town by fire, which took place in the Civil Wars of Charles I. In the parish register it states that – “On the 14th of April 1644, it was all consumed by a terrible fire, except the East streete and part of the Church streete, Prince Maurice and his army lying then in the towne:”

It was rebuilt with the assistance of Parliament, but again, with the Market house destroyed by the fire of June 28th, 1684; and again on the 31st of March, 1781, at about 5 am & fire broke out in the bars premises of the King’s Arms Inn, in the Market place, destroying in a few hours the whole of the houses (two only excepted) on the west side of the street leading to the church, also the houses in Church street and Little Street. An ancient cross, surrounded by rows of steps and adorned with curious carved work, was about the middle of the last century ruthlessly destroyed.

In 1849 Beaminster was separated from the mother church of Netherbury, to which it was formerly subject, and made a separate vicarage.

LANGDON is a tithing 1½ miles north east; NEWTON and BUCKHAM are hamlets

Parish Clerk, William Bugler

INSURANCE AGENTS:-
Atlas, A & E Toleman
Commercial Union, Robert Leigh
County Fire, S Cox
Liverpool London & Globe, H.J. Sherring
Provident Life, S. Cox
Royal Exchange, A. Hine
Sun Fire, N.M. Loggin

PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS:-
County Police Station, Patrick Wm. MacHale, supt
Stamp Office, Edwin Coombs, distributor

Deputy Coroner, Charles G Nantes

Inspector of Weights & Measures, of common Lodging Houses, of Petroleum & Cattle Plague, Patrick William MacHale
Surveyor of Roads, Richard Rendall, Stoke Abbott

PLACES OF WORSHIP:-
Church of the Virgin Mary & Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Rev Alfred Codd, M.A. vicar, surrogate & canon non residentiary & rural dean; Rev Peter Holmes Jackson M.A. curate
Congregational Chapel, Rev. Uriah Brodribb Randall M.A. minister
Wesleyan Chapel, ministers various

SCHOOLS:-
There are a National school for girls & infants & a boys elementary school recently erected in the town. The school, founded by Mrs Tucker in 1684 for 20 poor boys of the parish, has been amalgamated with the Netherbury Grammar school, which has been removed here, as a day & boarding school for boys & called the Beaminster & Netherbury Grammar school: the number of scholars is now about 35 & the endowment amounts to £238 yearly: the Rev. Samuel Hood, father of Lords Hood & Bridport, was master of this school in 1715.
National (girls), Miss Sarah Hinton mistress
Boys Elementary, William Oxley master
Infant, Miss Jane Trew, mistress
Grammar, Charles George Purkis, master

CONVEYANCE TO CREWKERNE,- Omnibus leaves Bridport at 9.30 am & Beaminster at 10.15 am for Crewkerne daily & starts from Crewkerne at 11.50 am & Beaminster at 1 noon & arrives at Bridport about 2 pm.

CARRIERS:-
BRIDPORT – Alfred Woodbury, daily at 9
YEOVIL – William Hutchins, friday
Agent for Goods & Parcels for the Great Western Railway Company, Alfred Woodbury

PRIVATE RESIDENTS

Andrews James

Codd Rev. Canon Alfred M.A. vicar
Cox Lieut-Colonel Samuel Symes J.P. Manor house
Cox John Russell esq. J.P.
Cox Miss
Cox Peter

Daniel Thomas Palmer
Daniel William James
Dowdeswell John Palmer

Elliott William

Gardner Mrs
Gilbert Mrs Bridge house

Jackson Rev Peter Holmes M.A. curate

Keddle Samuel S. M.D. J.P. The Elms
Kitson John Lane, Eastcot
Kitson Mrs The Lodge

Leigh Robert The Yews

Marsh Mrs
Marsh Joseph

Oglander Lady, Parnham house; & of Isle of Wight

Payne Miss
Pope Thomas

Randall Rev Uriah Brodribb, Congregational
Rawlins James Knowle cottage
Read Mrs
Russell Capt Thomas J.P.
Russell Miss

Sansom Mrs
Slade Edwin
Symes William

Toby William Henry Wheaton

Webb John Staines
Wise Edward

COMMERCIAL

Allen William hair dresser
Andress William basket maker

Bannister Albert Edward MRCVS veterinary surgeon
Beament William carpenter
Beaminster Gas Coke Co William B Newman manager
Boon Ann Mrs laundress
Boon John, Star, & butcher Fleet street
Bowditch Frances Mrs cowkeeper
Bowditch Oliver J leather cutter
Brooks Josiah tailor
Bugler John, butcher
Bugler Robert, machine maker, wheel wright, iron & brass founder & timber merchant; saw mills
Bugler William baker
Bugler William boot & shoe maker
Bullock Alfred bill poster

Caddey Thos dairyman Chapel marsh
Canterbury Charles brazier & tinman
Chambers Robert, builder, contractor & plasterer, Fleet street; & brick tile & drain pipe manufacturer & potter, Hogshill street
Chambers Samuel carpenter Short’s la
Chambers Susan Miss straw bonnet ma
Chubb Mary Ann Mrs laundress
Clare Charles furniture dealer
Cleal George rag & bone dealer
Collins SI, painter glazier & paperhanger
Conway Emma Miss shopkeeper
Coombs Edwin, draper, millwright, stamp distributor & clerk to the commissioners of the Bridport turnpike trust
Coombs Thos. Patten, bookbinder, book seller, newsagent, printer & stationer
Coombs William shopkeeper
Cox & Kitson solicitors
Cox Peter (firm Cox & Kitson), solicitor & commissioner in all the law courts & court of chancery
Cox Elizabeth Miss straw bonnet mkr
Cox Jane Miss dress maker & milliner
Cox John farmer Stonecombe
Cox Samuel, auctioneer, appraiser, house & estate agent, land surveyor, contractor for land drainage & agent for the County Fire & Provident Life Offices See advertisement
Cox Walter Henry butcher & game dealer

Daniel Thomas Palmer, surgeon
Daniel William James, surgeon & medical officer to the Beaminster district of the union of Beaminster
Davy Wm Clement, frmr, Horn Park frm
Dawe Levi confectioner
Dawe Robert baker & shopkeeper
Day Richard rag & bone dealer
Denner James boot & shoe maker
Dorsetshire Bank (branch) (R & R Williams & Co) (James Andrews, man.); open daily from 10 am to 3 pm; draw on Williams Deacon & Co London
Downe Jsph. Hine, tailor & woollen drapr
Dunford James greengrocer
Dunn George beer retailer
Dunn George farmer Barrow field
Dunn John Barratt leather seller

Edwards Albert baker & grocer
Elliott William farmer Buckham
England Annie Mrs dress ma Fleet st

Fountain Mary Ann Mrs tailoress
Frampton Giles jun butcher
Frampton Giles cattle dealer & farmer Whitcombe
Froome Benjamin butcher

Gale Daniel mason & sexton
Gale George builder
Galpin Hy baker confectioner & grocer
Galpin Parmenas grocer & ironmonger
Galpin Samuel farmer
Gillingham Moses farmer Axnoller
Guy James Daniel farmer Storridge frm

Hallett Richard Drake, fancy repository, registrar of marriages for the Besminster district
Hann Charles, builder, contractor, appraiser, stone mason, cabinet maker & sanitary inspector, Prout bridge
Hann Edwin, general accountant & assistant overseer
Hann Louisa Maria Miss dressmaker
Hawker James timber haulier
Hellier Charles farmer Knowle frm
Hine Alfred chemist
Hine John wine & spirit merchant
Hoare James shopkeeper
Holloway Samuel farmer Northfeld
Holloway William, Bell & Crown
Hooper Edwin timber haulier
Hull Tomas blacksmith
Hutchins William carrier

Keech David & Son monmntl masons
Kitson Jobn (firm, Cox & Kitson), solicitar
Knight Thomas tailor & woollen draper

Lawrence Henry baker & shopkeeper
Legg Edwd. Gapper, frmr Coombe down
Leigh Robt., solicitor, commissioner to administer oaths, clerk to the Guardians to the Rural Sanitary Authority, land steward to Lady Oglander, clerk to the governors of Tucker’s charity, to the boys public elementary school & to the trustees of the Netherbury charities, assistant magistrates’ clerk & super-intendent registrar

MacHale Patrick William, superintendent of police & inspector of weights measures petroleum common lodging houses & cattle plague
Marsh John hair dresser
Marsh John New inn
Maunder Lewis watch maker
Meech David Swan
Meech Thos Eight Bells & shopkeepr
Moore Henry boot & shoe maker
Mullins Job gardener to Lady Oglander

Newman Susan Mrs Red Lion
Newman Virtue Mrs frmr Willwood
Newman Wm B manager of gas wrks

Oliver Danl china & earthenware dealer
Oliver Emma Miss fancy repository
Oliver Thomas Greyhound
Orchard Isaac grocer Fore street

Paul Eli thatcher
Paul John Henry farmer
Paul Samuel boot & shoe maker
Pine Alfred Vie grocer Fleet street
Podger Chas frır & millr Bucklm mill
Pomery Henry coal dealer
Poole Samuel beer retailer
Pope Thos clerk to commissrs of taxes
Pyle John farmer Mapperton marsh

Rendall Charles farmer Bowgrove
Roberts George baker
Robertson Thomas veterinary inspectr
Rogers John beer retailer & shoe makr
Rousell Robert beer retailer
Rutland Philip deputy superintendent registrar

Savings Bank (T.P. Coombs man.), open on thursdays from 12 till 1
Sibley Edwd boots shoe ma & shopkeepr
Sherring Henry James painter glazier & paper hanger
Shiner James & Son wheelwrights
Slade Edwin estate agent
Squire George White Hart
Stembridge Jeremiah Peter, saddler & harness maker & post master
Swaffield John farmer Higher Meerhay
Swatridge Richard corn factor

Tate William farmer
Toleman Anthony & Edward, bell hangers, ironmongers, locksmiths, painters, plumbers & tin plate workers & agricultural implement agents
Travers Jane Mrs beer retailer
Trump John chimney sweep
Tuck William thatcher

Tuck William jun shopkeeper

Virgint Henry & Son drapers

Ware Esther Ruth Mrs, Crown
Warr Mary Ann Miss, young ladies school Fleet street
Warren Thomas Slade, saddler & harness maker
Watts Thos blacksmith & shopkeeper
Watts Thomas jun Three Horseshoes & blacksmith Beaminster bottom
Way William farmer Langdon
Weaver Henry blacksmith
Webb John Staines surgeon & medical officer to the Netherbury district of the union of Beaminster & the union house also to the Marshwood district of the union of Beaminster
Wheadon Mary Miss dress maker
Williams John Cox linen & woollen drapr
Wilts Dorset Banking Co (branch) (Henry John Gilbert manager), draw on London & Westminster Bank London ec
Winter John boot & shoe maker
Winter John jun boot maker
Woodbury Alfred carrier
Woodward John Hy farmr Shatcombe
Woolmington Hy. farmr Axnoller farm

Source: Kelly’s directory of Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Wiltshire (the Isle of Wight, and the Channel Islands). By Kelly’s directories, ltd · 1880

Kelly’s Directory of the Leather Trades 1880

BEAMINSTER

Market day Thursday

Boot & Shoe Makers & Dealers

Bugler William

Denner James

Moore Henry

Paul Samuel

Rogers John

Sibley Edward

Winter John

Winter John jun

Boot Upper Manufacturer & Currier & Leather Merchant

Dunn John Barratt

Leather Cutters & Sellers

Bowditch Oliver James

Dunn John Barratt

Saddlers & Harness Makers

Stembridge Jeremiah Peter

Warren Thomas Slade

An Address from the County of Dorset on the Elementary Education Bill, May 9 1870

To the Right Honourable The EARL de GREY and RIPON President of Her Majesty’s Privy Council and To the Right Honourable W. E. FORSTER MP Vice President

We the undersigned Clergy and Laity of the Archdeaconry and County of Dorset, accepting the principle of the Elementary Education Bill now before Parliament, by which in existing Schools perfect liberty of Religious Teaching is guaranteed to the Managers, together with perfect liberty of withdrawal from such Teaching to the Parents of the Children, do earnestly deprecate any Alteration in the Bill which may affect such principle.

At the same time we are prepared to concede, if necessary, the substitution for the so-called Conscience Clause, of an Enactment which shall confine the Teaching of the Formularies of any Denomination to the first part of the School Hours.

BEAMINSTER

A. Codd, vicar and school manager
Sam S. Cox, J.P. for Dorset, Manor House
Samuel S. Keddle, J.P.
Peter Cox, solicitor
James Rawlins, churchwarden
David Symes, church warden
Margaret Leigh, gentlewoman
A. Meech, tile manufacturer
J.B. Dunn, currier

Thomas P. Daniel, surgeon
William James Daniel, surgeon
William Gardner, schoolmaster
R.W. Broster, surgeon
Henry Moore, shoemaker
George Cox, gentleman
M. Toleman, ironmonger &c.
R.E. Trye, B.A., clerk in holy orders
J.L. Kitson, solicitor
D. Meech, marble mason
Richard Swatridge, corn factor
Robert Cox, tailor
E. Pyne, grocer
Robert Chambers, mason &c.
John Chick, builder
Thomas Thomas, schoolmaster
Eli Humphrey, shoe dealer
Joachim Gilbert, surgeon
Edward Wise, Revenue officer
Henry Virgint, draper
P. Cake, hotel keeper
William Chambers, mason
Edwin Coombs, bookseller &c.
Giles Frampton, yeoman
Parmenas Galpin, ironmonger &c.
John Cox, yeoman
George Squire, innkeeper
Edwin Allen, hairdresser
R. Knight, bank manager
David Hann, builder
Edwin Slade, gentleman

Source: An Address from the County of Dorset on the Elementary Education Bill, May 9 1870 by Dorset. Published by H. Spicer, Dorset County Chronicle Office, 1870.

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Administration

County: Dorset
Civil Registration District: Beaminster
Probate Court: Court of the Peculiar of the Prebend of Netherbury in Ecclesia
Diocese: Salisbury
Rural Deanery: Bridport
Poor Law Union: Beaminster
Hundred: Beaminster
Province: Canterbury

Beaminster, Dorset Family History Guide

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

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Kelly’s Directory of Dorsetshire 1880

Kelly’s Directory of the Leather Trades 1880

An Address from the County of Dorset on the Elementary Education Bill, May 9 1870

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Administration

The Registers of the Abbey Church of SS Peter and Paul Bath V. 1

The Parish Registers of Frostenden, Suffolk 1538 to 1791

The Parish Register of Sheffield in the County of York Part 1 Baptisms and Marriages 1560 to 1635

Leicestershire Parish Registers Marriages V.11