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| Site of the former St James', Dukes Place cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Basher Eyre - geograph.org.uk/p/921191 A former church, demolished in 1874. |
Richard Benbow (b. 1659) Bachelor, married Grace Beer (b. 1663) Spinster, at the church of St James, Duke's Place, City of London, on 15 Aug 1686. Nicholas Poor is listed, presumably as a witness to the marriage. Described variously as "Aldgate’s own version of Gretna Green" and the church that defied convention, St James's was "the place where people could get hitched while bypassing the irksome rules and regulations that would normally apply", with no need to wait for banns to be called; no need for a licence and, best of all, parental consent was not required to tie the knot there. Why this couple, a pair of my 8x great-grandparents, chose to marry there, isn't obvious.
They appear to have been the parents of at least four children:
- Richard Benbow b. around 1690
- Sarah Benbow b. around 1690
- James Benbow b. around 1699
- Samuel Benbow b. around 1699
Birth years are very approximate and mostly calculated from ages at death. There are no baptism records for any of their children, as they were Quakers and Quakers don't practice baptism. There could, therefore, have been other children, that we just don't encounter records for or cannot link to them.
We know that Richard Benbow is their child from a London Apprenticeship Abstract record, which lists him as the "son of Richard Bendbow (sic), Stepney, Middlesex, bricklayer". To confirm that link, James, also listed as son of Richard and a Bricklayer, later left three houses to Richard's daughter, Elizabeth Travally. Sarah is identified as his sister in James' will, as were his nieces Ann and Mary, daughters of Samuel. In the absense of the usual records, these are all we have to be able to glue this family together.
Richard Benbow, of Ratcliff, in the Parish of Stepney, in the County of Middlesex, Bricklayer, aged about 64 years, died the 26th day of the month called April, 1723. Buried in Friends Burying Ground Ratcliff. [In The London Burial Grounds, by Isabella M. Holmes, is the information "There was a little meeting-house with a burial-ground attached in Wapping Street, which seems to have been used until about 1779, but was then demolished, the worshippers moving to the meeting in Brook Street, Ratcliff."]. Richard Benbow was reported to have died "of a Dropsy" (Edema, also spelled oedema, also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling).
A tax record places Grace Benbow in Brooke Street, Ratcliff, in 1730.
Grace Benbow died, aged about 83 years, of old age. The record says she died (well, one version said she 'dyed' and one wonders what colour) on the 4th day of the 10th month called December and was buried on the 7th day of said month, also at the Friends Burying Ground at Ratcliff. (December was the 10th month at that time. Until 1752, the new year in England still began on Lady Day, March 25th. In addition, Quakers sometimes used a Calendar that differed from both the English custom of beginning the year on March 25 and from the Scottish custom of beginning the year on January 1. Many Quakers, such as George Fox and William Penn, began the year on March 1.)
Sarah Benbow, Spinster, and John Warber, Bachelor, both from the Parish of St Dunstan, Stepney, married at St Clement Danes, Westminster (the first church in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons) on 22 Dec 1724. However, John Warber, Pensioner (at that date undoubtedly a military pension), was buried at St Dionis Backchurch, City of London (North Churchyard), on 23 Feb 1739. Sarah Warber (although the record transcription says Sarah Walker) married James Terney at Newington St Mary (Surrey) on 9 Sep 1740. This is the surname listed in James Benbow's will. There was a burial of a Sarah Turney (sic) at St James, Piccadilly on 30 Nov 1768 (unconfirmed).
James Bendbow (sic) of Ratcliff, Bricklayer, son of Richard Bendbow of the same place and trade deceased, married Frances Stalker, daughter of Thomas Stalker of Sotheringby, Cumberland, Carpenter, deceased at the Monthly Meeting of Peel's Court, John Street, Westminster on 27 Nov 1740. Relatives present: Samuel and Mary Bendbow, Sarah and James Terney, Hannah Preston [1]. (Many considered Quaker couples to be living in sin because they didn't have clergy to officiate.) James Benbow of Brook Street in the Parish of Stepney, aged about 62 years, died on 23 Apr 1761, of convulsions. He was buried on 26 Apr 1761 at the Friends Burying Ground at Ratcliff. The will of James Bendbow (sic) of St Dunstan's Stepney, Bricklayer, left everything (including 11 freehold houses) to his wife Frances to dispose of, as mentioned above, with bequeaths to his sister Sarah Terney, and nieces (he'd said cousins) Elizabeth Travally, Ann Benbow and Mary Haselden [2]. Frances Bendbow (sic) of Brook Street, Ratcliff in the Parish of Stepney, aged about 66 years, died on 17 May 1766, of a Dropsy, and was buried on 23 May 1766 at the Friends Burying Ground, near School House Lane, Ratcliff.
It appears that neither Sarah nor James produced any offspring.
Samuel Benbow married Mary Breeden at St Mary's Church, Bromley St Leonard's, on 10 Jan 1723. Samuel and Mary Benbow had eight children:
- Sarah Benbow b. 18 Jan 1724, daughter of Samuel Benbow, Bricklayer and Mary, bap. 7 Feb 1724 (at 20 days old), at St Dunstan's, Stepney
- Grace Benbow, daughter of Samuel Benbow, Bricklayer was buried on 1 Apr 1726, at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney. Assuming she had been born that same year and died at birth, or shortly thereafter.
- Joseph Benbow, son of Samuel Benbow and Mary, bap. 21 May 1727 and buried on 28 May 1727, in Stepney, Middlesex
- John Benbow, son of Samuel Benbow and Mary, bap. 19 May 1728
- Elizabeth Benbow, daughter of Samuel Benbow and Mary, bap. 18 Jan 1729; died aged 13 and was buried on 20 Nov 1742 in Stepney
- Ann Benbow b. Friday, 12 May 1732, daughter of Samuel Benbow, Bricklayer of Rat (Ratcliff) and Mary, bap. 4 Jun 1732 (at 23 days)
- Joseph Benbow b. Monday, 14 October 1734, son of Samuel Benbow, Bricklayer of Rat (Ratcliff) and Mary, bap. 10 Nov 1734 (at 27 days)
- Mary Benbow b. Sunday, 5 October 1735, daughter of Samuel Benbow, Bricklayer of Rat (Ratcliff) and Mary, bap. 2 Nov 1735 (at 28 days old), at St Dunstan, Stepney. Mary, daughter of Samuel Benbow was buried at St Dunstan, on 30 Sep 1737, just short of her 2nd birthday.
- Mary Benbow b. Friday, 13 June 1740, daughter of Samuel Benbow, Bricklayer of Ratcliff and Mary, bap. 29 Jun 1740 (at 16 days old).
[1] Found no other records of Hannah Preston to know how she was related.
[2] Mary Bendbow (sic), daughter of Samuel Benbow and his second wife, married Herbert Haselden, in Stepney, on 10 May 1757. This couple had a daughter, Mary Magdalen Haselden b. 22 Feb 1758, daughter of Herbert Haselden, Grocer, and Mary, bap. 23 Feb 1758 (at 1 day old) at St Dunstan, Stepney. They also appear to have had a daughter, Frances, mentioned in this Lease and Release with counterpart of release, "William Wood of Little Russell Street, parish of Saint George, Bloomsbury, co. Middx., cider merchant and Frances his wife, only child and heir of Herbert Haselden late of Stepney in the fields, co. Middx., grocer and tobacconist, grand daughter and heir of Magdalen wife of Robert Haselden late of Over Hulton, co. Lancs." William Wood and Frances Haselden had married, by licence issued on 14 Apr 1787. In 1777, there had been a Frances Haselden apprenticed to a Susanna Pingo, as a Milliner, which would suggest a year of birth around 1762.
