Steve Walker - His Research Written by Alan Henry

By the mid 1990’s, Steve Walker of Leicestershire, England, had completed his genealogical line as far back as Alexander Beebe of Great Addington, Northamptonshire, England but found a problem, one that he felt needed to be corrected. (Photo of Steve 2002 by Ken Beebe) Steve had noted that most Americans showed that their ancestor, who came to North America in the mid 1600’s, was also a Grandson of Alexander, however, Steve knew that while Alexander had a son named John and a Grandson named John, they had both lived and died in England. The error had been prompted by an American, Clarence Beebe, in his “Monograph of the family of Beebe” published in 1904. Clarence provided few source references but his work had been essential in providing much of the early data on the Beebe family and Clarence had traveled to England while doing his research. However, it was not Alexander’s Grandson that first came to America but the Grandson of Alexander’s brother John!! Steve first contacted a fellow researcher, Violet Matthews, in Canada to let her know of his findings and Violet then sent a copy to me, Alan Henry, for confirmation of the data provided by Steve. I also asked Steve to provided the details of his research. At that time I was a Co-Editor of the “Beebe Connection” monthly newsletter. As a result, I later wrote an article on the change to the first known Beebe generations which went out to subscribers of the Beebe Connection newsletter. I then placed the new details of the first 4 generations of the Beebe family on a site in Northamptonshire, England. This latter demonstrated the line from Thomas Bebe to his descendants. It should be noted that actual proof of the connection to Thomas was never found, only that it appeared to be the most logical connection. Steve Walker - Letter December 1999: A transcribed letter, written December 1999 from Steve Walker about his entry into genealogy. Ever since I started tracing my family tree in 1988 I had an idea that I had some Beeby ancestry. Two Great Aunts thought the name occurred somewhere in the mists of time but more than that they didn’t know. After a few months research, I discovered that my 3 X Grandmother’s maiden name was Mary Beeby. She was born in 1823/4, married in 1847 to John Boyfield, widowed in 1857 and she died in 1865 having spent most of her life in Raunds, Northamptonshire. Tracing her ancestry has been a real labor of love. The parish registers for Raunds and Little Addington are very full and although the Great Addington registers only go back to 1693 there are many Beeby references. I also knew that there existed several family Wills dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. Work had been done some years ago piecing this material together and I tried to link my own family to it. It wasn’t until 1991 when I decided to search for deeds relating to the properties in Great Addington that I noticed a problem with the accepted version of the family’s early history. At Warwick County Record Office, I came across a mass of such documents and Beebys were mentioned in these over a hundred times. Once I’d deciphered, transcribed and studied these deeds I realized that one of them could not fit into the accepted family tree. One deed - reference CR162/361 - was dated to 1631 and (in summary form) gave the following information: John Beeby of Broughton who was married to Rebecca and was alive in 1631 could be none other than the John Beeby who emigrated to New England with his children in 1650, the progenitor of so many American Beebes. Two elements in this 1631 deed make it impossible that this John Beeby was the son of John Beeby of Great Addington who died in 1638 and whose Will survives. Firstly, the 1631 deed says that the John Beeby (married to Rebecca) was the younger brother of James with whom he exchanged the land. But in the 1638 Will of John Beebe of Great Addington, his son John is the second son and his son James is the third son. Secondly, the 1631 deed also says that the father of James and John was John who was already dead by that date. Thus he couldn’t be the same John who wrote his Will and died in 1638. Since John Beeby of Broughton (married to Rebecca) was obviously related to the Great Addington Beebes, he must fit into their family tree elsewhere. The only possible place I could find was as the son of John Beeby who died in 1622 (in his Will he mentions his elder son James and his second son John), the Uncle of the John Beeby who died in 1638. The deeds at Warwick County Record Office had provided a lot of new information about the family. The name Beeby appears in the deeds from the 19th century back to the 17th when Beebys bought and sold land in Great Addington and witnessed the transactions of other residents. The two earliest Beebys, brothers Alexander (died 1623) and John (died 1622) both get mentioned in the documents. I then proceeded to work out the family’s earlier history. Although no earlier Beeby Wills existed prior to 1622, their names do appear in the Wills of their neighbors as witnesses, friends, supervisors and sometimes relatives. By looking through all Great Addington Wills I found that Alexander and John Beeby had a sister called Mary, who married Thomas Ffoscutt. Her brothers were mentioned in both her own and her husband’s Wills of 1609 and 1610 respectively. I also found that when Alexander's second son James died in 1631 that his heir, his brother John, was age at least 40, implying that he was born in 1590. I also found that one of Alexander’s daughters, Joan, was married in 1612. I also found out that Alexander witnessed a neighbours Will in 1582. These facts began to give me an idea of when Alexander was married (and born). I then took notice of a marriage entry that I had known about for sometime, that of Saunder Beebye and Elizabeth Hull in 1578 in the nearby Village of Stoke Doyle. I suddenly realised that “Saunders” is a version of the name Alexander and that the date of that marriage was a good fit. Taking the matter further, I could find no earlier references to Alexander who was presumably only a youth and child prior to 1578. I guessed he would have been born in the mid 1555s making him about 22 years old at his marriage and around 70 at his death. Prior to 1578, I found only one Beeby recorded in Great Addington – Thomas Beby who I think is the father of Alexander, John and Mary. I have noticed five references to him. Thomas Beby….. 1. Witnessed the Will of Thomas Ellyot of Great Addington in 1542. 2. Witnessed the Will of Horye Benyt of Great Addington in 1547. 3. Witnessed the Will of Alexander Balney of Great Addington in 1559. 4. Witnessed the Will of Agnes Bate of Great Addington in 1561. 5. Mentioned in a manoral roll of Great Addington in 1551. More distant was Thomas Bybe who witnessed the 1503 Will of Thomas Thomton of Great Addington. He could be the father of the Thomas mentioned above but there is insufficient evidence at present to categorically state this. More Beebys are known from the neighboring Village of Little Addington. There was a John Beeby living there in 1529 and another John from there was succeeded by his daughter a few years prior to that date. A Robert Beeby was living in the Village in 1455. Finally, John Beby and William Beby ‘of Addington’ were ordered to be set free by the Sheriff of Northampton in 1406. The Great Addington Beebys of the 16th century probably derived from this earlier Little Addington stock. Steve also adds his opinion that the name Beeby and all its variants may ultimately derive from the Village of Beeby in my home County of Leicestershire. Back when surnames originated, around the 12th century, perhaps one or two men from there became know as ‘de Beeby’ or ‘from Beeby’ when they moved elsewhere. These names stuck and some of their descendants eventually moved to the Great Addington area. It isn't possible to get a direct line of Beebys back from the 1500s to the original owners of the name but we do know some of the people along the way.