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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Bedfordshire => Topic started by: vivijune on Wednesday 07 March 12 21:17 GMT (UK)
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I know we should be thankful that we've managed to trace the Bitchenor (er) family back to the late 1600's with a William Bitchenor born at Kempston in 1692, who married a Constance Houghton of Kempston in 1716, but we'd love to know his fathers name and where he came from, probably a neighboring village. There are records from the 1550's of Bitchenors in Flitwick and some a little later in Goldington and North Crawley.
Yesterday I found a Robert Bitchenor on familysearch born in 1698, also at Kempston who could have been William's brother. This was a new find.
In looking at Family Trees on Ancestry, it seems that several trees hit the wall with that 1692 birth. Any suggestions for going back further or trying to look in those other villages for a Bitchenor (er) man probably born around 1670. Is it now possible to purchase the individual village record for example Flitwick? Would William 1692's father's name have been recorded at his birth?
Would appreciate any help or discovery.
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Morning, the Beds FHS have produced a series of parish registers CDs for Bedfordshire parishes including Flitwick. Checkout their website for details.
regards John
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Virtually all baptisms pre 1813 in Beds have been extracted onto the IGI. If the baptism isn't on the IGI then you're unlikely to find it in a transcript, from which most of Beds entries on the IGI were taken. There was no birth record at that time (not until 1837), just the baptism.
It's a big gap to fill from the 1550s to 1692.
The first Bitchiner burial that I can find in Kempston wasn't until 1720, implying to me that they came from elsewhere. Look also for spelling variations eg bichinol
What you found on the IGI in 1698 was a member submission of the type that's not worth the paper it's written on. Someone found Robert's marriage in Kempston in 1723, and it being a well known fact in the LDS church that ALL males marry at age 25, has deducted 25 from the marriage year and assumed he was born in the same parish as he was married in, hence Robert Bichener born 1698 in Kempton. Pure fiction. There was more than one Bitchener baptising children in Kempston from 1719 onwards. I'm sure they were connected. As Robert is a slightly less common name than William I'd look laterally and concentrate on finding Robert, and then see if he had a brother.
William was a tailor by the way, in case you didn't know, and Robert was a blacksmith.
David
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David and John.
Nice to hear back from you. You were both so helpful to me last spring when I started my family search so your input here is very useful. One of the benefits of this board is I've been reunited with long lost cousins and it turns out that one of them has the same passion for ancestry as I do. In fact she spent 2002-2004 doing painstaking research into the Bitchenors, so I've been able to verify the information you helped me accumulate which was spot on! Thanks again.
I'll talk to her and go ahead and order the FHS parish records for villages around Kempston where there are early members of the family. Good idea and glad it's available.
My father came upon a reference in a history book to say that Bechnoirs were persecuted Huguenots from Flanders... Flemish weavers, who dispersed (not going all that far) for fear of persecution, crossing the channel sometime in the 1400's. Bechnoirs settled along the slow meandering River Ouse, which is why there are Bichenos from St Neots who founded Becheno Bay in Tasmania. My lot who seem to have settled between Newport Pagnell and Bedford with those two possible brothers you looked up coming to Kempston and raising families. Obtaining Goldington, Newport Pagnell and Flitwick and North Crawley is probably the most likely place to start to dig back further.
In case there is anyone out there with an interest, children of William (1692) who married Constance Houghton in Kempston in 1716, had children who founded different family subsets in Kempston, Biddenham and Cranfield. Our interest moving forward is in the Cranfield Bitchenors.
Maybe it's a stretch but William listed as working as a tailor isn't that far a progression from weaving the actual cloth. Since I only found the existence of Robert this week I had no idea he was a blacksmith, so thanks for that. We will look for Robert as the best course of action as you suggest and see if he had a brother.
We appreciate your suggestions and insight.
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Hi there
i have a line of descent through my grandmother from the Bitchener family of Kempston so i've dug out my research notes. My descent is from Robert Bitchener, blacksmith who married Elizabeth Crick in Kempston in 1723. The other early marriage entry I have on my notes is William (not Robert) marrying Constance Houghton in 1716.
I have a hunch (as yet unproven) that they may be the sons of a Robert Bitchino of Crawley, Bucks who married Anne Church at Hardmead, Bucks in 1691. These parishes are very close to Kempston but researching this family has proved a bit tricky due to the surname variations and going over the county boundaries. They did have a son Thomas baptised at Crawley and there is a Thomas in the Kempston records.
Let me know if I can help any further.
Joy
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Welcome to Rootschat Joy
Do you know if Robert Bitchino of Crawley left a will?
David
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Hi there
No, have not been able to find a will so far but have just sent for a baptism search in Crawley as the transcript I checked in Milton Keynes library only went back to 1700 and there are earlier Bitchenor wills on the Bucks database for Crawley so I think this may be their 'home' parish in the 1500 and 1600's. Must say the surname variants (bychenowe, bichenoe, bykonowe etc) are quite eye-popping and not helping with this search. :D
Will post further when I get the results back.
Joy
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Thank you both for your input here. It would be very exciting for my family to peel back another layer of the family ancestry beyond the last thread which for my branch is the William Bitchenor / Constance Houghton marriage in Kempston who we believe is Robert's brother.
Based on what I could see on ancestry the Bitchenor/ Bitchener/Bichenor family trees all stop at William and Constance with their families living in Cranfield, Biddenham and Kempston in the next generations.
My sons had been encouraging me to try to dig back further (carefully of course) but if this North Crawley connection pans out it would be exciting. As you say, the variation on names is imaginative and challenging as well as the Beds/ Bucks border record issue. I don't live in the UK so I appreciate what you've been able to do so far and look forward to hearing the outcome of wills or anything else you find out.
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Afternoon, been looking at Bucks Poor Law Records CD - there's an entry for North Crawley dated 1781 with a ref PR 156/15/1/4 - not sure what this means ? It says -----
Mary Summerfield & Henry BITCHINER of Stepporly (sic) BDF; Also bound is William BITCHINER of Cosgrave, NTH.
Any links to you families ?
Regards John
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Next from Phillimore's Bucks Marriages at Hardmead.....
...... not only the Robert BITCHENO of Crawley, marriage to Ann Church on 24 Sept 1691, there is one on 17 Nov 1669 of William BICHENO to Sarah Musgrove, both of Crawley ...... and previously on 1 Mar 1609 of Robert BICHEHOE to Marie Farro.
There are 4 other marriages in Newport Pagnell between 1642 & 1689, do you want them listed ?
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Lastly from Olney PR-------
----- there's a burial of Eliz BICHENOE, wife of Rychard in Nov 1602
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Yes please, John. Send them over. Any name of that kind is welcome.
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Hi, Newport Pagnell marriages....
18 Jun 1642 John BICHENOLL to Mary Tailer
1 Oct 1665 Thomas Mallins to Ann BICHENOE
28 May 1667 John BICHENOE to Ann Lyn
21 Oct 1689 Thomas Ingram to Ann BICHENOR
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Splendid John, more of them! I'm wondering if you could look for one thing. This thread began with William Bitchenor marrying Constance Houghton supposedly at Kempston in 1720. That seems to be fact but we don't know that he was born at Kempston or where he was born but it was probably nearby. If we count back, it seems like he might have been born around 1690-1700 perhaps at Newport Pagnell or Crawley? I'm also wondering if you can see anything about her family, the Houghtons who are probably Kempston people?
William Bitcheno of Crawley may be his father, he and Sarah Musgrove married as you say in 1690, so perhaps the William I've just mentioned just now was their son as was Robert who became the blacksmith in Kempston.
What all this seems to say is that quite a few people with variations on that unusual name were living in that corner of Beds Bucks and may have been there for some time, even though they derived from Flanders which might put them in one of the earlier migrations of Flemish weavers earlier than the reign of Henry VIII. As joy posted earlier there are several "Bitchenors" with wills in the early 1600's.
Thanks again for the help. Viv
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Yes the entries I have from the North Crawley transcript are:
Baptism 1700 Apr 21 Thomas son of Robert and Anne Bitchenoe, gardiner
Burial 1701 Sep 9 Anne wife of Robert Bitchenioe, gardener
Burial 1724 Jun 24 William Bitchenor
Burial 1743 Feb 29 Ann Bechino, poor widow (Alice Bitchenoe in Bishop Transcript)
As the transcript only started from 1700 the search i've ordered for the period prior to this may yield the baptisms of the other children of Robert Bitchino who married Anne Church as this was in 1691 leaving ample time for more offspring. ;)
If this proves to be the case then the wills for North Crawley as follows would be of great interest so I will order them and transcribe for any interested parties (wills are my favourite ;D)
Agnes Bechinar North Crawley widow 1559
John Bechonoe North Crawley 1638
Thomas Bycheno North Crawley 1557
William Bychenowe North Crawley 1572
John Bychynowe North Crawley husbandman 1577
Robert Bykonowe North Crawley husbandman 1552
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Joy,
I find it interesting that there are a cluster of wills that will be forthcoming (many thanks by the way.) I appreciate that death could happen at any age but perhaps based on dates, Thomas Bycheno and William Bychynowe might be brothers dying in the 1570's and Thomas Bycheno and Robert Bykonowe the same, dying in the 1550's.
I looked up 'husbandman' and found that it's a description for a tenant farmer below the level of yeoman farmer.
I'll take some time today and look at your new information plus the leads supplied by John yesterday.
Cheers and thanks to you both... Viv
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Now I've had a chance to look through everything you've provided again, it's much more likely that Robert Bychonowe (husbandman) dying in 1552 is actually the father and that John Bychynowe (husbandman) is his son who inherited. I assume that if Robert had land that was being cultivated the property would pass to the eldest son. The wills will tell us.
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;D Hi Viv - have just got the results of the search through on the email and I'm hopping up and down with excitement - the information from the North Crawley register is most exciting - Robert and Ann had two sons William bapt 1695 and Robert bapt 1697 before the third son Thomas in 1700 so I believe these are our missing ancestors! This would explain the three turning up around the same time in Kempston as they were siblings. At a quick glance the father Robert is son of a William who is son of a Robert then two more Roberts - this takes us back to about 1590 and means I will need to get those wills! :D
Do you have an e-mail address so that I can forward the files on to you as it was a county wide search and a couple of the marriages are in other parishes so I'm sure you will want to peruse all this lovely info at your leisure.
Joy
I shall order the wills today.
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The wills will tell us.
Unfortunately not necessarily. Often if property was involved it was dealt with separately, and the will just dealt with the personal estate and how it should be distributed. If, as you assume, the land would have passed to the eldest son under the primogeniture rule, then there was no need to state that in the will - it would have been automatic.
But I think a husbandman was usually a tenant farmer ie he rented the land rather than owned it.
David
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Thanks for the clarification in terms of owning rather than leasing land as in if it wasn't owned it wouldn't pass to the eldest son.
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Joy,
That's really splendid. Looks like you may have cracked it. I know it was suggested on this thread to go after Robert because he had the less common name and your hunch for North Crawley would seem to be spot on! The fact that you can see back in time to more Roberts back to the late 1500's is terrific.
I talked to my cousin last night and I will post some information below she gave me. She's on vacation so I don't think she'll mind if I post. She did really systematic thorough research on our line about 5 years ago and was in touch with a woman who had your same ancestor. They hit a roadblock in actually establishing the brotherhood of William and Robert at the time, but with Robert and Ann Church having those children in 1695 and 1697 there's confirmation.
Also she reminded me that in her research William my ancestor, the son of William the tailor who had married Constance Houghton had a son, another William who married an Elizabeth Ingram. Sound familiar? (Further back it looks as if an Ann Bitchenor who was mentioned recently (can't remember the variation on spelling) married a Thomas Ingram back in 1689 so it looks like a familiar family connection.) Then in 1866 an Abraham Bitchenor who is the son of another William in that line, has a son called Abraham who marries Sophia Fields, who is part of the Musgrove family.
I will send you an email so you can send on what you have and we can send you the William family tree. If this all pans out, and some of the detail my cousin and I are providing here would seem to substantiate it, then you're right, it's indeed an exciting day with more to come!
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Hi Joy,
I'm Viv's cousin. Just wanted to say how thrilled I am that it seems you have found the link between William and Robert. I'm really looking forward to seeing the wills. As Viv mentioned I did a lot of research into the Bitchenors around 2004-2007 and it's still ongoing!! I'm more than happy to share anything with you that I have if it's of use.
As Viv said I was interested in the reference in one of the posts to the marriage of an Ann Bichenor to Thomas Ingram - 21/10/1689 because William B and Constance Houghton's son William (our direct ancestor) married an Elizabeth Ingram in 1720. I wondered if they were from the same Ingram family? I was also interested in the marriage of William Bitcheno of Crawley to Sarah Musgrove. The name Musgrove has appeared before in my research i.e. Mary Musgrove of Kempston wife of Abraham Bitchener married 4/12/1866. Abraham was the son of William Bitchenor of Kempston and Sophia Fields.
Kind Regards
Old Throstle.
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Ooh if you have cracked the Bitchener/Bichener/Beatchnor well done. I was stuck on what I assume are 3 brothers marrying . Working on the Hugenot angle they would have to get married in Church of E but births could have been in the Wallloon chuches.
http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/cnm/html/EXHIBITS/lace/lacehtml/01_huguenot.html
I have a few strays who I am sure are also connected
Timothy Beachenor m Joan Wiat 19 Sep 1603
Timothy Bapd & died 1604 Leighton Buzzard
Mary 1607
John 1609
Joan 1612
Elizabeth Bechyner marr John Fletcher Northill 1577
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I have recently read an article on a George Bitchener of Cranfield born c1853 , it was on a Facebook family history page for Cranfield . If it's of any interest to anyone I can post the details.
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Thanks that would be great
Val
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Hi Val, I might have to send the article by PM as I'm unsure of newspaper copyright etc.