Robert CAVE and Charlotte BECK at Chatteris

[mathmsh]

I am interested in any information about Robert CAVE and Charlotte BECK. The Chatteris parish registers list a number of illegitimate children of Charlotte BECK all christened with the surname CAVE BECK. On Charlotte's burial record, BECK has been crossed out and replaced by CAVE.
Robert CAVE married a Jane MERRY in 1780. She appears to have died in 1793. The first confirmed child of Charlotte BECK (William) was born in 1797 though, according to the IGI (without a film number), there was a John born sometime after 1793. John does not appear on the Chatteris parish register. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mark

[bedfordshire boy]

I question whether the surname was CAVE BECK. The way the transcript is worded Cave is the middle name of all the children, and the surname is BECK ie a very broad hint as to the father. It looks as though this could have been a stable relationship, just that they didn't marry.

The 1814 marriage of John BECK makes no reference to him being John Cave BECK, so I don't think it can be automatically assumed that he was another son of Charlotte, as the member submissions on the IGI appear to have done. But as John was married by 1821 when all the illegitimate children of Charlotte were baptised perhaps he opted out.

Interesting that two of Charlotte's children were Matthew and Everitt - a Matthew Cave was buried in Chatteris in 1780 and an Everet Cave in 1781 - indicating perhaps that these were named for a Cave relative rather than a Beck. It might be worthwhile seeing if and how Robert was connected to these.

David

[mathmsh]

David

I agree that Cave was probably a middle name. However in Census records, they have been listed under both BECK and CAVE. Some families seem to change their surname with each Census.

On the parish marriage record for Matthew Cave BECK to Mary PETERS in 1840, his father's forename is given as John Cave. There is another Matthew Cave BECK who is a son of Charlotte and married Margaret RICHARDSON in 1821. I also thought that John may have opted out of the baptism. There does not appear to be a baptism record for this Matthew (son of John) either.

Yes it would be interesting to see if there is any connection between Matthew and Everet CAVE with Robert.

Thanks

Mark

[iminandover]

Robert Cave and Charlotte Beck had 10 children but I don't think they ever married
Thomas 1795, John 1796, William, 1797, James 1799, Matthew 1803, Everett 1803, Margaret 1806, Moses 1809, Robert 1811, and Andrew 1813.

Most of the children were baptised as adults 12 Apr 1821 with mother Charlotte Beck as the only parent, but with a baptism name Cave.

Although I can't find the bit of paper, I'm sure she was listed in the burial record as AKA Cave

Hope this helps

Jan

[mathmsh]

Thanks Jan.

I suspected John but were not aware of Thomas. As far as I can tell, Robert CAVE married a Jane MERRY on 2 May 1780. They had two children that I am aware of before she died. According to the IGI she was buried on 23 March 1793.

As a matter of interest, where did you find this information? I am struggling with a number of other cases where people are born before civil registrations started and do not appear to be baptized (officially at least). I am interest is what sources outside parish registers exist for the era before 1837.

Thanks again

Mark

[iminandover]

I spent a long time looking for an Andrew Cave who was my GGGF. Back in the 80s I won a couple of train tickets and took myself off to Cambridge RO to look at the parish registers.   I had Andrew's marriage certificate so I was pretty sure his father  was Robert Cave.  The first visit I found two Robert Cave deaths in 1829, and Robert Cave's marriage to Jane Merry.  I found Robert and Jane's children and Jane's death. Since Andrew was married in Chatteris and both Roberts were both buried in Chatteris, I thought Andrew was most likely to have been born in Chatteris.

By the middle of my second day I still hadn't found Andrew's birth, but had to wait for a train to go home again, so I thought I'd just go through the birth register and look for any Andrew -  and I found virtually the whole family baptised together in 1821.  The first names all matched names used in the family for several generations after.

Cambridge record office will of course supply photocopies - they are on two pages.

I'm still trying to find out where the older Robert was born - although many people quote Haddenham I couldn't find him in the parish records and I think I will need to look at the manorial records to really get any further as there is no further information on his marriage or burial entries. 

If manorial records exist for an area they can be useful as property was sometimes disposed of through the manor court rather than leaving a will.  It gets much harder beyond 1837 as apart from parish records there are things like poor law records, manor records, wills and other records kept by the parish (in the parish chest!) but unless you are very lucky these won't have been transcribed or indexed.

Good luck

Jan

[suffolk*sue]

There is this baptism

Robert Cave
son of Andrew and Ann
25th December, 1749
Sutton

Boyds marriage index

Andrew Cave
Anne Canham
1732
Haddenham

[Copper]

My direct ancestors are Merry from Chatteris.  Jane Merry is a twig on my tree.

Jane Merry married Robert Cave in Chatteris.  Robert was the son of Matthew Cave and Margaret Everitt.  I have been told that they married 8 April 1742 in Haddenham.

Matthew Cave and Margaret had 3 children that I know of
1) William 1745
2) Robert c 1747
3) Everet (Everard) 1756

I know of the Cave Beck family.  I have not entered them into my data base yet.

Some of my Cave information came from another researcher and he got his info from the Cave Society.  This is a one name study.  I am sure that they would be able to help you.  You can contact them via the Guild of One Name Studies site

www.one-name.org/index.html

Type Cave into the box labelled "Is your surname registered"  This will eventually give you a contact email.

I hope this helps.

[iminandover]

I've found further confirmation of the CAVE/BECK relationships.

The British Newspaper archive has an article from the Cambridge Chronicle & Journal dated Friday 16th October 1829 (p3) in which a court case between Thomas Cave and Robert Cave Beck gives detail about the family affairs.

There is an identical report in the Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette dated Saturday 27th October. (P2)

Sounds like the elder Robert was a bit of a rogue (or very forgetful!)

Jan