Thomas Bearman

Buried at Springfield Church, age 71. From handwritten memorial inscriptions of around 1867 held at CRO.

Left sizeable will, held at CRO Chelmsford. Catalogue D/ABW 129/1/36 - location HQ3C22C1. Dated August 1819 and proved 22nd July 1831.

“I Sarah Balls late of Springfield but now of Fraiting Hall in the Parish of Fraiting in the County of Essex Widow do make my last Will and Testament in manner following (that is to say / I do give and bequeath unto my Grand-daughter Sarah Elizabeth Bearman and Suzanna Bearman (the Children of my late Daughter Sarah Elizabeth Bearman deceased) the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds apiece of lawful money of Great Britain to be paid to them within six months after my decease in case they shall have then attained the age of twenty one years; but in case my said Grand-daughters or either of them shall not at the time of my decease have attained the said age, then I do direct her or their said Legacy or Legacies to be paid to her or them in immediately upon her or their attainment of that age with Interest thereon to be computed from the expiration of the said six months after my decease. I do also give and bequeath to my Grandson Thomas Frederick Balls (Son of my late Son Thomas Frederick Balls deceased) the sum of three hundred pounds of like lawful money to be paid to him within six months after my decease in case he shall have then attained the agge of twenty one years and if not then immediately upon his attainement of that age with Interest for the same to be computed from the expiration of the said six months after my decease. I give and bequeath unto Richard Haslar (the natural or reputed Child of my late Son Richard Warren Balls deceased) the Legacy or sum of One hundred and fifty pounds of like lawful money to be also paid to him within six months after my decease in case he shall have then attained the age of twenty one years and if not then immediately upon his attainment of that age and I do direct the Interest thereof in the mean time (which I intented to commence from the time of my decease) to be paid and applied by my executors herinafter named or the Survivor of them or the Executors or Administrators of such survivior for or towards his benefit maintenance and education and I emplower my said Executors upon the said Richard Haslar’s attaining a proper age to be placed out Apprentice to any Trade or profession to advance out of the said Legacy any sum not exceeding fifty pounds for that purpose And in case of the death of any or either of my said Grand-daughter Sarah Elizabeth Bearman and Susanna Bearman my said Grandson Thomas Frederick Balls and the said Richard Haslar before ....

“I give and bequeath unto my Grand-daughter Frances Balls Dawson ... my Daughter Judith Frances the wife of William Kendall Dawson of Fraiting Hall aforesaid Gentleman.”

Interestingly, no mention of grandson Thomas Bearman. Was Thomas Bearman not the son of Thomas Bearman coachmaker of Springfield. There was also no mention of Thomas Bearman her late daughter's husband who died in 1827 but who also had to sell his house and business not many years after writing this will.

Moved from Chelmsford the short distance to Springfield between 1785 and 1791 when his son Richard Warren was born. The rector recorded that he was patron of the 3 Cups. His long will confirms he was a victualer as well as confirming his children - the copy, unfortunately is not great...

Attached picture courtesy of http://deadpubs.co.uk/EssexPubs/Springfield/threecup.shtml

Thomas Bearman was a wheelwright, and father of Thomas Bearman, coach maker. Identified from the will of Victualler Charles Bearman in 1779.

Baptism record from seax, St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Cedd (Cathedral)

Marriage was signed in the presence of Thomas, Frances and Richard Balls

1911 description of grave at All Saints church Springfield (now unreadable):

Headstone, round top, lying flat. In memory of SARAH ELIZABETH [wife of Thomas Bearman] who died 9th October 1811 aged 37 [and infants who died young .. and above mentioned] Thomas who died 1(3) Sep (18_7) aged (59) years. From memorial transcriptions 1911.

From Springfield, Essex, Monumental Inscriptions, 1867, care of CRO:

In Memory of Sarah Elizabeth the Wife of Thomas Bearman who departed this life the 9 of Oct 1811 aged 37 years. Also of Four of their children who died Infants. Also of the above Thomas Bearman who died the 15 of Sept 1827 Aged 55 years.

Baptism record in Boreham for Thomas, son of Thomas and Susannah, born March 15, baptised 24th at Chelmsford Record Office. The birth date matches well with his grave inscription, see below. The place matches the will of Charles Bearman, victualer of Chelmsford his godfather see more below and attached images.

Thomas was identified initially from his son Thomas Bearman’s marriage certificate in 1845, where his occupation was given as a coach builder.

There is record of such coach building business in Springfield, near Chelmsford. Records held in Chelmsford, Essex Records Office:

Property of William Collings Wells of Chelmsford and Joseph Wells of Little Waltham.

D/DDw T178/14 1805-1833: Deeds of dwelling-house, workshops and smith's shop adjacent Chelmsford-Colchester road, Springfield. Including Abstracts of Title, 1718-1805; sale particulars, 1822 [refers to coachmaking business established on above property by THOMAS BEARMAN], and 1833; and fragment of membership card of Chelmsford New Temperance Association (established 16 November 1837), see D/DDw T179/15 for complete specimen.

Photos of the auction in December 1822 are attached. Thomas bought the property in 1805 under mortgage, and it was returned to its original owner, Robert Greenwood (and others) in 1823 when Thomas must have hit hard times, or for some other reason needed to pay off his creditors.

Thomas and his father is mentioned in the Will of Charles Bearman, victualler of Chelmsford in 1779 - see attached images. He is described as Charles’ Godson and his father as a wheelwright from Boreham, Essex.

There were two other Bearmans, William and Anne who died in 1806/8 Springfield at quite an advanced age, who may be some relation.

In 1808 Thomas and his wife Sarah were listed as beneficiaries in her sister Rebecca’s will. The year afterwards and they were listed in Thomas Balls’s will (Rebecca’s husband). See Essex wills beneficiaries online at FMP.

Thomas was buried on 20th September 1827, aged 55 years and he was living in Chelmsford, according to the parish records for All Saints Springfield on microfiche at the CRO.

He was buried with Sarah Elizabeth who died on 9th Oct 1811 aged 37 according to the 1911 memorial transcripts. Their grave is now undreadable.

1911 description of grave at All Saints church Springfield (now unreadable):

Headstone, round top, lying flat. In memory of SARAH ELIZABETH [wife of Thomas Bearman] who died 9th October 1811 aged 37 [and infants who died young .. above mentioned] Thomas who died 1(3) Sep (18_7) aged (59) years. From memorial transcriptions 1911. There is probably a better record of this carried out in the 1860s, available at the Chelmsford Record Office (as yet unseen by me). He was in fact 55 according to the Parish records for his burial, on microfiche at the CRO. Square brackets mine, rounded ones on transcript indicating lettering was unclear in 1911.

Thos Bearman was witness to Elizabeth’s Brother’s marriage in 1804

From Springfield, Essex, Monumental Inscriptions, 1867, care of CRO:

In Memory of Sarah Elizabeth the Wife of Thomas Bearman who departed this life the 9 of Oct 1811 aged 37 years. Also of Four of their children who died Infants. Also of the above Thomas Bearman who died the 15 of Sept 1827 Aged 55 years.

Died of the Hooping Cough, denomination Anglican and buried 8th April 1809 according to National Burial Index on FMP

Christened about 29 Jan 1815, Old Church, Saint Pancras. On her death she left a Personal Estate of £562 14s. 5d. with Thomas Bearman sole executor.

Thomas “was brought up as heir to his father’s business and took it over when he was only 22. His father had taken a lot of care over his education and used to take him travelling, including a tour of Ireland during which he actually kissed the Blarney Stone. Under Thomas Bearman III the shop prospered as a high class bakery and confectionary. Hackney had many wealthy inhabitants at that time and Bearmans catered for what was called "the carriage trade". It was also his practice to serve lunch daily to a select group of customers in the back room of the shop. Some blue-rimmed Wedgwood soup plates from this room have been passed down in both my family and Kate’s family.

“He married Keturah Sandell on 3rd June 1873 and for the first five years of their married life they lived in rooms at Fremont Street, Hackney. By 1878 he was able to buy a fine big house, Melbourne House, 8, Tudor Road, Hackney. His mother continued to live over the shop until her death in 1888. By about 1894 he was able to sell the shop and retire and during the next few years came to acquire property all over London, as well as "Beach Crest" (bought in 1897) and "The Moorings" both at Deal and a house in Sandwich Market Place. A photograph of Beach Crest, as it is now, is at the top of the Contents page of this website.

“He was a noted numismatist, specialising in mediaeval English and Scottish coins. Bernard Roth's book "Ancient Gaulish Coins" was dedicated to him. When he died, his collection was sold for £600, a considerable sum in those days. His whole estate was left to a family trust, the Bearman Trust. The original trustees were his sons-in-law, Tom Stutchbury, Charlie Carrington and Edward Middlemiss, with Tom as Secretary. On Tom's death in 1941 his son Tom became Secretary. Among many other things, the Trust administered Beach Crest as a holiday home for the family until 1975, when they sold it to Frank and Florence Middlemiss. Also in 1975 Donald Bearman, the last Tenant for Life of the Trust, died and the Trust was then broken up and the assets distributed among the family.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Probate records show Thomas left £16,079 14s 1d.

Keturah “was an energetic, determined woman of incisive personality. After her husband’s death she remained at 8, Tudor Road for two years until Donald was married, but in 1923 moved to 17, Sandringham Road, Leyton, immediately opposite Kate and Tom. I stayed with her there for some time in 1926 while my mother was in hospital. She later paid for my music lessons at the Metropolitan Academy of Music in Leytonstone.

She continued right up to 1928 to spend most of the summer at Beach Crest, as she and her husband had done. During 1929 she was too ill to travel and Beach Crest was hardly used by anybody that year. She usually had a maid at Beach Crest. A notable one during the 20s was Hilda Spicer, who also came back with her to Leyton. The Spicers were a big family of fisher folk who lived at 11, Golden Street, Deal. Hilda's elder sister Irma Spicer was at one time a particular friend of Edward Thomas Middlemiss.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

On her death she was living at 17 Sandringham Road and left £1838 7s to Donald Boyd Bearman according to probate records.

Thomas “died shortly after the move from Fremont Street to Tudor Road and on the very day of the birth of his sister Edith, who was said to have been born "sobbing and sighing" as a result.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Kate “was in many ways a daintier version of her mother, from whom she inherited her flaming red hair. As a child she hated her red hair because the rude urchins used to shout "carrots" after her, but her husband later particularly admired it. Kate was educated at Lady Eleanor Holles' School, which was at that time situated in Mare Street, Hackney. She loved music and played both piano and violin. Her husband Tom bought her a piano when they married (8th October 1904) and this same piano was still very much in use by Kate's Merkin great-grandchildren ninety-four years later. She also loved animals, especially cats, of which she nearly always had one. In 1934 the family got a Chow dog called Ruff, which can be seen in many photos taken in the 1930s. Ruff was a splendid big dog, very strong; unfortunately he pulled Kate over, causing her to break her hip in 1938.

Like her mother, Kate was a woman of strong opinions and precise and proper ways. She lived all her life after her marriage at 16, Sandringham Road, Leyton even though this involved sleeping in the coal cellar during the Blitz of the 2nd World War. Before her marriage she had been a rather reserved person; afterwards, when she was stuck out at Leyton with nobody to talk to, her sisters were astonished at her flood of conversation when she visited the family home in Hackney. However, in 1911 her sister Hilda also moved to Leyton.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Edith “was the intellectual one among the Bearman girls. She was an impressive person to meet with her level gaze, deep well-modulated voice and beautiful articulation. Charles Carrington (12th Dec. 1877-30th April 1946) was an accountant. Charles and Edith married on the 22nd August, 1903 and from about 1911 they lived in an elegant house at 11, Willifield Way, Hampstead Garden Suburb, Golders Green. London.

They had been medically advised to move there from Clapton for the sake of Edith's health, which had never been very good. Charles lost his job early in the great depression (about 1929) and they invested in a book shop, The Temple Fortune Book Shop, 1071, Finchley Road, Golders Green, London, which they ran successfully until Edith died. Several of the books in our collection were bought there. They had to leave Willifield Way for two months, September-November 1940, as there was an unexploded German bomb in the ground just behind the house. The very day after they had arrived back home the house in which they had been staying temporarily was flattened by a bomb. When Elsie Bearman was admitted to a mental hospital in 1922 Charlie took on the thankless job of Receiver of her property under the Court of Protection. When Charlie died I took on this job until Elsie died in 1970. Edith died in November 1945, of pneumonia after getting soaked in a rain storm. I met Charlie that Christmas, when he seemed quite lost without his wife, and he died only four months later.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Hilda “was educated at the Misses Pitman’s school in Hackney until 1890, then at Lady Eleanor Holles’ School, which she left in 1895. In 1894, 1895 and 1896 the family went on holiday to Margate (by "Eagle" steamer from Tower Bridge). These were the first family holidays they had had, which suggests that Thomas Bearman probably retired from the shop in 1894.

About 1900 Hilda met Edward Middlemiss, as the Middlemiss family was at that time living next door at 10. Tudor Road. They became engaged in 1901 and married in 1907. Hilda, having a clear soprano voice, was in the choir at Mare Street Baptist Church, took part regularly in the Nonconformist Union Choir Festivals at the Crystal Palace, and sang in several Handel and other oratorios. This was with her fiance, who had a good baritone voice. In addition she was a fairly competent pianist. She was also an excellent draughtswoman and was often employed by her father to make detailed drawings of his coins. She was a keen tennis player and, in the winter, a skater on the lake in Victoria Park.

After their marriage, Hilda and Edward lived for 3½ years in rooms at 32, Poole Road, Hackney, London, and here their first child, Edward Thomas Middlemiss, was born. They moved to 38, Canterbury Road, Leyton on the 11th March 1911. Here Edward was able to indulge his interests in gardening, carpentry, photography and in having a dog - the Airedale Bob was the first.

Hilda was a less assertive person than her sisters Kate and Edith but was a woman of strong principles and knew her own mind. She was more concerned with fundamentals than with more trivial matters; she was not worried if the house was a bit untidy or about such details as the precise time of meals as long as her children grew up with the right principles in life. Like her husband and like her sister Kate, she was very fond of animals and we grew up in close contact with dogs, cats, tortoises, etc. Many of her letters from the time of the second World War have been preserved and shed a vivid light on what housekeeping, shopping and travelling were like in the dark days of the Blitz. On reading them, the word "indomitable" comes to mind as descriptive of her.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Elsie was “educated at Lady Holles’ School. She was the artistic one among the Bearman girls. She had a thorough training, including a painting tour of Holland, and was excellent at both drawing and painting. Several of her pictures have been handed down through the family, although one of the best, a still life with oranges, was destroyed when 38, Canterbury Road was bombed in 1940. When the Middlemiss family were living next door, about 1900, and Hilda and Edward became engaged, Elsie and Edward's younger brother, Alec , were very interested in each other; this was during 1900 - there was no mention of it in 1901. It is said that an engagement was vetoed by Mrs. Bearman. Elsie never did marry, but continued to live at Tudor Road. In 1921 she suffered the unpleasant shock of finding her father dead. About that time she was becoming progressively more withdrawn and peculiar and at the beginning of 1922 she was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and committed to Horton Hospital, Epsom. She remained in hospital for the rest of her life, for many years in Garden Villa 3, Horton Hospital, but during the 2nd World War she was transferred to West Park Hospital, where she eventually died. She was not an unreasonable patient; she was always helping with the chores at the hospital and in the 1940s took up drawing and painting again quite successfully. Under modern ideas she would never have been kept in hospital all her life.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Donald “was educated at the Parmiters' School, Bethnal Green, and became a Chartered Accountant, although he once said that he would rather have done something literary with his life, like Charlie Carrington in his latter years (and cf. Tom Stutchbury Jnr.). Don was a keen Quaker and, like Tom Stutchbury Snr., a Fabian socialist.

During the 1st World War he was an absolute conscientious objector and spent much time in prison. In prison (1916-1919) the regime was very tough and he disliked recalling such unhappy memories in later life. He was severely restricted in how often he could write home, what he could write and how much. The letters survive and are written in minute writing to get more on a page. They say nothing about life in prison and consist entirely of his own philosophical thoughts.

Quakers hold meetings rather than services, so on a Sunday he was always off to meeting, where he would take his little notebook to remind him of the thoughts that had come to him during the week, which he would then share with others at the meeting. He was a colourful figure - six feet five inches tall and slim, quite a health fanatic and a strong believer in homeopathy. Most days, right up until his late seventies, he could be seen high up on his specially designed two-barred bicycle cycling down to the River Lea at Broxbourne, summer and winter, to swim. (It is only fair to add that the water was warmed by discharge from the power station upstream). He was keen on nudism - perhaps as a reaction against Victorian stuffiness towards sexual matters. The large extended garden and pool at Noonsun enabled him and his children (not his wife) to swim and sunbathe in the nude, and later in life he liked to visit nudist camps.

He had a tendency to have his head in the clouds - a trait which could be infuriating when practical family matters needed attention. His wife was the extreme opposite in this respect - very down-to-earth. As a young man after the War he travelled much in Europe and met Ethel Webb in Paris.”

Frank Middlemiss’s online notes

Lived at 25 Churchfields, Broxbourne - Ancestry have phone records from 1941-1960. At death was living at 52 Hertford Road, Hoddesdon according to probate records.