Have I mentioned how much I love the way the English name their towns? There are names like Little Cawthorpe, Thorpe on the Hill, Toynton All Saints or, like where we stayed last night, Burgh le Marsh. The names are so...so....oh I don't know...they have character! Yesterday we went to two ancestral villages, Barnardiston and Thrussington. Barnardiston is tiny. When I say it is tiny, I mean tiny, as in minuscule. There are just a handful of houses and a church. Barnardiston was a manor town. By that I mean the land was owned by a noble and the townspeople worked for him. This is also supposedly the hometown of Thomas Lamb, my 10th great grandfather on my paternal grandfather's mother's side. The Lambs are connected to the Grubbs, Thomas Lamb's great great grandson, Joseph Lamb, married Frances Beeson, who was the great granddaughter of John Grubb (the Cornish Quaker who immigrated to America in the 1670s). So yes, that means the Lambs were also Quakers, although they did not become Quakers till after arriving in America. I don't know when they became Quakers but it had to have been within a generation or two of arrival. During the American Revolution, as they were Quakers, my Lamb ancestors did not fight, but they did supply the American revolutionaries with various goods. So, back to Thomas. Thomas was born around 1600 in England. His occupation was a yeoman, possibly a slater. He was not considered a "freeman" as he belonged to a noble. The Barnardiston origins are conjecture but the evidence is strong. Thomas was married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth by whom he had multiple children. When he immigrated in 1630, it is recorded that he brought his wife and two children, Thomas and John. Elizabeth died in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1639. Now, the Barnardiston connection is based only on several baptisms which fit with what is known about Thomas and his family. Also knowing that Thomas had to apply to be a freeman in 1630 and was later accepted in 1631, this means he was bound to someone. With the occupation of yeoman, it is likely this 'someone' was a person of nobility, which ties back into Barnardiston. Obviously more research needs to take place. After Thomas' wife, Elizabeth, died, he "afterwards married Dorothy Harbitle, a godly maid, a sister of our church" on July 16, 1640. They had four children. It is from their second son, Joshua (born 1642) that I am descended. Thomas died March 28, 1646 "of a calenture, by a great cold." Dorothy remarried to a man named Thomas Hawley. So, like I said, Barnardiston is minuscule. It is actually more of a hamlet than a village. The church dates at least to the 1600s and even had one of those small doors within a big door. It wasn't open but we peered in through the glass and could see a good bit. It looked very old. There was even a wooden screen that separated the altar area from the sanctuary. We walked around the cemetery but didn't see any stones older than 1800, nor did we see any Lambs (although there were some adorable little lambs in a nearby field with fleece as white as snow). It was very quiet and peaceful.
The next stop was Thrussington, home of the Beesons. The Beesons, as I have mentioned already, are connected to the Grubbs and Lambs. This is where, in 1660, my 9th great grandfather, Edward Beeson, was born to Thomas Beeson and his wife Anne. Edward married Rachel Pennington on November 7, 1682 here in Thrussington. Rachel was probably born here as well in 1662. Shortly after their marriage, Edward and Rachel immigrated to America where they started their family. Their son, my 8th great grandfather, Richard, married Charity Grubb (John Grubb's daughter). The Beesons were not Quakers in England but when they immigrated to Pennsylvania, they lived among Quakers and joined them. Edward was quite well off and left Richard 315 acres of land upon his death. In the Thrussington church cemetery, we found two Beesons, brothers. John Beeson died in 1767 at the age of 22. His brother, Thomas, died at age 31 a year later in 1768. They were listed as the sons of Valentine and Alice Beeson. I have no idea who they are, they are probably distant cousins and would have been in the same generation as Richard and Charity's grandchildren. While we were there, a service or something was going on and we could hear the churchgoers singing soon followed by children singing some very peppy songs.
Holy Trinity Church, Thrussington, England.
Grave of John Beeson
Grave of Thomas Beeson
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