This page last updated 7 January 2010.
The Beebys were a prolific and entrepreneurial Quaker family of west Cumberland. I must mention here (as well as on the research notes page) the Memorandums of Mary Beeby - sister of my nearest Beeby ancestor Ann - which provide a wealth of first-hand biographical detail about them. They were published by the Cumbria Family History Society in their newletter in 1998-1999, contributed by Bruce Walker - so on behalf of all researchers of this line I thank him and the CFHS.
8. Nicholas (1710-93) and Mary (1715-1805) BEEBY. Mary had been a SAUL. More
7. Daniel (1758-1838) and Mary (1758-99) BEEBY. Mary had been a GLAISTER. More
6. Ann BEEBY (1786-1819) who married Thomas WILLIAMSON. More
Nicholas Beeby was born in 1710. He married Mary SAUL in Friends' Meeting House Beckfoot, 16 April 1742. Nicholas and Mary lived at Wolsty Hall and had several children:
Rachel, born about 1745
Mary, born about 1747
Jane, born about 1749
William, born in 1751
Daniel, born 3 February 1758
Jane married Richard HARKER, a cooper, in 1779. He was not a Quaker, but his personal qualities were admired by the Beeby family and he was to become a successful businessman, partnering Daniel Beeby in a number of enterprises and doing well in ventures of his own (such as a cooperage and an inn called the Greyhound). Jane and Richard had three daughters; one died in infancy but the other two married and had children of their own.
Daniel also married in 1779 - see below.
In about 1781 Nicholas bought from one John BEEBY, Merchant (relationship unknown but obviously likely), two adjoining houses (at least one with a shop on the ground floor) in Allonby for two of his children, Jane and my ancestor Daniel.
Rachel died unmarried "In the year 1785 about candlemas... ...of a dropsy at her Fathers house aged about 40...".
Mary the daughter married John GLAISTER (brother to Mary, who married Daniel see below) in June 1782 at Beckfoot Meeting House. They had children.
William married Mary PORTHOUSE, a convert to Quakerism, in 1788. They lived at Wolsty Hall and had five children, at least two of whom married and had children in turn.
Nicholas died in November 1793, aged about 83. His widow Mary died in July 1805, aged about 90.
Details of Daniel's later life are below, but some of the other children are detailed here:
Jane suffered a stroke in her fifties, but she outlived her husband Richard, dying after a second stroke, on the last day of 1815.
Mary lived for a couple of years of widowhood with her married daughter Rachel LITTLE, then died 11 March 1839.
William's death is unknown, but his widow Mary died 25 February 1841.
Daniel BEEBY married, aged 21, Mary GLAISTER, on 28 July 1779 at Friends' Meeting House, Beckfoot. Mary was sister to John Glaister who was to marry a few years later Daniel's own sister Mary. They lived in Allonby. Daniel and Mary had six children, five surviving:
Mary, born 1 October 1780
William, born 15 December 1781
John, born 6 April 1783
Rachel, born 16 October 1784
Ann, born 22 November 1786
And Nicholas, born 3 December 1788 but died within the month.
Daniel had originally been apprenticed to a blacksmith and followed this trade to 1785, but he found it harmful to his health and insufficiently lucrative. He branched out into fish, owning in partnership with John Harker and others a fishing boat called the Lion, and a salthouse in Allonby for preserving the catch. For a few years he would smith outside the herring season, but he gave this up altogether, and invested in shares of more and larger boats, from 1785 to 1799 being a fishing captain.
Mary his wife suffered from a long period of poor health, and died in June 1799, aged about 41 when her youngest daughter was 12.
After 1800, Daniel increased his property in Allonby, owning a fishery yard in partnership with Richard Harker, and having several houses built, which he sold or let out. In 1815 he was described as a merchant. In his fifties, Daniel suffered from leg trouble related to scurvy, but he lived to the age of 80, dying on 4 March 1838.
The three daughters of Daniel and Mary (Mary, Rachel and Ann), ran a linen draper's shop, I think in Allonby. Initially (maybe about 1802?), this was as agents on commission for a Penrith trader, but later they traded at their own risk. This continued until at least 1813, which it was described as a success.
Ann married William WILLIAMSON in Allonby on 23 February 1815; he was a local farmer and also a Quaker. At 37 he was nine years Ann's senior. See his page for their married life and children.
If you are interested in this line I'll be very pleased indeed to hear from you. Email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider. Please do not delete the automatically-generated subject line, so that I know your email is not spam. You can add more to the subject if you like but if you delete what appears I may not read your mail.
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