Nat Gould

Ralph Beardmore 1833-1910

Beardmore Family (1) at Stanshope Hall

Ralph Beardmore was born at Alstonefield in Staffordshire on 19 December 1833, the son of Ralph Beardmore 1806-1880 and his wife née Anne Elliott, the second daughter of William Elliott of Alstonefield (2).

He was baptised at Alstonefield on 22 December 1833.

In 1841 he was living with his father in Alstonefield parish, presumably at Stanshope Hall. His father Ralph Beardmore was a widower by 1851 when he and his son were living at Stanshope Hall in Alstonefield parish (3). They were farming 89 acres and employing two farm hands.

His mother Anne Beardmore had died on 17 April 1838 aged 28 years (4).

When the 1861 Census was taken Ralph Beardmore junior was married (although his wife was not then there). The size of the farm had increased to 150 acres, employing a boy as well as two labourers (5).

He had married Mary Elizabeth Waterhouse on 25 January 1860 at Manchester Cathedral (6). She was born on 8 June 1837 at Mottram-in-Longdendale in Cheshire, and baptised there on 15 August 1837. At the time of her marriage she was living at Mulberry Street in Hulme, Manchester.

Stanshope Hall

Perry Foot

By 1871 Ralph Beardmore was farming 166 acres at Stanshope, and employing three farm hands (7). Then came a move, after his father died in 1880. When the 1881 Census was taken, Ralph Beardmore and his family were at Perry Foot in Peak Forest in Derbyshire, where he was farming 762 acres and employing six men. By then he and his wife had a daughter (born in 1861 when they were at Stanshope), and a son John Philip Beardmore was born at Perry Foot in 1880 (8). By 1891 however the family had returned to Stanshope, where Ralph Beardmore stayed for the rest of his life.

Ralph Beardmore was politically active in the Liberal cause, supporting the candidature of Lord George Cavendish for North Derbyshire in the 1868 General Election (9).

Ralph and Mary Elizabeth Beardmore had the following children:

Harriet Anne Beardmore, known in the family as Hattie. She was born on 8 May 1861, and baptised at Alstonefield on 12 June 1861. She died unmarried on 21 December 1946, and was buried at Alstonefield.

Mary Beardmore. She was born in 1863. In 1888 she was married to Thomas Wooddisse, who was an ironmonger in Ashbourne in Derbyshire. She died on 1 June 1949 at Ashbourne.

Ellinor Jane Beardmore. She was born in 1866, and was baptised Helena Jane Beardmore at Alstonefield on 27 September 1866. On 19 February 1889 she was married at Alstonefield to Arthur William Atkinson of St Neots in Huntingdonshire. He was born in 1853, and was a coal and timer merchant in St Neots. They had two children, Dorothy Ellinor Atkinson (born 1885) and Hugh Douglas Atkinson (born 1893). Ellinor Atkinson died at St Neots in 1958 aged 91 years.

Elizabeth Waterhouse Beardmore 1869-1932, known in the family as Lily. She became a teacher. On 25 January 1893 she was married at Alstonefield to Gilbert Gould of Pilsbury Grange. He was the son of Gilbert Gould 1821-1891 (brother of Nathaniel Gould 1824-1874) and his wife nee Ellen Wright 1834-1904.

Ralph Beardmore. He was born on 28 March 1870 at Stanshope, and baptised on 1 May 1870 at Alstonefield. In 1907 he married Sarah Anne Brocklehurst. He died at Mayfield in Staffordshire on 21 February 1937, and was buried at Alstonefield where there is a memorial inscription to his memory and that of his wife. His wife died at Mayfield on 19 October 1959 aged 90 years and was buried with her husband at Alstonefield.

John Philip Beardmore. He was born in 1879 at Perry Foot in Peak Forest, Derbyshire. He was baptised at Peak Forest on 4 January 1880. He was a dealer in fancy goods, and married Florence Mottershead at Bridlington in 1910. They had a daughter Vera Florence Beardmore 1912-1990, who was married in Bristol to Eric Clarence Atwell, a quarry manager. John Philip Beardmore died on 13 May 1960 at Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.

Emily Annie Beardmore. She was born in 1875. On 24 August 1904 she was married at Alstonefield to Samuel Cooper Stephens, born in 1876 the son of Henry Stephens. They had a son Henry S. Stephens 1906-1988.

Ralph Beardmore died on 22 June 1910 at Stanshope, and was buried at Alstonefield where there is a memorial inscription.

His widow, accompanied by their eldest daughter Harriet Ann Beardmore, went to live in Ashbourne with her married daughter Mary Wooddisse.

Mary Elizabeth Beardmore died on 4 January 1915 at Stanshope Hall and was buried with her husband at Alstonefield, as was also their eldest daughter Harriet Ann Beardmore who died on 21 December 1946.

(1) The photograph was taken at Stanshope Hall in about 1900. From left to right in the back row are Elizabeth Waterhouse Beardmore 1869-1932, an unknown lady, Ralph Beardmore 1870-1937, his father Ralph Beardmore senior, and Harriet (Hattie) Ann Beardmore; in front is Mary Elizabeth Beardmore nee Waterhouse (great grandmother of the Wooddisse family who provided the photograph) with two unknown boys (possibly Gould boys).
(2) Ralph Beardmore of Wetton married Anne Elliott at Alstonefield on 14 June 1831: Derby Mercury 22 June 1831.
(3) Stanshope Hall and its estate had probably been bought by Ralph Beardmore senior in 1832. It had been advertised for sale in that year, then "in the several occupations of Mr. Thomas Buxton, Anthony Austin, and others." Derby Mercury 31 October 1832.
(4) "At Alstonefield, Staffordshire, on the 17th instant, Ann, the beloved wife of Mr. Ralph Beardmore, aged 28; much respected by all who knew her." Derby Mercury 25 April 1838.
(5) Ralph Beardmore had been elected a member of the influential Bakewell Farmers' Club as reported in the Derby Mercury dated 25 January 1860.
(6) The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review volume 208 (1860) page 291 gives a report of the marriage, but incorrectly records the bride's father as W. Bradley Warburton. His correct name was William Bradley Waterhouse. The bride was there said to be his only child, as her sister Harriot Waterhouse had died in infancy in 1840. The mistake in the surname was probably carried over from a similar notice which had appeared in the Derby Mercury dated 25 January 1860 as follows: "On the 25th ult., at the Cathedral, Manchester, by the Rev. W.W. Johnson, M.A., Ralph Beardmore, Esq. of Stanshope Hall, Staffordshire, to Mary Elizabeth, only child of Wm. Bradley Warburton, Esq. of Bedlwyn, North Wales."
(7) With them at Stanshope in 1871 was the children's governess, Miss Ellen Partrige (who was born in Birmingham in 1851). She went on to establish a private school at the Raikes in Alstonefield. She evidently retained her connection with the Beardmore family, however, as she was recorded as being a visitor at Stanshope Hall when the 1891 Census was taken.
(8) With the family at Perry Foot in Peak Forest was their seventeen-year-old dairy maid Hannah Bennington 1864-1939.
(9) He was a member of the Central Committee for the Election: Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald 14 November 1868; Sheffield Daily Telegraph 21 and 24 November 1868. Another member of the Central Committee was Gilbert Gould of Pilsbury Grange.

The photograph of Perry Foot is by Graham Hogg, being here licensed under the Creative Commons protocol.