Dorothy Bennett and her Ancestors

Frances Peckham née Bennett (1838 to 1917)

Frances Bennett was the mother of George Henry Bennett, who was the father-in-law of Sidney Alfred Parsons. Frances was usually known as Fanny.


Frances Bennett was born on the 23rd of October, 1838, in Chilworth, which is near Southampton in Hampshire. She was the eldest daughter of Henry Bennet and Elizabeth Bennett née Misselbrook. She had four brothers who were all older than her, and four sisters who were all younger than her.

Chilworth is marked on the map with a red C.


Fanny went into service. In 1861 she was employed at Woodley Lodge, near Romsey, in the house of Henry Arlett. Henry was a clergyman and in the census of that year he gave his occupation as “fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge”. He was a bachelor living with his sister who was also unmarried. While Fanny was working there she became pregnant. She left her employment and returned home to Chilworth to have her baby. The child was a boy and she named him George Henry Bennett, his middle name Henry was presumably in remembrance of her father who had died four months before.

Fanny and her son George lived in Chilworth with her widowed mother Elizabeth Bennett not far from the Clump Inn. (The Clump Inn closed in 2005 but later re-opened as a gastro-pub with a new name — the Chilworth Arms). Coincidently, the landlord of the Clump Inn at that time was Charles Light whose granddaughter Rose Smith would eventually become George’s wife.

On the 14th of April 1866 Fanny married Thomas Edward Peckham in Chilworth. Thomas worked as a gardener and labourer. He was obviously not well educated as he was unable to sign his name on the marriage register.

Fanny and Thomas continued to live with Fanny’s mother in Chilworth until she died in 1880, and after that they lived nearby in Castle Lane. They had seven children — Ellen, Ernest, Frances, Thomas, Arthur, William and James, all of whom used the surname Peckam of course. Young George, however, kept his original surname of Bennett.

In 1889 Fanny placed an advertisement in the Hampshire Advertiser. She was hoping to find a job nearby for her son George who had moved to the Isle of Wight with his wife. The advertisement read — “Wanted, Situation as Coachman. Ride and drive well; single or pair. Good character. H.B., Mrs. Peckham's, Castle-lane, Chilworth, Romsey.” Soon afterwards George and his family moved back to the mainland. They lived in North Baddesley, a village which adjoins Chilworth.

Young Thomas, Fanny and Thomas’ son, did well in life. He became a farmer and an employer living at Manor Farm, North Baddesley. When Fanny’s husband Thomas died in 1906 she went to live with him at the farm until she died there of heart failure on the 12th of January 1917. Her death was reported by her son Ernest Peckham who also lived at North Baddesley.

Ancestors of Frances Bennett


Parents
Father — Henry Bennett
Mother — Elizabeth Bennett née Misselbrook

Grandparents
Grandfather — Henry Bennett
Grandmother — Fanny Butcher

Grandfather — Thomas Misselbrook
Grandmother — Elizabeth Misselbrook née Ireland

Great-grandparents
Great-grandfather — unknown
Great-grandmother — unknown

Great-grandfather — unknown
Great-grandmother — unknown

Great-grandfather — Thomas Misselbrook
Great-grandmother — Sarah Misselbrook

Great-grandfather — Samuel Ireland
Great-grandmother — Mary Lee



Return to Dorothy Bennett’s Ancestors



You are free to make use of the information in these web pages in any way that you wish but please be aware that the author, Mike Parsons, is unable to accept respsonsibility for any errors or omissions.

Mike can be contacted at parsonspublic@gmail.com

The information in these web pages comes from a number of sources including: Hampshire County Records Office, Somerset Heritage Centre; Dorset County Records Office; Southampton City Archives; the General Register Office; several on-line newspaper archives; several on-line transcriptions of Parish Register Entries; and several on-line indexes of births, marriages and deaths. The research has also been guided at times by the published work of others, both on-line and in the form of printed books, and by information from personal correspondence with other researchers, for all of which thanks are given. However, all of the information in these web pages has been independently verified by the author from original sources, facimile copies, or, in the case of a few parish register entries, transcriptions published by on-line genealogy sites. The author is aware that some other researchers have in some cases drawn different conclusions and have published information which is at variance from that shown in these web pages.