Beckingham Beckenham and Bacon of Hagbourne

This section was created in December 2005 following the discovery that many of the supposedly called BECKENHAMS from East and West Hagbourne (in what was the early 19th century in North Berkshire) were noted in Parish Registers and early censuses under the name of BACON.

I found this anomaly when I was looking for a baptism for Lazarus BECKENHAM in West Hagbourne around 1835 but could not see one. There was however a baptism for Lazarus BACON, son of Joseph and Sarah Bacon on 4th January 1836. Further checking led me to find the baptisms for all six of Lazarus' older siblings going back to 1814, none of which I had been able to locate before. I think that it was fortunate that Lazarus is such an uncommon name that I noted the other baptisms, had I been looking for John then it may have been a different story.

Joseph and Sarah were married in 1813 as BEACON, and going back a further generation I have located the marriage of Joseph's parents, a James Bacon and Martha Beckingham in Chilton, Berkshire in 1770. Perhaps this is where they took the BECKINGHAM/BECKENHAM name from.

Margaret Beckingham is from Upton in Berkshire and as such part of the Blewbury/Sutton pedigree that is noted elsewhere in these pages.

The 1841 census for Hagbourne has two families of Bacons and in 1851, with both their parents having died, Lazarus and his brother Richard are in Wallingford workhouse, still as Bacon. However, their elder brother, Thomas, has his family registered as Beckenham in 1851 and Beckingham in 1861.

Having been in touch with a descendant of Lazarus (for whom I was actually looking for the baptism), I have been given details of his life and we now know that he served in the Crimean War and was firstly married in Oxford after his discharge from the Army in 1865. He too had his name spelt as both Beckenham and Beckingham on official records in later years.

I have details of many generations descending from James Bacon with a great number in the Sheffield area descended from William and Emma/Emily (Dandridge) and there are also descendants now in the USA. Interestingly it should be noted that although William who married Emma called himself Beckingham, when they married he registered himself as Bacon; and then reverted to Beckingham afterwards!

Another 'change of name' for this particular group was discovered in late 2014 when it was found that Richard BECKINGHAM, another son of Joseph and Sarah (above) who himself was baptised as 'BACON', and used the BECKINGHAM/BECKENHAM name, actually called himself ALFRED BECKETT in the 1861 and 1891 censuses. To compound this, his surviving children adopted the BECKETT name from around 1891 and married as such, stating their father to be Alfred Beckett.

A pdf file and gedcom of the first generations are available here, but please note that most names are recorded as Beckenham or Beckingham, although Bacon and Beckett are included as aliases.

Please contact me via the email link on the left for further information or if you think you may be linked.

The Beckingham One-Name Study