The Beckingham One-Name Study

Savernake

This pedigree initially ran parallel in time and location to that of The Great Hidden one, but commenced four generations later. It is now part of the Great Hidden pedigree (see below).

We named this pedigree "Savernake" on the basis that many of our ancestors were born, married and died in the area of Savernake Forest, which itself is still in existence between Marlborough and the village of Burbage, although it now covers a much smaller area than it did one or two hundred years ago.

"Savernake Park" is often referred to in parish records and is the triangular area from Marlborough to Burbage (the hypotenuse of the triangle), and halfway from Marlborough to Pewsey and across to Burbage again. (Click here to see map).

The first "event" in the 'Savernake' Pedigree was a marriage of a Roger Beckingham to Mary at Shalbourne on 19th June 1708, although the parish register is helpful in the way it omits Mary's surname! Both Roger and Mary are buried at Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire. I personally descend from this Pedigree through Roger and Mary's son, Salmor aka Seymour Beckingham, and while there are a lot of males with the given name "Seymour" in the Great Hidden Pedigree, this is the only occurence in Savernake's! 

However, a new breakthrough in July 2020 has found a baptism for a Roger BECKONGAME with a father named SEMOR in 1683, around the date estimated for the birth of Roger of Savernake. After  further work, I am content that these two are one and the same, and the SEMOR is SAYMORE BECKINGHAM 1655-1709 of the Great Hidden line so the Savernake line has been merged into Great Hidden.

"Savernake" descendants have spread to east and west Australia, to Canada as well as Colorado, Texas, Utah, Illinois  and Wisconsin in the United States of America.  One Frederick Thomas Beckingham was born 1883 in Burbage, Wiltshire, joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Valcartier, Canada in 1914 for WWI, fought in France and died in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1941!