Mary Bilcliffe (1735-1783).
My 5th great-grandmother.
The Bilcliffe surname is a rare one in the UK and appears in several forms in the records (like many other surnames of the time), for example as Billcliff, Billcliffe, Bentley and even Bentlet.
The first to marry into my Surrey-based Finch family was Mary Bilcliffe – see where she lies in my family tree. But who was Mary and where did she come from?
The only one known to have been from Reigate in Surrey around this time – and therefore local to the Finches – was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 19 October 1735, listed as the daughter of Edward. However, a Mary, daughter of Edward, died in 1737 in Reigate and was buried on 14 November. This must surely be the same person, meaning that our Mary must’ve been from elsewhere.
A couple of Marys are recorded from the nearby village of Worth in Sussex. They are Mary Bilcliff, baptised at St Nicholas’s Church on 10 April 1735 to parents George and Mary Bilcliff, and a Mary Bilcliff baptised on 17 January 1734 to parents Steven and Susan Bilcliff.
Anne Hopton has studied the Bilcliffe family as a descendant and her work appears on the One Name Studies website. In an email to me, she said she had little doubt that one or other of the Worth Marys is our ancestor. There is evidence of Bilcliffe family members moving into the Reigate area over time, with baptisms in Worth and marriages/burials in Reigate and neighbouring parishes. Some examples include Edward – baptised Worth 1705, married Reigate 1730 and buried Reigate 1742; and Richard – baptised Worth 1737, married Reigate 1763 and buried Reigate 1780. There are also settlement certificates, examinations and removals involving family members in both places.
Regarding our two Worth Marys, one was the daughter of George Bilcliffe and Mary Chapman, who married at Headley in Surrey on 28 May 1732. The other Mary was the daughter of Steven Bilcliff and Susan Streeter, who married in Worth on 20 June 1728. So who was our Mary? Well, the children of Steven and Susan signed their names with a mark on marrying but George’s family seemed to be literate – and our ancestor signed her name when she married my 5th great-grandfather Thomas Finch at St Mary’s Church in Reigate on 14 April 1760. The Finches had been carpenters for several generations, as were several of the Bilcliffes. So all the evidence points to Mary being the daughter of George Bilcliffe.
Thomas and Mary had at least seven children (see their family page for details). Mary died in 1783 and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Reigate, Surrey, on 4 September that year. Her husband remarried and had more children.
George Bilcliffe (?1710-1764) and Mary Chapman (1712-1768).
My 6th great-grandparents.
I have no record of George Bilcliffe’s birth and therefore no proof of his parents but there are other pointers to his ancestry. Key among them is mention of him as a son of carpenter Thomas Bilcliffe in the latter’s 1743 will. The latter came from Worth in Sussex and so this is likely to be where George grew up.
There is a mention of a George Billetiff of Worth in a 1730 document, showing him as a carpenter and master to apprentice George Dawes of Arundel, Sussex. This is a register of duties paid and is dated 14 August. Was this my 6th great-grandfather – if so he’d be quite young to take on an apprentice. It’s possible that this man could even be an uncle.
George married Mary Chapman on 28 May 1732 at All Saints Church in Headley, Surrey. The marriage licence listed him as a carpenter and Mary as a spinster, daughter of agricultural worker James Chapman. She had been baptised on 12 February 1712 in St Nicholas’s Church, Worth, Sussex.
A George Billcliff was then mentioned in the will dated 26 June 1743 of Thomas Billcliff of Worth, Sussex, a carpenter and yeoman. George was described as Thomas’s son and was a beneficiary, along with Thomas’s daughter Elizabeth, grandson Thomas, son Thomas, son John, daughter Ann, daughter Mary Copper and daughter Thomasin Tasker.
George and Mary appear to have moved to live in Nutfield, Surrey, several miles to the north of Worth, at some point. A George Bilclif died there in 1764 and was buried at St Peter and St Paul Church on 17 September. Mary was buried there on 14 April 1768.
The couple had at least three children:
- Mary Bilcliffe (1735-1783), my 5th great-grandmother. Her details are above.
- George Bilcliffe (1736-?1743), my 5th great-grand uncle. He was baptised at St Nicholas’s Church in Worth, Sussex, on 27 December 1736. He may have been the person buried there on 11 January 1743.
- Francis Bilcliffe (1738-1770), my 5th great-grand uncle. Francis was baptised in Worth on 16 June 1738 and married Ann Sears (sometimes Sayers) by licence at St Peter and St Paul Church in Nutfield, Surrey, on 25 October 1766. She had been baptised there on 5 September 1845 to parents James and Sarah Sears. Francis signed a will dated 1 July 1770 a few weeks before his early death, in which he left his household possessions, money, clothes and the tools of his trade as a carpenter to Ann. He was buried on 22 July that year in Nutfield, leaving Ann with three young children. It’s likely that she was the widow Ann Bilcliffe who married widower James Goddard at St Mary’s in Reigate, Surrey, on 7 May 1772 – the signatures from her two marriage records are certainly very similar. I’ve not found any burial record that matches her though. Francis’s children with Ann were:
- James Stacey Bilcliffe (1767-????), who was baptised in Nutfield on 19 April 1767. An apprenticeship record for 1782 listed him as an apprentice to carpenter Thomas Bilcliffe of Bletchingley in Surrey. I’ve not been able to locate records that match him after.
- George Bilcliffe (1768-1769), who was baptised in Nutfield on 22 November 1768 and buried there on 26 October 1769.
- Edward Bilcliffe (1770-????), who was baptised in Nutfield on 17 June 1770. I’ve not been able to locate records that match him after.
Thomas Bilcliffe (1670?-1745) and Thomasin (1670?-1751).
My 7th great-grandparents.
I’ve not yet found records that show the baptisms of Thomas Bilcliffe or his wife Thomasin, nor her maiden name. I also have no idea where they came from. Were they local to Surrey and Sussex or from further afield? Anne Hopton (see above) has speculated that the family was related to Catholic recusants from the Pontefract area in Yorkshire who migrated south. Interestingly, Thomasin was a Catholic according to her burial record.
The Bilcliffe family were recorded in Worth in 1676, with the burial of a John on 26 May at St Nicholas’s Church. No age was given for him so there is no way of knowing whether he was Thomas’s father, brother or another type of relation. However, he was not described as ‘son of’ and children usually were in the parish register at the time.
I’ve yet to find a marriage record for Thomas and Thomasin but they were described as ‘poor’ in the baptism record of their son John in 1702. The couple had several other children, although baptism records for some of them haven’t been found. Their names are known from Thomas’s will, dated 26 June 1743.
The will described Thomas as a yeoman and carpenter, so he’d obviously done well in life since those early days of poverty. Thomasin and his children were named as beneficiaries but he stipulated that his son-in-law John Copper should inherit his farms after Thomasin’s death, or be first in line if Thomasin chose to sell them.
Thomas died in 1745 and was buried in Worth on 27 March 1745. Thomasin was buried on 13 March 1751 in Worth and was described as a catholic. What’s unclear is whether she had been all her life. This was at a time when catholics were buried in Anglican burial grounds, as there were few if any other options.
Thomas and Thomasin had several children:
- Elizabeth Bilcliffe (?1695-????), my 6th great-grand aunt. I’ve found no records for Elizabeth but she was mentioned in her father’s will and was probably the oldest of Thomas’s children based on the order in which they were mentioned in it.
- Thomas Bilcliffe (1696-????), my 6th great-grand uncle. Thomas was baptised on 19 January 1696 (1697 under the modern calendar) at St Nicholas’s in Worth, Sussex, his name given as Bencliff. A Thomas Billelif was buried in Worth on 1 January 1697 but whether this was the couple’s child is unknown. He wasn’t described as a child or ‘son of’ in the burial record, unlike others around this time.
- John Bilcliffe (1702-1774), my 6th great-grand uncle. John was baptised on 12 June 1702 at St Nicholas’s in Worth but his surname was written Bently. However, other factors – including his mother’s christian name – suggest he was one of Thomas and Thomasin’s children. John married Elizabeth Ferrall on 23 September 1723 in a so-called Clandestine Marriage in London. He was described as a husbandman from Worth, she a spinster hailing from Burstow in Surrey but I’ve yet to find a baptism record that matches her. The couple baptised their children in Worth. It’s possible that John’s wife was the Elizabeth Bilcliffe buried at St Mary’s in Reigate on 3 May 1761. Did John then marry Elizabeth Adcans in Burstow on 15 May 1763? John was buried at St Bartholomew’s in Burstow on 24 July 1774. A note on the burial record stated ‘vulgo Bentley’, which translates as ‘commonly known as’. John and Elizabeth’s children were:
- Elizabeth Bilcliffe (1724-1724), who was baptised at Worth on 27 May 1724 and buried there a few days later on 7 June.
- John Bilcliffe (1725-????), who was baptised at Worth on 23 September 1725. It’s possible he was the infant buried on 5 December 1729 in Reigate, Surrey, but the location of the burial makes me suspect this was a different child.
- Susanna Bilcliffe (1733-1735), who was baptised at Worth on 29 October 1733 and buried there on 14 April 1735.
- Sarah Bilcliffe (1735-????), who was baptised at Worth on 30 January 1735. I’ve found no further records for her.
- Richard Bilcliffe (1737-1780), who was baptised at Worth on 26 December 1737. He married Mary Best on 29 April 1763 in her home town of Reigate in Surrey. Richard’s name cropped up in several Poor Law records in subsequent years, related to hearings in which decisions needed to be made over what parish was responsible for supporting him and his family in case of need. These records noted that he was a labourer. A settlement examination at Worth on 29 December 1769 heard that Richard, who was then living in Reigate, had been born in Burstow, Surrey (!) and that about 10 years previously he’d been hired by Thomas Penfold of Tinsley, Worth, for a year and then by Thomas Fenner of Horley, Surrey. I’ve not found an outcome and Richard died in 1780, buried in Reigate on 18 September. A removal order was issued on 5 December 1780 by Worth Poor Law commissioners for Mary and her children to reside in Reigate. In 1792, Reigate tanner John Hall left Mary and her children his estate on his death. The document stated that he was lodging with Mary, but the inference is that he was living with her as man and wife. Mary died in 1803.
- Ann Bilcliffe (?1703-????), my 6th great-grand aunt. I’ve found no records for Ann but she may have been born after her brother John based on the order of names mentioned in her father’s will. It appears from the will, dated 1743, that Ann was unmarried at the time.
- Mary Bilcliffe (?1706-????), my 6th great-grand aunt. I’ve found no baptism record for Mary but she was mentioned after her sister Ann in her father’s will, suggesting she was younger. She married John Coppard at St Nicholas’s Church in Tooting Graveney, Surrey, by licence on 9 May 1742. Bound with him was an Edmund Bilcliffe, both of Worth in Sussex and both yeomen. Mary’s father Thomas mentioned John favourably in his will of 1743, although his name was spelled Copper in the document. The will stipulated that John should inherit Thomas’s farms after his widow Thomasin’s death, or be first in line if Thomasin chose to sell them. I’ve not been able to pin the couple down after the will as there are several potential candidates.
- Thomasin Eleanor Bilcliffe (?1708-????), my 6th great-grand aunt. I’ve found no baptism record for Thomasin but she was mentioned after her sister Mary in her father’s will, suggesting she was younger. She married John Tasker in a so-called Clandestine Marriage in London on 20 May 1743, a few weeks before they were mentioned in her father’s will. John was said to be a bachelor and blacksmith from Balcombe in Sussex. Perhaps he was the child baptised there on 17 September 1719 to William and Sarah Tasker. The couple had a number of children, baptised in Worth.
- William Tasker (1745-????), who was baptised on 20 September 1745 in Worth.
- George Tasker (1747-1827), who was born on 25 November 1747 and baptised in Worth on 15 December that year. He married Sarah Dench there on 13 October 1772. She was most likely the woman buried in Burstow on 30 October 1799. George was buried in Worth on 2 May 1827.
- Mary Tasker (1749-????), who was baptised on 17 October 1749 in Worth.
- Thomas Tasker (1756-????), who was baptised on 6 May 1756 in Worth.
- George Bilcliffe (?1710-1764), my 6th great-grandfather. See his details above.
Ancestors of Thomas and Thomazin Bilcliffe
Thomas Bilcliffe’s ancestors are currently unknown. As referred to above, Anne Hopton has speculated that the family was related to Catholic recusants from the Pontefract area in Yorkshire who migrated south.
Sources: Baptism, marriage, burial, apprenticeship and other records from Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk, Surrey County Council Records Office and Sussex Family History Group records.
Thomas Bilcliffe’s will at East Sussex Record Office – PBT/1/1/57/288.
Society of Genealogists Britain Country Apprentices 1710-1808 ref 154181.
Sussex Record Society database of West Sussex Poor Law Records.
Surrey & South London Wills & Probate Index, 1470-1856, ref SW/40_450.
I’m Mark Thomas Bilcliffe and are interested in finding more information about the surname