Genealogy: Beckley Family (England & USA)

Beckley Family Resources

Beckley Family Genealogy Forum   

Beckley Family Tree

In 1978 Marjorie E. Smith Nelson wrote: "Beckley Tree painted by Uncle Walt (Welcome Beckley) after Grandpa died.  Then he had copies made."

Beckleys in England

City of Beckley in Hampshire, England
(maybe modern Beckley near Hinton in Dorset?)

Beckley (Bicheley in the XI Century) a small hamlet near Hinton in Hampshire, England, was in 1086 held by Nigel of Roger Earl of Shrewsbury, who held it in chief.  It had been held by Holinger in the reign of the Confessor.  Nothing is known of the Saxon Church, of Christ Church beyond the reference to its destruction by Flambard, with nine other churches which stood in the surrounding churchyard.  Soon after the "minister" was granted him by the Kind, Flambard began to build the Romanesque Church, of which much still remains, and its general planning must be attributed to him.  At his banishment in 1100, it was unfinished and his successor, Gilbert de Dousguncls, continued and completed the work.  (Beckley, Hinton, Highcliff, Gladhurst, Fernhill, Ossemsley and part of the Ashley in Milton, with Walhampton and the greater part of Sway (Swag?) in Boldrie, were in the "Hundred of Bovre" or "The New Forest".)  King Alfred is supposed by Ingulphus and William of Malmesbury, to have first parcelled out England in counties and these into "Hundreds" and "Tithings", yet during the Heptarchy several counties were known by names correspondent with those they now bear.  The Hundred of Christchurch comprised the Hundreds of Shirley or Sirlei, Rodedic, Egheiete and Bovre or New Forest.  (History of Hampshire and Isle of Wight. Vol. V. p. 81.)

I. Lord Beckley

(Oxford Historical Society Vol. XXIV. p. 201.)
"The History of Yaranton begins 60 years before the Norman Conquest, when Aylmer, Earl of Cornwall, endowed his new foundation, the Benedictine Abbey of Ensham, with lands in Erdington (now Yarrington)."  Next in order comes the Domesday account of the Parish.  "Lands of the Bishop of Lincoln," (Hundred of Dorchester.) etc.  When the great survey was made, Oxfordshire came about 14th in order among the counties.  A reference contained in the Domesday Book, proves the time to have been after the death of Queen Matilda, which happened 2nd Nov. 1083.  Roger d'Ivry, Lord of Beckley, was the sworn brother in arms of Robert d'Oiley and shared "Honours" with him in which Yaranton was included.  After two generations the Honour of Ivry, with a change of owners, changed it's name and became the Honour of St. Wallery.  In the reign of King John (1199-1216).  Thomas de St. Wallery suffered the confiscation of his lands to the King, owing to his taking the part of the French and the Pope in the matter of the "Interdict".  Roger de Beckley transferred 40 acres of land in Mireford, bordering on the King's Wood, to Reginald de S. Walery 1159, 15, 16 King Henry II.  (Parochial Antiquities, Counties of Oxford, Buckingham, Vol. I, p. 174.)

II. Robert Beckley (Robert de Bikeleye)

On May 19, 1205 (King John) "At Porchester, County Devon.  Before the Lord King and others, etc. (Feet of Fines, Co. Devon. Hunter II. p. 65) "And the services of nine Knights from the fees of which, Robert de Bikeley (Beckley) holds of the same baroney.

Beckleys in America

I. Richard Beckley

Richard Beckley, born 1618, the first settler of Beckley Quarter, Wethersfield, Connecticut, and the son of John & Mary (Elliot) Beckley, is first heard of in New Haven, Connecticut, 5th Feb. 1639, where he was appointed on a commission. His name appears frequently on the New Haven Town & Church Records up to 1659 and on the Land Records still later.

Children:
Sarah, b. 1640
John, b. Mar. 6, 1642
Benjamin, b. Jan. 27, 1650
Nathaniel, b. 1652

II. Nathaniel Beckley

Nathaniel Beckley, born 1652, in New Haven, Connecticut.  Though unmarried when his father died, he was made sale executor, and received the homestead and one hundred acres of land, the farm, with probably a third of the home thereon, which is still occupied (as of 1900) by descendants of the Beckley family.