John was the son of George Besford. He was born at Snitter and baptised at All Saints’ Church, Rothbury, on 9th June 1717.
John was an agricultural labourer. At the time of his marriage he was living in the Parish of Bellingham. He married Mary Felton on 9th October 1740 at St. Giles Church, Birtley (Birtley being a village near Wark). The couple then went to live at a farm called Countess Park, located near Redesmouth, on the banks of the North Tyne.
hill above the banks of the North Tyne and is now a holiday let.
John and Mary had seven children. Their fifth child, Robert Besford, was baptised in February 1752.
I believe that John Besford died in 1788, but since the parish register entry is mostly illegible, I cannot be absolutely certain of this.
Unusual entry in the Old Parish Registers
Over the years I have accumulated copies of the Old Parish Register entries
for Besford baptisms, marriages and burials. Some of the marriage entries are interesting in that they bear the signatures of ancestors, indicating that they could write.
When I was originally ploughing my way through the Old Parish Registers for Birtley, looking for Besford baptisms, marriages and burials, I came across a most unusual entry as follows:
“John Besford at Birkley (sic) paid for Easter 1747 £0 s1 d0 and for Easter 1748 £0 s1 d0 “
In other words the vicar of St. Giles, Birtley recorded that John Besford had paid one shilling to the church for Easter 1747 and 1748. Why this was noted I cannot say.
Communicant members of the church were meant, by custom, to offer two pence to the incumbent at Easter. In addition the vicar had a right to a personal tithe calculated according to an individual’s wages. This was usually collected at the same time as the Easter offering.
It is very rare to find entries for anything other than baptisms, marriages
and burials. I went through all of the Northumberland parishes looking for Besford entries as a process of elimination to ensure that I didn’t miss anything and got the correct lineage. The only other instances of unusual entries were the Bolam Registers where the vicar meticulously recorded the renovations to the vicarage and their costs, and the Parish of Mitford where the vicar recorded in 1666 the results of a collection for the relief of folks in London following the Great Fire.
