Samuel Besford (1822–1889) and Mary Ann Besford (née Chapman) (1833–1902)

Samuel Besford was born around 1822 at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. His parents were John Besford, an officer in the Inland Revenue, and Esther Besford (née Bensgrove).

The 1851 Census recorded Samuel aged 28 and working as a valet at the Albion Hotel, Old Steine, in Brighton, Sussex. The Census recorded that over 40 people were staying or working at the hotel, some resident and some visiting. Those present consisted of the Baron and Baroness Londesborough and their son, the Countess of Falmouth, Baron Koller from Austria, a barrister, a naval officer, an army officer and his wife, one lady, three gentlemen, a valet (Samuel Besford), five lady’s maids, two nurses, two housekeepers, five housemaids, two footmen, two waiters, a cook, a kitchen maid, a scullery maid, two barmaids, a clerk, a porter, a night porter, a chambermaid and a dressmaker.

Ten years later, the 1861 Census saw Samuel Besford (now said to be 39) at 6 Grosvenor Square, London, where he was employed as house steward by the Earl of Home (the great-great-grandfather of the future Prime Minister, Alec Douglas-Home). The household consisted of the Earl of Home, his wife Lucy, two sons (Cospatrick and George), three daughters (Elizabeth, Ada and Charlotte Lucy), Samuel Besford, two governesses, three housemaids, a valet, an under-butler, two footmen, a footboy, three lady’s maids, a cook, a baker, a kitchen maid, a scullery maid, a still room maid and three laundry maids. As house steward, Samuel Besford’s job would have been to manage the whole household staff, with responsibility for hiring and firing and for the household accounts. In other words to ensure the smooth running of the Earl of Home’s house. Think Hudson in Upstairs Downstairs or Carson in Downton Abbey.

The cook at 6 Grosvenor Square was recorded on the 1861 Census as one Mary Ann Chapman (then aged 28), who hailed from Kent. Samuel Besford married Mary Ann six years later on 28th February 1867. Their marriage took place at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh. Their marriage certificate records that they were then based at the Hirsel, a house and 500-acre park on the outskirts of Coldstream, Scotland. The Hirsel was (and remains) the family seat of the Earls of Home. Samuel and Mary Ann’s marriage certificate describes them as, respectively, a butler and a cook.

On 16th January 1868, Samuel and Mary Ann’s son, Arthur Besford, was born at Crooks in the Parish of Coldstream. Crooks is adjacent to the Hirsel. Samuel was described on Arthur’s birth certificate as house steward at the Hirsel.

At some point between 1868 and 1871 Samuel and Mary Ann left the employment of the Earl of Home and took on a pub in a fashionable part of London. This was the Royal Clarence Hotel at 3 Westbourne Place, Hanover Square. The 1871 Census recorded Samuel as a licensed victualler aged 49. Mary Ann was recorded as 38. Their son Arthur Besford was then three years old. Samuel and Mary Ann had a second son who was born in 1871 after that year’s Census. He was named Clarence (was this perhaps because of them running the Royal Clarence Hotel?).

In May 1872 there is a record of the licence for the Royal Clarence Hotel being transferred from Samuel Besford to one Thomas William Guest. Samuel and Mary Ann left London and moved to Colchester in Essex to take on the Three Cups Hotel (often referred to as “The Cups”). The hotel was situated on the High Street in Colchester, next to the Town Hall. They left their imprint on the hotel (quite literally) by adding a sign to the stonework which read “Besford Family Hotel”.

In 1873 Samuel and Mary Ann had a daughter who was christened Ada Mary Besford.

The 1874 Post Office Directory of Essex records Samuel Besford as the proprietor of the Three Cups Hotel.

The 1881 Census found Samuel and Mary Ann still running the Three Cups Hotel. Samuel was now said to be 59 and Mary Ann 48. Their son Clarence Besford was in the household, aged 9. Their elder son, Arthur Besford, then 13, was recorded on the Census as a pupil at Kelvedon Boarding School in Braintree. Samuel’s elder unmarried sister, Sophia Besford, aged 73, was now living with Samuel and Mary Ann at the Three Cups. The hotel staff numbered 13 and consisted of a cook, a kitchen maid, a scullery maid, a needlewoman, a barman, a stillroom maid, an ostler (a groom/stableman who looked after horses), a boot boy, a post boy, three housemaids, and a boy whose duties were not specified on the Census.

Samuel and Mary Ann’s daughter Ada Mary Besford was not in the household at the Three Cups when the 1881 Census was taken. She was eight years old and boarding with a mother and daughter both called Sarah Gardner at Mistley Street, Tendring, Essex. Sarah Gardner junior was described as a governess, so it would appear that Ada Besford was being educated there.

It seems that Samuel and Mary Ann remained at the Three Cups Hotel in Colchester until September 1885 when (according to the Suffolk and Essex Free Press of 16th September 1885) they auctioned off most of the hotel’s goods before moving to Scarborough in Yorkshire.

Samuel and Mary Ann took on the George Hotel which was then the oldest and chief commercial hotel in Scarborough. The licence for the premises was transferred to Samuel Besford on 2nd June 1886.

Samuel died on 5th December 1889 at the George Hotel. He left £1,325 11s in his will. This would equate to around £220,000 in 2026. Mary Ann Besford became the proprietor of the George Hotel.

The 1891 Census records Mary Ann as hotel keeper at the George Hotel, her son Clarence Besford (now 19) as the bookkeeper, and Mary Ann’s widowed sister Susannah Walker as the cook. Mary Ann’s daughter Ada Mary Besford (18) was also living at the hotel.

Very sadly, the family was soon to suffer a tragic turn of events.

On Saturday 25th October 1902 a fire broke out in the early hours of the morning at the George Hotel. This is the account which was published in the Newcastle Daily Journal later that same day:

Hotel Fire at Scarborough
The Landlady Killed

About two o’clock this morning a policeman on duty in front of the George Hotel, the oldest and chief commercial hotel in Scarborough, noticed that the coffee room to the left of the main entrance was on fire. He quickly aroused the inmates. Mr. Besford, the son of the landlady, was one of the first to reach the ground floor, and at once burst open the door of the coffee room, which was being used as a show room by Mr. Empson, the traveller for Messrs. Foster and Porter, of Wood Street, London, who had, it is stated, over £400 worth of furs and other valuable stock on show in the room. When Mr. Besford forced the door the room was completely in the hold of the fire. The flames and dense volume of smoke poured through the open doorway, and the visitors and household of the hotel, who with all haste were being aroused, were greatly alarmed to find the hotel rapidly filling with smoke. They feared the ground floor was all in flames. The powerful fire hose of the hotel was speedily got to work, and the hotel shoot kept in a bedroom on the fourth floor was with all speed attached. Mrs. Besford, a lady of 69 years of age, and her sister, Mrs. Walker, as well as Miss Besford, were lowered in the shoot from the fourth floor window to the ground. What really occurred is not very clear, but Mrs. Besford received such injuries that she died in a few minutes, and her sister, Mrs. Walker, had both ankles broken, and is now in a very dangerous condition, being completely prostrated with the shock. The fire was confined to the large room where it broke out, and the stock destroyed alone is valued at about £400. In addition to the household and servants there were 17 commercial travellers sleeping in the hotel. With the exception of the ladies mentioned, all escaped without injury. Some of the gentlemen rendered valuable assistance. The greatest sympathy is felt for the bereaved family.

The same edition of the newspaper carried this additional later report:

Another Account

An alarming fire, with very serious consequences, occurred at Scarborough early yesterday morning, the scene being the George Hotel. There were sleeping in the hotel at the time 34 persons, including the landlady, Mrs. Besford, a stout old lady, aged 69; Mrs. Walker, her sister, aged 60; Mr. C. and Miss A. Besford, the grown up son and daughter of the landlady; 17 commercial travellers, and the hotel staff of servants, numbering 13. The fire was discovered shortly after 2 o’clock in the coffee room in the entrance to the hotel, and the sleeping inmates were immediately aroused. Dense smoke was then pouring up the staircase and the prevailing excitement and alarm were intensified in consequence. The fire brigade had been warned, and meanwhile the male occupants succeeded in reaching a place of safety on the ground floor. The prompt arrival of the firemen effectively checked the progress of the fire, and they soon had the outbreak in hand; but the contents of the coffee room, including hundreds of pounds worth of travellers’ stock, belonging mostly to Messrs. Foster and Porter, of London, were destroyed. While the firemen were combatting the flames and searching the front part of the building to make sure that no one had been overcome by smoke, Mr. Besford had fixed a canvas shoot to the window of a room on the third floor at the back of the premises to enable his mother and aunt and other females to reach the ground in safety. Two maids slipped down the shoot first, having received instructions that when they reached the ground they were to hold the end of the shoot up to prevent the old ladies striking the ground in their descent. Whether from excitement or misunderstanding, or the weight of the landlady, it is not apparent, but something went wrong with the arrangement described, and when, finally, Mr. Besford descended the shoot he alighted on the bodies of his mother and aunt. Dr. Foley was summoned and speedily attended. He pronounced Mrs. Besford dead, her neck having been broken. Mrs. Walker, her sister, had both ankles broken. Mrs. Stratton sustained a sprained ankle, and Miss Besford’s hand was cut and bruised. Tonight Mrs. Walker remained in a critical condition.

The tragedy was reported widely in newspapers across the country. This extract from a report in the Grantham Journal dated 1st November 1902 gives further details:

A canvas shoot escape, which was kept in a bedroom on the fourth floor, was lowered. Two of the women servants were the first to go down. They were told to steady themselves by the guiding ropes, and when they reached the ground hold up the end of the shoot, so as to ensure the safety of Mrs. Besford, aged 69 years (widow of Mr. Samuel Besford), and her sister Mrs. Walker, aged 60, both of whom were stout. In the excitement, the instructions were misunderstood, and a terrible accident occurred. The end of the shoot was left just over the ground, and both ladies came down it from a height of about fifty feet, receiving fearful injuries, which, in the case of Mrs. Besford, proved fatal in a few moments. Mrs. Walker, who had both ankles broken, received other shocking injuries, and she succumbed on Thursday. Mrs. Stratton, one of the staff, had her ankle seriously hurt, and Miss Besford’s hand was much cut and bruised. Mr Besford was the last to come down the shoot, and found the women huddled up in the yard, and most of them suffering greatly from the shock. A fireman broke open the door leading to the yard, and two doctors were quickly in attendance. The fire brigade extinguished the fire, which was confined to the room where it originated. Cigarettes had been smoked in the room, but when it was locked up everything seemed all right. Mrs. Besford had kept the hotel for over twenty years. An inquest was held on Saturday, when the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death”, and expressed sympathy with the relatives.

Mary Ann Besford’s funeral took place on Monday 27th October 1902. The Yorkshire Evening Post reported it thus:

At Scarborough this afternoon, the funeral took place of Mrs. Besford, proprietress of the George Hotel, who was killed during the fire at the hotel on Friday morning. Over a thousand people witnessed the departure of the funeral cortege, and at the cemetery the scene was very impressive. There were 45 wreaths, including one from the Licensed Victuallers’ Association. The last scene testified to the high respect in which Mrs. Besford was held. She had been 20 years at the George Hotel.

The Yorkshire Evening Post’s reference to “Friday morning” is a slip. The 25th of October 1902 was in fact a Saturday, as both the Newcastle Daily Journal’s report of “About two o’clock this morning”, published the same day, and the Grantham Journal’s account of the inquest “held on Saturday” confirm.

Samuel and Mary Ann’s children #

So what happened to Samuel and Mary Ann’s children?

I have been unable to find any further record of Clarence Besford, Samuel and Mary Ann’s younger son (born 1871).

Ada Mary Besford married John Edward Morris in Scarborough on 21st December 1903. At the time of her marriage Ada was described as “Hotel Keeper at the George”.

Arthur Besford (Samuel and Mary Ann’s eldest child) was recorded on the 1891 Census as a boarder at the Boar’s Head Inn, Braintree, Essex. He was aged 24 and was working as a builder’s foreman.

In 1896 he married Louisa Elizabeth Hills at Braintree.

In 1901 the Census recorded Arthur and Louisa living in Eastbourne at Harcourt Terrace, Gore Park Road. He was working as a builder’s clerk. Arthur and Louisa had two children at this time: Arthur George Besford (4) and Clarence Besford (3).

The 1911 Census found Arthur and Louisa Besford in Colchester at 48 Bergholt Road. Arthur (now 43) was still working as a builder’s clerk. Louisa was now 39. Their children were Arthur George Besford (14), who was working as an assistant to his father, Clarence Besford (13), and Dorothy May Besford (8).

Clarence Besford (Arthur and Louisa’s son and Samuel and Mary Ann’s grandson) served with the 11th Battalion, the Essex Regiment during the First World War. He enlisted as a private. He subsequently transferred to the 4th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and was promoted to corporal, lance corporal, and ended as an acting sergeant. Clarence is recorded as having received a severe shrapnel wound to his right thigh in February 1916.

The 1921 Census found Arthur and Louisa Besford still at 48 Bergholt Road in Colchester. Arthur (now 53) was working as a builder’s surveyor. Louisa was now 49. Their son Arthur George Besford was aged 24 and was working as a carpenter for the War Department. Clarence Besford was aged 23 and described as a “Discharged Soldier – out of work”. Arthur and Louisa’s daughter Dorothy May Besford was 18 and was described as a “Shop Assistant – out of work”.

Samuel and Mary Ann’s grandsons Clarence and Arthur both married in the inter-war years. Clarence Besford married Rose Selina Clarke at Colchester in 1927, and Arthur George Besford married Jessie Fryer in 1937.

The 1939 Register recorded Clarence and Rose Besford at Rosemead, Fernbank Road, North Ascot, Easthampstead. Clarence was working as a male nurse. He and Rose had a seven-year-old daughter, Mary P. Besford.

The 1939 Register recorded Arthur George Besford and his wife Jessie Besford at 149, Aldborough Road, Redbridge, Ilford. Arthur was working as a builder’s draughtsman and carpenter.