Beaumont

Whitley Beaumont

From research it seems the Beaumont’s or as they were originally known “de Bellomonte” where granted their lands in this area by the de Laci’s.
They were the Earl’s of Lincoln and came by their lands when they came to England with William the Bastard, (or to give him his later and more commonly known title, “William the Conqueror”) in 1066. Richard de Laci then granted some of the land to Robert (the Crusader) de Bellomonte when they returned from the third Crusade, (1189–1192), (where they had fought alongside King Richard the Lionhearted (Richard I)).
The first de Bellomonte associated with the area was William but I start with his son Richard.

Richard de Bellomonte:

He was born around 1252 at Drayton Hall, Shropshire and he was the son of William and Alice de Bellomonte (nee le Strange) and he was the first of the many Richard’s to be associated with Whitley and Kirkheaton.
He married Annabella, (I have been unable to find her maiden name.) They had no heirs and on Richard’s death which was just before the feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle in the 21st year of Edward I, (the 21st December 1293.)
The estates passed to the eldest of his brothers, William. Henry de Laci also granted his widow Annabella some more land so she would be able to live the rest of her life in relative ease.

William de Bellomonte:

He was born around 1262 in Drayton Hall. He was the son of William and Alice de Bellomonte (nee le Strange).
He strengthened the ties to this area by marring Elizabeth Crosland around 1284.
She was the daughter of Richard de Foss Crosland and it was from this alliance the de Bellomonte’s acquired Crosland Foss. William died around 1323 and the estates passed to his son Robert.

Robert de Bellomonte

He was born around 1285 at Drayton Hall. He was the son of William and Elizabeth de Bellomonte nee Crosland. He seems to have been a bit rebellious in his youth and this cost his family some of their lands in Over Whitley, Crossland and Hodresfield (Huddersfield) when they were seized in 1303.
He married Agnes de Quarmby around 1307. She was the daughter of John de Quarmby.
They had several children before Agnes died. After her death Robert married Gracia Crosland and he got himself back in favour and he was made a Commissioner of Array in the 16th year of Edward II (1323). (This was also about at same time as his father’s death.)
Also around that time he was one of the Yorkshire knights to be summoned to Westminster. They where living mostly at Crosland Hall and it was there where he was killed by Sir John de Eland in 1341, who was the High Sheriff of Yorkshire.
It all seems to have started when a neighbour of the de Bellmonte’s named Exley killed a nephew of John de Eland's and after the killing Exley sort refuge at Crosland Hall. The quarrel escalated with the Lockwood’s of Lockwood Hall and Sir Hugh Quarmby getting involved. Both these men were killed by de Eland and after this slaughter de Eland marched no Crosland Hall.
Early one morning a treacherous servant got up and let de Eland and his men into the hall. Sir Robert was then dragged from his bed and beheaded with his own sword. After the killing de Eland had Sir Robert’s sons brought to the main hall and made them eat breakfast with him but the oldest, Adam showed his distain by refusing to eat anything.
Adam’s hatred for the sheriff festered inside him and a few years after the killings he joined forces with the sons of de Lockwood and de Quarmby and another named Thomas de Lacy and they decided it was about time their fathers slaughter was avenged. This deed took place at Cromwell Botham Wood, where Adam seized the bridle of de Eland's horse causing it to go back on its haunches and as de Eland jumped off his horse and drawing his sword the four younger men over powered him and killed him.
The four men were not satisfied with just taking their revenge out on the man that had slain their fathers they also decided to kill his son. This they did by shooting him with an arrow at the Eland Mill Dam when he was travelling with his family to church for the Palm Sunday sevice. De Quarmby was killed in the fray and Adam and de Lockwood escaped and were charged with the murders so they had to go into hiding.
Despite numbers searches the two outlaws could not be found so in 1353 several noted people from the area were arrested and taken to York. They were tried with sheltering the known outlaws, be Bellomonte and Lockwood but they were found not guilty and released.
Adam was never located and it was said he gone abroad and joined the Knights of St John in Rhodes, where he was slain fighting the Turks in Hungary. But no one really knows what happened to him.
(A ballad about the incident was written at the time and it portrayed Sir Robert as some sort of white knight and de Eland as a black knight, but some other accounts infer Sir Robert wasn’t as gallant as they made him out to be.)
If you look back at the tails of the Beaumont family they might remind you of the tails of another well known tail about an outlaw; you have one of the family fighting in the crusades with Richard I; a feud with a sheriff that had slain his father; one of the family being made an outlaw and being protected from the law by the local inhabitants.
Kirkheaton and Huddersfield were on the outskirts of Sherwood Forest and the family is also linked to Kirklees Hall, which is where Robin Hood is said to buried. With Adam openly defying “the powers that be” it was decided that it would be safer for John to inherit the estate.

John de Bellomonte:

He was born about 1312 at Crosland Foss. He was the son of Robert and Elizabeth de Bellomonte (nee de Quarmby) and he married Margaret Radcliffe in about 1332.
She was the daughter of Richard Radcliffe another of the big local land owning families.
They had several children and on his death in about 1350 the estates passed to their eldest son John. (This was towards the end of the “Black Death” period (1348-1350) but there is no evidence that it had anything to do with his death.)

John de Bellomonte:

He was born about 1333 at Crosland Foss. He was the son of John and Margaret de Bellomonte (nee Radcilffe) and he married Alicia de Hopton about 1353. He died young in about 1355 without any issue so the estates passed to the next eldest brother Robert.

Robert de Bellomonte:

He was born about 1334 at Crosland Foss. He was the son of John and Margaret de Bellomonte (nee Radcilffe). He never married and on his death around 1374 the estates passed a third brother Henry.

Henry de Bellomonte:

He was born about 1336 at Crosland Foss. He was the son of John and Margaret de Bellomonte (nee Radcilffe) and he was married to a Johanna around 1365. I cannot find her maiden name but they had several children.
Henry allied himself to Sir John Assheton who was a well known figure at the court of the Kings, (Edward III and Richard II) but this alliance didn’t last and Henry argued with Assheton. The disagreement escalated and Ashshton attacked Henry at his strong hold at Crosland Foss in 1389.
During the attack Henry defended himself but he fatally hit one of Assheton’s men, John Darcy, over the head with his sword which resulted in his death. Henry was charged with Darcy’s murder and taken to York for trial where he was later acquitted.
It was also about this time that the name changed to the modern spelling of Beaumont. Henry died around 1405 and in his will Henry requested to be buried at Almondbury and the estates passed to his son Henry.

Henry Beaumont:

He was born about 1365. He was the son of Henry and Johanna de Bellomonte and he was also married to a Johanna around1388. Again I am unable to ascertain her maiden name but they had several children.
He had a quiet and peaceful life and it was about this time that they started making Whitley the family residence. He died around 1424 and the estates passed to his son Richard. (It is also their descendants that would eventually sit on the throne of England.)

Richard Beaumont:

He was born around 1390 at Crosland Hall. He was the son of Henry and Johanna Beaumont and he married Cecilia Mirfield about 1409. They had eight children and they made Whitley Hall their main residence and started patronising Kirkheaton church, or as it were known in those days “Heaton” (Heton).
Richard died on the 4 December 1471 and in his will he left instructions that he was to be buried in the choir of St. Mary in the church of St. John the Baptist at Heton, he also left the church 2 shillings, and the estates passed to his son Thomas.

Thomas Beaumont:

He was born 1415 at Whitley. He was the son of Richard and Cecilia Beaumont (nee de Mirfield) and he married Elizabeth Nevile on the 8 August 1456. These were turbulent times and the country was in a bitter civil war which became better known as “the War of the Roses” (1455-1485).
I have been unable to find out if they played any part in the conflict or to which side they were allied to. A different Beaumont family who were descended from Eleanor Plantagenet had allied themselves to the Lancastrian side but there is no evidence that the Beaumont’s of Whitley had the same allegiance.
Although he married late in life they had eight children. Thomas died on the 5 September 1495 and he decreed that he should be buried at the church at Heaton and on his death the estates passed to his son Richard.

Richard Beaumont:

He was born in 1459. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Beaumont (nee Nevile) and he married Johanna Sandford on the 10 January 1489. Unfortunately Johanna died young but they had one son Roger Richard.
After her death he married Elizabeth Harrington on the 8 December 1494. She didn’t live long either and on her death he married Hannah Adams on the 4 November 1503.
By know the family had started moving in more salubrious circles and they lived part of the time in Westminster and London. The new positions cost money and in 1506 he paid £5 to keep him from being made a Knight of the Bath.
He had his armorial bearings confirmed and he was granted his battle spurs in the battle of the spurs at Guinegate, France, (which was commanded by Henry VIII). He again paid a fine of £5 in 1516 to keep him from being made a Knight of the Bath. He died on the 21 December 1540, unfortunately his son Roger Richard had died before him so the estate passed to his grandson Richard.

Richard Beaumont:

He was born about 1510 in Liversedge. He was the son of Roger Richard and Johanna Beaumont (nee Pilkington) and he married Katherine Nevile on the 26 February 1527.
They had three children before Katherine died. After her death he married Alice Nettleton and he was a Justice of the Peace. After his death in 1573 he was buried in Heaton church and he the estates passed to his only son Edward.

Edward Beaumont:

He was born in 1544. He was the son of Richard and Katherine Beaumont (nee Nevile) and he married Elizabeth Ramsden on the 16 October 1571. (She was from one off the new up and coming money families.)
Although Edward’s life was a sort one he and Elizabeth had a son and daughter and he was granted permission to add a crest to the family’s coat of arms in 1573. He died on the 3rd of January 1575 and he was buried in Kirkheaton and the estates passed to his son Richard.

Richard Beaumont:

He was born on the 5 September 1574. He was the son of Edward and Elizabeth Beaumont (nee Ramsden) and he is more commonly known by the infamous nickname of “Black Dick of the North.”
He inherited the estates when he was only 5 months old and legend as painted him as a most unsavoury character. The rumours have him as being a gambler, bad debtor, highwayman, horse thief, he was said to be responsible for the murder of a serving girl who he had got into the family way and that he died in a duel on the 5 July 1631. (It is said that it is on this on this date that you are most likely to catch a glimpse of one of his numerous ghostly apparition.)
I don’t think he is as black as he is painted and I think that most of the accusations against him are for the sins of his forefather’s and not his. His nickname suggests that he was of a dubious character but he was given the nickname by King James I, and I don’t think the king would have been in the habit of naming unsavoury characters. Also when you look at the name he could have got the nickname Black Dick because he was of a serious nature and not of an evil one.
When you look at his achievements you see him in a different light, although he was never married he seems to have dedicated his life to helping others; he was knighted by King James in 1609, he also helped start a school at Almondbury that same year; the following year along with the reverend Stock’s he started a school at Kirkheaton (1610); he was given a commission in 1613; he was made a Justice of the Peace in 1618 and a Treasurer for the lame soldiers in Yorkshire; he was made a Member of Parliament in 1625 and he was made a Baronet in 1628.
Don’t get me wrong he wasn’t a saint and his family and friends were always trying to marry him off to one member of their family or other but despite their attentions he remained a bachelor. He was also said to have had at least two daughters to two different women. (With him already admitting to having two children out of wedlock would he have killed a serving girl for falling pregnant with another one?)
On his death on the 20 October 1631, (date is from his memorial in Kirkheaton church) he requested that he was to be buried in Kirkheaton and he also bequeathed £30 to the poor of Kirkheaton, £20 to the poor of Huddersfield and £10 to the poor of Almondbury and the estates passed to his cousin Thomas.

Thomas Beaumont:

He was born on the 25 January 1605 at Lascells Hall. He was the son of Richard and Anne Beaumont (nee Kaye) and the grandson of Rosamund and William Beaumont (nee Beaumont). Rosamund was the daughter of the aforementioned Richard and Katherine Beaumont nee Nevile (1510-1573) and therefore Richard’s (Black Dick’s) Aunt.
William Beaumont was also directly descended from the aforementioned Thomas and Elizabeth Beaumont (nee Nevile) (1415-1495). Thomas was married to Elizabeth Armytage on the 6 September 1628 at Wath upon Dearne. (She was one of the Hartshead Armytage’s.)
They had several children and Thomas was started studying law. Unfortunately these studies were brought to an end by the onset of the English Civil War (1642-1648).
Thomas rallied to the King’s side and he was made a sergeant in Sir William Savile’s regiment. He was then made deputy-governor and then governor of Sheffield. He was in charge of the city when the castle fell to the parliamentarians in August 1644. Being on the losing side he was stripped of his titles and the family also had to pay a heavy fine. On the restoration of the monarchy (1660) Thomas was rewarded for his loyalty to the crown and he was reinstated as a knight. In 1662 he donated £20 to the rebuilding of the north aisle of Kirkheaton church.
Thomas died on the 31 May 1668 and he was laid to rest in Kirkheaton on the 3 June, having out lived his eldest son the estates passed to his grandson Richard.

Richard Beaumont:

He was born in 1654. He was the son Adam and Elizabeth Beaumont (nee Ashton). (She was a direct descendent of the aforementioned Sir John Assheton who fought with Henry Beaumont (1336-1405)).
Adam was the eldest son of Thomas and Elizabeth Beaumont (nee Armytage) (1605-1668). Adam would have been too young to have taken part in the Civil War but an engraving depicts him in what looks like parliamentarian dress.
I can only surmise that he might have joined Cromwell’s Army after the Civil War to try and appease the Commonwealth Governments, (then known as the Protectorate from 1653) reprisals against the family. Richard married Frances Lowther on the 2 November 1676. He died in 1691 and he was buried in Kirkheaton and the estates passed to his only son Richard.

Richard Beaumont:

He was born 8 October 1677. He was the son of Richard and Frances Beaumont (nee Lowther) and he married Katherine Stringer on the 11 June 1699. The short union was fruitless and on his death in 1704 he was buried in Kirkheaton and the estates passed to his cousin Richard Beaumont.

Richard Beaumont:

He was born on the 8 October 1679 at Lascells Hall. He was the son of Richard and Anne Beaumont (nee Ramsden) and the grandson of aforementioned Thomas and Elizabeth (nee Armytage) (1605-1668). Richard married Susanna Horton on the 14 October 1700 and they had three children.
Richard served with Christopher Duke of Albemarle in Jamaica, and on his return he served as a Captain in Lord Castleton’s Regiment of Foot in Flanders. He was then made the High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1713.
Richard died on the 14 November 1723 and he was buried in Kirkheaton and the estates passed to his eldest son Henry.

Henry Beaumont:

He was the son of Richard and Susanna Beaumont (nee Horton). I haven’t found a record of his birth so I think he was born while his father was serving abroad. He died a bachelor in 1743 and the estates passed to his brother Richard.

Richard Beaumont:

He was born about 1722. He was the son of Richard and Susanna Beaumont (nee Horton) and he married Elizabeth Holt on the 13 January 1747 at Great Harwood. Richard died in1764 and on his death the estates passed to his eldest son Richard Henry.

Richard Henry Beaumont:

He was born in 1749 and baptised at Kirkheaton on the 30 March. He was the son of Richard and Elizabeth Beaumont (nee Holt).
He was educated at Oxford, he was made High Sheriff in 1793 and it was him that brought the unacceptable side of the eighteen century to the area. I am of course referring to the slave trade,
when he brought an “Ethiopian” slave to the Hall. (The term Ethiopian was generally used to describe any slave that came from African and it doesn’t necessarily mean he was from that area.) The captive was given the name of Daniel Whitley and baptised at the Kirkheaton church on the 2 November 1782.
He would have been used more as a status symbol than a worker and he would have been treated better than most of the locals. Despite this the lack of liberty and the climate did not suit him and he soon became ill. He was given the best treatment available but he did not live long and he was buried in the Kirkheaton graveyard on the 8 December 1787. (Although he was treated better than most the working-class and poor of the area by being properly fed, kept warm with a roof over his head and given the best medical treatment he wasn’t free. And if freedom isn’t that important to use a lot of people have died over the years for nothing.) Richard Henry died a bachelor in 1810 and the estates passed to his brother John.

John Henry Beaumont:

He was born 29th August 1752. He was the son of Richard and Elizabeth Beaumont (nee Holt). He was a lieutenant in the 29th Regiment of Foot and in 1794 and he was also made a Captain in the Yorkshire Volunteers.
He married Sarah Butler in 1778: Daughter of Humphrey Butler of Hereford and they had one son and two daughters. John died on the 12 January 1820 and having out lived his son the estates passed to his grandson Richard Henry.

Children
1.Charles Richard Beaumont Born 22nd May 1777, Married 1802 to Martha Hemsted daughter of Stephen Hemsted MD.
1a Richard Henry Beaumont Born 5 August 1805.
2.Charlotte Beaumont Born 1779 Married 18th April 1801 John McCumming, Captain, 31st Foot, Seigneur of Grand Vallee de Montes, Lower Canada
3. Elizabeth Sarah Beaumont Born 1789 Married by Licence on the 2nd October 1813 to Joseph Thomas Tuite of Deighton Grove Pocklington.
3a Thomas Beaumont Tuite Bap 15th May 1815 at St Mary's Bishop Hill York.

Richard Henry Beaumont:

He was born on the 5 August 1805. He was the son of Charles Henry and Martha Beaumont (nee Hemsted). He was a Captain in the 2nd West Yorkshire Militia and a Sub-Lieutenant in the Life Guards.
He went to America and this where he met and married an American called Catherine Wiggin in December 1831. He died without issue in 1857 and he left the estate to his godson and distant relative Henry Frederick Beaumont.

Henry Frederick Beaumont:

He was born on the 10 March 1833 and baptised in Scarborough. He was the son of Henry Ralph and Catherine Beaumont (nee Cayley) and the great-great-grandson of George and Frances Beaumont (nee Beaumont). Frances was the daughter of the aforementioned Richard and Susanna Beaumont (nee Horton) (1679-1723).
George was the son of George and Gertrude Beaumont (nee Bagshawe) who was descended from the aforementioned Henry and Johanna Beaumont (1365-1424). (It is George’s sister Jane who is Queen Elizabeth II great-great-great-great-great-grandmother.) Henry Frederick was educated at Eton and he then studied at Trinity College Cambridge. He married Maria Johanna Garfoth on the 1 September 1857 and then became a Member of Parliament for the Liberals, representing the West Riding South and Colne Valley districts.
He was a Colonel in 2nd Volunteers and he donated Beaumont Park to the people of Huddersfield on the8 August 1879. He mixed with royalty and on the 14 October 1883, he and Prince Leopold Duke of Albany (who was one of Queen Victoria’s sons) attended the morning service at Kirkheaton Church. He also gave the church the oak pulpit from the Whitley Hall Chapel and he was made a Freedom of the Borough of Huddersfield in1894.
He died on the 13 October 1913 and the estates passed to his son Henry Ralph.

Henry Ralph Beaumont:

He was born on the 17 December 1865. He was the son of Henry Frederick and Maria Johanna Beaumont (nee Garforth). He inherited the estates at a time of great upheaval and the imminent onset of the Great War and the start of the end of the family’s long association with the hall and village. After a long consultation they decided that the minerals under the estate were needed for the war effort.
The family started by dismantling and selling the interior in 1917 and they sold the hall 1924. (The Hall became unstable and it was finally demolished in 1951.) Henry Ralph died on the 19 August 1948 and his is the last Beaumont plaque to be placed in the Beaumont Chapel in Kirkheaton Church.

Queen Elizabeth II:

When you start tracing a family’s history you never know where they are going to take you or even where their ancestors will end up. Just like when I started looking into the Whitley Beaumont’s I had no idea that one branch would take me to the throne of England. (So it could have been a bit embarrassing if Thomas had fought on the Parliamentarian side in the Civil War.
But then again if the early tails of the Beaumont family are the tails of England’s most famous outlaw, does that mean that the present royal family are related to the “hooded man”?)
We pick this branch up with Jane Beaumont. She born around 1689 and she was the daughter of George and Gertrude Beaumont (nee Bagshaw) (1664-1712) and the sister of the aforementioned George Beaumont, ((1695-1735) who was married to Frances Beaumont (1704-1735)). George was a descendent of Roger Beaumont (1388-1427) (who was the son of the aforementioned Henry and Johanna Beaumont (1366-1424)). Jane Beaumont married an Able Smith in 1712.
Their great-great-granddaughter Frances Dora Smith (1832-1922) married a Claude Bowes-Lyon in 1853. Then their granddaughter Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002) married Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor in 1923. They had two daughters Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 1929 and Margaret Rose born 1930.
Prince Albert was second in line to the throne but fate intervened when his elder brother Edward met and fell in love with an American divorcee. The love struck king abdicated in 1936 and Prince Albert became King George VI. Then on his death in 1952, his daughter became Queen Elizabeth II and his widow became more affectionately known as the Queen Mother.