Ancestral Sunday

Ancestral Sunday
Biggleswade is one of many places that attract me in Bedfordshire.
The reason is that this place is associated with my ancestors. Those I knew
when they were alive, walked its streets with me and talked to me about the
people they remembered from their family, which has become my family history...

Apologies - all pictures have been removed due to a pirate site taking these pictures.

Emma with Nelson Street



Emma Bilcock, married name Street


Ada Constance from Biggleswade

Emma Bilcock , born in Biggleswade, the eldest daughter to Sam
Bilcock and Mary Ann (Maiden name Boness) married Levi James William Street
in the 1870s. They lived and had their first children in Clifton, just outside
the town, then moved to Langford when my grandfather, Nelson was a child, then
later to Biggleswade. The family home was in Benson Terrace on Shortmead Street,
Biggleswade. (No longer there). Sam and Mary Ann Bilcock were known well to
my grandfather and great uncle, as they were their grandparents.


Look out for their slippers

Halloween 2008 had just passed and Obama had just been voted
in. It seemed to me that this was the time to visit the grave of Sam and Mary
Ann Bilcock, my Great, Great Grandparents. My Great Uncle Bill had shown me
the grave years ago at the cemetery on Drove Road, Biggleswade. Spon agreed
to go with me, we had already visited Streatley, as this is where I believe
my surname 'Street' originates from.

The Bilcocks of Biggleswade are another strand. Their surname
may have an interesting origin being a coarse name for 'Isabella's Cock' ' which
crudely relates to a liaison between a man and a queen called Isabella. Apparently
such a queen did visit Bedfordshire to watch the jousting at Dunstable and this
area appears to be where the name Bilcock actually originates from. I believe
there were Bilcocks around Silsoe, but have no evidence that they are linked
to my ancestors at Biggleswade.

I didn't mention this to Spon, but told him about my ancestors,
buried in the grave we were about to visit.

Sam Bilcock was well known in Biggleswade, he was one of the
earliest members of the Transport and General Workers Union. There was a family
story (which may have been a joke) that he preached his politics to the folk
of Biggleswade on market day, standing on a stall in the market square.

He had many children with Mary Ann, although he does not seem
to have had any brothers and sisters himself. Great Uncle Bill told me that
Sam Bilcock's father was called Fred Wade. But when I consulted the records,
I found Elizabeth Bilcock, Sam's mother, married James Milton, and this was
after Sam was born. The records show that Mary Ann Boness, Sam's wife, was documented
as having 'Henry Wade' as her father on their marriage certificate! It is possible
that this could have been recorded incorectly, or that Sam Bilcock had decided
to tell his grandchildren that Fred Wade was his father rather than his wife's!
Uncle Bill looked puzzled when I mentioned this to him, but ironically, when
Uncle Bill died it turned out that his real name was Arthur!

My grandfather always told us that Fred Wade was Sam's father
but Sam took his mother's surname. Probably born out of wedlock, this could
have been why Sam was open to new ideas of social change and was willing to
put himself at the forefront of protest and awkward politics. In those times
the working classes were supposed to be subservient, uneducated and unquestioning
of their lot and being the child of an unmarried woman would have had some social
stigma. Sam was a brave man of principles. When the Jarrow Marchers passed through
Bedfordshire, he joined them.

I was anxious to get to Biggleswade as the sky was threatening
rain and it always rains when I go to Biggleswade. Passing through the cemetery
gates and into the area on the left hand side of the entrance, it took me seconds
to find the grave. As I leant down to photograph the headstone as the first
huge drops of rain plopped around me.


Sam and Mary Ann Bilcock's Grave

I recognize the significance of this grave and feel glad that
my Great Uncle had shown me where to find it. Great Uncle Bill did not have
children of his own, and at one time played the violin. He was an engineer and
would set up a little steam engine to amuse my sister and myself when we were
children. My grandfather, Nelson, Bill's younger brother, could fix clocks and
watches and spent a whole Sunday once when I was a child explaining to me how
a steam threshing machine worked - with diagrams!

Even though my grandfather was not religious, he passed books
on to me that were awarded to him from the Sunday school at St Andrews Church.
My grandfather attended St Andrews School, the original building was destroyed,
although I think the school itself is still in Biggleswade.

We retreated as the downpour turned heavier. At The Red Lion
Pub we met the publican and his customers. One had been looking for Sloes around
the allotments to make gin in time for Christmas. The evening staff turned up
late having overslept and the landlord gave us a coffee on the house as his
machine had broken.

We drove back to Luton on dark roads through the flat landscape
of sodden muddy fields. We passed through Langford, seeing very little in the
rain. I was perplexed because I had written a letter to my Great, Great Grandparents
and felt silly leaving it on the grave where it would go soggy. There was no
where to leave it, so I decided to blog this day and include excerpts of the
letter.

To my Great, Great, Grandparents, Sam and Mary Ann Bilcock,

I visit you here today on November 9th 2008 to respect your
memory and commune with your spirits, I pray you are at peace in your final
resting place.

The years have flown and your children have begotten children, but I am the
last of a twig on your tree. All my life I have carried the words of my grandfather,
Nelson Samuel Street, who was your grandson. He spoke of you with the greatest
respect as did his brother, Great Uncle Bill. They are dead now, but our link
is not broken.

Mary Ann, I was told your maiden name was Boness. I know nothing
else about you, only that you were a strong and loving partner. Sam, my family
was proud that you were a Union man. Your sense of fairness and politics broadened
horizons, not only for yourself, but ultimately for me ' in future times. I
want to tell you that the beliefs and wisdom that you planted in your children
have endured through the generations.

I guess it would be beyond your wildest imagination that your
future family could splinter and disperse the way it has. Now a fourth generation
away from you I can see how it happened. It was and still is normal to move
to find work. So it made sense for my grandparents to move to Luton with its
car factory. My grandparents, Nelson and Lillian Street were the last of my
family line to you who knew how to plant seeds and live from the soil. This
knowledge is lost to me.

Sam and Mary Ann, even if I do not carry the Bilcock name, you
are an important part of my history and I wish you blessings where ever you
are.

When I had finished my letter I googled Sam Bilcock ' he appears
in Kelly's Trade Directory for Biggleswade in 1898, listed in the commercial
list as a Market Gardener located on Potton Road.

There is a mention in the Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions some
time between 1825 and 1826 of another Sam Bilcock. The note was about John Medlock,
a carrier from Biggleswade, who had grown a 'very peculiar potato, brought by
me from Broadwater three years ago'.

The year of his complaint he had grown about 40 bushels. He
had not put these potatoes on the market, selling only 2 bushels to Sam Bilcock
of Biggleswade the spring before. John Medlock added, 'the produce he told me
he still had, not having sold to anybody'. Well, John Medlock buried his potatoes
in a pit in a field that he rented in Biggleswade, only to be told by his boy
that some were stolen by Jason Dilly and William Arnold. The unusual shaped
potatoes were later found at Jason Dilly's father's house.

This Sam may have been my Samuel Bilcock's great uncle. The
archive gives a view of the issues that affected rural life and business, even
providing insight into diet and how even a potato could become exclusive!

It is possible that Sam may have been named after this uncle
and records show the Bilcock family, from whom I am descended, was very much
in evidence in Biggleswade during the early 1800's. Also, the Boness surname
appears in Biggleswade during this time.