i
CONTENTS
Page
iii
Preface
Chapter
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Christopher Betts born c1594
Benjamin Betts born 1664
James Betts born 1696
John Betts born 1724
Richard Betts born 1758
John Betts born 1785
Mary Ann Betts born 1807
The Green family
The Greenwood family
1
3
4
7
10
12
14
17
18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Baptisms
Marriages
Marriage Licences
Burials
Wills
Census returns
Street Directories
Miscellaneous
8.1
Poor Law Returns
8.2
Poll Books & Poll Tax
8.3
Land Tax
8.4
Sun Fire Policies
8.5
Boyd’s Inhabitants of London
8.6
Other
Livery Companies
9.1
Watermen
9.2
Coopers
9.3
Needlemakers
9.4
Vintners
9.5
Glovers
9.6
Merchant Taylors
9.7
Woodmongers & Carmen
21
26
29
31
34
35
36
Appendices
9
40
40
40
41
41
41
42
48
50
50
50
50
51
Illustrations
Fig
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
after page 51
Marriage licence, 1642 Oct. Chris B & Eliz Elliott
Marriage licence, 1663 Mar 21, Chris B & Jone Walter
Map City of London inc Crooked Lane OMITTED
Map Bermondsey inc Church Row Pickle Herring etc OMITTED
Indenture James Needlemaker
Picture of Dockhead 1810
Licence Richard & Isabella
Marriage Cert. of Mary Ann Betts to W F Faulkner
Marriage Cert. of Mary Ann Faulkner (née Betts) to T B Greenwood
Old London Bridge, 1756 showing watermen in abundance
11
Betts Family tree
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner
ii
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for the help received from many sources. In particular mention should be
made of the following, a list that is probably not comprehensive: Bristol Reference Library
The Guildhall Library, London
The Metropolitan Archives. London
The Society of Genealogists, London
Bristol & Avon Family History Society
Family Records Centre, Myddleton Street, London
Church of Jesus Christ of LDS
Invariably the staff at all these locations were most obliging, directing our tentative footsteps
to many sources which would have otherwise have remained undiscovered.
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information included here,
any errors are solely the responsibility of the authors.
Abbreviations
SoG
GL
MA
IGI
PRO
NA
FHC
PR
BT
Society of Genealogists
Guildhall Library, London
Metropolitan Archives
International Genealogical Index
Public Record Office, Kew
National Archives, Kew
Family History Centre, Myddleton Street
Parish Registers
Bishops Transcripts
As a means of identification in the text a date has sometimes been given in brackets after a
Christian name. This is either the actual year of birth or baptism of the person named or our
best estimate and is used to distinguish, where appropriate, between persons with the same
Christian name.
Bibliography
Old & New London, by Thornbury et al.
London Encyclopedia, ed Weinreb & Hibbert
My Ancestors were Watermen, by J W Legon
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner
iii
PREFACE
Family history can become an abiding passion. Enthusiasts, if they are not ever so careful
will turn almost any general conversation with casual acquaintances round to the subject.
There will then be a short pause before the question is asked “And how far have you got
back?”. For many years the authors of this book could say with a slight feeling of smugness,
“Oh, about 1370” followed with the caveat that “Well we actually got back to the early 1600’s
and then were fortunate enough to find that some scholarly person had, in the early 1900’s
delved into records that we could not read and gone back to 1370. We had merely been
fortunate enough to hook on to his work”. Our own efforts with the thirteen families we have
looked at so far usually fade away about 1700.
However not his time. What started out as a quick bit of research tidying up the loose ends
of a fairly ordinary family in London has taken us, by our own efforts to a birth that must have
taken place about 1595. And of course, as all experienced family historians will know, it is
not just a matter of tracing one’s family tree. The tree itself is merely a framework on which
to hang the really interesting items. Here we struck gold. Several ancestors were
watermen or lightermen working on the Thames in London. In early times this had become a
lucrative if disreputable occupation and to control their excesses the Company of Watermen
and Lightermen was set up in 1370 to regulate the profession. From then onwards
membership of this Company was a prerequisite to earning a living on the Thames. The
whole operation was tightly controlled, not only as to who was licensed to practice but as to
the fees that they could charge. The consequent bureaucracy resulted in a vast amount of
information being recorded about individual watermen. A very great deal of such information
has survived and been well indexed by enthusiastic volunteers. It is a rich source of
information.
There was another aspect to membership of the Watermens’ Company. It was not a Livery
Company and so watermen wishing to work in the City of London had also to join a Livery
Company. Therefore some watermen, including those in our family line, are to be found
additionally in the records of obliging Livery Companies who accepted them, sometimes for a
nominal fee. It all amounts to more records being available to fill out the knowledge of the
Betts family. Some of the Betts lightermen set up in business in the City and their business
addresses are recorded in the street directories which were produced annually from the mid
1700’s. Together with some excellent maps of London that have survived it is possible to
see precisely where they lived and worked.
The earlier members of this genealogical line were living in the City of London itself prior to
the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666. There were marriages in churches lost in the
fire and we realised just how many churches and parishes there were in mediæval London.
Some of these have very interesting little historical snippets about them.
The origin of the surname BETTS was in some ways disappointing. Nothing relevant to
occupations, to nicknames or to where they originally came from. Cottle in his “Origin of
Surnames” doesn’t even note the name. Other sources, notably “Origin of Surnames by
Hanks and Hodges (pub 1988) place it as being derived from a mediæval given name;
Bartholomew or Beatrice or Elizabeth. It was interesting to look back a bit further though for
when we consulted the “Dictionary of English & Welsh Surnames” by Bardesly published in
1901 he also is more specific. It was originally “son of Beatrice” from the nickname Bet or
Bettie and no connection with Elizabeth. Ah well!
Lastly we found an early instance of a Betts breaking ecclesiastical law and marrying her
dead sister’s husband. She was first married to Frederick Faulkner in 1831 and his story is
included in an earlier book about our Faulkner ancestors.
Gordon & Barbara Faulkner
May 2007
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner