| Description | A collection of family documents and research materials relating to the Beachcroft family. It comprises research notes and copies and transcriptions of pertinent records relating to the family; photographs; legal documents such as marriage settlements, gifts of property, grants of arms and deeds relating to the administration of trusts in addition to a small number of items of wider historical interest including Sir Robert Beachcroft's inventory, family correspondence and the authorised Beachcroft pedigree. Of particular Clothworker significance are those items in CL/G/MSS/Beachcroft/2, Major Maurice Beachcroft's papers, photographs at CL/G/MSS/Beachcroft/6/2 and the Clothworker apprenticeship indentures and Freedom certificates at CL/G/MSS/Beachcroft/3/1.
NB. Some Beachcroft Clothworkers are referred to as Citizen and Clothworker etc in documents. Where they are not, and the individual is known to have been a member, 'Clothworker' has been added in square brackets after their name for the assistance of researchers.
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| AdminHistory | The Beachcroft family descends from Robert Beachcroft of Derby who died in 1598. His great-grandson, also Robert, came to London to take up an apprenticeship to Thomas Paulfreyman, Clothworker on 30 Sep 1668 and became a Freeman on 5 Oct 1675. In 1700 he became Master of the Company and in 1711 took up the mayoralty of the City of London. He had been knighted, when a Sheriff, in 1700.
Beachcroft was a merchant by trade, deriving great wealth from the export of cloth. He was also a director of the South Sea Company. Upon his death on 27 May 1721, he left an estate valued at almost £20,000 [a modern equivalent would be c £1.6m]. Although married, he had no issue. He bequeathed his lands in Preston, Suffolk to his nephew Samuel Beachcroft, his principal heir, and the residue of his estate was shared between the same and another nephew, Joseph Beachcroft. Both were executors to Sir Robert's will.
Samuel Beachcroft had been apprenticed to his uncle in 1690 and took up his Freedom of The Clothworkers' Company in 1697. Subsequent generations of the family also went on to become Clothworkers, by servitude, redemption and later patrimony. Four Beachcrofts have also been past Masters of the Company. The most recent was Major (Philip) Maurice Beachcroft [Free 1901, Master 1945] whose Clothworker related papers are an integral part of this acquisition.
These papers comprise part of a collection of family documents preserved by the family down the generations in addition to a collection of research notes and materials, principally collated by Mary Beachcroft, Freewoman [deceased]. Mary published the book Reflections in 1994, a history of her father Maurice Beachcroft, and it is was her intention to ultimately publish a wider family history before she passed away in 2010.
The collection was left in the custody of Miss Jean Coles after Mary Beachcroft's death, and the papers catalogued here were gifted to The Clothworkers' Company in 2011, but for the two grants of arms [CL/G/MSS/Beachcroft/1/1-2] which were placed on deposit in 2005. Material relating to Maurice Beachcroft's connection with the Order of St John and the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls have gone to the Archive of the Order of St John in Buckinghamshire and the Museum and Library of Freemasonry respectively. Written material relating to Major Maurice Beachcroft which does not have a particular Clothworker relevance [his diaries, sketchbooks] or family heirlooms [needlework, medals etc] have not been transferred. |