The Thomas Beagley Family

Pictured above are probably Thomas Beagley (1843-1904) and his daughter Margaret Smith (1878-??).  This Thomas is the second son of the immigrant Thomas (1810-1868) and his wife Sophia Starks (1818-1892).
The elder Thomas was born in Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire (near Spalding) in England and the family arrived in the U.S. in the early 1850s.  According to the 1851 English Census, most of their brood of as many as 11 children were born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire (actually, not far down the road from Pinchbeck), but the last few were born in America.  They settled in Orland Township, Illinois and show up there in the 1860 U.S. Census.

Recent research has uncovered the will of Thomas' father, also named Thomas, who was a resident of Alton in Southamptonshire in the southwest suburbs of London (perhaps that why we ran into such a brick wall looking for them in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire!).  The elder Thomas apparently died between March 14, 1828 when his will was signed and the 6th of April, 1829 when his will was administered.  His first wife is listed as one Ann Crosby, deceased, and his current wife simply as Mary Ann. He apparently inherited land in Sorbiton, Middlesex County and Alton, Southamptonshire from his first wife.  Listed in this document are four sons, Thomas (believed to be the immigrant noted above), James, Charles and George.  A brother named James is also mentioned, and this one's will has also found its way into our hands.

Thomas (the immigrant) and Sophia's children were William (1838-1918), Mary Ann (abt. 1839-??), Maria (abt. 1840-??), Thomas (abt. 1841-1904), James (abt. 1842-1865), Thorp (1845-abt. 1920), John (1851-1885), Joseph (1854-1926), Sarah (abt. 1856-??), George (abt. 1858-??), and Nellie (abt. 1860-??).  Very little is known about some of these folks, but William, Thomas and James were Civil War veterans and James never returned, failing to report upon the mustering out at the end of the war.  The younger Thomas married Kate Maria Bethington and they had nine children, including the great-grandmother of our friend Ethel Buster (who contributed much of this information), Sarah Sophia Beagley (1866-1932).  Thanks, Ethel!

Sarah Sophia Beagley Ashfield

It is believed that Nellie and George died as children, based on their common gravestone in Orland Memorial Cemetery.  Thomas and Sophia, as well as William, John and Joseph along with several descendants are buried nearby.  It is believed that either Mary Ann or Maria married a man named Hewitt, but died before the 1880 Census in which a John Hewitt is listed as in Sophia's household as her grandson.

Thorp Beagley married Maria Adelaide Dickson in 1870 and had at least one child, Bruce, born in 1886.

John Beagley married Sarah Jane Churchill in 1881.  Their children were Edith (1881-??), Betsy (1883-??) and the father of our Aunt Betty, Howard Lemuel Beagley (1885-1973).  A stone mason by profession, John died in 1885 shortly before Howard was born.  Later, in 1892, Sarah (who preferred to be know as Jane) married Charles Fern, also a stone mason and apparently a longtime family friend as the Ferns and Churchills were neighbors in Frankfort Township, Illinois.

This page was last updated on November 1, 2003

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