Place Name
There are no doubt countless family trees that demonstrate just how fragile life was to our ancestors – even for middle class families. This being a case in point. The de Beauvoir estate had been in the family since 1687 having been purchased by Richard De Beauvoir who came over to England from Guernsey in 1680. It was in the hands of the Reverend Peter de Beauvoir at the time of his death on September 14, 1821. Unmarried, his estate was to pass to his next of kin but despite having seven siblings all had predeceased him, three in infancy and the other four at various points between 1751 and 1795, none had children of their own. The de Beauvoir family were used to tragedy. Of Peter’s nine uncles and aunts on his father’s side three had died as infants and two passed away without any children of their own. He had another uncle and aunt on his mother’s side but they too had petered out despite there being 15 cousins. With most of the obvious benefactors dead only two claims came forward for his estate, Mary McDougall and Richard Benyon, the second husband of Mary Tyssen, the sole surviving cousin on Peter’s father’s side. As a long and tortuous advert made in The Times searching for any further claims stated: “It is observable that the mother of the Rev. Peter Beauvoir and the father of Mrs. McDougall were half sister and brother, descending from the same mother; consequently the late Rev. Peter Beauvoir and Mrs. McDougall were first cousins by the half blood.” With neither having a direct claim to the estate, the case inevitably ended in court which decided in favour of Benyon, who it was later reported: “The executor of the Rev. Peter Beauvoir, late of Downham Hall, in the county of Essex, paid last week the sum of £38,000 to the Stamp-office, being the duty on £720,000 payable to the residuary legatee, Richard Benyon, now Richard Benyon de Beauvoir. This fortunate legatee was no relation to the testator. Above £50,000 were otherwise left in legacies. The immense property was bequeathed by the testator independent of his freehold estates, which are of considerable value. In addition to this prodigious wealth, the testator possessed, and retained till the day of his death, a living of £300 a year!” After some legal dispute building work on the Hackney estate, under builder William Rhodes, that had begun under Peter de Beauvoir, was allowed to continue, albeit somewhat scaled down. Ironically, despite Benyon being married, he died without having any children of his own and this estate along with his other interests were inherited by his nephew, Richard Fellowes, who took on the Benyon name. Many of the street names in the area are connected with the Benyon family.
