Lt Benjamin Beaufoy RN - d. 1807

[PandFF]

Looking for any info (or advice on how to find it!) on Benjamin Beaufoy (my 4 x gt gf), a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy in the late 1790s/early 1800s. He died whilst serving in the Sea Fencibles signal station at "Felix Town" (Felixstowe) on 6 Dec 1807. He was married to Ann ? and they had one daughter, Ann Harriet Beaufoy. I can connect him into the Beaufoys of "Leaves From a Beechtree" but can find no birth or marriage info for either him or his parents, nor do his service records come up in a National Archives search, although I have seen a letter there from his CO notifying higher authority of his death. He is listed in Steel's Navy List for the years 1798 - Feb 1808. Any help much appreciated.
Thanks
Paul

[Geoffers]

This TNA research guide may give you some ideas on tracing his career.

The papers referred to in this catalogue entry - Benjamin BEAUFOY married 1 June 1802 may have an extract of the mariage register which might provide you with sme useful information.

[PandFF]

Thanks very much. I already had a bit of this info (such as his seniority date) and have previously searched some of the items suggested in the research guide without much success. However, your response has now given me the marriage date!! I need to get a copy now so as see which parish, although I will be in the UK for a couple of months next year and so may go to Kew again to see the original. Thanks again, much appreciated.

Paul

[crimea1854]

Paul

If you go to the 'age of nelson' website, there is a link to a commercially available CD that has service details for officers, and a search of the index does produce a return for Lt. B Beaufoy. However, how much information contained on this CD for your man. over and above what you currently have, I have no idea.

Martin

[Geoffers]

See Martin's reply, above - also......

I need to get a copy now so as see which parish, although I will be in the UK for a couple of months next year and so may go to Kew again to see the original. Thanks again, much appreciated.

Using the link given in my previous post - you will see a button 'request this' - click on that and you will be taken to another screen where you can order a copy via TNA's 'Digital Express' service. For a set fee (£8.50 - I don't know the exchange rate as to how expensive this will be for you), TNA will forward a copy to you via a URL.

[PandFF]

Thanks to Martin and Geoffers for their advice. I have just received the digital records from the NA and at least I now have a parish of marriage and Ann's maiden name. Nothing more on Lt Benjamin Beaufoy, but I am chipping away!! Thanks again. Paul.

[Bradshad]

Hello Paul,

I guess you may have the following information, and suspect you are are descendant of Henry Beaufoy Merlin. Ann Harriet Beaufoy married Frederick Murlin and had a son, Henry, in about 1830. After Frederick died she and Henry sailed from London to Sydney in 1848. There in 1851 she married a widower, Henry John Forster, father of 5 sons. He died in 1855, but they had then been separated for a year at least. Ann Harriet’s son returned briefly to London (perhaps with his mother?) and married there in 1863. On his return to Australia he worked as a photographer and is remembered for photos of the N.S.W. goldfields his company made in 1872. He died in Sydney in 1873. His wife and children went to England, but there are descendants living in Australia. Richard

[PandFF]

Thanks Richard but I do already have all of this. Appreciate your response though. Paul.

[Bradshad]

Paul,

Have you seen my 1987 article “The Merlin of the South”? It’s mainly about Henry [Beaufoy] Murlin/Muriel/Merlin but there’s also some information on the Beaufoy connection there. A vital link in my research was Ann Harriet.
I would have been lost without her. I had suspected that when Henry returned to London before his marriage in 1863 he was probably accompanied by his mother. Earlier this month I found that almost certainly he sailed with his mother from Sydney to Melbourne in late 1860. So if they sailed together to England it was probably from Melbourne.

Richard

[PandFF]

Hello Richard,

Thanks for the response. Yes, I have read your article on "Merlin of the South" - very interesting reading. I don't have it with me to draw on but I am presently in Norfolk, UK, trying to trace some more details on, particularly, his grandfather. Nevertheless, I have now seen Henry Beaufoy's birth record which confirms his birth in the Wells area in 1830. Interestingly, he also appears in the 1851 census living with his maternal aunt, Mary Leeder, in West Winch, (not far from Wells), in which he is described as a "Reporter for Newspaper". It would be interesting to discuss how this fits into your research on his early life.

I will be back in Aus shortly and would like to correspond via email to discuss detail which is not appropriate for the Board, if you agree.

Regards,

Paul.