My 4x great grandmother Sarah Beacock was born in 1815 in Twigmoor, Lincolnshire to John Beacock and Sarah Carline. She was one of nine siblings, Sarah being the 4th oldest.

Sarah was baptised on 26th September 1815 in Manton, Lincolnshire. There seems to have been an error made on this record, as Beacock has been falsely recorded as Beacroft. I have checked to see if there were any Sarah Beacrofts in the area with parents of John and Sarah. I found nothing, so I feel that I am correct in saying that there was an error made by the transcriber.

Sarah gave birth to her son Thomas in about 1841 in the Melton Ross area of Lincolnshire. Thomas was born out of wedlock and we do not know who the father was, but nevertheless, Sarah gave Thomas her surname, rather than the surname of the unknown father. This meant that the Beacock line carried on, but was passed on unusually, by a female.

There is no real way of knowing what happened to Sarah. She could have had a fling with a man she didn’t really know or even a boyfriend, but it could have also been something a lot more sinister such as being sexually assaulted or something of the kind. I have searched newspapers from Lincolnshire, in order to find clues about what happened, but I have had no luck.

Sarah married John Gilliatt on 4th March 1845 in Winterton and gave birth to their son, John William Gilliatt a couple of months afterwards. Unfortunately, John William passed away that same year, and in 1849 Sarah’s husband, John Gilliat passed away too. In 1851, a Sarah Gilliat is living with her son Thomas Beacock in Winterton. She has been recorded as being Annuitant, which means that she was receiving a fixed sum of money for a certain amount of time, usually for the rest of her life. This could have been because she had just been widowed. It appears that Sarah had a very hard life up to this point, and it was filled with a lot of sadness, grief and pain.

Sarah married Gilbert Burton Handson on in 1851 in Glanford Brigg. It seems as though Gilbert brought Thomas Beacock up as his own child. Sarah went on to have 6 known children with Gilbert. They were called Gilbert Burton Handson (1851-?), John Henry Handson (1853-?), George William Handson  (1855-1929), Sarah Frances Handson (1856-?), Julia (1857-1858) and Alfred Richard (1862-1863).

Sarah passed away on 17th November 1870 in Winteringham, Lincolnshire. She was also buried in the graveyard there on 23rd November 1870. The image below shows the burial record of Sarah.

Her husband Gilbert Burton Handson lived a further 27 years after Sarah had passed away. In 1897, he was buried with her in the same grave. It appears that the gravestone was made when Gilbert passed away, as his name is written above Sarah’s. Their gravestone is shown below.

Thank you very much for reading,
Tony.