Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/240

 194 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.x. MAR. 11,1922. Country Daily Newspaper. July 14. In- corporated with the ' Sun,' Sept. 30. 7 S. v. 315. 1884. The Blue 'Un. No. 1, May 31. 6 S. xi. 62. 1893. Martlet. No. 1, Mar. 1. 8 S. iii. 256. ROLAND AUSTIN. Gloucester. (To be continued.) OXFORDSHIRE MASONS (12 S. x. 89, 138). One of us (E. ST. J. B.) recorded the will of Edward Beacham of Burford, Co. Ox- ford, yeo., dated Aug. 10, 1677 (see first reference), and since that issue he has found, in the book of Oxford Administra- tions in the Principal Probate Registry, that on April 29, 1682, administration of the goods of the testator was granted to his sons Joseph and Benjamin, the widow and executrix, called both Margery and Mar- garet in the will of 1677, having died before taking out administration, i.e., between 1677 and 1682. In the will are mentioned four sons, Thomas Beacham, eldest son, Joseph, Benjamin, and Ephraim, and three married daughters, Hester Webb, Martha Strong, and Elizabeth Nightingale. Joseph is doubtless the Joseph Beauchamp of the epitaph quoted by MR. T. C. TOMBS, from which record he was born 1655. His sister, Martha Beauchamp (b. 1652 ; d. 1725), married, e. 1677, Edward Strong, sen., master-mason (b. 1652, d. 1723); their son, Edward Strong, jun. (b. 1675/6 ; d. 1741), is stated in Clutterbuck's ' Hist, of Herts,' vol. i., to have married Mary Beauchamp. Original documents in the possession of one of us (H. C.), however, show that his wife was named Susanna Roberts ; she had a paralytic seizure on June 22, 1740, and was so gravely ill at the commencement of August that she is unlikely to have sur- vived long. HENRY CURTIS. E. ST. JOHN BROOKS. Richard Jennings of Henley -on -Thames was another of the master-masons of St. Paul's Cathedral. He was the son of Thomas Jennings of Pangbourne, Berks, and his wife, Priscilla, who was the daughter of John and Pri?cilla Salter, both of Henley. About the year 1700 he purchased Badge- more (anciently known as Baggerugge) about one mile from Henley on the Greys Road, which at that time only consisted of a farmhouse and fields. Ten years later he commenced building the present house at Badgemore with the bricks and scaffolding used temporarily in the cathedral building. Jennings resided here for several years till his death in 1718. His relations were settled in this neighbourhood before the eighteenth century, and a branch of the Jennings family lived at Lashbrook, in Shiplake parish, before 1700. In 1711 Mr. Richard Jennings, of Badge- more presented a book to Henley Church, ' The Life and Defence of Bishop Jewell.' This book had a portion of a chain and staple attached to it by which it could -be fastened to a lectern or a table, and probably, from the date and the circumstance of the donor being master-mason of St. Paul's, may have been a relic of old St. Paul's, which be wished to present to the place of his residence. Jeiinings was buried in Henley church- yard, close to the west end of the north aisle, where an oblong stone altar-tomb has the following particulars of himself and relatives : On upper stone slab : To the Memory of JOHN SALTER YEOMAN and PRISCILLA his Wife Both of this Town Born in 1524 And their Daughter PRISCILLA with her Husband THOMAS JENNINGS of Pangborn Born in 1620. Also to the Memory of RICHARD JENNINGS of Bridgmore His Son and Master Builder of S. Pauls in London with his two Sons. Great Benefactor to this Church To the Memory of WILLIAM JENMNGS Marriner and his Wife and her Children Also of MARGARET JENNINGS and her Husband BENJAMIN SHARP Born in 1664 By whom she had four Sons and three Daughter*- John her Youngest Son Repaired this Tomb In 1752 South side : Also to the Memory of JOHN SHARP Esqr. Late of Gatwick Hall in the County of Surry and one of his Majesty's Justice of Peace for the said County who Died August ye 2nd 1771, Aged 72 Years. North side : Also to the Memory of RICHARD JENNINGS of Badgemore Master Builder of St. Paul in London a Great Benefactor to this Church. It is very strange that the dates of Jennings's birth and death are not men- tioned on the tomb. I obtained the date of his death from the * Guide to Henley-on- Thames,' by Emily J. Climenson (1896). L. H. CHAMBERS. Bedford.