John Becher
(1765-1830)
- JOHN BECHER, the second son of Richard Becher and Ann Haselby, was born on 21st June 1765 the twin of Robert Stephens Becher.
- He began his official career in India when, aged just sixteen, along with his brother Richard, he joined the Bengal Civil Service on 1st October 1781 as Assistant to the Commercial Chief at Moorshedabad. He later became Deputy Paymaster to troops at Cawnpore, Superintendent of Collections of Bazar (sic) Duties at Kanpur and was appointed Deputy Military Paymaster-General and Paymaster of Extraordinaries 13th October 1783; Paymaster of the Troops at the Presidency 31st October 1791; Judge and Magistrate at Moorshedabad 3rd February 1797 and appointed Third Judge of the Court of Appeal 28th July 1804. He resigned 1804-5 in India and returned to England.
- He bought Chancellor House, Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, Kent which ‘stands in some extensive grounds near the Tunbridge-Ware Manufactory. It was formerly the residence of Judge Jeffries, whose name is ‘damned to everlasting fame' for the barbarities practiced by him in the West of England and elsewhere, when trying the prisoners taken during the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, in 1685.'
- According to William Pitt Byrne (aka Mrs W. Pitt Byrne) in volume two of his volume Gossip of the Century titled Social Hours with the Celebrities, published in 1898, John Becher was a regular visitor to the theatre in Tunbridge Wells in the late 1820s together with his friend Hans Busk of Culverden House, also on Mount Ephraim, 'they were deferred to in many of the arrangements, choice of pieces etc; they also helped to patronise the races and race balls which made a salient feature in the summer season. My father's (Hans Busk's) property was not in, but near, The Wells, and our land touched upon that of Chancellor House, since the abode of royalty, but then occupied by the Becher family. We and the Becher boys used to meet on Sundays on Mount Ephraim, and followed by parents, or governess, used to walk together across the common, gathering wild flowers on our way, to the ivy-grown old Church of St Charles. Those 'boys', and there were altogether eleven of them! Have all been dispersed since, and only two now survive; those who lived to be sixteen or so went out to India, where they earned their laurels and made their figure in the history of our Anglo-Indian Empire, numbering besides those who acquire civilian fame, a captain, a colonel, three generals, one a CB, one a KCB, and one killed in his youth at Lucknow in his country's cause.'
One of the 'boys' in this group was the future General John Reid Becher who was brought up by his uncle at Chancellor House where there was also a butler, James Barber, who is mentioned in his Will which also bequeaths the house with coach house, stabling, outbuildings, garden, lands and three tenements on Rusthall Common to his brother Robert Becher, then, on his brother's death, to Charles Grant Becher and then to George and then to his nephew Robert James Becher. The house was eventually sold by Charles Grant Becher's son, Charles Adrian Gough Becher.
John Becher died on 28th March 1830 at his brother Col. George Becher's residence at 22 Chester Terrace, Regents Park, London aged 64. The Brighton Guardian recorded that: 'His loss will be deeply felt. He was a most kind and benevolent man, and universally loved and respected. His remains were accompanied to 'their last home' in Speldhurst churchyard by a large concourse of people anxious to show their last token of respect.' He was buried at Speldhurst Church, Kent and there is a memorial tablet to him on the wall over the south porch.
At some point around 1790 he had a relationship, or perhaps an informal marriage, with someone unknown, with whom there were five children:
1. RICHARD BECHER (Natural son) who was baptized on 26th October 1790 at Cawnpore, India. He was a Free Mariner of Cuttack. He died on 16th October 1826 at Cuttack. His still legible gravestone at the Gora-Kabar Cemetery, Cuttack, reads: 'Sacred to the memory of Richard Becher, Esq who departed this life on the 16th October 1826, aged 37 years. He being made perfect in so short a time, fulfilled a long time, for his soul pleased the Lord, therefore hastened to take him away.'
2. ROBERT BECHER was born on 21st November 1793 and baptized 20th October 1794 at Cawnpore. At some point he sailed to England and returned to Calcutta arriving on the Charles Mills in April 1817. He was bequeathed an annual sum of £60 in his father's Will of 1830.
He married Catherine (or possibly Caroline) Varley on 5th October 1830 at St Peters, Cornhill, London. She was the daughter of Richard Varley and Susannah who was born 19th July 1793 in Gisburn/Essborne, Yorkshire and died 13th January 1868. Her first name on the joint gravestone is given as Caroline however Census records give her name as Catherine so maybe the census enumerator made an error. About 1837 he was elected as Clerk to the Directors and Guardians of Brighton and judging by their records he was very popular, very efficient and highly esteemed by the Guardians.
At 10am on 3rd November 1859 he was summoned to appear before Mr Commissioner Murphy at the Courthouse in Portugal Street, Holborn as an Insolvent Debtor. He was then of 27 Marylebone Road, formerly of 2 Harewood Place, Harewood Sq. then of Seymour Street, Bryanston Sq. now in lodgings, previously of 14 Waterloo Place Brighton. The outcome is unknown. By 1861 he and his wife were living at 22 Montague Street, Marylebone, London.
He died 6th April 1862 at Marylebone and was buried at West Brompton Cemetery, London. He left an unadministered estate of £1668.13s.4d which caused the Probate Registrar to insert a notice into The Times of 25th Oct 1864 urging Charles Augustus Rocke to come forward to accept or refuse the letters of administration or to state why the same should not be granted to Frederick Becher Rocke, one of the children of Sarah Rocke, the sister of Thomas Charles Pattle, and one of the legatees named in the Will. His gravestone reads: 'Sacred to the memory of Mr Robert Becher 2nd son of the late John Becher Esq of the EIC Service who departed this life on the 6th of April 1862 aged 67 years and to the memory of Caroline wife of the above Robert Becher who departed this life January 13th 1868 aged 75 years.'
3. JOHN BECHER was born 21st August 1795 and in 1822 was described as a Free Mariner and in 1824 as of Balasore Salt Department and in 1827 as a Free Mariner of Balasore. He married Mary Ann Lefevre on 14th September 1819 at the Old Church, St Pancras, London. She was born about 1804 at St Pancras and died 1879 at Brighton.
It is worth noting here that sea voyages to and from India were long and often arduous and sometimes dangerous so the good reputation of a ship’s captains was paramount. In 1828 the passengers of the ship Roberts were so grateful for their safe passage from India that they wrote a public letter to Captain Corbyn. Mary Ann Becher wrote and signed the letter on their behalf which also carried the signatures of the many other passengers.
1st July 1828
Dear Sir- We the undersigned passengers from India on the ship Robarts, July 1, 1828. Roberts, under your command, are anxious, before we separate, to assure you of the satisfaction we have derived, during a voyage unusually protracted by light and contrary winds, from the excellence of the ship, and our just confidence in your care and judgement as a seaman.
We are also sensible of the liberality, kindness and attention paid by you to our comforts and the uniform care that you have manifested towards the children on board, (twenty-six in number) all of whom have arrived in perfect health; and we beg leave to express the united good wishes for your health and future prosperity, with which we subscribe ourselves, dear Sir, your truly sincere friends,
M.A. Becher,
John Becher (and many others)
A notice in the London Gazette of 13th March 1840 shows that he was imprisoned at Winchester Gaol and in a further notice was summoned to appear at ten o'clock of the forenoon on 10th April 1840 at the Court House at Winchester in the County of Southampton, the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors. The notice lists in sequence his current and previous addresses: Upper Baker Street, New Road, London afterwards of Charles Street, Manchester Square, London; afterwards of Brussels, Belgium; and late of Alverstoke in the county of Southampton. The notice also states he was 'of no trade or profession.'
In the 1841 Census she is head of the family living at Kingston Cross, Portsea Island, Hampshire with five daughters and one son. By 1851 she was a widow and an Annuitant living at 5 Drayton Grove, Kensington, London with her daughters Louisa Elizabeth Becher and Helen A.B. Becher and her niece Harriet E. F. Scott.
According to The Hampshire Telegraph of 19th June 1843: 'At Singapore on the 16th of March last, John Becher of Kingston Cross, near Portsmouth, aged 48 years'.
John Becher and Mary Ann had eleven children:
1. Ann Beauchamp Becher who was born 1st May 1818 and baptized 20th March 1827 at Cuttack. Nothing further is known about her.
2. Mary Catherine Becher born 21st May 1821 at the house of her uncle Charles Grant Becher at Juggernauth, India, and baptized 24th December1821 at Calcutta. In 1841 she is living with her mother at Portsea Island. She died 5th March 1857 at 5 Drayton Place, Brompton, London.
3. John Henry Yarnall Becher was born in 1822 and baptized 13th May 1822 at Calcutta the twin of Richard Edward Becher. He died 24th July 1823.
4. Richard Edmund Becher was born in 1822 and baptized with his twin brother John Henry Yarnall Becher. He died 20th July 1823.
5. John Becher was born about 1824 and baptized 1st June 1824 at Howrah. He was an Indigo Planter and Writer in the Military Department in Bengal. He married Frances Jane Elizabeth Smith, née Bellew, 10th March 1846 at St John's Cathedral, Calcutta. She was the widow of James Smith and daughter of Frances Dillon Bellow and Ann Foster Green. He died 3rd June 1849 aged 25 and was buried at the Protestant Burial Ground, Calcutta the next day. His wife later married Henry Nugent Snell 7th August 1851 at Calcutta. John and Frances had one child: Lydia Annie Osborne Becher born 1st October 1847 at Krishnagur and baptised 9th April 1848 at Calcutta though nothing else is known about her.
6. Louisa Elizabeth was born 9th September 1826 and baptised 20th March 1827 at Balasore, India. In the 1841 and 1851 Censuses she is living with her mother at Portsea Island. She married her cousin William Augustus Becher on 23rd April 1853 at St Mary’s, Brompton. She is in the 1861 Census as 'Bucker' with her husband as a Fundholder living at Woodbridge Road, Stoke-next-Guildford, Surrey with daughters Emily and Augusta, son William Augustus, daughter Helen A.B., Harriet E.F. Scott (niece) and Mary A. Becher, mother-in-law. He died on 10th March 1879 at 26 Park Crescent, Brighton and his wife died three days later.
7. Lydia Emily Becher was born 11th September 1828 at Boulogne, France and died 1840 at Portsea.
8. Robert Augustus Becher was born about 1830 and baptized 17th November 1830 at the British Chapel, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France. In 1841 he was living with his mother and younger siblings at home. At some point he went out to India where by 1856 he was the Manager of Colonel Smyth's Coffee Estate at Mananthavady, Kerala which had opened only two years earlier. He married Adelaide Sladen, the daughter of John James Denton, on 15th December 1858 at Madras where he died on 21st May 1861. After his death she returned to England where she married Charles John Plumptre, a widower, at St Paul's, Camden Square, London.
9. Helen (or Ellen) Anne Beauchamp Becher was born 1832 in France. She married Robert Brudenell Carter FRCS on 3rd January 1852 at St Mary's, West Brompton. He was an ophthalmic surgeon of Leytonstone, born 1828 in Berkshire, the son of Major John Robert Blackall Graham Carter and Miss Jeffreys. His mother died soon after his birth and he came into the care of Robert Brudenell, 6th Earl of Cardigan, and it was he who selected the name Brudenell. He died in October 1918 and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery, London. She died 25th July 1880 in London. There were seven children.
10. Emma Becher was born at Brussels, Belgium in 1837 and she went to a school at 21 Gloucester Place, Brighton. In 1861 she was staying at Park Row, Nottingham, the home of her sister Ellen Ann Carter (née Becher) and brother-in-law Robert Brudenell Carter and Elizabeth Becher, her cousin, the daughter of George Becher. In the 1901 Census she was staying with her niece, Augusta Becher, at 36 Warwick Road, Earl's Court, London. By the 1911 Census she was living at Westwick Gardens, West Kensington Park, Hammersmith and her cousin, Phyllis Hay, the daughter of Mary Louisa Sage (née Becher) and Mountiford Henry Hay. Emma Becher died 24th August 1911 at Fulham, London.
11. Caroline Rachel Becher, born 1840 in Alverstoke, Hants and baptised 8th May 1840 at St Mary’s, Portsea. She died 17th February 1843 at Kingston Cross, near Portsmouth.
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4. CHARLES BECHER was born on 21st November 1796 and baptised 8th February at Calcutta as the 'natural son' of his brother. He was mentioned in the Will of his brother written in 1825 as being of Cuttack. He is presumed to have died before 1830 as he is not mentioned in his father's Will of that year.
5. THOMAS BECHER was born c.1803 and baptised 29th April 1803 at Berhampore, Bengal. He was buried 15th August 1824 at Gora Kabar Cemetery, Cuttack.
2. ROBERT BECHER was born on 21st November 1793 and baptized 20th October 1794 at Cawnpore. At some point he sailed to England and returned to Calcutta arriving on the Charles Mills in April 1817. He was bequeathed an annual sum of £60 in his father's Will of 1830.
He married Catherine (or possibly Caroline) Varley on 5th October 1830 at St Peters, Cornhill, London. She was the daughter of Richard Varley and Susannah who was born 19th July 1793 in Gisburn/Essborne, Yorkshire and died 13th January 1868. Her first name on the joint gravestone is given as Caroline however Census records give her name as Catherine so maybe the census enumerator made an error. About 1837 he was elected as Clerk to the Directors and Guardians of Brighton and judging by their records he was very popular, very efficient and highly esteemed by the Guardians.
At 10am on 3rd November 1859 he was summoned to appear before Mr Commissioner Murphy at the Courthouse in Portugal Street, Holborn as an Insolvent Debtor. He was then of 27 Marylebone Road, formerly of 2 Harewood Place, Harewood Sq. then of Seymour Street, Bryanston Sq. now in lodgings, previously of 14 Waterloo Place Brighton. The outcome is unknown. By 1861 he and his wife were living at 22 Montague Street, Marylebone, London.
He died 6th April 1862 at Marylebone and was buried at West Brompton Cemetery, London. He left an unadministered estate of £1668.13s.4d which caused the Probate Registrar to insert a notice into The Times of 25th Oct 1864 urging Charles Augustus Rocke to come forward to accept or refuse the letters of administration or to state why the same should not be granted to Frederick Becher Rocke, one of the children of Sarah Rocke, the sister of Thomas Charles Pattle, and one of the legatees named in the Will. His gravestone reads: 'Sacred to the memory of Mr Robert Becher 2nd son of the late John Becher Esq of the EIC Service who departed this life on the 6th of April 1862 aged 67 years and to the memory of Caroline wife of the above Robert Becher who departed this life January 13th 1868 aged 75 years.'
3. JOHN BECHER was born 21st August 1795 and in 1822 was described as a Free Mariner and in 1824 as of Balasore Salt Department and in 1827 as a Free Mariner of Balasore. He married Mary Ann Lefevre on 14th September 1819 at the Old Church, St Pancras, London. She was born about 1804 at St Pancras and died 1879 at Brighton.
It is worth noting here that sea voyages to and from India were long and often arduous and sometimes dangerous so the good reputation of a ship’s captains was paramount. In 1828 the passengers of the ship Roberts were so grateful for their safe passage from India that they wrote a public letter to Captain Corbyn. Mary Ann Becher wrote and signed the letter on their behalf which also carried the signatures of the many other passengers.
1st July 1828
Dear Sir- We the undersigned passengers from India on the ship Robarts, July 1, 1828. Roberts, under your command, are anxious, before we separate, to assure you of the satisfaction we have derived, during a voyage unusually protracted by light and contrary winds, from the excellence of the ship, and our just confidence in your care and judgement as a seaman.
We are also sensible of the liberality, kindness and attention paid by you to our comforts and the uniform care that you have manifested towards the children on board, (twenty-six in number) all of whom have arrived in perfect health; and we beg leave to express the united good wishes for your health and future prosperity, with which we subscribe ourselves, dear Sir, your truly sincere friends,
M.A. Becher,
John Becher (and many others)
A notice in the London Gazette of 13th March 1840 shows that he was imprisoned at Winchester Gaol and in a further notice was summoned to appear at ten o'clock of the forenoon on 10th April 1840 at the Court House at Winchester in the County of Southampton, the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors. The notice lists in sequence his current and previous addresses: Upper Baker Street, New Road, London afterwards of Charles Street, Manchester Square, London; afterwards of Brussels, Belgium; and late of Alverstoke in the county of Southampton. The notice also states he was 'of no trade or profession.'
In the 1841 Census she is head of the family living at Kingston Cross, Portsea Island, Hampshire with five daughters and one son. By 1851 she was a widow and an Annuitant living at 5 Drayton Grove, Kensington, London with her daughters Louisa Elizabeth Becher and Helen A.B. Becher and her niece Harriet E. F. Scott.
According to The Hampshire Telegraph of 19th June 1843: 'At Singapore on the 16th of March last, John Becher of Kingston Cross, near Portsmouth, aged 48 years'.
John Becher and Mary Ann had eleven children:
1. Ann Beauchamp Becher who was born 1st May 1818 and baptized 20th March 1827 at Cuttack. Nothing further is known about her.
2. Mary Catherine Becher born 21st May 1821 at the house of her uncle Charles Grant Becher at Juggernauth, India, and baptized 24th December1821 at Calcutta. In 1841 she is living with her mother at Portsea Island. She died 5th March 1857 at 5 Drayton Place, Brompton, London.
3. John Henry Yarnall Becher was born in 1822 and baptized 13th May 1822 at Calcutta the twin of Richard Edward Becher. He died 24th July 1823.
4. Richard Edmund Becher was born in 1822 and baptized with his twin brother John Henry Yarnall Becher. He died 20th July 1823.
5. John Becher was born about 1824 and baptized 1st June 1824 at Howrah. He was an Indigo Planter and Writer in the Military Department in Bengal. He married Frances Jane Elizabeth Smith, née Bellew, 10th March 1846 at St John's Cathedral, Calcutta. She was the widow of James Smith and daughter of Frances Dillon Bellow and Ann Foster Green. He died 3rd June 1849 aged 25 and was buried at the Protestant Burial Ground, Calcutta the next day. His wife later married Henry Nugent Snell 7th August 1851 at Calcutta. John and Frances had one child: Lydia Annie Osborne Becher born 1st October 1847 at Krishnagur and baptised 9th April 1848 at Calcutta though nothing else is known about her.
6. Louisa Elizabeth was born 9th September 1826 and baptised 20th March 1827 at Balasore, India. In the 1841 and 1851 Censuses she is living with her mother at Portsea Island. She married her cousin William Augustus Becher on 23rd April 1853 at St Mary’s, Brompton. She is in the 1861 Census as 'Bucker' with her husband as a Fundholder living at Woodbridge Road, Stoke-next-Guildford, Surrey with daughters Emily and Augusta, son William Augustus, daughter Helen A.B., Harriet E.F. Scott (niece) and Mary A. Becher, mother-in-law. He died on 10th March 1879 at 26 Park Crescent, Brighton and his wife died three days later.
7. Lydia Emily Becher was born 11th September 1828 at Boulogne, France and died 1840 at Portsea.
8. Robert Augustus Becher was born about 1830 and baptized 17th November 1830 at the British Chapel, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France. In 1841 he was living with his mother and younger siblings at home. At some point he went out to India where by 1856 he was the Manager of Colonel Smyth's Coffee Estate at Mananthavady, Kerala which had opened only two years earlier. He married Adelaide Sladen, the daughter of John James Denton, on 15th December 1858 at Madras where he died on 21st May 1861. After his death she returned to England where she married Charles John Plumptre, a widower, at St Paul's, Camden Square, London.
9. Helen (or Ellen) Anne Beauchamp Becher was born 1832 in France. She married Robert Brudenell Carter FRCS on 3rd January 1852 at St Mary's, West Brompton. He was an ophthalmic surgeon of Leytonstone, born 1828 in Berkshire, the son of Major John Robert Blackall Graham Carter and Miss Jeffreys. His mother died soon after his birth and he came into the care of Robert Brudenell, 6th Earl of Cardigan, and it was he who selected the name Brudenell. He died in October 1918 and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery, London. She died 25th July 1880 in London. There were seven children.
10. Emma Becher was born at Brussels, Belgium in 1837 and she went to a school at 21 Gloucester Place, Brighton. In 1861 she was staying at Park Row, Nottingham, the home of her sister Ellen Ann Carter (née Becher) and brother-in-law Robert Brudenell Carter and Elizabeth Becher, her cousin, the daughter of George Becher. In the 1901 Census she was staying with her niece, Augusta Becher, at 36 Warwick Road, Earl's Court, London. By the 1911 Census she was living at Westwick Gardens, West Kensington Park, Hammersmith and her cousin, Phyllis Hay, the daughter of Mary Louisa Sage (née Becher) and Mountiford Henry Hay. Emma Becher died 24th August 1911 at Fulham, London.
11. Caroline Rachel Becher, born 1840 in Alverstoke, Hants and baptised 8th May 1840 at St Mary’s, Portsea. She died 17th February 1843 at Kingston Cross, near Portsmouth.
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4. CHARLES BECHER was born on 21st November 1796 and baptised 8th February at Calcutta as the 'natural son' of his brother. He was mentioned in the Will of his brother written in 1825 as being of Cuttack. He is presumed to have died before 1830 as he is not mentioned in his father's Will of that year.
5. THOMAS BECHER was born c.1803 and baptised 29th April 1803 at Berhampore, Bengal. He was buried 15th August 1824 at Gora Kabar Cemetery, Cuttack.