David Beckham is one of the world's leading footballers, earning millions of pounds each year living a lifestyle most of us can only dream of in Los Angeles. However, his rise to superstardom is literally a rags to riches story; a century before his birth, his direct Beckham ancestors worked as carmen, labourers and rag and bone men in South London.
History of the Beckham surname
The surname Beckham is relatively unusual, and it is derived from a place in Norfolk. It is formed from two old-English words, Beocca - a personal name - and Ham meaning settlement. Who Beocca was, and when he lived, are now lost in the mists of time, but his territory was centred in East Anglia, and specifically in the northern parts of Norfolk. 'Beccheham' can be found in 1086 recorded in the Domesday Book, but at some point over the next three hundred years the township split into East and West Beckham.
Who is David related to?
It has been suggested that all Beckhams originally descended from Sir Roger de Narford, a favourite of King Edward III who was granted the manors of East and West Beckham in the fourteenth century and changed his name accordingly. Thereafter most of the Beckhams remained in Norfolk, but according to Tom Beckham, a researcher who's been tracing the surname for many years, one branch of the family drifted to south London during the eighteenth century.
However, The National Archives, Kew, contains a will for one John Beckham who died in South London in 1715. This John Beckham appeared to have been born overseas - probably in the Netherlands, since the will had been translated from Dutch - and had operated as a trader, amassing a large quantity of Russian bullion. Property in London was left to his sons, John and Robert, and it is not out of the question that the London Beckhams are descended from these Dutch settlers.
Skeletons in the cupboard
There was a more sinister branch of the Beckham family living in Ireland. In 1862, Thomas Beckham - a man 'devoted to a life of crime' - was found guilty of murder and condemned to death. According to trial transcripts and newspaper reports of the day, Beckham was nonchalant about his fate; 'when the deed was done, the unconcern of the guilty man was something barbarous'.
His notoriety was such that over 7,000 people attended his public execution in Limerick county gaol, and even as his end his end approached, he displayed typical Beckham showmanship - 'nothing could equal the nerve and firmness with which he trod on the fatal trap, never flinching for a moment.'
How to trace a surname
There is no direct link with David's family, who were probably oblivious to the events taking place across the Irish Sea. At the time of the execution, they were happily living and working as labourers in South London; David's great-great-great grandfather John Beckham was a boy of sixteen, who grew up to marry Sarah Chandler in 1868.
By tracking the family through the birth, marriage and death indexes on Ancestry.co.uk and using the certificates found at the Family Records Centre in Islington, it can be uncovered from matching the addresses on these certificates with census returns from the late nineteenth century, an incredibly detailed picture of a working class family moving around London to find employment in a range of manual trades can be revealed.
These techniques can be employed by anyone who wants to investigate their distant ancestors. Take out a 14 day free trial to
Ancestry.co.uk and see what you can uncover.
