Beesleys of Goosnargh

Hi Bruce, nice to meet you I too am a Beesley, I am also researching George at this moment in time!  Are you a member of Ancestry?

Hi Susan, thank you for writing. Yes, I have an Ancestry account. I would love to share information. I have a great deal of information about Beesleys in 1500s and 1600s Goosnargh, Woodplumpton, Garstang, Bleasdale, and surrounding areas. One question I've been struggling with maybe you can help me solve: George Beesley the martyr is said to be the son of Ellen Middleton and George Beesley and to have been born in 1562. I've just found the will of her grandmother, Dame Mary Tunstall, though, from 1578 when it appears Ellen her granddaughter was not yet married. Also I have recusancy records that indicate Ellen died in 1649/50, which seems far too late if she had children in the 1560s. 

I believe I am descended from Robert Beasley, who emigrated from Lancashire to Carolina colony in America in the 1670s. I suspect he's the Robert born in Goosnargh in 1644, son of Thomas and Marjorie Woller Beesley, but I haven't been able to prove that yet. Send me any questions you'd like and if I have found answers I'm happy to share them. Bruce

Hi Bruce

I have a Robert Beasley on my tree born in 1611 and died 1 Apr 1693 Albemarle, Stanly, North Carolina, United States.

His father is George Beesley born 1586 at Goosnargh and his mother is Annie Middleton born 1590.  Could this be the Robert you refer to?

I am finding it very confusing as other people's trees are often not accurate and it can throw your whole tree out as I have discovered!  

With regard to George the Martyr I have his father as George Beesley B1530, I can't work out who his mother is.  His grandparents are Richard H Beesley B1500 and mother is Jane B1502.  Great grandparents are George Beesley B1475 and Alice Ireland B1470.

Of course all or some of that information could be incorrect!

Sue Beesley

I'm also a Beesley descendent, although the spelling had changed to Beasley by 1770. Spellings were flexible!

According to family tradition, the Beesleys were descended from Harry Hotspur but that's where I'm stuck as there are two Georges, both of about the same period, either or whom might or might not have married Alice Ireland. One was the son of George, 2nd Earl of Kent by his second wife, Catherine Herbert. The other was the son of Ralph Percy and Eleanor Acton.

A tradition is that the family had a castle with a carving of a bloodstained hand over the gate and that when the bloodstain disappeared, the castle would revert to us.