Wrixon-Becher baronets - looking for heirs

[Mark Jennings]

On 19 September 2020 Colin P. wrote:

>WRIXON-BECHER (UK 1831) - this baronetcy is stated to become dormant or extinct on the death of the present baronet.  The heirs now changed from None to Unknown.  

>There are other issue of the 1st Bt not mentioned in the Peerage books – also the 2nd and 4th sons of the 3rd Bt may have married and left male issue

The current (6th) Baronet was born in 1950, and is unmarried; he was an only son, and his father, the 5th Baronet, was an only son.  According no other descendants of the 4th Baronet are in line to the title.  The 2st Baronet is said to have had "other issue" not mentioned in Burke's etc, but this could mean children who died in early infancy; I have not found any record of children born to the 1st Baronet other than those named in the directories.  The 2nd Baronet died without issue, leading to the succession of his brother the 3rd Baronet (Sir John Wrixon-Becher 1826-1914), whose eldest son Sir Eustace was the 4th Baronet - there were also two sons (Henry, unmarried, and Charles, drowned as a boy) who left no issue in remainder to the title, and two sons alluded to by Colin P. whose lives are not outlined in the reference sources.  These are:

2. Edgar Wrixon Becher, born 12 October 1862 - he joined the crew of the 'Prince Amadeo' at Cardiff on 8 March 1880, and deserted at San Francisco on 12 January 1881, enlisting in the US Navy that same month.  By 1911 he was back in Ireland, unmarried, living with the Sharkey family, farmers of Hunterstown, County Louth, and working as a farm labourer - quite a fall in circumstances for a man whose father left effects valued for probate purposes at £11,299 9s three years later!  In 1915 he visited the United States again [perhaps he had inherited some money], traveling back (3rd class) in December on the RMS Baltic - he was then said to be a retired seaman, living at 127 Old George Street, Cork.  He was probably the Edgar Becher who died at Cardiff in 1929, aged 67.  It would seem unlikely that he married and fathered children after 1911.

4. Arthur Nicholas Wrixon Becher, born 3 August 1868, said to have died in the United States.  He was at school at Cheam in 1881, and next appears on the record in 1904, when he arrived in New York from Liverpool, and was already stated to be a US citizen.  On 17 April 1915 he joined the RMS Lusitania on what was to be her final journey to New York, travelling 2nd class and stated to be a druggist by trade, a widower, and resident of Oakland (sic).  I have found no subsequent record of him, nor any other trace of his life in the US (an online tree equates him with the Nicholas Becher who died in New York state in 1950, but I am unaware of anything confirming that this was the same man).

If any heir to the baronetcy is to be found, then the key will doubtless be tracing A. N. Wrixon Becher's activities in the United States.

[dpth...@gmail.com]

Just want to say that these are excellent, interesting and informative posts. Thanks!

[Mark Jennings]

You are very welcome indeed!