Dorothy Beeston

[Paulo Ricardo Canedo]

Four years ago, I posted a thread about Henry Gregory in which his supposed grandmother Dorothy Beeston was discussed. In the mean time, her Wikitree profile, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Beeston-5, has made a very good argument that she probably never existed. What do you think of it?

[Johnny Brananas]

On Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 3:29:55 PM UTC-4, Paulo Ricardo Canedo wrote:
> Four years ago, I posted a thread about Henry Gregory in which his supposed grandmother Dorothy Beeston was discussed. In the mean time, her Wikitree profile, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Beeston-5, has made a very good argument that she probably never existed. What do you think of it?

"... his son Thomas Gregory, a small farmer and grazier of Broughton Sulney, Nottinghamshire, whose wife Dorothy came from Beeston; and their son John Gregory of Broughton Sulney ..."

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Priory_Demesne_to_University_Campus/qYFnAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22whose+wife+Dorothy+came+from+Beeston%22&dq=%22whose+wife+Dorothy+came+from+Beeston%22&printsec=frontcover

"Dorothy CAME from Beeston," which is a local village in the vicinity of Lenton and Chilwell, near Nottingham (city), and not too far from Broughton Sulney.

[Paulo Ricardo Canedo]

The Wikitree analysis says:
"It shoud be noted that there were Beeston families in the Nottingham area at the time (see map), so it would be possible for Thomas Gregory to have married a Beeston woman from the local region. But for her to also have the given name Dorothy seems a bit unlikely. Occam's razor would lead us to the conclusion that the first Dorothy was adopted by George Gregory to help support his claimed Highhurst descent, but she turned out to be probematic, so the second Dorothy was a probably a face-saving Plan B.".

[Johnny Brananas]

I'm not sure about any of that. I read the source I quoted as indicating she was Dorothy ____ from Beeston in Nottinghamshire, a known place near Broughton Sulney. She could be Dorothy Smith from Beeston or Dorothy Rogers from Beeston, etc.

[Paulo Ricardo Canedo]

That book is from 1993. The 1662 and 1677 visitations make her Dorothy Beeston.

[Will Johnson]

Would you post a link to these 1662 and 1677 visitations

[Will Johnson]

Meanwhile I note an attempt to make this Dorothy (Beeston) Gregory (if she existed at all), into the daughter of
George /Beeston/ of Beeston, Cheshire; Knt by Alice /Davenport/

which she certainly was not.

This person, who was actually called Dorothy Beeston m
John /Coplestone/ of Eggesford or Eggford, co Devon
"aged 30 and more" 28 Eliz (1585-6)

and when he died, there was left a Sole heiress "aged 18" 1606 named Anne

[Paulo Ricardo Canedo]

The Wikitree profile has pictures of the relevant parts of both.

[Paulo Ricardo Canedo]

The Wikitree profile mentioned that.

[Johnny Brananas]

The 1993 book cites a pedigree in the Major Lawson Lowe MS. collection. This could well be a critical pedigree contradicting the status-climbing 1662 and 1677 visitations, which were definitely prepared after the family had had begun their social ascent and aspirations. Hence "Dorothy FROM Beeston [Notts]" becomes Dorothy Beeston, daughter of Sir George Beeston from Cheshire.

[djame...@aol.com]

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Comments on A.E. Lawson Lowe's Manuscript and Dorothy Beeston's Name

The manuscript that was in the possession of A. E. Lawson Lowe was written by himself in about 1871 for his _History of Nottinghamshire_ which unfortunately was never published. Lt. Col. Lowe died at age 39 in 1888, cutting short his life and any opportunity he might have had to complete his history. Mr Lowe was born in 1849 in the town of Beeston in Broxtowe Hundred, Nottinghamshire. The first part of his history was the "History of Broxtow Hundred" and included his Gregory Pedigree. It was completed by 1871 as a prepublication print, but does not now seem to exist. His Gregory Pedigree manuscript was later published in 1884 in the book _History of the Parish and Priory of Lenton, Nottinghamshire_ by J.T. Godfrey. The book is available at internet archive and google books, but the Gregory Pedigree is unreadable in those copies. There is a nice copy available at HATHI Trust for free download:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=dul1.ark:/13960/t1vf3k319&view=1up&seq=57&skin=2021

Thus we do have a preserved copy of Lowe's manuscript Gregory Pedigree. This pedigree is based on George Gregory's 1677 pedigree as a starting point and carries it forward for another 200 years based on information from the Lenton Parish Registers. It does not predate George Gregory's pedigree and it does not disagree with his 1677 pedigree at any point. It extends it nicely with biographical information from the parish registers and provides the names of all of the children in the main Gregory line based on the parish registers.

Following George Gregory, Lowe refers to Dorothy Beeston as "Dorothy, dau. of _______ Beeston". In other words, her name is "Dorothy Beeston" in Lowe's pedigree. Unfortunately, Henry Gregory was born just a bit too early, say 1590, to occur in the parish registers, so there is no new information on Henry in Lowe's pedigree.

I wouldn't read too much in to F.A. Barnes writing in 1993 that "Dorothy came from Beeston". He only makes the statement in passing based on Lowe's pedigree -- and we have that -- she is given there as "Dorothy Beeston". Barnes was clearly not trying to make a claim one way or another about Dorothy's name.

In other words, we are back where we started: our only evidence that might be considered "primary source" is the two pedigrees drawn up by George Gregory over 100 years after Dorothy Beeston lived. They were drawn up with the express purpose of proving his right to bear the arms of Gregory of Highhurst, so they need to be judged in that light -- i.e., they should not be considered the last word in historical accuracy. William Dugdale did not accept his Gregory of Highhurst descent for the 1662-64 Visitation and granted arms derived from Kyme of Stockswold (on his mother's side). By 1677, George Gregory had cleaned up his pedigree to Thoroton's satisfaction and it was printed in Thoroton's book. Since Thoroton was a highly-regarded colleague of Dugdale and corresponded frequently with him, it is likely that Dugdale would have accepted the later pedigree had he considered it. All of this evidence is discussed in the Wikitree article here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Beeston-5
___________________________

References to A.E. Lawson Lowe's _History of Nottinghamshire_:
Announcement of his _History of Nottinghamshire_, The Reliquary, Vol 11, p 127:
https://books.google.com/books?id=lkcEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=%22history+of+nottinghamshire%22+%22lawson+lowe%22+reliquary&source=bl&ots=z6z3CVwWxR&sig=ACfU3U3OnUCJhi4lRGOzsBMksgpuE92ZSw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwighfLL_a7zAhWlElkFHfbeAT0Q6AF6BAgDEAM#v=onepage&q=%22history%20of%20nottinghamshire%22%20%22lawson%20lowe%22%20reliquary&f=false

Anouncement of his _History of Hundred of Broxtow_, The Reliquary, Vol 12, p 59:
https://books.google.com/books?id=25c1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA59&dq=lawson+lowe+history+nottinghamshire+reliquary&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwid6Krd1q7zAhVECM0KHbWtB04Q6AF6BAgJEAI#v=onepage&q=lawson%20lowe%20history%20nottinghamshire%20reliquary&f=false

[Paulo Ricardo Canedo]

Thank you for posting this after I contacted you. I agree this sup
posed Dorothy was probably not a woman with a different surname from Beeston. However, I'm not sure the connection is entirely false. Sir George Beeston had a namesake uncle. Could this Dorothy have been his daughter? Also, do you think the Gregorys od Nottinghamshire were descended from the Gregorys of Highhurst at all?