Beards Of Essex

I have found the Probate Search useful because it gives exact dates of death, names beneficiaries, details of profession and abode, and hints about wider relationships and their geographical extent. For example we not only know that Hugh Beard of Witham died on 12 August 1916, but we have his address as The Retreat (which still exists), we know that his wife Charlotte survived him, and that he was a First Class Petty Officer in the Royal Navy.

But of course there is one other detail: value of the effects that they left.

There were 75 individuals from (or with close relations in) Essex named Beard whose will went to probate between 1859 and 1929. The one who left the most was Edwin Beard of Colchester, who in 1897 left effects worth £4.04M at todays prices (according the Bank of England historical inflation calculator). This outstripped the paltry £2.06M left by his father Benjamin in 1878. Both were ironmongers in the town, and evidently successfully so.

In fact the Beard families of Colchester, Coggeshall and Colne Engaine – which are closely related and worked primarily in ironmongery and brewing – account for some £14.3M of the £20.3M left in probate over that 60 year period, with the Beards of Saffron Walden and Berden – again related with a focus on grocery – coming in second with £1.73M. Of course this takes no account of wills which did not go to probate, and adding up wealth which passed from one individual to another within the same family creates undoubtedly skews the true level of extant wealth. But there does appear to be a notable divide between north and south Essex at the turn of the 19th century in terms of family means. This is striking, as in the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a concentration of wealth (according to wills) around mid and west Essex. Where did that go?