Reference
ST486-763
Title
Carter Mitchell Family Estates
Date free text
1463-1870
Production date
From: 1463 To: 1870
Admin/biog history
The Carter family appear in the 1634 heraldic Visitation of Bedfordshire as of Kempston, where William Carter of Bromham, yeoman (died 1569) had bought the “manor” of Oakes Farm in 1546. He appears to have obtained a second estate at Great Barford, “Willoughbyes”, on his marriage with Elizabeth Cranfield of Great Barford. Their descendants did not add much to the property in the next 150 years. From the parish registers and these documents it would seem that the eldest son lived at Barford until he could succeed his father at Kempston.
Presumably William Carter (died 1729) had an interest in Turvey through his marriage in 1697 with Elizabeth daughter of William Boddington of Turvey, for both he and his family lived there, and they are all mentioned in the diary of the Reverend Benjamin Rogers of Carlton (B.H.R.S.xxx).
The last male Carter in the direct line was Thomas, the only son of this William and Elizabeth, who died of smallpox in 1731, when the estates were divided between his four sisters. These were Temperance wife of Thomas Wade of Clipsham, Mary wife of Richard Bell of Bedford (whose only child Mary married William Gery of Bushmead), Anne wife of John Peers of Astwood, and Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Skevington of Newton Blossomville, Buckinghamshire, gentleman.
The Skevington family already owned considerable property in Clifton Reynes and Newton Blossomville, Buckinghamshire, and the descendants of Thomas and Elizabeth Skevington eventually bought up the shares of the other sisters in the Kempston property, and are the main line of descent in this collection.
Of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth Skevington a son Thomas married Christian Williamson, and from them were descended through Sarah Ann Kidman the Carter Mitchells. [see pedigree and also DDM and DDX254]
The Oakes farm or “manor” at Kempston was in Box End.
The Buckinghamshire Skevington documents show a large number of people from Newport Pagnell migrating to London, and also the early predominance of that town in the lace trade from the mention of lace merchants. (John Matthew of Newport Pagnell, lace merchant in 1693 ST600).
Thomas Kidman, husband of Elizabeth Christian Skevington, himself a lawyer, acquired property in Tempsford and Kempston, and also in Caldwell Street, Bedford St Mary. Kidman’s Insurance policies show that a woman, Mary Partridge, was agent to the Royal Exchange Company in Bedford in 1815 (ST743).
Reference
Level of description
sub-fonds