Last updated 23/01/2010
Yorkshire
sits astride the line that broadly divides the Beadnall/Bednalls of
Northumberland and the North of England from the Badnall/Bednalls of the
Midlands and South of England and the county contains groups of families from
both principal sources (see
distribution). However, to complicate matters, in Yorkshire families
from the two sources are intermingled even though the majority of the Badnall/Bednalls
are or, until the 20th century, were clustered in South Yorkshire.
This family file concerns only those Bednalls of South Yorkshire whose origins can be traced to a Staffordshire origin, other Family Files will deal with Yorkshire Beadnell/Bednall families whose origins can be traced to a Northumberland origin.
"The Bednalls of South Yorkshire" family tree
has been constructed with the aid of our Yorkshire cousins and chiefly
concerns the descendants
of four brothers, Isaac, Alfred, Jacob and Joseph Bednall, all either
miners or iron workers, who settled in or near Altofts, Yorkshire in the 1860-1870
period. Their parents were Joseph and Hannah Bednall
of Ilkeston in Derbyshire and until the early 1860s they all lived and
worked in Ilkeston . In July 1863 miners agents acting for owners of mines in
the Altofts/Normanton coal-field visited Ilkeston to recruit strike breakers and
it has been suggested that the Bednall brothers were amongst those recruited.
If this was so, then only Alfred (who moved to Yorkshire sometime between
1862 and 1865) and possibly Isaac accepted the agent’s terms. However, the
Census Returns for 1871 indicate that their brothers Jacob and Joseph moved to Yorkshire later
i.e. sometime between 1866 and 1869.
Isaac, Jacob and Joseph settled in Altofts and their brother Alfred and his family in Normanton and it is mainly to their families that most of present day South Yorkshire Bednalls trace their origins in the county. Their are, however, other sources one at least of which can be traced back to a John Bednal, a distant cousin of Isaac and his brothers, who moved to Sheffield from Manchester.
John Bednal was the son of Thomas Bednall, a Manchester shoemaker and his wife Hannah nee Morton. Thomas was a Staffordshire born man who had moved from Hanbury to Manchester in the 1820s. John (born about 1829) also became a leather worker moving to Sheffield as a journeyman sometime prior to 1851. By 1861 he was married and working on his own account as a manufacturer and in 1881 was described as a "Hardware manufacturer employing 1 man, 1 boy and 1 girl". Examples of his products are given in the "Artefacts" section of the Bednall Collection listed on this site. No direct descendants of John & Ann Bednall have, so far, been identified and it may be that they had no children. NB John's "Family File" will be added later
The direct paternal line of the Bednalls of South Yorkshire can be traced back through Joseph Bednall or Badnall who married Elizabeth Grundy at Dale Abbey, Derbyshire in 1773 and William Badnall of Hanbury and Uttoxeter to the Badnalls of Walford, Standon in Staffordshire, but further research is needed to provide additional, confirmatory evidence to support this. For instance, while the line back to Joseph Bednall and Elizabeth Grundy is supported by documentary evidence, only circumstantial evidence is available on the latter Joseph's place of birth and parentage and further, documentary proof, is needed. There is a similar problem with Joseph's great grandfather -William Badnall of Hanbury and Uttoxeter. He has been linked to the Badnalls of Walford, Standon in Staffordshire on the basis of circumstantial evidence, e.g. close family ties between the Villiers family who were Lords of the Rectory Manor of Hanbury, Staffordshire and the Vyse family of Standon, Staffordshire who were the Badnalls' close neighbours and related to them through the Broughton family. The facts are (1) that in 1665, William Badnall of Hanbury witnessed the will of Edward Villiers of Hanbury, whose daughter Elizabeth was the wife of Andrew Vyse son of Humphrey Vyse of Standon; (2) that Humphrey Vyse was the executor of his cousin's (Thomas Broughton's) will under which he was charged with looking after the inheritance of of Broughton's daughter Clare, wife of Thomas Badnall of Standon, one of whose sons seems most likely to have been the man of the same name who lived in Hanbury and Uttoxeter, Staffordshire between 1660 and 1700.
The Broughton tree in particular is questionable even though based on one accepted by the College of Arms in the 18th century. Please note too, that we may have more information on particular individuals than is given on this site and will provide what we can in answer to a request.
©AWBednall, Macclesfield 1991-2010