Person:Rebecca Turnham (1)

Rebecca Turnham was baptised on 17th June 1781 at Totternhoe in Bedfordshire, daughter of Mary Turnham, formerly Purton, and her husband Thomas Turnham. Rebecca was the seventh of ten children, and appears to have been named after one of her older siblings who had died aged eight a couple of years earlier.

On 14th October 1802, aged 21, Rebecca married a labourer named George Kempson. They stayed in Totternhoe, having thirteen children baptised there between 1804 and 1824, of whom ten were boys. Rebecca's eldest child was a boy named Thomas, baptised in January 1804. He was presumably named after Rebecca's father, who died later that year.

Rebecca's eldest daughter Lydia died in 1817, aged ten.

Rebecca's eldest son Thomas was the first of her children to marry, in 1827, and Rebecca's first known grandchild was born later that year. Rebecca appears to have lived to see four grandchildren born in her lifetime, although the first died at the age of one in 1828. Her eldest son Thomas died in 1830, aged about 27.

Rebecca died aged 52 and was buried at Totternhoe on 30th December 1833. George survived her by nearly twenty years, and married again about eighteen months after her death.

1. ↑ Church of England. Parish Church of Totternhoe. Parish register transcripts, 1559-1812.

   Baptisms
   17 Jun 1781: 'Beck' d Thos & Mary Turnham

   Whilst no named connection has been found, this baptism has been linked to the Rebecca Turner who married George Kempson on the basis that it matches the age given when Rebecca died and is in the same parish in which she married and had her children. Rebecca and George also named their first son Thomas, presumably after Rebecca's father. Whilst the name on the baptism is given as Turnham and on the marriage it is Turner it is clear from her siblings that the family's named was given variously as Turnham, Turnam, Turner and Turnum. Rebecca herself was illiterate, marking the marriage register, but her father Thomas had signed when he married 1770, so we use his spelling of the name - Turnham. Moreover, there is no evidence of the 'Beck' baptised in 1781 having married someone else or being buried at Totternhoe.

2. ↑ Burials register, in Church of England. Parish Church of Totternhoe. Parish registers of Totternhoe, 1559-1812. (Bedford: Bedfordshire County Record Office, 1982).

   BURIALS in the Parish of Totternhoe in the County of Bedford in the Year 1833
   No. 190
   Name: Rebecca Kempson
   Abode: Totternhoe
   When Buried: Dec[embe]r 30
   Age: 52 y[ea]rs [1780/1]
   By Whom the Ceremony was performed: W.B. Wroth, Vicar

3. ↑ See marriage.