Monday, November 14, 2016

The Family of James Boam 1679-1753

ADDENDUM
Unfortunately after completng this layout it appears that this is not my branch of the family. It was thought that my branch descended from James 1783 who married Ann Herdsfield - and then down through his son James, however James 1783 son James died as a child so this can not be the case.



Heres my third page for the book Im producing on the branch of my family who lived in Winster, although with this instalment the family is still yet to reach Winster, This covers the family of James Boam and his wife Grace nee Fern who were from Bakewell.  It is with James son that the family finally makes the move to Winster.
Almost nothing is known of James Boam, son of Henry Boam and Joane Plant, who was baptised at Bakewell All Saints Church on 21 Dec 1679. Unlike his brothers Hugh and Francis, James remained for his life in Bakewell.
On 28 January 1707 he married Grace Fern, also of Bakewell and they had 8 children, that we are aware of over the next 18 years.
Again little is known about these children except for their baptism, marriage and death  records. The last 4 of James children died as children or infants , the second child Ann, died without marrying aged 30 before both her parents, and Grace born 1711 was widowed not long after she married. I have no information on what happened to her after her husbands death. Only the two sons John and James survived their parents and had children themselves. 
All the children were baptised at All Saints Church in Bakewell. The church in Bakewell had been in existence for hundreds of years before the Boam family baptised their children there.  The church dates from Saxon times with additions throughout the next 800 years.
.In the early 18th century there was an attempt to attract people to Bakewell with the building of a Bath house. Nearby Buxton had a thriving economy which was assisted by travellers visiting the warm spring . James Boam would have seen the building of the Bath House, however which was built in 1697 by the Duke of Rutland  However, at 15°C, Bakewell’s spring was much colder than Buxton and the venture was not a success.
As stated almost nothing is known of the day to day  lives of the Boam Family at this time and we do not know what industry James Boam was involved in, however his younger brothers Francis and Samuel had moved their families to Winster by the mid 18th century so it is possible the family were involved in the lead mining industry.
Lead Mining along with wool, had been  one of the largest earners for the wealthy of the Derbyshire Peak District from as early as the 13th century. The surname Fern, that of James’ Wife Grace is associated with the Mining industry in nearby Bonsall. By the middle of the 18th century though, Lead Mining in the Bakewell region was in decline, and the Manners family who lived at Haddon Hall had moved to their Leicestershire Estate and this vastly impacted the economy of the region as their estate was a large employer of the local population.
This could account for why more members of the Boam family seemed to make the move to the Winster area.
James and Grace however seemed to stay in the Bakewell area, James death is listed as March 1753 and he was buried on the 7th of March in that year, at All Saints Bakewell, 8 years after his wife Grace had died in April 1845 and was buried on 28th April 1845.

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