The Badcocks of Harston

The Badcocks arrived in Harston sometime between 1871 and 1881. The family consisted of Richman and Harriet Badcock and their children. They were quite prominent and active in the community, but by 1950 they had all left Harston, or died.

Badcocks in Harston family tree (Mike Mellor)

There is a more detailed family tree to be found here Badcock-Family-Tree-amended.pdf

Here is a summary of the life of Richman Badcock:       

 Year              Profession                                                                                           Source

1846    Apprentice Cordwainer                                          Cottenham PC record, apprenticed to his brother Thomas

1851    Servant Shoemaker                                                Census, Living in Brother’s home at Milton

1854    Shoemaker                                                              Marriage to Harriet Wilson at Milton

1856    Shoemaker                                                              Birth of John Richman Badcock at Milton (d. 1861)

1861    Labourer (PB)                                                         Birth of Harry Badcock at Milton (d. 1861) – PB may be Publican

1870    Forman Coprolite Works                                       Birth of Agnes Ann Badcock at Orwell

1871    Publican                                                                 (Richard) Birth of Harry Wilson Badcock at Whaddon

1871    Publican (The Home)                                           Whaddon Census

1881    Coprolite Merchant                                              Harston Census

1891    Farmer                                                                   Harston Census

1897    Farmer and Coprolite Works Manager             Death Certificate

1897    Farmer                                                                    Probate of his Will (which he had signed with a cross)

A Cordwainer was a leather worker, possibly a shoemaker. He is erroneously shown as Richard and Richmond.

His Death Certificate (29/5/1897) has Richmond Badcock. But 2 days later, Richmond is corrected to Richman.

The Census for 1881 shows the address of the Badcocks as Station Road, Harston, except for William who is a boarder at Cambridge. By 1891 they have moved to Bath Cottage.

John Richman Badcock b.1830 at Cottenham, m. Harriet Wilson 1854 at Milton, d.1897, aged 66.

Harriet Wilson b.1834 at Milton, d.1898, aged 63. She was the sister of Mary Anne Wilson who was married to Richman’s brother, Thomas Badcock, also a shoemaker at the time.

Grandpa Richman Badcock (Mike Mellor)

Grandma Harriet Badcock (Mike Mellor)

Richman & Harriet’s grave (Mike Mellor)

They are buried in Harston Churchyard

Although he was apparently illiterate, he seems to have lived a highly productive life. The gross value of his estate was £1358 9 shillings, left to Harriet. In her Will, she leaves two properties on Ely Road, Landbeach to her daughters Louisa and Agnes.

Sarah Wilson Badcock b. 1855 at Milton, m. Charles Hills 1874 at Whaddon. In 1901, she is a widow, living as a housekeeper in Mill Rd, Cambridge. In 1921 she was in Fulbourne mental hospital. She had 3 daughters and one son.

Her daughter, Ada Hills, born in Melbourn, lived at Bath Cottage in 1891, she is a ‘teacher at Board School’ although only 15. The Harston Board school minutes recorded on 14 Jan 1890 ‘Ada Hills to be appointed mistress’ and on 12 Jun 1894 ‘Ada Hills to resign’.

William Badcock b. 1858 at Milton, m. Sarah Wright 1887 at Baptist Chapel, Harston, d. 1889 at the County Lunatic Asylum, Fulbourn, aged 31, buried in Harston graveyard, though there does not seem to be any grave bearing his name. The asylum records show that his body was ‘removed by relatives, no charge’.

In 1887 when he married, he was living at Harston. In 1888 when daughter Ethel Adelaide was born, they had moved to Thornton, Bradford, Yorks, where he was a railway porter.

From the records of the County Lunatic Asylum, Fulbourn, he was admitted on 4/5/1889, from Foxton (where his wife’s family lived). His disorder was ‘mania’ caused by ‘sunstroke when out in India’.

According to his death certificate he died on 9/11/1889 of ‘General Paralysis of the Insane’, which was the archaic term for the final stage of syphilis. His daughter’s marriage certificate in 1909 gives his profession as Private Grenadier Guards. A rough family tree by Grace Bowd (Matilda’s daughter) says that he died in India of sunstroke. This story was no doubt to hide the fact that he had died in a lunatic asylum of a shameful disease.

Richman was very fond of his niece, Ethel and her 3 boys.

Matilda Badcock (Mike Mellor)

Matilda Badcock b. 1862 at Milton, m. Charles Bowd 27/10/1885 at Harston, d. 1925, aged 62. She lived at Manor Farm Shepreth, where her husband James was the farmer. Their daughter, Grace lived at Bath Cottage, Harston for a time since there is a postcard addressed to her there. She lived in Eastbourne before returning to nurse her ageing father.

Grace Bowd (Mike Mellor)

John Richman Badcock b. 1865 at Milton, m. Elizabeth Hubbard 1908 at Nuneaton, d. 1950, aged 85 – Village Baker. He was always known as Richman, or more familiarly as Dick.

Elizabeth Hubbard b. 1873 at Nuneaton, Warks, d. 1937 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, aged 63.

Richman Badcock c1920 (Mike Mellor)

Elizabeth Badcock (Mike Mellor)

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In 1891 she was Nursemaid to a family of 6 children at Wirksworth, Derbyshire. In 1901 she was a Housemaid (Domestic) at a vicarage in Totnes, Devon. It seems likely she was employed at Bath Cottage in a domestic capacity and she and her employer, decided to marry. Strangely, in 1921, with her 2 daughters, aged 10 and 11, and husband at Bath Cottage, Elizabeth is a boarder at Royston (possibly Royston Golf Club) performing ‘Home Duties’.

John Richman, loved Bath Cottage, where he had grown up, but Elizabeth wished she could get away from ‘that barn of a place’. The 1911 Census says Bath Cottage has 10 Rooms.

Richman & Elizabeth’s grave (Mike Mellor)

Elizabeth was very active in the Women’s Institute and was one of the first members. In 1927 she gave a demonstration on Stove Polish and Embrocation. She was also a fine seamstress. In 1925, her daughters went on a trip to a farm on the Welsh borders, where Mrs Isley who ran Harston Post Office had been brought up. Margaret reported that their mother had made them both fashionable dresses of white serge trimmed with red. Unfortunately, they ended up ‘a shade of black and their best silk stocking were in ribbons’ when they hiked up a mountain through rough terrain.

Anita & Margaret wearing clothes made by Mother (Mike Mellor)

Louisa Jude (Mike Mellor)

There are a number of references in Harston History to Richman Badcock, the baker. His daughter, Margaret Louisa Badcock’s memories of growing up and living in Harston in the 1910s to the 1930s can be found elsewhere on this website.

Louisa Badcock b. 1867 at Orwell, m. Clement John Jude (master builder, d. 1932) 1904 at Harston, d. 1946 at Cambridge, aged 79. They courted for years before finally marrying.

Agnes Ann Badcock b. 1869 at Orwell, d. 1952, at Cambridge, aged 82 – Governess, then Lady’s Companion in Putney, London. In 1911 she is living with sister Matilda at Manor Farm, Shepreth, and in 1921 at sister Louisa’s home, over the road from Bath Cottage. She volunteered as a nurse for Voluntary Aid Detachment 5703 at Shepreth Auxiliary Hospital in Jan. 1915, her address being ‘The Cottage’, Harston. From 1935 till 1951 she shared a house with her sister Louisa in Trumpington.

Agnes Badcock 1914-18 (Mike Mellor)

Harry Wilson Badcock b. 1871 at Whaddon, m.(1) Kate Evelyn Bullworthy at Whaddon(?), 1909, m.(2) Winifred Kathleen Dudley-Hay at Cambridge, 1934, d. 1960 at Stapleford, aged 88 – Fought in War with the 2nd Battalion of Cambridgeshire Volunteer Regiment, Brewer by profession. Lived in Margate. There may have been a child who died at birth from one of his marriages. In his old age he needed a wheelchair.

Harry Wilson Badcock (Mike Mellor)

Anita Katherine  Badcock, b. 1910 at Harston, m. William Frederick Custerson 1933 at Hitchin, Herts, d. 1964. With her Husband and twin daughters, she lived at Bath Cottage nursing her father Richman until his death in 1950. The family then moved to New Wimpole where she died at the early age of 54. She was laid to rest at Harston burial ground, Button End, the last of the Badcocks that had a connection with Harston.

Anita’s grave (J Roadley)