A HISTORY OF
WANDSWORTH COMMON

Added

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Bevington Family, Wandsworth Common

Build 2 — 30 Aug 2026

Croquet on the lawn at Ivy House. Geoffrey Bevington is second from left [1860s?].

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The Bevington Family of Ivy House, West Side

Geoffrey Bevington Album: Samuel [brother], Geoffrey, James Buckingham Bevington [father] and grandson [Robert, born c.1862?], Mrs James Bevington [née Mary Knox].

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Burke's [?]: Bevington Family

[Burke's ?]

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The Irish Connection

James Buckingham Bevington, son of Samuel Bevington, married Mary Knox, daughter of John Knox Esq. JP of Rushbrooke, Co Derry, in [date?].

Judging by photographs he took, GB seems to have visited Rushbrooke and other parts of Ireland quite frequently.

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Notes and queries

When exactly did the Bevingtons move to Wandsworth?

Presumably some time between 1832 and 1838. They were already here in 1841. Samuel was born in Newington, Surrey, in 1832, but Geoffrey was born in 1838 in Wandsworth. Did they always live in Ivy House?

Where exactly was Ivy House?

Its address appears to change. It is referred to as on St Anne's Lane [1841 census], ? [1851], ? [1861], Wandsworth All Saints [1871]. (As Gillian Tindall [The Fields Beneath] reminds us, road names were very fluid over time and along their length — they did not firm up until the mid-19th-century.)

Did James and then Samuel commute? Or did they live during the week near Bermondsey, returning to Wandsworth Common at the weekends? The family appears to have had a house in Gracechurch Street.

Was Geoffrey always "delicate"? Did the family move to Wandsworth Common because it was considerably more salubrious than Bermondsey?

Shirley Pasmore mentions a Mr Bevington JP who chaired meetings to defend Wandsworth Common against sales of land by Earl Spencer c.1851 [date? not later?]. [This is almost certainly James Buckingham Bevington, GB's father. Was he antagonistic to the radical John Charles Buckmaster?]

Birth registration

Geoffrey Bevington: July Quarter 1838, Wandsworth, Surrey [England & Wales Births 1837-2006]

1841 Census

St Anne's Lane [is there any further info e.g. that can be deduced from neighbouring houses?]

James Bevington, 35, Leather [?], born Surrey.

Mary Bevington, 35, born outside of Surrey.

Geoffrey Bevington, Male, 5, Surrey, England [His name is added some pages after the rest of family.]

[Thomas Usmar's school] New Lane, Croydon, Surrey, England

Samuel Bevington, aged 10, is a pupil at Thomas Usmar's school.

[Note that a "Sarah Bevington, Schoolmistress, aged 40, married" is listed immediately after Thomas Usmar, Schoolmaster. Also that there are two boys surnamed Coventry, Samuel, 11, and Edward, 8, at the school. In 1841 the Coventry family were living in St John's Hill, Battersea, not far from the Bevingtons. By 1851 Thomas Usmar's school had moved from Croydon to Epping, Essex — Geoffrey Bevington and two different Coventry boys are pupils. Not neighbourly coincidence, it turns out: see note below, 1851 census.]

1848: Death of Samuel Bevington [senior, i.e. grandfather of GB]

Dec 19. At Wandsworth Common, aged 75, Samuel Bevington, esq. late of Neckinger Mills, Bermondsey.

The Gentleman's Magazine, vol 183.

1851 Census

Address?

James B Bevington, Head, Married, Male, 46, Manufacturer of Leather, born Bermondsey, Surrey, England.

Mary Bevington, Wife, Married, Female 47, born Ireland.

Samuel B Bevington, Son, Unmarried, Male, 18, Student at Kings College, born Surrey, England.

Esther Battell, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 23, House Servant, born Croydon, Surrey, England.

Elizabeth Chapman, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 18, House Servant, born Wandsworth, Surrey, England.

Usmor [Usmar?] and Hunter's Boarding School, Epping Town, Essex, England

Geoffrey Bevington, Male, 12, Scholar At Usmor And Hunter's Boarding School, born Wandsworth, Surrey.

[Note: Only 20 or so pupils, aged 8–15, of whom two (Arthur and Millis Coventry) were also born Wandsworth. Millis Coventry, of Fernside, later married Mary Bevington — a sister of James Buckingham Bevington, confirmed 30 Aug 2026 — so these two were cousins of Geoffrey's, not schoolmates who happened to share a home town.]

[Notice also the family of Henry P Bevington, Manufacturer of Leather, living at 3, Brunswick Square, St Giles Camberwell, Camberwell, Surrey. James Buckingham Bevington's brother?]

[A third sibling confirmed 30 Aug 2026: Alexander Bevington, father of the poet and anarchist Louisa Sarah Bevington — see her own page, Louisa Sarah Bevington. That makes Louisa a first cousin of Geoffrey and Samuel Bourne Bevington.]

Passport application, 1860

Geoffrey Bevington's photograph album contains a number of photographs from ?Switzerland [check where].

[Bevingtons listed as having acquired passports in 1860 were Geoffrey, Henry, Samuel, John.]

1861 Census?

1871 Census: James and Mary Bevington, Geoffrey Bevington et al

Ivy House, Wandsworth All Saints, London.

James B. Bevington, Head, 66, 1805, Male, born Bermondsey, Surrey, England

Mary Bevington, Wife, 67, 1804, Female, born Aghady, Antrim, Northern Ireland

Geoffrey Bevington, Son, 32, 1839, Male, Dividend Holder, born Wandsworth, Surrey, England

Cecilia [?] Knox, Visitor, 27, 1844, Female, Retired Officer's Daughter, born Agivley, Antrim, Northern Ireland

Sarah Dudman, Servant, 27, 1844, Female, born Lengusham [?], Sussex, England

Charlotte Griffin, Servant, 37, 1834, Female, born Coley, Gloucestershire, England

Margaret Pullen, Servant, 19, 1852, Female, born Lurgusham [?], Sussex, England

[Source: Ancestry: 1871 England Census, Geoffrey Bevington.]

[Ivy House listed is between "Agnes's Cottage, Allfarthing Lane", and "6 Agnes Cottage".]