John Beadnell

Manager of the London bankers Smith, Payne and Smith, awarded the compensation for 3 estates in St Kitts and one in Trinidad with J.W. Freshfield as trustees for the bank, whose exposure apparently arose from the collapse of the London merchant firm Manning & Anderdon.

1. Uncle of Charles Dickens' first love, Mary Beadnell, claimed to be the model for Dora Copperfield. Mary was 19 in 1830 when Dickens met her, when she lived with her father George and her uncle John at 2 Lombard Street, next to Smith Payne and Smith's office at 1. Lombard Street.

2. Will of John Beadnell of Tottenham Middlesex proved 03/07/1851. Burial of John Beadnell aged 80 of West Green Road Tottenham St James St Pancras 24/05/1851. John Beadnell, "Retired Bankers Clerk", age 80, was living at West Green Road, Tottenham in the 1851 census with his wife Eliza, son John age 36, daughter-in-law Matilda age 35, 8 grandchildren and 6 female servants. The same family group were living at Blackup Lane, Tottenham, in 1841. If this is the same John Beadnell (and given his occupation it seems likely), he would already have been 60 at the time of the meeting of Dickens with his niece.

T71/879 St Kitts claim nos. 333 (Cunnynghams), 525 (Bourke's) and 746 (Estridge); T71/894 Trinidad no. 1661 (Brechin Castle).

1. Sir W. Robertson Nicoll [or Nicholl], 'The true story of Dora Copperfield', in Charles Dickens: A Bookman extra number 1914 (London, Hodder & Staughton, 1914) pp. 26-82.

2. 1841 and 1851 censuses online. PROB 11/2135.