I dedicate this website to the memory of John Frederick Matthews, a baby who lived for 
only 1 year and 10 months and whose background is unfortunately "questionable".

To give a brief overview of the background to this family history, I discovered baby John  Frederick Matthews in the household of my 2xgt.uncle and aunt, William and Eliza Harris, in  Paddington, in 1871, enumerated as a "nurse child" [one who has been adopted]. William Harris  (born 1835) was the younger brother of my gr.gr.grandfather Charles Harris of Springfield,  Essex, and had married Eliza Charlotte Sach in Bethnal Green in 1863.  They had one daughter  only, Mary, born in 1865 at Cheltenham and who died at age 17 in March 1883 from Phthisis. I  set about trying to discover more about baby John and the reason why he had been given away to  the Harris family and began by purchasing his birth certificate.

His mother, Susannah Matthews, formerly Beethom, had registered his birth in Woodbridge, 
Suffolk, in October 1870 and subsequent research proved that she had married the named father, 
Richard Charles Matthews in Graveley, Hertfordshire in 1866, but after the birth Susannah had 
returned to Graveley, where in 1871 she lived as a schoolmistress, married but no husband 
present and neither was baby John.  Richard Charles Matthews was resident back with his parents 
in London also enumerated as a married man in 1871 and I later discovered that he 
bigamously married again in 1875 whilst Susannah remained unattached, claiming to be 
a bachelor and using the singular name of Charles Matthews, and he and his new wife Annie 
Plumley continued to make a life for themselves and their family of children in London, whilst 
first wife Susannah was still alive and, at this time, continuing to live in Hertfordshire.

The reason I argue that baby John's background was questionable is because some 12 years after  his birth, Susannah had another child, Mabel, in 1882 at Gorlestone, Suffolk, at which time she  registered the baby's father's name once again to be Richard Charles Matthews, Ironmonger -  exactly as it had been written on her marriage certificate, believing as she probably did, that  she was still married to him, which of course she was - but so was Annie Plumley!  This  therefore begs the question that if she could fabricate the name of her second child's father,  then she may well have done the same the first time, hence the reason for giving him away and  continuing her life alone without Richard.

Consequent to all this, I have now discovered a link between the Matthews and Beethom families 
and a family named Davis; Susannah's elder sister Ann Elizabeth Beethom marrying Archibald 
Davis in 1858, they lived next door to the Matthews family at Hammersmith. I do believe this 
was how Susannah met Richard Charles Matthews as she had been a witness at her sister's 
wedding.  Archibald Davis had a brother, Frederick Blake Davis, who was a wealthy Master 
Shipbuilder and who I believe was the true biological father of baby John Frederick, making 
Susannah's infidelity the reason why Richard Charles Matthews left her.  What has brought me to 
this conclusion, apart from the use of the name Frederick in the baby's given name, is that 
when Susannah's daughter Mabel, born some 12 years later, registered the death of her mother, 
she stated "widow of Richard Charles Matthews, Master Shipbuilder" - she was probably right on 
both counts and had done her best with the knowledge that she had been given to get it right !!  
I wish I knew what happened to Mabel as I think she too was probably the product of a continued 
liaison between Susannah and Frederick Blake Davis - Susannah having been present at her niece 
Hilda Davis' wedding in January 1882 along with Frederick Blake Davis, who was one of the 
witnesses, whereby baby Mabel Matthews arrived exactly 9 months later!  

Whatever his destiny, Richard Charles Matthews certainly got away with  his Bigamy and eventually died in 1928 in Paddington at the age of 84.    I have purchased most of the certificates and plotted the movements of the  family connected to baby John from the earliest known days to their dying day  and can prove beyond any doubt that my research is accurate.  I have both  original parish marriage certificates for Richard Charles Matthews aka Charles  Matthews and his signature matches exactly on both entries.

Susannah eventually recorded herself as a widow in 1901 and died from natural  causes at Ipswich in 1924 aged 79, her death being registered by her daughter  Mabel, in attendance, unaware that her former husband was still alive and had  made a life for himself and a new family.

Baby John Frederick Matthews forms the base of this tree, dedicated to the  memory of his very short, but hopefully happy, life with the Harris's and a  tribute to the care they bestowed upon him. 
  
 This website outlines and provides the evidence to all the above - I hope you  find it to be of interest.  Please leave a note in my Guestbook to tell me you  have called by.