Thomas Beecroft and Marie Elizabeth Hurst
Husband Thomas Beecroft [6785]
Born: 1679 - Norwich, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom Christened: Died: Buried: FamilySearch ID: GN7K-5D8
Father: Thomas Beecroft [6855] (Abt 1650-Abt 1710) 1 Mother: Elisabeth Gay [6856] ( - ) 1
Marriage: 3 Oct 1712 - Ville-Marie, Témiscamingue, Quebec, CanadaEvents
• Immigrated: 1712, Montreal, Ontario, Canada. Name:
Thomas Becraft
Age:33
Birth Year:abt 1679
Arrival Year:1712
Arrival Place:Montreal
Primary Immigrant:Becraft, Thomas
Source Publication Code:7603
Annotation:"Catalog of Catholic Immigrants from the British Isles before 1825." Date and place of first mention of residence in New World. Also provides names of parents, date and place of marriage, name of spouse, and place of origin.
Source Bibliography:ROBERT, NORMAND, and MICHEL THIBAULT. Catalogue des Immigrants Catholiques des Iles Britanniques avant 1825. Montreal: Society de Recherche Historique Archivo-Histo, 1988. 122p.
Wife Marie Elizabeth Hurst [6786]
Born: 15 Aug 1687 - Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America 2 Christened: Died: 1750 - Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America 2 Buried: FamilySearch ID: GN72-3PV
Father: Thomas Hurst [15238] (1662-1701) Mother: Sarah Marie Jeanne Jeffreys [15273] (Abt 1665- ) 3
Events
• Biography: Elizabeth Hurst
Elizabeth was born in Deerfield on August 15, 1687, to Thomas and Sarah Jeffreys Hurst. She was captured along with her mother and five siblings. Her youngest brother was killed on the march north. Records show that she married a Newfoundland captive, Thomas Becroft, on October 3, 1712, in the parish town of Villemarie. Elizabeth and Thomas had two children in Montreal, in 1713 and 1714. They subsequently disappeared from the historical record, but evidence suggests that she returned to New England.
.• Taken captive to Canada: Indian raid on Deerfield, 1704, Deerfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.
Marriage Events
• Event: Another Version. Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield, by Evan Haefeli, Kevin Sweeney
Page 214
… It is likely that Elizabeth Hurst Beecroft and Samuel Price also returned at this time by one of these routes and Samuel Hastings may have done so as well. ..
page 245
Sarah's daughter Elizabeth, only sixteen when captured, also married an Englishman. Her ultimate destiny is not known with certainty, but the surviving evidence strongly suggests that she returned to New England. Her Octoer 1712 wedding was perhaps the grandest gathering of the English captive community in Canada. Nary a Frenchman, save the officiating priest, the ubiquitous Father Meiel, was present. Elizabeth's bridegroom was a thirty-three-year-old English weaver, Thomas Beecraft or Buraff (possibly Bancroft), who was probably captured in Newfoundland along with Elizabeth's step-father, William Perkins, and two other attendees, Daniel Joseph Maddox, a carpenter, and John Thomas, a shipwright. Also present were two New England captives, Joseph Bartlett, a shoemaker, and Jacob Gilman, a woodworker and millwright, who eventually purchased his freedom by building a sawmill for the French. In addition, two Deerfield captives, Elizabeth's brother Thomas, a carpenter, and Freedom French also witnessed the marriage. Elizabeth Hurst and Thomas Beecraft had two children in Montreal in 1713 and 1714 before disappearing from the historical record. They probably returned to New England along with Bartlett, Gilman, and the Perkinses, given their apparent preference for English over French culture and comrades.
.• Marriage: Montreal Register, 3 Oct 1712. On Monday, the 3rd of October, 1712, after the publication of the three banns, I, the undersigned, Seminary priest of Montreal, with the permission of Monsieur Francois de vauchon, Grand Vicar of the Bishop of Quebec, and with the mutual consent of Thomas Becraft, weaver, aged thirty-three, son of Thomas Becraft, deceased, and of his wife, Elizabeth Gay, of the Bishopric of Norwich in England, of the first part, and of Marie Elizabeth Hurst, aged twenty-three, daughter of the late Thomas Hurst, and his wife, Marie Jeanne Jeffreys of Deerfield, in New England, of the second part, both now living in this parish of Ville Marie, have married them and have given them the nuptial benediction in presence of Mr. John Thomas, master shipbuilder to the king, in this country, and of Daniel Joseph Maddox, friend of the groom, of William Perkins, stepfather of the bride, of Thomas Hurst, her brother, and of several others, friends of both parties, who have signed this certificate according to law, with the exception of Thomas Hurst, who says that he cannot sign.
Children
1 M Elias Beecroft [7891]
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
2 M Guillaume / William Beecroft [6305]
Born: 2 Jul 1713 - Montreal, Canada, New France 4 Christened: 3 Jul 1713 - Montreal, Montreal, Canada, New France 4 Died: After 25 Dec 1777 - Schoharie, Schoharie, New York, United States 4 Buried: FamilySearch ID: K8WJ-XM8Spouse: Sarah Allen [15277] (Bef 1718- ) Marr: 8 May 1735 - Suffield, Hartford Co, CT
3 M Thomas Beecroft [4480]
Born: 7 Jun 1714 - Montréal, Québec, Canada 5 Christened: 7 Jun 1714 - Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, British Colonial America 5 Died: After 16 Mar 1760 Buried: FamilySearch ID: GPH9-7MGSpouse: Marytje Bont [4481] (1726-Abt 1780) Marr: 22 Nov 1746 - Loonenburgh, Albany, New York Colony, British Colonial America
4 F Hannah Beecroft [15274]
Born: 22 Mar 1719 - Hatfield, Hampshire Co, MA Christened: Died: 14 Nov 1785 - Farmington, Hartford Co, CT Buried: FamilySearch ID: L76Y-6MVSpouse: Samuel Stedman [6857] (1714-1781)
5 M George Beecroft [15276]
Born: 19 Jun 1722 - Hatfield, Hampshire Co, MA Christened: Died: Buried: FamilySearch ID: MN21-SDD
6 F Mary Beecroft [15275]
Born: 19 Jun 1722 - Hatfield, Hampshire Co, MA Christened: 19 Jun 1722 - Hatfield, Hatfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States 6 Died: 30 Sep 1801 - Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States 6 Buried: FamilySearch ID: G24Y-69VSpouse: Oliver White [15278] (1720-1801) Marr: 21 Feb 1745 - Bolton, Tolland, Connecticut, United States 7
7 M Jonathan Beecroft [15279]
Born: 1725-1726 Christened: Died: After 1 Jan 1740 Buried: FamilySearch ID: GP4S-YJN
8 F Abigail Beecroft [15280]
Born: 1728 Christened: Died: Buried: FamilySearch ID: LHTW-TCDSpouse: Pelatiah Kilbourn [15281] (1704-Abt 1780) Marr: 12 Mar 1745 - Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, United States of America
Notes: Marriage (Marie Elizabeth Hurst):
[True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada During the Old French..]
Page 202
On Monday, the 3d of October, 1712, after the publication of three banns, I, the undersigned, Seminary priest of Montreal, with the permission of Monsieur Francois de Vanchon, Grand Vicar of the Bishop of Quebec, and with the mutual consent of Thomas Becraft, weaver, aged thirty-three, son of Thomas Becraft, deceased, and of his wife, Elizabeth Gay, of the Bishopric of Norwich in England, of the first part, and of Marie Elizabeth Hurst, aged twenty-three, daughter of the late Thomas Hurst, aged twenty-three, daughter of the late Thomas Hurst, and his wife, Marie Jeanne Jeffreys of Deerfield, in New England, of the second part, both now living in this parish of Ville Marie, have married them and have given them the nuptial benediction in presence of Mr. John Thomas, master shipbuilder to the king, in this country, and of Daniel Joseph Maddox, friend of the groom, of William Perkins, stepfather of the bride, of Thomas Hurst, her brother, and of several others, friends of both parties, who have signed this certificate according to law, with the exception of Thomas Hurst, who says that he cannot sign."
Then follow Thomas's mark and the autographs of Marie Francoise French, William Perkins, John Thomas, Jacob Gilman, Daniel Joseph Maddox, Joseph Bartlet and Meriel Pretre. As the age of the bride corresponds exactly to that of Elizabeth Hurst, I am led to believe that Hannah went back with Sara and their mother to New England, and that Elizabeth, with the name of Marie added at her baptism, was left with Ebenezer and Thomas in Canada, where she married above. The Marie Francoise French, who appears as one of the witnesses at the wedding of her friend Elizabeth Hurst, was a daughter of Deacon Thomas french and his wife, Mary Catlin. Deacon French was the town clerk of Deerfield, and also the blacksmith.
1 Family Trees.
2 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 17 Nov 2025), entry for Marie Elizabeth Hurst, person ID GN72-3PV.
3 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 17 Nov 2025), entry for Sarah Jeffreys, person ID KZCM-F5P.
4 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 17 Nov 2025), entry for Guillaume / William Beecroft, person ID K8WJ-XM8.
5 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 17 Nov 2025), entry for Thomas Beecroft, person ID GPH9-7MG.
6 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 25 Nov 2025), entry for Mary Beecroft, person ID G24Y-69V.
7
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 25 Nov 2025), entry for Oliver White, person ID L8QL-SZ6.
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