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Welcome to the latest blog in our ‘famous family trees’ series. In this blog series, experienced family historian, Roy Stockdill, investigates the family histories of the famous, both living and dead. Benedict Cumberbatch is the subject of Roy’s powers of deduction this month.*
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch says he is fed up with people thinking he’s posh and upper class because of his name, the roles he plays and the fact that he went to the famous Harrow public school. He has even said he is thinking of quitting Britain for America, which he reckons is less obsessed with class. I have some news which may cheer up the Sherlock and Star Trek actor. After delving into his family history on both sides – I can reveal that while some of his paternal ancestors were certainly distinguished, on the maternal side they were humble farm labourers, servants and tradesmen!
Benedict was born on 19 July 1976 in London as Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch and brought up in Kensington. His parents are both well-known actors, Timothy Carlton (stage name) and Wanda Ventham. When he started out in the business, Benedict used the name Ben Carlton but changed it to his real birth name on the advice of an agent who thought it would get him more attention from producers and directors. The Cumberbatches were a prominent English family of merchants and adventurers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Abraham Cumberbatch, Benedict’s fifth great-grandfather (1726-1785), was from Bristol and founded the family fortunes on a sugar plantation in Barbados. They owned slaves – a fact which Benedict has spoken about. He says that when he played Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger in the film Amazing Grace as an abolitionist it was a ‘sort of apology’.
There are many Cumberbatches today whose ancestors were slaves and who took their name from the family that once owned them: Benedict’s grandfather, Lieutenant-Commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, was a distinguished naval officer and his marriage at St Mary Abbot’s, Kensington, in 1934 to Pauline Congdon was *reported in The Times. Their son, Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch, Benedict’s father, was born in Reading, Berkshire, registration district in 1939. Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, was born in Smynr (now Izmir), Turkey, in 1900, the son of Henry Alfred Cumberbatch CMG (1858-1918) who was the British Consul *for Turkey. Henry Alfred’s father, Robert Cumberbatch, born in 1818 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was also a British Consul in Turkey.
Benedict’s mother, the glamorous Wanda Ventham, starred in a major BBC series with Ian Hendry in the 1970s, the Lotus Eaters, about two British expats running a bar on the Greek island of Crete. She appeared in other series like the sci-fi programme UFO, created by the husband-and-wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and as the mother of Rodney’s wife, Cassandra, in the sitcom Only Fools And Horses. She was born on 5 August 1935 in Brighton, the daughter of Frederick Howard Ventham and Gladys Frances Holtham who were married on 29 October 1930 at Brighton Register Office. The marriage certificate showed that both were aged 20, Frederick being a wine merchant’s clerk. His father, Frederick William Ventham, was described as a motor car proprietor, and the bride’s father, Francis Leonard Holtham, was a furniture decorator.
The family of the actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the 1911 census
Benedict’s maternal grandfather, Frederick Howard Ventham, was born on 27 March 1910 at Lewes, the county town of Sussex, and died in 1972 at Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, so Benedict never knew him. *Frederick *appears in the 1911 census at 28 Leicester Road, Lewes, with his parents, Frederick William and Mabel Ventham, and a sister, Edith Maud, aged 12. Frederick William Ventham was then a domestic coachman, aged 36, born at Awbridge, Hampshire, while his wife Mabel was 35, born at Bromley, Kent. They had been married 12 years and had two children. It looks as if Frederick moved around in his occupation since the birth place of Edith Maud Ventham was shown as Croydon, Surrey.
I found in the marriage indexes of the General Register Office for England and Wales the marriage of Frederick William Ventham and Mabel Waters at Bromley in the second quarter of 1898. This couple were Benedict Cumberbatch’s great-grandparents. In 1901 Frederick and Mabel were living at 79 Clarence Road, Sutton, Surrey. In this census Frederick was 26 and Mabel 24, Frederick being a coachman and the couple’s birth places given as in 1911. However, the daughter Edith Maud, aged 2, was shown as having been born at Streatham, not Croydon – such are the vagaries of census details! Also with them was Frederick’s younger brother Charles J Ventham, aged 15, an errand boy born at Awbridge, Hampshire.
As I went back through the censuses, it became apparent that Awbridge, a village and civil parish three miles from the picturesque market town of Romsey, was the home of the Venthams for as far back as I could trace them. I learned from a village website that it is an ancient place mentioned in William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book of 1086 as Abedric. I also learned that Benedict Cumberbatch’s Ventham ancestors were agricultural labourers as far back as his great-great-great grandfather, James Ventham, who will feature later.
In the censuses of 1891 and 1881 the Ventham family were found living in the village of Michelmersh, near Awbridge. In 1881 Frederick Ventham was aged six and living with his parents and four siblings at Awebridge [sic] Common, Michelmersh. Head of the household was William Ventham, 32, a general agricultural labourer, born at Awebridge, and his wife was Sarah, 30, born at Mottisfont, Hampshire. Their children were: Annie, 11; George E, 9; Frederick, 6; Arthur, 4; and Henry A, 2. All were born at Awebridge (note: this is how the enumerator spelled the place name in 1881, though the village has no ‘e’ in its name). In 1891 the family were at 1 Common Road, Michelmersh. William was 42 and Sarah 39 and their children in this census were: Frederic [sic], 16, an agricultural labourer; Arthur, 14, also an ag lab; Edward, 8; Charles, 5; and Edith, 2, all born at Awbridge.
Henry Ventham, who had been the youngest child in 1881, was not at home with his family in the 1891 census
Henry Ventham in the 1891 census
and I found him aged 13 working as a cow boy for a farmer at Michelmersh called William Olden. It was immediately after finding Henry in the 1891 census that I made the extraordinary discover that in November 1893, when aged 14, he was tried at the Hampshire Autumn Assizes at Winchester for the murder at Michelmersh of another boy called Frederick Betteridge. He appears in the Calendar of Prisoners Tried at the Assizes in the Crime, Prisons & Punishment Collection 1770-1934 on this website. I then entered his name into the British Newspapers 1710-1953**and found no fewer than 21 stories reporting the case in newspapers all over the country, covering the boy’s committal from a coroner’s court and the subsequent Assizes.
A lengthy account in the Hampshire Advertiser for Saturday, 18 November 1893, was headed ‘The Romsey Stabbing Case’ and told how Henry Ventham and another lad, Frederick Betteridge, had been on a Sunday afternoon expedition to gather nuts and blackberries. The prosecution alleged there was a row between them and Henry stabbed his pal with a knife, the other boy subsequently dying from his injuries. Ventham was defended by a barrister called Bullen, the Recorder of Southampton, on the instructions of the judge, Mr. Justice Hawkins. His story, supported by a third lad, was that there was no quarrel but that Frederick Betteridge suddenly ran against him and the knife went into him.
Henry Ventham’s court record
A jury accepted Henry’s version that it was an accident and found him not guilty of both murder and manslaughter. The Hampshire Advertiser concluded its report with the comment: ‘His Lordship…was quite content with the view they had taken of the case (applause in court).’ The comment in brackets suggests the jury’s verdict was a popular one – though, of course, the applause may have come from members of Henry’s family. I worked out that Henry Ventham, being a younger brother of Benedict Cumberbatch’s great-grandfather Frederick William Ventham, was the actor’s great-great-uncle.
In the little space I have left, I shall detail my further research into the Ventham family at Michelmersh. In 1871 William and Sarah were at Sander’s Lane, Michelmersh, and in this census they had just one child, a daughter called Ann, aged 2. Also living with them was Frederick Hurst, described as wife’s brother, a carpenter of 18 born at Mottisfont. This told me Sarah’s maiden name and I found the marriage in Romsey registration district – probably at Awbridge – in the April-June quarter of 1869 of William Ventham and Sarah Hurst. This couple, then, were Benedict Cumberbatch’s maternal great-great-grandparents. I was able to get back another generation by finding William in the 1861 census. He was then aged 13 and living with his parents, James and Sarah Ventham, at Awbridge Common, Michelmersh. James was shown as being 50 and his wife as 56. There was another son, George, 18, and also in the household was a James Wilton, 20, described as a son-in-law. All the males were agricultural labourers and born at Michelmersh.
The fact that James Wilton was said to be a son-in-law of James Ventham suggested Sarah had been previously married and this proved to be the case. In fact I discovered that both James and Sarah had been married before and widowed. In 1851 they were in separate households. James, a carter, was *in the parish of South Stoneham – which once covered much of what is now modern Southampton – with three children of Sarah’s from her previous marriage and three young nephews of his, all born at Michelmersh. Sarah Ventham, 50, and her son, William, then aged 3, were visitors in the household of a couple called William and Ann Carley at Awbridge Common, Michelmersh. My researches indicate that William and Ann Carley were probably the parents of Sarah Ventham – and, interestingly, William, aged 82, was described as a pauper. If I am correct, this should please Benedict Cumberbatch by showing him that not all of his ancestors were posh!
In 1841James Ventham was in Michelmersh with three small sons: James, 8, Charles, 3, and John, 7 months.
The Ventham family in 1841
Also in the household were two girls called Fanny Jewell, 19 and Sarah Jewell. These were probably relatives of James’s first wife, Mary Jewell, who he married at Michelmersh in 1830. Mary had probably died by the 1841 census. James’s second wife, Sarah Wilton, who he married in 1841, was also in Michelmersh, aged 40, with her parents William and Ann Carley, and five presumed children who were called Wilton, aged from 15 to two. It is, of course, often dangerous to make presumptions in genealogy, especially when relationships are not given in the 1841 census, but I discovered that Sarah’s first husband was a Moses Wilton.
In my final piece of research into the maternal ancestry of Benedict Cumberbatch, I found the baptism of James Ventham at Michelmersh on 26 February 1809, the son of John and Sarah Ventham. This couple, Benedict Cumberbatch’s 4-times great-grandparents, were probably *John Ventham and Sarah Garey who married in the nearby parish of Sherfield English on 6 January 1796. I hope this foray through the female side of his family tree has shown the ‘posh’ Benedict that, in one line at least, he is just as ordinary as the rest of us!
Roy Stockdill
Roy Stockdill has been a family historian for almost 40 years. A former national newspaper journalist, he edited the Journal of One-Name Studies (for the Guild of One-Name Studies) for 10 years. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Society of Genealogists and is commissioning editor of the ‘My Ancestors…’ series of books. He writes regularly for Family Tree magazine.
Photo Credit for Benedict Cumberbatch – Sam Hughes
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Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.
Benedict CumberbatchBenedict Cumberbatch says he is fed up with people thinking he’s posh and upper class because of his name, the roles he plays and the fact that he went to the famous Harrow public school. He has even said he is thinking of quitting Britain for America, which he reckons is less obsessed with class. I have some news which may cheer up the Sherlock and Star Trek actor. After delving into his family history on both sides – I can reveal that while some of his paternal ancestors were certainly distinguished, on the maternal side they were humble farm labourers, servants and tradesmen!
Benedict was born on 19 July 1976 in London as Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch and brought up in Kensington. His parents are both well-known actors, Timothy Carlton (stage name) and Wanda Ventham. When he started out in the business, Benedict used the name Ben Carlton but changed it to his real birth name on the advice of an agent who thought it would get him more attention from producers and directors. The Cumberbatches were a prominent English family of merchants and adventurers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Abraham Cumberbatch, Benedict’s fifth great-grandfather (1726-1785), was from Bristol and founded the family fortunes on a sugar plantation in Barbados. They owned slaves – a fact which Benedict has spoken about. He says that when he played Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger in the film Amazing Grace as an abolitionist it was a ‘sort of apology’.
There are many Cumberbatches today whose ancestors were slaves and who took their name from the family that once owned them: Benedict’s grandfather, Lieutenant-Commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, was a distinguished naval officer and his marriage at St Mary Abbot’s, Kensington, in 1934 to Pauline Congdon was *reported in The Times. Their son, Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch, Benedict’s father, was born in Reading, Berkshire, registration district in 1939. Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, was born in Smynr (now Izmir), Turkey, in 1900, the son of Henry Alfred Cumberbatch CMG (1858-1918) who was the British Consul *for Turkey. Henry Alfred’s father, Robert Cumberbatch, born in 1818 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, was also a British Consul in Turkey.
Benedict’s mother, the glamorous Wanda Ventham, starred in a major BBC series with Ian Hendry in the 1970s, the Lotus Eaters, about two British expats running a bar on the Greek island of Crete. She appeared in other series like the sci-fi programme UFO, created by the husband-and-wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and as the mother of Rodney’s wife, Cassandra, in the sitcom Only Fools And Horses. She was born on 5 August 1935 in Brighton, the daughter of Frederick Howard Ventham and Gladys Frances Holtham who were married on 29 October 1930 at Brighton Register Office. The marriage certificate showed that both were aged 20, Frederick being a wine merchant’s clerk. His father, Frederick William Ventham, was described as a motor car proprietor, and the bride’s father, Francis Leonard Holtham, was a furniture decorator.
The family of the actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the 1911 censusBenedict’s maternal grandfather, Frederick Howard Ventham, was born on 27 March 1910 at Lewes, the county town of Sussex, and died in 1972 at Richmond-upon-Thames, Surrey, so Benedict never knew him. *Frederick *appears in the 1911 census at 28 Leicester Road, Lewes, with his parents, Frederick William and Mabel Ventham, and a sister, Edith Maud, aged 12. Frederick William Ventham was then a domestic coachman, aged 36, born at Awbridge, Hampshire, while his wife Mabel was 35, born at Bromley, Kent. They had been married 12 years and had two children. It looks as if Frederick moved around in his occupation since the birth place of Edith Maud Ventham was shown as Croydon, Surrey.
I found in the marriage indexes of the General Register Office for England and Wales the marriage of Frederick William Ventham and Mabel Waters at Bromley in the second quarter of 1898. This couple were Benedict Cumberbatch’s great-grandparents. In 1901 Frederick and Mabel were living at 79 Clarence Road, Sutton, Surrey. In this census Frederick was 26 and Mabel 24, Frederick being a coachman and the couple’s birth places given as in 1911. However, the daughter Edith Maud, aged 2, was shown as having been born at Streatham, not Croydon – such are the vagaries of census details! Also with them was Frederick’s younger brother Charles J Ventham, aged 15, an errand boy born at Awbridge, Hampshire.
As I went back through the censuses, it became apparent that Awbridge, a village and civil parish three miles from the picturesque market town of Romsey, was the home of the Venthams for as far back as I could trace them. I learned from a village website that it is an ancient place mentioned in William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book of 1086 as Abedric. I also learned that Benedict Cumberbatch’s Ventham ancestors were agricultural labourers as far back as his great-great-great grandfather, James Ventham, who will feature later.
In the censuses of 1891 and 1881 the Ventham family were found living in the village of Michelmersh, near Awbridge. In 1881 Frederick Ventham was aged six and living with his parents and four siblings at Awebridge [sic] Common, Michelmersh. Head of the household was William Ventham, 32, a general agricultural labourer, born at Awebridge, and his wife was Sarah, 30, born at Mottisfont, Hampshire. Their children were: Annie, 11; George E, 9; Frederick, 6; Arthur, 4; and Henry A, 2. All were born at Awebridge (note: this is how the enumerator spelled the place name in 1881, though the village has no ‘e’ in its name). In 1891 the family were at 1 Common Road, Michelmersh. William was 42 and Sarah 39 and their children in this census were: Frederic [sic], 16, an agricultural labourer; Arthur, 14, also an ag lab; Edward, 8; Charles, 5; and Edith, 2, all born at Awbridge.
Henry Ventham, who had been the youngest child in 1881, was not at home with his family in the 1891 census
Henry Ventham in the 1891 censusand I found him aged 13 working as a cow boy for a farmer at Michelmersh called William Olden. It was immediately after finding Henry in the 1891 census that I made the extraordinary discover that in November 1893, when aged 14, he was tried at the Hampshire Autumn Assizes at Winchester for the murder at Michelmersh of another boy called Frederick Betteridge. He appears in the Calendar of Prisoners Tried at the Assizes in the Crime, Prisons & Punishment Collection 1770-1934 on this website. I then entered his name into the British Newspapers 1710-1953**and found no fewer than 21 stories reporting the case in newspapers all over the country, covering the boy’s committal from a coroner’s court and the subsequent Assizes.
A lengthy account in the Hampshire Advertiser for Saturday, 18 November 1893, was headed ‘The Romsey Stabbing Case’ and told how Henry Ventham and another lad, Frederick Betteridge, had been on a Sunday afternoon expedition to gather nuts and blackberries. The prosecution alleged there was a row between them and Henry stabbed his pal with a knife, the other boy subsequently dying from his injuries. Ventham was defended by a barrister called Bullen, the Recorder of Southampton, on the instructions of the judge, Mr. Justice Hawkins. His story, supported by a third lad, was that there was no quarrel but that Frederick Betteridge suddenly ran against him and the knife went into him.
Henry Ventham’s court recordA jury accepted Henry’s version that it was an accident and found him not guilty of both murder and manslaughter. The Hampshire Advertiser concluded its report with the comment: ‘His Lordship…was quite content with the view they had taken of the case (applause in court).’ The comment in brackets suggests the jury’s verdict was a popular one – though, of course, the applause may have come from members of Henry’s family. I worked out that Henry Ventham, being a younger brother of Benedict Cumberbatch’s great-grandfather Frederick William Ventham, was the actor’s great-great-uncle.
In the little space I have left, I shall detail my further research into the Ventham family at Michelmersh. In 1871 William and Sarah were at Sander’s Lane, Michelmersh, and in this census they had just one child, a daughter called Ann, aged 2. Also living with them was Frederick Hurst, described as wife’s brother, a carpenter of 18 born at Mottisfont. This told me Sarah’s maiden name and I found the marriage in Romsey registration district – probably at Awbridge – in the April-June quarter of 1869 of William Ventham and Sarah Hurst. This couple, then, were Benedict Cumberbatch’s maternal great-great-grandparents. I was able to get back another generation by finding William in the 1861 census. He was then aged 13 and living with his parents, James and Sarah Ventham, at Awbridge Common, Michelmersh. James was shown as being 50 and his wife as 56. There was another son, George, 18, and also in the household was a James Wilton, 20, described as a son-in-law. All the males were agricultural labourers and born at Michelmersh.
The fact that James Wilton was said to be a son-in-law of James Ventham suggested Sarah had been previously married and this proved to be the case. In fact I discovered that both James and Sarah had been married before and widowed. In 1851 they were in separate households. James, a carter, was *in the parish of South Stoneham – which once covered much of what is now modern Southampton – with three children of Sarah’s from her previous marriage and three young nephews of his, all born at Michelmersh. Sarah Ventham, 50, and her son, William, then aged 3, were visitors in the household of a couple called William and Ann Carley at Awbridge Common, Michelmersh. My researches indicate that William and Ann Carley were probably the parents of Sarah Ventham – and, interestingly, William, aged 82, was described as a pauper. If I am correct, this should please Benedict Cumberbatch by showing him that not all of his ancestors were posh!
In 1841James Ventham was in Michelmersh with three small sons: James, 8, Charles, 3, and John, 7 months.
The Ventham family in 1841Also in the household were two girls called Fanny Jewell, 19 and Sarah Jewell. These were probably relatives of James’s first wife, Mary Jewell, who he married at Michelmersh in 1830. Mary had probably died by the 1841 census. James’s second wife, Sarah Wilton, who he married in 1841, was also in Michelmersh, aged 40, with her parents William and Ann Carley, and five presumed children who were called Wilton, aged from 15 to two. It is, of course, often dangerous to make presumptions in genealogy, especially when relationships are not given in the 1841 census, but I discovered that Sarah’s first husband was a Moses Wilton.
In my final piece of research into the maternal ancestry of Benedict Cumberbatch, I found the baptism of James Ventham at Michelmersh on 26 February 1809, the son of John and Sarah Ventham. This couple, Benedict Cumberbatch’s 4-times great-grandparents, were probably *John Ventham and Sarah Garey who married in the nearby parish of Sherfield English on 6 January 1796. I hope this foray through the female side of his family tree has shown the ‘posh’ Benedict that, in one line at least, he is just as ordinary as the rest of us!
Roy StockdillRoy Stockdill has been a family historian for almost 40 years. A former national newspaper journalist, he edited the Journal of One-Name Studies (for the Guild of One-Name Studies) for 10 years. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Society of Genealogists and is commissioning editor of the ‘My Ancestors…’ series of books. He writes regularly for Family Tree magazine.
Photo Credit for Benedict Cumberbatch – Sam Hughes
More...
Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.