Title based on contents of the fonds.
The name “Besly” also appears as “Besley” in various records, as well as sources for biographical information.
Rev. John Besly was born in 1800 and attended Balliol College in Oxford, earning a B.A. He was ordained into the Church of England in 1823, and appointed Vicar of St. Bartholomew in Long Benton, Northumberland in 1830, where he remained until his death in 1868.
Barton Hope Besly served as a Lieutenant in the British army during the Boer War.
Published
Fonds consists of sermon regarding death of Maria Besly, 1797; correspondence to John Besly, 1820–1865; commonplace book kept by members of the family, [184–?]; correspondence relating to the Boer War by Barton Hope Besly, 1899–1900, and photograph, [1907?].
Purchased from Pickering and Chatto antiquarian booksellers in 1991, along with a manuscript of a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge titled “Absence.”
No further accruals are expected.
The manuscript of the poem “Absence” is in Victoria University Library, Samuel Taylor Coleridge collection (Part 1. Works by Coleridge, 84c).
Desultory Notices of the Church and Vicarage of Long Benton, in the Diocese of Durham, with Extracts from Registers, Traditions (BX5110 .L66 B47 1843a VIC Rare), by John Besly, is available in the Victoria University Library.
St. Bartholomew’s Church, Longbenton (BX5110 .L66 S24 1985 VIC Rare) and The Parish and Church of St. Bartholomew, Long Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne: a Social History (BX5110 .L66 E44 2002 VIC Rare) are also available in the Library.
No restrictions on access.
http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/collections/special_collections/f59_besly_family