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Bessie WEETMAN
1883 - 1910 (~ 27 years)
Has 2 ancestors and 2 descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
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Name Bessie WEETMAN Relationship 
with Teresa Ann GOATHAM Born Mar Q 1883 Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England 
- GRO ref: WEETMAN Bessie q1 1883 Plymouth RD 5b 278; GRO online index shows mother's maiden name as Bickle
Gender Female Died Jan 1910 Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England Cause: Childbirth - GRO ref: GOTHAM Bessie aged 26 Plymouth RD vol: 5b page: 182
From the Evening Telegraph, 31 January 1910Romance of Life and Death.
From Beaumont, Plymouth, comes he story of a friendship which only death ended.
Bessie Wheetman and Beatrice Thomas were devoted school friends. They became engaged at about the same time to two men who were also friends. A double wedding was arranged and seven years ago Miss Wheetman became Mrs Pearse and Miss Thomas Mrs Gotham [sic - living up to newspapers reputation for inaccuracy, the married names are switched]. Then they settled down at Beaumont Road, close to one another.
Last week Mrs Pearse and Mrs Gotham each gave birth to a daughter, but neither of the mothers survived, the lifelong friends dying within twenty-four hours of one another.
The women were twenty-six and twenty-seven years old respectively. The baby girls are alive and well.
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Of course in 1910 the rate of infant death was still relatively high, and those who had lost their mothers were particularly vulnerable, so it is not surprising that although both babies were still alive at the time of the census a little over a year later, the young Bessie died later that year. I have not discovered what became of the young Beatrice. Beatrice was an only child so I do hope she survived and was a comfort to her father. If so, she will have suffered the misfortune of losing both parents when young, though, as Samuel died in 1924 when the young Beatrice would have been just 14.
The young Bessie did have an older sister who may have lightened her father's grief; she too died young, but not until she was 17 by which time her father had remarried and had a son, so he was not left alone.
Two years before their marriages, at the time of the 1901 census, both of the two friends who were to die in childbirth were living in Laira Bridge Road, Beatrice with parents and siblings, working as a dressmaker, Bessie with just her widowed father, working as his housekeeper.
'Lifelong friends', though, seems an exageration by the newspaper. While Bessie was born in Plymouth Beatrice was born in Linkinhorne, was still there in 1891 and that was where her youngest sibling Lily was born in 1895, when Beatrice was nearly 12. The family probably moved to Plymouth sometime between then and 1901, so the girls are unlikely to have met until they were at least 12 and 13.
The nitty gritty (source details)
The BMD records confirm that Beatrice Annie THOMAS married Samuel Charles Griffen PEARCE at St. Judes Church on the same day, 1 Aug 1903 (DFHS transcripts)
(GRO ref: PEARCE Samuel Charles G to THOMAS Beatrice Annie, q3 1903 Plymouth RD vol: 5b page: 542)
Dth: PEARCE Beatrice Annie, aged 26 Plymouth RD vol: 5b page: 183
Daughter's birth: PEARCE Beatrice Alice q1 1910 Plymouth RD vol: 5b page: 197
(there were 2 Pearce girls born in Plymouth in q1 1910, but the 1911 census confirms that it was Beatrice who was Beatrice's daughter)
Searching for marriage or death of young Beatrice there are no 'good' matches. She could be the Beatrice PEARCE who died in Stoke RD in 1942, she might have emigrate or she might have outlived the transcriptions of the death index I have seen.
Although the GRO index shows that both women died aged 26, this may be a discrepancy in the index rather than the paper. Bessie could have been just 27, else she was nearly 27, but the registration of Beatrice's birth suggest she was just 25, unless it was registered late.
GRO ref: Thomas, Beatrice Annie q3 1884 Liskeard RD 5c 45
(the 1901 census shows Beatrice was born in Linkinhorne, which was in Liskeard RD)
Samuel's death: GRO ref - Pearce, Samuel C G q2 1924 aged 52 Plymouth RD 5b 323
birth: Pearce, Samuel Charles G q4 1872 Stoke D. 5b 321
Siblings1 brother and 1 sister Patriarch & Matriarch 
William Thomas WEETMAN, b. Mar Q 1849, Eggbuckland, Devon, England, d. Mar Q 1933, Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England (Age ~ 84 years) (Father) 
Jane Scoffern BICKLE, b. Jun Q 1846, Marystow, Devon, England, d. Dec Q 1898, Totnes Reg Dist, Devon, England (Age ~ 52 years) (Mother) Person ID I300471 All | All in the Goatham / Gotham One-Name Study , All subjects of the Goatham / Gotham One-Name Study Last Modified 2 Apr 2014
Father William Thomas WEETMAN, b. Mar Q 1849, Eggbuckland, Devon, England , d. Mar Q 1933, Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England (Age ~ 84 years)
Other Partners: Sarah Ann LANCHBURY m. Dec Q 1903Mother Jane Scoffern BICKLE, b. Jun Q 1846, Marystow, Devon, England , d. Dec Q 1898, Totnes Reg Dist, Devon, England (Age ~ 52 years) Married 9 Apr 1872 St. Mary the Virgin Church, Marystow, Devon, England - GRO ref: Weetman, William to Bickle, Jane Seoffern q2 1872 Tavistock RD 5b 637
Family ID F300963 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family William George Pearn GOTHAM, b. 11 Jan 1882, Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England , d. Jun Q 1961, Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England (Age 78 years)
Other Partners: Annie POTTS m. Dec Q 1910Married 1 Aug 1903 St. Jude’s Church, Plymouth, Devon, England [1] - DFHS index (on FMP, viewed 3 Apr 2014)
GRO ref: GOTHAM, William George P to q3 1903 Plymouth RD 5b 541
Children2 children Last Modified 14 Feb 2017 Family ID F300159 Family Group Page | Family Chart
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Event Map Click to hide 
Born - Mar Q 1883 - Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England 
Married - 1 Aug 1903 - St. Jude’s Church, Plymouth, Devon, England Child - Daisy Muriel GOTHAM - Mar Q 1907 - Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England Child - Bessie Doris GOTHAM - Mar Q 1910 - Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England Died - Cause: Childbirth - Jan 1910 - Plymouth Reg Dist, Devon, England = Link to Google Earth (if installed; see link below to install) Pin Legend 
Sources - [S336] FreeBMD, FreeBMD, (( http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ )), accessed 2 Apr 2014), Marriage of William G P GOTHAM. (Reliability: 3), 2 Apr 2014.
(index image checked as well as database)
Surname: Gotham, First name(s): William George P, District: Plymouth Vol: 5b Page: 541
Same page includes:
Surname: Weetman, First name(s): Bessie
(also another couple)
I believe William married Bessie WEETMAN rather than the other bride as William appears to have remarried in q4 1910. There was a burial of a 26 year old Bessie GOTHAM in Plymouth RD in q1 1910, consistent with being William's wife. (No burial of a Fanny Edith, the name of the other bride, between 1903 and 1910)