Dorothy Beach (1690-1772), Joan Beach (1700-1765) and Sophia Beach (1705-1787)

Thomas Beach was one of 14 children, at least seven of whom survived into adulthood. Three of his sisters did not marry, and lived together into old age, apparently first at Fittleton (Wiltshire) and then at Kelston, near Bath (Somerset). They were quite wealthy and appear to have loaned money to family members and acquaintances, and Sophia in particular appears to have been a formidable character. It is possible to identify the handwriting of the three sisters, both here [D2455/F2/4/1-2 and 4] and in family account books elsewhere in the collection, as the hands keeping the accounts change at the death of Joan in 1765; the hand which continues the accounts ceases at the death of Sophia in 1787. Another account book [D2455/F2/4/3] is in a different hand and ceases in 1771, just before Dorothy's death, and can be attributed fairly certainly to Dorothy; her hand also appears in D2455/F2/4/1