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Stanford (Bilberry)
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In an appendix to an account of the life of William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, edited by Thomas Warton Jones there is a family tree which records the Bedell and Stanford family connection. The Bedell family originally came to Ireland from Essex in the early 17th century. Bishop Bedell’s son Ambrose, a soldier, was granted lands in county Cavan under the Acts of Settlement. His brother, the Reverend William Bedell, was vicar of Kinawley and had a daughter Isabella who married Major Daniel French of Belturbet (died 1702). Their daughter Eleanor married John Stanford of Belturbet and this couple eventually inherited the Bedell estate in county Cavan. In the mid-19th century Captain Bedell Stanford held land in the parishes of Kildallan and Killashandra. He married Elizabeth Gale and their son, John Woodward Stanford, owned 605 acres in county Cavan in 1876 and William J. Stanford of Dublin owned 798 acres. Other members of the Stanford family were the composer Charles Villier Stanford (1852-1924) and William Bedell Stanford (1910-1984), classical scholar and Irish senator.
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