Cecilia Betham
Irish archer

Cecilia Betham (January 1843 – 18 April 1913) was an Irish archer.
Early life and family
Cecilia Betham was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in January 1843. She was the only daughter and second child of archivist, Molyneux Cecil John Betham (1813–1880), and Elizabeth Betham (née Ford). Her maternal grandparents were Sir Richard Ford, chief magistrate (1800–1806) and an amateur painter, Marianne (née Booth). Her uncle was writer Richard Ford. The family lived in London when Betham was a young child, living in 123 Park Street, Grosvenor Square by 1846, and Clarges Street by 1851, where she was educated at home. In 1829, Molyneux Betham was appointed Cork herald of arms, and in 1834 the deputy Ulster king of arms. The family returned to Ireland following the death of Betham's paternal grandfather, William Betham, on 26 October 1853.
Betham married her first cousin William Sheffield Betham in Devon on 27 August 1874. William was Local Government Board official and a member of the County of Dublin Archers, and eldest son of the Dublin herald, Sheffield Philip Fiennes Betham.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 11, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q84771799. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1843, 1913, 1813 and 1880.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cecilia Betham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.