The family tale goes like this: "Once upon a time the only daughter of an Earl in England fell in love and wanted to marry her piano/music teacher, a gentleman by the last name of Bean (?). The Earl refused, of course, telling the daughter, 'You cannot throw yourself away in marriage to a commoner! If you persist in this lunacy, I will have you stricken from all the records and leave my money and estates to charity.' However, the daughter so loved the piano teacher that she ran away from home and she and her love boarded a ship sailing away to the land of the free. They were married onboard by the Captain of the ship"
Unfortunately, after such a bright beginning and perhaps as in real life, the story goes to pot. The streets were not lined with gold. They did not make their fortune. And they did not live happily ever after. The lover (husband, by now) died, leaving the lovely, lonely wife/widow with three children and no viable income. One can only assume she did not skip home (England) with the family jewels...and if she contacted her father after her husband died, no tale of forgiveness or coming into sudden wealth was ever related to her descendants. She did have one asset from her upbringing, however, she did beautiful hand work which is how she supported her young family.
Note: I have no idea how the Bean name is spelled and as you can tell, not too much research has been done on this name! Unfortunately, my fondest wish of finding a disreputable character in the family tree is almost gone. Instead my tree is littered with upstanding law abiding citizens, a good many of them (shiver, shiver) ministers, preachers, etc ad nauseam. So, without a horse thief or someone equally unlaw-abiding, I'll keep the fairy tale and not delve too deeply - after all, something is better than nothing.
SARA LOUISE BEENE was born 29 Aug 1834 in New York City, NY and died 1884 in New York City, NY of post-diphtheria heart disease. She married 21 Aug 1853 in New York City, NY to John Gustaf Thompson. He was from Sweden and wanted to return home, but she would not leave her mother (apparently by this time she was the only child either alive or in the vicinity).
Reference: "1880 Soundex New York" T-765 Roll 169 T-512 thru T-525 Thompson T-512 Vol.47 Sheet 21 ED 62 Line 30 Address: 235 Mulberry St, New York City, NY.