Mary Hayward was born in about 1673 and became the second wife of William Bendy, marrying him on 17 Mar 1697 at St Benedicts, Wombourne. She is the grandmother of Mary Shaw, the wife of Thomas Shaw-Hellier. She lived the last thirty years of her life as a widow at Shutt End, Kingswinford and died in 1755. Her will was granted probate in 1758.
Mary was probably brought up in Trysull, Staffordshire, although her father William Hayward, held lands and a manor house in Little Wenlock, Shropshire. Her mother’s family, the Pudseys, were part of the Staffordshire gentry in Trysull and had all supported the parliamentary cause in the Civil War.
Her husband was in fact a second cousin with common ancestry of the Barnesley family of Trysull. William Bendy, came from a family of lawyers, and was a Middle Temple Barrister. Like his father another William Bendy, her husband must have spent some time in London. He had married Margaret Hoo on 9 Mar 1686 at Tipton and had two daughters before Margaret died, buried on 9 Feb 1695/96 in St Mary’s Kingswinford.
William was twenty years older than his second wife. He himself was buried in St Mary’s Kingswinford on 6 Feb 1724. His will, together with that of his wife, and the St Mary’s register, identifies Mary’s six children.
Her oldest son William, baptised 31 May 1700 Kingswinford, distinguished himself in that he was the only one in a succession of William Bendys, fathers and sons, who did not go to Oxford nor get called to the bar. Indeed he died intestate in 1782 and is not mentioned in his father’s will in 1724. However, by the time Mary writes her will in 1753 he is appointed sole executor.
Mary’s oldest child, though was Sarah, baptised on 24 Feb 1698/99 and married to James Shaw in St Chad’s, Pattingham, on 22 Oct 1734. As far as can be determined the descendants of James and Sarah are the only branch to produce any great grandchildren. Mary’s other two daughters did not marry nor did her two younger sons Thomas and John Bendy.
The descendants of her oldest son William, seven in all, all seem to have died young or have not married. The wills of the two last remaining children Thomas and Sarah both date from 1819 and strongly imply that their closest relations are cousins on the Shaw side (above) or on their mother’s side, the Jabet family of Birmingham.
Returning to Mary’s own children, her second son Thomas Bendy, predeceased her in 1752. In his will, written ten years before his death, Thomas left three hundred pounds to his mother and appointed his brother William as Executor. For some reason this will lay unexecuted until his mother’s death and both Thomas and his mother’s estates were granted probate on the same day.
Mary’s third son John Bendy was a surgeon. He died childless. aged 29 in 1741.
Her second daughter was Elizabeth who also predeceased her mother. In Mary’s own will she mentions the will of her daughter but this document cannot be traced.
Her third daughter Ann-Marie Bendy was alive and unmarried at her mother’s death. She is recorded as being buried on 28 Nov 1767 in St Mary’s Kingswinford.
The focus of this web site is on the descendants of her daughter Sarah Shaw. James Shaw was clearly a capable attorney and well connected in Dudley but his marriage brought this branch of the Shaw family in touch with Oxford educated lawyers and clergymen. Sarah’s first cousin, and Mary’s nephew was William Hayward, a Middle temple Barrister and Serjeant at Arms.
Mary Bendy was buried at St Mary’s Kingswinford on 13 Apr 1755,
Sources and Notes
- Will of Mary Bendy, PCC Probate 18 Apr 1758
- Will of William Bendy, PCC Probate 5 Feb 1725 (Husband)
- Will of Sarah Shaw PCC 26 Mar 1782 (Eldest daughter)
- Inventory of William Bendy, Intestate 1782 , Lichfield (Eldest son)
- Will of Thomas Bendy, PCC Probate 18 Apr 1758 (Second son)
- Probate on Mary’s will delayed and granted on same day as this will
- Wills of Sarah Bendy and Thomas Bendy (youngest grandchildren) PCC Probate 16 Mar 1819
- Again a pair of wills with the same probate date. The sums of money are large and all given to cousins – Hayward Shaw, William Bendy Shaw (children of James Hayward Shaw) , Richard Jabet, Jane Corbet, Elizabeth Fifield, Mary Lister and Robert Dudley (all related to Elizabeth Matthews – the supposed wife of Mary’s son William)
- The three Corbet sisters are the three daughter of John Barrett Corbet, a surgeon, and Jane Matthews of Kingswinford (marriage 1769). Jane Matthews would appear to be the niece of William’s wife.
- It is supposed that Elizabeth Matthews is the mother of ALL of William Bendy’s children and she is the daughter of John Matthews, Rector of Broseley. At least two of her nieces married clergymen – notably William Jabet of Birmingham (will 1785 Lichfield)
- The marriage date of daughter Sarah is a little enigmatic as 22 Oct 1734 is also given as the date of the birth of the first child Mary in the Kingswinford register, with a baptism recorded as 6 Nov 1734.. The marriage licence and bond exists and carries the date 15 Oct 1734.