Thomas Harford, a yeoman, of Marshfield lived from 1627 to 1710, leaving a will. He was the grandfather of Alice wife Robert Amberson Marten. Marshfield lies 12 miles to the east of Bristol. Bristol and its port grew rapidly during the period of his life and many of the Harford family were drawn into its burgeoning economic activity and made considerable sums of money.
The numerous branches of the Harford family in Marshfield are extremely difficult to disentangle . A book written in 1909 by Alice Harford makes an attempt, but she did not have access to many of the wills that are now available. The ancestor that she places is a Charles Harford, soapboiler of Bristol (1631-1709). It is clear he is the younger brother of Thomas (above). Other things are less clear with multiple Mark Harfords and John Harfords.
In Thomas’s will, he refers to his cousins in Bristol, meaning his nephews. These match the children of Charles who had predeceased him in 1709. This leads us to two baptisms on 28 Dec 1627 and 17 May 1631 respectively and we can deduce from the parish register that their father is called Mark Harford
In the church of St Mary the Virgin in Marshfield there is a memorial to Mark Harford, 1612 to 1682, both to him and his wife Sarah. However, he is too young to be the father of Thomas and Charles. A baptism on 1 Nov 1612 in the parish register would imply this Mark’s father is John. He marries Sarah Briscoe on 1 May 1634. This takes us to the will of a John Harford, the younger, probate 1618. Here John, evidently a young man, has a son Mark as well as a brother by the same name. The will makes it clear John Harford is married to Alice Hooke, daughter of Ellis Hooke.
In Alice Harford’s 1909 book she explains that the older Mark Harford was probably baptised in around 1570, first marrying Ellen Allsop on 15 Jan 1600 and then after a childless marriage Ellen, wife of Mark, is buried on 7 Oct 1626, Mark remarries and has a family in his sixties with his second wife.
It follows that John Harford who dies in 1618 is thus the brother to Thomas Harford’s father.
Mark Harford the younger, John Harford’s son, would have been orphaned at the age of 6 and it seems quite possible was brought up in the household of his uncle and namesake Mark. He would have been 15 when Thomas was born. Thomas never had a brother christened Mark and this might support the view that the cousins were very close and even in the same household.
As well as a brother Charles, Thomas did have two further brothers, Edward and John. Edward, it is believed, died aged 24 but John seemingly went on to marry one of the daughters of Mark Harford, his cousin. In his own will in 1683 Mark Harford talks of his son-in-law John Harford (who in a generation step was also his first cousin)
Just as Mark Harford (1612-1682) lived his life in Marshfield, so too did Thomas. But both Thomas’s brother Charles and practically all Thomas’s children sought their fortunes in Bristol. They nearly all became Quakers and brother Charles was persecuted and imprisoned for these beliefs
We know virtually nothing about the wife of Thomas other than she was called Mary and they must have married around 1649. The children of Thomas Harford, as enumerated in the will are as follows
- Mark Harford (bap 23 Jan 1650/51) – easily confused with his namesake son of Mark Harford (bap 13 Feb 1649/50). Mark, Thomas’s son, does not appear to have had any surviving children. He may have moved to Bristol.
- Alice Harford (bap 9 Dec 1653) married to John Chambers
- Thomas Harford (bap 8 May 1659) the second oldest son. – the grandchildren in the will (including Alice) are all his. He married Martha Butler, a Quaker.
- Sarah Harford (bap 11 Apr 1661) married to Benjamin Power, a Quaker
- Elinor Harford (bap 6 Mar 1663) is the sole executor of the will and must have been her father’s close companion in his later years.
- Ann Harford (bap 27 Aug 1667, Doynton) married to Thomas Mather
Mary, ‘the wife of Thomas Harford’ was buried 15 Jan 1703/04 and he himself was buried on 10 May 1710, aged 83.
Sources and Notes
- Parish Register of St Mary the Virgin, Marshfield (ancestry.com)
- Will of Thomas Harford PCC Probate 23 May 1710
- Alice Harford (ed): Annals of the Harford Family, Westminster Press 1909
- Will of John Harford, PCC Probate 26 Mar 1618 (Uncle)
- It is clear that Mark the son is a minor – the overseers are tellingly brother – Mark, father-in-law – Ellis Hooke, brother-in-law – Ellis Hooke and the vicar. Executor wife, Alice.
- Will of Mark Harford PCC Probate 12 May 1683 (First cousin)
- He is buried 20 Mar 1682/83 with memorial and one would imagine is the senior line (ie John, above, is older brother to Mark)
- Will of Sarah Harford, Probate Gloucester 26 Apr 1688 (wife of the above)
- Will of Charles Harford PCC Probate 15 Dec 1709 (brother)
- Charles mentions his older brother Thomas and bequeaths £5 to each of his living children
- Charles is a far wealthier man than his older brother Thomas back in Marshfield
- Joseph Besse: A collection of the sufferings of the people called Quakers (1753) is the most contemporary account of the huge and repeated fines on Charles Harford and also the collective letters from Newgate Prison in Bristol
- The earliest indication of Thomas’s wife comes with the baptism of Elinor Harford in 1663, when it names her mother as Mary
- Thomas Harford appears as one of the trustees in the will of William England, Probate Gloucester 1668
- but the Hester England who marries Mark Harford in 1683 must be marrying the son of Mark Harford, died 1682. Her father was Joseph England as identified in the latter’s will.
- Between the death of Ellen Harford in Oct 1626 and the birth of Thomas in Dec 1627 there is a very small window for his father to remarry. A marriage between Mark Harford and Alice Gregory on 22 Jan 1626/27, St John the Baptist, Bristol, is a strong candidate to be Thomas’s parents. This, if true, would contradict the 1909 account.