17th Century

John Cartwright, the elder, a yeoman of Rowley Regis died and left a will granted probate on 17 May 1661. We can be fairly confident that he is the John Cartwright referred to in the Dudley Archive document DE/4/7/11/14 where a 1585 grant of land by Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley is extended to the next generation of Cartwrights dated 17 May 1612. This makes John Cartwright  the son of William Cartwright and names his two immediate siblings as William Cartwright (will 1668) and Alice Chambers alias Ireland. His grandfather is thus very likely to be John Cartwright of Rowley Regis who leaves a will of 1587.  Continue reading →

Ambrose Birch was buried on 17 Feb 1729/30 in Rowley Regis and left a will, probate 20 Jul 1730. He was the father of Catherine Darby, the great grandmother of Emma Clifton. Continue reading →

Adam Read was a Barber Surgeon in Dudley, who lived from approximately 1658 to 1717. He left a will dated 20 Jan 1716/17, which clarifies a number of points about his life Continue reading →

Richard Shaw of Pinfolds is a significant but very hard member of the Shaw family of 16th century Dudley to pin down, as his life parallels that of his putative first cousin Richard Shaw of Netherton. Continue reading →

Thomas Whitehouse, Yeoman  of Coseley in the Parish of Sedgley left a will, probate 13 Feb of 1710/11. Continue reading →

John Turton, yeoman of Rowley Regis left a will probate 7 May 1635. He names his three sons William, John and Thomas and three daughters Eleanor, Elizabeth and Mary. William, Eleanor and Elizabeth are all married.  Continue reading →

Humphrey Coleborne, yeoman of Rowley Regis, left a will Probate 15 Sep 1660. It is clear though that his interests and roots came firmly from the nearby town of Dudley, also at the time in Worcestershire.  Continue reading →

There were three successive, fathers and eldest sons, called Edmund Darby of Rowley Regis, near Dudley in Staffordshire. Firstly Edmund Darby buried in St Giles Rowley Regis on 22 Feb 1687/8. Secondly Edmund Darby 1670-1746  Thirdly Edmund Darby 1695-1768. All were literate and left wills, held at Worcester. Continue reading →

William Barnesley was born in Trysull, near Wolverhampton, in about 1568. His parents were Thomas Barnesley and Katherine Cooke, who had married in All Saints, Trysull in 1565. Continue reading →

Thomas Pudsey was baptized on 24 Mar 1607/08 in Sutton Coldfield but lived most of his life in Seisdon, near Wolverhampton. He was the son of Nicholas Pudsey of Harborne and Catherine, daughter of Raphael Norman, vicar of Harborne. This was a cadet branch of the gentry Pudsey family of Langley Hall in Warwickshire.  Continue reading →

William Hayward was born in 1642 and was buried on 14 Sep 1708 in St Lawrence, Little Wenlock. He is the father of Mary Hayward, the second wife of William Bendy (1653-1724). In the marriage bonds of February 1697 it states that she comes from Little Wenlock in Shropshire. The Hayward family were prominent landowners in that area of Shropshire since the middle ages. Continue reading →

Henry Gough was an important Wolverhampton draper who died and left a will dated 1655. He was the oldest son and heir of John Gough, a wealthy merchant engaged in the Wolverhampton cloth trade. The family, it is believed, had originally come from London. A baptism record for a Henry son of John Gough is recorded in the register of St Peter’s Wolverhampton on 29 Dec 1561. However, this baptism is very early and would make him a man of 94 when he died. It is widely recorded elsewhere though that when his father married Elizabeth Blount of Ridware in St Peter’s on 8 May 1565 this was John Gough’s second marriage. The name of Henry’s mother is different and omitted. The baptism of his brother or half brother Richard is recorded in St Peter’s as 15 Sep 1569. Continue reading →

Lancelot Lee was baptized in Alveley, Shropshire on 14 Nov 1594, the oldest son and heir of Thomas Lee (1561-1620) and Dorothy Ottley (bur 9 Aug 1636), of Coton Hall, which is about 13 miles from Wolverhampton. The Lees were wealthy Elizabethan gentry – Thomas’s father John Lee (1530-1605) had been knighted and had attended the queen’s court. Continue reading →

William Bendy was baptised in All Saints, Trysull on 20 Aug 1620 and died in 1684. He was an Oxford educated barrister and during the Civil War both he and his father were evidently both stalwarts for Parliament in Staffordshire. He was born at the family house at Shut End, Kingswinford and his parents were William Bendy (1593-1657) and Mary Barnesley (1593-1653). He matriculated at New Inn Hall Oxford on 17 Oct 1634 at the tender age of 14. He attained his BA on 17 Jan 1637 and was precociously admitted at Lincoln’s Inn on 3 Jun 1638 and was active in 1645. This would make him a direct contemporary of Richard Cromwell. Continue reading →

Peter Toovey, yeoman of Turville, in Buckinghamshire died in 1668 leaving a will, probate granted 17 Jul 1668.  This will indicates he left a widow, Elizabeth and a young family of four daughters and one son Peter. The trail of land documents D-X977 in the Buckinghamsire archive would strongly suggest that he was therefore the father of Peter Toovey of Wormsley (1665-1741) and Ann Rolles (1660-1739). We can also surmise that he is the Peter Toovey who is baptized in Turville Parish Church on 28 Jul 1622, the child of Edward and Ann Toovey and he is therefore one of the young children each bequeathed a sheep by their grandfather Peter Toovey’s will of 1636, where it mentions Edward and his brother Jeffrey. Continue reading →