17th Century

William Rolles was baptized on 30 Oct 1648 in Garsington in Oxfordshire, the second eldest son of Ralph Rolles and his wife Jane. This branch of the Rolles family had been living in Turville from the mid 16th century but it is almost certainly a junior branch of the Rolles family of nearby Lewknor, where they briefly had tenure of Lewknor Manor and where there is an impressive eighteenth century monument to the full Rolles ancestry in the local church. Indeed William Rolles ‘returned’ to Lewknor and died there in 1711 leaving a will, describing him as a ‘yeoman of Lewknor.’ Continue reading →

Bartholomew Collingwood was baptized in St Mary the Virgin, Bampton, Oxfordshire on 10 Sep 1643. His father was Thomas Collingwood a yeoman farmer. Bartholomew became a glover and breeches maker, which was a significant trade in Bampton, based on the by-products of the wool trade and the blanket making in neighbouring Witney. Bartholomew left a will dated 1 Dec 1713. Like his father he was a literate man. Continue reading →

Thomas Collingwood was a yeoman farmer from Bampton, Oxfordshire, son of John Collingwood and Cicely Slaymaker, baptized on 26 May 1601 in St Mary the Virgin, Bampton. He left a will of 1668 that permits us to begin to uncover his family and position in the early industrial society of the small town, 9 miles west of Oxford. Both his father and mother left wills of 1630 and 1643 respectively.  Continue reading →

Alice Finch is listed as the mother of Gilbert Jellians (1624-1700) in a number of Victorian genealogies, based largely on contemporary ‘Visitations’ of the county. She was married to Gilbert Jellians (Snr) on 6 May 1623 according to the parish register of St Thomas Dudley and her only recorded son Gilbert Jellians, the younger, was baptized on 1 Oct 1624.  Continue reading →

Richard Shaw of Netherton, near Dudley, a yeoman, died in 1657, leaving a will that helps build a picture of his numerous descendants. His father was probably Richard Shaw, yeoman of St Edmund’s Dudley, who left a will of 1616. A number of further wills and the parish registers of St Edmunds and St Thomas Dudley help us to build up a detailed picture. Continue reading →

Gilbert Jellians was baptized on 1 Oct 1624 in St Thomas Dudley, the only son of Gilbert Jellians. His father had married Alice Finch in St Thomas Dudley on 6 May 1623. The Finches were an important and well connected family in Dudley at this time and appear to have had a large nail and iron mongering business. The Jellians family throughout the seventeenth century accumulated considerable wealth and status in the town of Dudley. Continue reading →

Oliver Shaw was baptized in St Thomas, Dudley on 5 Sep 1647, the son of Oliver and Elizabeth Shaw. The Shaws were a prominent family in the small town of Dudley – owning land and carrying out a variety of trades. A 1649 levy on the town indicates 162 houses existed in Dudley that were taxed. By 1660 the population of Dudley including Netherton based on Hearth Tax records is estimated at just over 1800. Various Shaws appear on these two tax lists. Continue reading →

William Lloyd was born in Bristol between 1608 and 1611. His father was probably Thomas Lloyd, an important brewer who had married Elizabeth Gibbes in Christ Church Bristol on 14 Apr 1605. Continue reading →