18th Century

John Bagnall, the elder, was baptized in St Leonard’s Broseley on 4 Nov 1730. In his will of 1800 he describes himself as a yeoman of Darlaston, some 40 miles to the east. This description though, is a little misleading as it might imply that he earned his living largely through agriculture. We can be pretty sure that the reason he moved to the area was because of the Coal mines that existed or were even opened by him on his land in Darlaston (probably behind Pinfold Street). His sons and grandsons helped build a number of significant Iron Works, first at Gold’s Hill, just west of Walsall, that became a major force across West Bromwich, Walsall and Tipton best known and named after the second generation, John Bagnall the younger, as “John Bagnall and Sons”. Continue reading →

Daniel Shaw was baptized on 28 Feb 1681 on St Thomas, Dudley the eldest son of Oliver Shaw and Alice Jellians. He left a will dated 11 Oct 1739 that describes him as a Mercer of Dudley and names his surviving children as Daniel (bap Nov 1708), James (bap 27 Aug 1710), Frances (bap 15 Jul 1712) and Read (b c1717). This allows us to identify him as the father of James Shaw, attorney and early mine entrepreneur, of Dudley and determine the ancestral lineage of Mary Shaw, wife of Rev Thomas Shaw-Hellier. Continue reading →

Jane Walford married Jeremiah Thomings on 7 Oct 1759 at St Laurence, Northfield to the South West of Birmingham. Jane is almost certainly closely related to the Walford family of ironmongers from Birmingham but it is difficult to place exactly how. Continue reading →

Ann Toovey married William Rolles in All Hallows Church in the City of London in 1686. Both their families were from the Turville area on the edge of the Chilterns. Continue reading →

William Payne was probably born around 1670 not far from Thame in Oxfordshire. We know a fair bit about him from various records most notably his will of 1747. He was a glover and clearly ran a successful business as a master glover and breeches maker in the small Oxfordshire market town of Thame where he lived for over fifty years. The glove trade was closely related to the tanning business that was to be a theme repeated in the subsequent generations notably with John Warmington. He was part of the class of literate tradesmen with a progressive and perhaps non-conformist outlook that was typical in a small market town like Thame. Other related trades are currier (curing leather) and fellmongerer (stripping and dealing sheep hides) Continue reading →

Jeremiah Thomings was baptised in Kingswinford on 10 Mar 1733, the son of David and Sarah Thomings. We know a little about him because of the wills of two of his brothers as well as a host of details from various parish registers. Continue reading →

Joseph Warmington was baptized in St Peter’s Hook Norton on 8 Apr 1737, the youngest son of John Warmington and Patience Beale. It is possible to trace a few events in his life but it is patchy and speculative for two reasons. Firstly he seems to have moved around a fair amount and secondly his family were almost certainly baptized in Baptist churches where the records have not been traced. Continue reading →

Joseph Showell was baptized on 18 Aug 1769 in St Edburgha’s in Yardley to the East of the then small town of Birmingham. His father was Thomas Roades Showell, a victualler and his mother Mary Bissell, from nearby Bickenhill. The Showells came from a stock of middling yeoman farmers based around Sheldon, Coventry and Monks Kirby. Joseph’s grandparents – Joseph Showell and Elizabeth Roades were married in St Edburghas in 1729. His grandson Walter Showell, the brewer clearly felt a strong affinity to his heritage in Birmingham and its past, when he famously published the Dictionary of Birmingham in 1885. Continue reading →

John Hartill was a relatively wealthy merchant and tradesman in Dudley (c1735-1812). It is not clear when and where he was born, but there is good reason to believe he is descended from one of the many Hartill families of nearby Willenhall. Continue reading →

Edward Bagnall was baptized at St Leonard’s, Broseley in Shropshire on 22 Mar 1761. He was the third of four sons of John Bagnall and Margaret Dixon. John Bagnall is described as a mining engineer, significant because Broseley was at the very heart of the Industrial Revolution, just a mile or so from Coalbrookdale and the famous Ironbridge, built in 1779. Continue reading →

Samuel Chiswick was baptized on 27 May 1740 at St Dunstan’s Stepney, the eldest son of Samuel Chiswick, a miller from Poplar. The parish records give a fair amount of details of his life. He was the first of a long line of the Chiswick family who became coopers in the East End of London. Continue reading →

Alice Harford was the youngest daughter of Thomas Harford, a Quaker, and was born in about 1708. Thomas Harford had married Martha Butler, Alice’s mother, on !8 Mar 1688 in the Society of Friends meeting house in Bristol. The Harford family owned estates in Marshfield in Gloucestershire and either for economic reasons or religious reasons a number of the branches of the family moved to Bristol and took a prominent role in the city’s affairs and in particular with the trade to Virginia and Pennsylvania. Alice had at least five elder siblings. Continue reading →

Robert Amberson Marten was born in Glastonbury in 1699. His father was William Martin, a soap boiler in Bristol. The origin of the Martin (sic) family was almost certainly from the Glastonbury area – but William appears to have married Elizabeth the niece of a Bristol trader and adventurer Robert Amberson in 1678. Robert Amberson Marten was the youngest of at least four children. Continue reading →

James Shaw was born approximately in 1710 in Dudley Worcestershire. He was to become a well respected attorney working for a succession of the Dudley and Ward families of Dudley Castle.  He also worked for and had a strong friendship with Samuel Hellier, a prominent member of the Staffordshire gentry. Samuel Hellier was a renowned collector especially of Musical Instruments. Continue reading →