John Bach of Dudley, yeoman, left a will, probate 12 Aug 1640. He names his wife as Isabel and his children in the order William, Richard and John and daughters Isabel and Elizabeth. Continue reading →
William Hayward of Little Wenlock died in 1639 and left a will. He was the son of William Hayward, who had died in 1602. William was the father of two sons, George and William Hayward. It is clear he was also the grandfather of a fourth generation, William Hayward (1642-1708), who married Mary Pudsey in Trysull, Staffs in 1665. It is less clear whether the son, George, or the son William, is the father of this fourth William. 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Elizabeth Wilmer, who married Gilbert Jellians in Dudley in about 1642, had a father, grandfather and great grandfather each called Thomas Wilmer. Their dates were respectively Thomas Wilmer of Staverton (1522-1580), his son Thomas Wilmer of Budbroke (1554-1628) and his son Thomas Wilmer of Dudley (1594-1680). Elizabeth Wilmer was baptized in St Edmunds Dudley on 11 Aug 1623. 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 →
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 →