Isabel Sheaf

My grandmother's name was Isabella Sheaf. In the Sheaf family, her name was almost unique. As I have been researching the different lines of this family, Isabella or its variations has rarely featured.

Going back about 400 years however, there are fleeting references to an Isabel Sheaf, daughter of Thomas Sheaf  DD and Maria Wilson. Up until now, she has been a shadowy figure, mentioned by her birth name in only one family will. The first reference I found to Isabel was in the will of her uncle, David Rawson (Husband to the sister of Maria Wilson) citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, in 1616. He leaves her "three pounds to be bestowed in a piece of plate and given her at her age of twenty one years or at the day of her marriage, which ever shall first happen." From this, one presumes that Isabel is not yet married OR 21, putting her birth sometime between 1595 and 1616.

In the absence of any record for birth, marriage or death for an Isabel Sheaf at the appropriate time, this necessitated some alternative research strategies. One of the difficulties with this family is that they consistently referred to women in wills by their married family names only - eg: daughter Westley, daughter Norwood, sister Whitfield, sister Bale etc. Grrrrrr!

After trying many different combinations of names and places I found baptism/burial records for children of Thomas and Isabel Norwood in the parish of St Alphege, Canterbury and also in Harbledown, a hamlet just outside Canterbury. The children were named Mary, Rebecca, William and Isabel which fitted into the context of family naming patterns; and the dates between 1633 and 1639 also fitted an appropriate time frame. A little more research yielded the information that Thomas Norwood was an Anglican Clergyman, born in St Mildred Canterbury, ordained as a preacher to the diocease of Canterbury and Rochester in 1632 and appointed curate of the parish of Harbledown in 1636. A perfect fit! He died in 1637 and in his will named his widow Isabel and daughters Mary, Rebecca and Isabel.

The next reference that seems to match Isabel, was in the 1639 will of her father Thomas Sheaf, also an Anglican Clergyman. He refers to her as daughter Norwood but gives no other indication of her identity.

In 1647, Isabel's brother Edmund Sheaf died. He was a citizen and mercer of London and had married Elizabeth Cotton. He also names his sisters by their married names, but sister Norwood has disappeared from the list and "sister Bale" appears. From this I deduced that Isabel Sheaf, then Norwood, had remarried to a Mr Bale. I had a look at more Canterbury registers and found a baptism for John Bale in 1646, son of John and Isabel. This looked hopeful!

I cross checked against some other family wills and found a legacy to John Bale, son of Dr John Bale of Canterbury in the will of Isabel's brother Grindall Sheaf in 1680. Grindall (also an Anglican Clergyman) named several nieces and nephews but going by his birth date I think Dr John Bale was Isabel's son, rather than her husband, making the legatee a great-nephew of Grindall.

It is also highly probable that Isabel and John Bale had at least one other child, a daughter Isabel, who married Thomas Smith in 1677 at St Mary Bredin, Canterbury. Another highly probable link is that a John Bale of Canterbury married Elizabeth Juxon in 1676 also at St Mary Bredin. The Juxon family were connected to the Sheafs through the marriage of Edmund Sheaf (Isabel's brother) and Elizabeth Cotton, who was the daughter of Samuel Cotton and Elizabeth Juxon.

All things considered, I think it is highly probable that the Isabel Sheaf, daughter of Thomas and Maria, married first Thomas Norwood and then John Bale and bore at least 6 children.

The Stokes family of Cheltenham

This family is one of my lesser researched lines and I know very little about them. George Stokes was a clergyman in Cheltenham, educated at Oxford in about 1726.

He and his wife Mary had about 9 children most of whom were baptised in Cheltenham, although there are some for whom I cannot find baptism records. George died sometime before his wife Mary, as she was a widow when she wrote her will in 1779.

 Their daughter Jane married David Hughes Holland of Mickleton and they had two children Thomas Kemble Holland and another David Hughes Holland. I have always been interested to find out where the Kemble part of the name came from but can as yet find no evidence of a family relationship. However I have found a few tantalizing clues.

 1. Thomas and M Kemble were witnesses at the marriage of Jane Stokes and David Hughes Holland in Cheltenham.

 2. In his will of 1770, Thomas Kemble Esq of Tewkesbury leaves a bequest of 10 pounds to Mrs Mary Stokes of Cheltenham, widow.

 3 Thomas Kemble's wife Margaret leaves a property to Charles Wynne, the son of Robert Wynne and Dorothy Stokes - a sister of Jane Stokes.

 4. Thomas Kemble Holland and his wife Temperance Tomes use the names Stokes and Wynne when they name their children.

 5. Thomas Kemble of Tewkesbury had a brother Daniel who was also a Church of England Clergyman.

 6. Thomas Kemble's mother was Elizabeth Michell of Cheltenham....maybe this is where the connection is? Mysteries to solve!

Will the real Humphrey Colles please stand up.

Just who was Humphrey Colles of Castelet, who married Elinore Carter; the gentleman who is my 9x great-grandfather? Primary evidence of his life is very scant (although I live in hope that some will turn up) so my best conjecture as to who he is is based on tiny, disparate clues from across the record books. As much for my own benefit as anyone else's, I will set out my current thesis as to his identity. Any other evidence confirming or denying this conjecture would be gratefully received!

 Things I am very certain of:
 1: Humphrey Colles is named in the 1627 will of John Carter of Nether Swell, Gloucestershire, as his son in law.

 2: A child Eleanore Colles, was baptised in Sevenhampton in 1616; the daughter of Humphrey Colles and Elinore.

 3 Between 1628 and 1637, three children were baptised in Guiting Power, the children of Humphrey Colles and Elinore.

 4. The Colles property at Guiting Power, was known as the Manor of Cateslade or the Manor of Chattreland or the Manor of Castelet. These names seem to be interchangeable but all to refer to the same place.

 5. This Humphrey Colles was memorialised in the following text: Epicedia - Funeral verses upon the much lamented death of that most loyal subject and religious gentleman Mr Hmphrey Colles of Cateslade; departed this life Nov 15 and was solemnly interred Nov 18 Anno salutis 1661 Ætatis suæ.77 This would make his birth date about 1584 and his death in 1661.

 6. This Humphrey Colles was named in several legal transactions with the associated families of Carter, Lawrence, Broadway, Goddard and Fettiplace. The Carters, Lawrences and Broadways were connected via his marriage with Elinore Carter and the Goddards and Fettiplaces were connected through his son John Colles who married Culpepper Goddard.

 My conjecture is that Humphrey Colles of Cateslade is the third son of John Colles of Barton in Somerset and Ann Thynne or possibly his second wife Winifred Leigh. This is based on the following:

 1. In the will of George Colles 1632, son of John Colles of Barton, he makes his brother Humphrey Colles executor and also mentions Humphrey's wife Eleanor and son George.

 2. The first son of John Colles, also John, was born in about 1582 according to his memorial inscription in the church at Pitminster, Somerset. This means that Humphrey could have been born in about 1584 as the third son.

 3. Chancery records from the reign of James 1 (1603-1625) link the families of Thynne, Colles of Barton and the Chamberlayne family. Eleanore Colles (see point 2 above) married Edmund Chamberlayne of Maughersbury.

 4. His father and both his brothers are also linked to funeral verses and sermons. In this case, they were written by William Schlater who was the rector of Pitminster in Somerset and who had been sponsered by John Colles senior. Assuming the family shared a common religious observance, it would not be surprising that they were all commemorated in some way. As far as I know the Epicedia for Humphrey Colles has not been attributed to William Schlater.

 In the absence of anything more concrete, this is what I am running with, but who's to say what other pieces of the puzzle are still yet to be discovered. I may yet find that I have put all the pieces of sky in the wrong way around!

Reading wills and inventories | Tracing Ancestors In The UK

Reading wills and inventories | Tracing Ancestors In The UK I found this useful blog post today while I was checking up on some terminology used in one particular will. A good general overview!

Old Wills and the Search for Humphrey Colles.

Old wills are a wonderful source of family information and can sometimes be very useful in determining family relationships across different branches and generations. In an email today from my Mum, she said "My eyes are worn out from looking at old Wills". Mine feel a bit that way too - all that squiggly writing, little punctuation, archaic language and sometimes fuzzy imaging can be a challenge to decipher, but well worth the effort. We have been on the track of one of my most determinedly elusive ancestors, one Humphrey Colles, who married Elinore Carter. It is only through wills that we really know about this relationship. Relevant parish records of baptisms, marriages and deaths for this couple are few and far between and yet we know that Humphrey and Eleanor had at least 6 children, possibly more, and that Humphrey was in control of large amounts of money and property as an Executor, Overseer and Beneficiary in a number of wills. At this stage, I am pretty sure that Humphrey was born in about 1584 and died in 1661 at the age of 77, but some really solid evidence would be oh so very welcome!

Carter Correspondence.

This week I have been engaged in a very interesting email correspondence with William, who is researching the Carter family and connections in Gloucestershire. Rather than repeat it all here, here is a link to the relevent part of his blog. Giles Carter I enjoyed reading William's speculative essay and I hope you do too.

The Allday Brothers

I like to do research the same way I like to travel. That is to say, I seem to spend a lot of time exploring the little side streets, alleys and hidden lanes instead of sticking to the highway!

I was sorting out some Fletcher census records the other day and the name of Richard Allday caught my eye. He married Elizabeth Fletcher, daughter of Robert and Muriel Fletcher. Richard and Elizabeth feature rather prominently in the Fletcher family story due to a long and drawn out litigation involving significant bequests to Elizabeth from her Uncle Richard and also her parents. (That is really another story!) However, the reason Richard Allday waved a flag at me was that I had only a few days before looked at two other Allday gentlemen who had married two Walford sisters. Sarah and Ann Walford were daughters of William Walford and Sarah Tomes of Long Marston (Marston Sicca). They are in my first cousin line but 5 x removed. The marriages all seemed to take place within a few years of each other and the Allday -Walford marriages took place in the same church - Halford, Warwickshire. Out of idle curiosity, I wondered if the Allday men were related and if so, how closely.

After a bit of scrummaging around, I am quite confident in saying that the three Allday men, Richard, Thomas and Joseph were brothers, born in Birmingham between 1796 and 1803. Interestingly, the censuses reveal that they were movers and shakers in the meat industry. Richard was a farmer and cattle dealer, Thomas was a butcher and Joseph's wife Ann ran a 'celebrated' tripe house and coffee shop! Talk about paddock to plate! The families must have had a relatively close relationship with each other as sometimes children from one family are living in the home of another family at census time. This is particularly the case for Joseph and Ann who don't appear to have had any children of their own.

 Joseph went on to become a prominent and controversial Councillor in Birmingham, starting as editor of a 'scurrilous weekly periodical' The Argus, which took as its motto " Yes, I am proud. I must be proud to see men not afraid of God, afraid of me!" Funnily enough, this little side trip into an almost unrelated family connection is leading me out into some more familiar territory. It appears that after his wife Sarah Walford died, butcher Thomas Allday remarried a woman from Quinton in Gloucestershire called Helen Southam. Her father was Thomas Corbett Southam who appears as an executor, overseer and beneficiary in several Fletcher and connected wills. Another trail to follow!