Wednesday 10 June 2015

Fletcher family of Ebrington

I finally feel as though I am starting to unwind some of the convolutions of this family. My grandmother Isabella Sheaf of Honeybourne was descended twice over from the Fletchers, with the marriage of Robert Fletcher and his cousin Muriel Fletcher in 1813. They were her great grandparents. The Fletchers are an important part of the Sheaf story not just because of this double line, but also because Isabella's childhood home at Honeybourne Manor Farm came into the Sheaf family through this marriage. Muriel Fletcher's parents were Richard Fletcher and Muriel Smith who were from the Aston Magna area near Ebrington in Gloucestershire. Richard was a child of Richard Fletcher and Sarah ? also of Ebrington. By collating all the BDMs I can find from the Ebrington registers and online indexes etc I have come to the conclusion that Richard Fletcher 1712-1779 (Muriel's grandfather) was a son of John Fletcher born Ebrington abt 1669. At this stage I have John's other children as Mary (born 1695 Ebrington), Robert and Thomas. Mary married Mr Pool and they had a child Charles. Thomas married somebody and had at least three children Thomas, Richard and Robert but as yet I have not narrowed down any specific dates for them. These are all named as legatees in an abstract of Richard's will 1779. Richard's 1779 will also mentions a niece, Mary Holtham wife of Abel Holtham of Wellesbourne. They were married in Wellesbourne in 1762. She must be a daughter of either Robert or Thomas, but at this point in time I am not sure which. Richard appears to have acquired considerable amounts of farmland in his lifetime, mentioning land/property in Ilmington, Ebrington, Hidcote and Saintbury. These are the leads I am currently following in order to find out more.

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