The Boulton family of London and Worcestershire

Last week I discovered a new ancestor: my 9 x great grandfather Thomas Forrest, a London citizen and haberdasher who lived at Little Tower Hill in the parish of St Botolph, Aldgate, and who died in 1678. He and his wife Anne were the parents of my 8 x great grandmother Alice Forrest who married Sussex-born citizen and stationer John Byne.

I’ve been trying to find out more about the Forrest family, by studying the wills of Alice, her father Thomas, and her uncle William. From William’s and Alice’s wills we learn that the family had connections in Worcestershire: William owned land in his home village of Badsey, about ten miles east of Evesham, which he bequeathed to Alice and her son John. Rather like John Byne’s family, the Forrests seem to have had one foot in the shires, where they were yeoman farmers, and another in London and ‘trade’.

Churchyard at Badsey, Worcestershire (via flickr.com)

Thomas Forrest’s will is not particularly helpful in furthering our knowledge of his family, since the only relatives he mentions are his wife Anne, his son Thomas, his daughter Alice, her husband John Byne, and their daughter Anne. William’s and Alice’s wills, on the other hand, present us with a large cast of characters that potentially provides clues to the Forrest family’s origins and connections. As always, however, we need to be wary of references to ‘cousins’, as this word seems to have been deployed to mean a variety of relatives (for example, William Forrest refers to Alice as his cousin, when we know that she was his niece).

I’ll probably have more to say in later posts about the range of relatives in both William’s and Alice’s wills . However, for now I want to focus on the only surname to occur in both wills: Boulton. In his will of 1700, William Forrest leaves money to ‘my sister Alice Boulton’ and to ‘my cozen Alice Bolton daughter of Peter Bolton’. In her will of 1733 (she died in 1738), Alice Byne née Forrest writes:

I do hereby request and desire my Cousin Richard Boulton the Elder to be Overseer of this my said Will and to assist advise and direct my said Executrices in the due Execution thereof and I do hereby give and bequeath unto my said Cousin Richard Boulton for his care and trouble in assisting my said Executrices two Guineas to buy him a Ring.

Given William’s imprecision in describing his relatives, his ‘cozen’ Alice Boulton might be related to him in any number of ways. However, the fact that he also refers to a sister with the name Alice Boulton leads me to speculate that he had a sibling named Alice (Forrest) who married a Mr Boulton – probably Peter – and that the ‘cozen’ named Alice is actually their daughter and thus his niece (it may not be a coincidence that he uses the same term for his niece Alice Byne). In her will, Alice Byne appears to be as liberal in her use of the word ‘cousin’ as her uncle William (she applies the term to four other people in the will, of whom one at least, Elizabeth Byne, must be a relation by marriage), so it’s difficult to determine the precise nature of her connection to Richard Boulton. However, he is certainly a relative, and one who was close enough to be trusted with the oversight of Alice’s will.

My initial search of the records for Peter, Alice and Richard Boulton was fairly unproductive. I assumed that the latter, at least, probably  lived in London, if he was able to help Alice Byne with her will. There are a number of Richard Boultons in the contemporary records. Someone of that name was paying land tax on a property in Sun Yard, East Smithfield, in the 1740s, and in 1738 Richard Boulton, son of another Richard at that address, was buried at St Botolph’s, Aldgate. There are also burial records from 1681 and 1700 for two other Richard Boultons, both of them at Tower Hill, close to the family homes to the Bynes and the Forrests. In 1677, a son named Joseph was born to Richard Boulton of Tower Hill: at first I thought the mother’s name was Alice, but this turned out to be an Ancestry mis-transcription for Amelia.

St Olave, Hart Street, London

It’s possible that one or more of these records might turn out to refer to the Richard Boulton mentioned in Alice Byne’s will. However, I’ve also followed another thread that has introduced me to what seems to be a completely different Boulton family. I’m wary of the fact that the plentiful records for this family, together with the fascination of their story, might make me too eager to claim them as my distant relatives. However, there are a number of elements that make me cautiously optimistic even if, as yet, I can’t prove their connection to my Forrest ancestors. For example, the records point both to another Tower Hill connection, and to origins in Worcestershire.

The first record for this Boulton family that I found was the will of Richard Boulton Esquire of the parish of St Olave, Hart Street, signed and sealed in 1737. St Olave’s was just to the south of Fenchurch Street and only a short distance to the west of Tower Hill and the Minories. I’ll have more to say about this long and richly informative will, and will probably produce a transcription of it, at a later date. For now, I’ll simply note that its author mentions his nephew ‘Captain Richard Boulton Junior’, suggesting that he himself might have been known as Richard Boulton Senior, or the Elder, as in Alice Byne’s will. Also, this Richard Boulton had a brother named Peter, who might be the person referred to in William Forrest’s will, and therefore possibly the husband of his sister Alice.

Worcester in the 18th century

I’ve also tracked down the will of the younger Richard Boulton, which was written three years later, in 1740, and was proved in 1745. This Richard Boulton, despite his obvious London connections, had retired to ‘Perdeswell in the County of Worcester’, suggesting a family association with that part of the country. Once again, it will take a closer analysis, and probably a detailed transcription, to yield all the information contained in this will. However, as well as confirming much that was suggested in his uncle’s will, this later document also reveals that one branch of the family lived at Tower Hill, while another was resident in Evesham – perhaps further indirect evidence of a connection with the Forrests.

A third, brief Boulton will confirms some of the information of the other two, and adds a few more details of its own. In 1741 Peter Boulton, a gentleman of Bath but clearly with London connections, made his last will and testament. He can’t be the person who married Alice Forrest, since his wife bears the unusual name of Posthuma, a name that occurs in the earlier wills and confirms his membership of the same Boulton family.

Bath in the 18th century

None of these wills makes any mention of Alice Byne or the Forrest family, so my theory about the link with my ancestors must remain, at this stage, speculative. However, there is enough evidence in the records to encourage me to press ahead with transcribing and analysing these three wills, and attempting to reconstruct the history of the Boulton family of London and Worcestershire. I hope that, in doing so, I will uncover some clue that will provide confirmation of my hypothesis.

Thomas Forrest, citizen and haberdasher (died 1678)

I’ve managed to push one of the branches of my maternal family tree back another generation. Three months ago, I discovered that my 7 x great grandmother Mary Greene née Byne, wife of London citizen and goldsmith Joseph Greene (1677 – 1737), was descended from the Byne family of Sussex. Mary’s father was London citizen and stationer John Byne (1651 – 1689), who was born in Clayton, Sussex, the son of Rev. Magnus Byne (1615 – 1671), rector of Clayton-cum-Keymer, and his first wife Anne (1611 – 1661).

However, until yesterday I hadn’t made much progress with the family of Mary Byne’s mother Alice. I knew that she survived her husband John by almost half a century, dying in 1738. From John’s will, I had an inkling that Alice’s maiden name might be Forrest. At first I was puzzled by the fact that he left money ‘to my honoured Mother Mrs. Anne Forrest Widdow’. However, following up a reference in Alice Byne’s will to property in Badsey, Worcestershire, I came across the 1699 will of William Forrest, a yeoman of that parish, which made me think that Anne Forrest might actually have been John Byne’s mother-in-law. William’s will makes bequests to Alice and her son John, describing Alice as his ‘cousin’; however, I’ve confirmed from other sources that she was actually his niece. Walter Renshaw’s history of the Byne family makes reference to a legal dispute between Alice and her son John concerning the Badsey property; I’ve now obtained copies of the original Chancery papers in which John describes William Forrest as his great uncle.

I’d been assuming that Alice’s origins were in Worcestershire, but then it occurred to me that it was more likely her husband John met her in London, when he moved there from Sussex, perhaps first as an apprentice, and then to set up in business himself. We know that John and Alice lived at Tower Hill, in the parish of St Botolph, Aldgate, so I focused my search on that part of the city. At the National Archives, I came across the will of Thomas Forrest, a haberdasher of St Botolph’s, who died in 1678. This seemed a likely bet, so I took a chance and purchased a copy online.

A haberdasher and his family (Henry Chorley of Preston), c.1680

As soon as I began to browse the will, I knew that my gamble had paid off. About half way through the will was a reference to ‘my son in law John Bines [sic]’ and ‘my daughter Alice his wife and Anne their daughter’. The will also confirms that the name of Thomas’ wife was Anne, and that besides Alice they had a son, Thomas. Perhaps most interestingly, we learn that the Forrests lived at Little Tower Hill, the same address where John and Alice Byne could be found a decade later, and where their daughter Mary and her husband Joseph Greene would be living a quarter of a century after that. I had thought that Joseph and Mary might have inherited their house from John and Alice Byne, but now it seems that the latter could have been bequeathed it by Alice’s parents. Either that, or there was a small colony of Forrests, Bynes and Greenes, all living close to each other at Little Tower Hill at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Tower Hill and Little Tower Hill, from Rocque’s London map of 1746

It’s possible that Thomas and Anne Forrest are the couple who were married at the church of St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London on 18^th June 1650. This Thomas Forrest was said to be of the parish of ‘St Buttolphs Aldersgate’, but that could be a mistake for ‘Aldgate’, while his bride was Anne Borrowes from the parish of St Andrew’s, Holborn. So far, I’ve had no luck in finding other records for Thomas and Anne Forrest and their family, either in London or Worcestershire, but it’s early days.

My transcription of the will of Thomas Forrest, my 9 x great grandfather, follows:

In the Name of God Amen The One and Twentyth day of december Anno Dei 1678 And in the Thirtyth yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles … by the grace of God King of England Scotland Frances and Ireland defender of the faith I Thomas Forrest Citizen and haberdasher of London being sick and weake in body but of good mind and memory praise be given to Almighty God & calling to mind the uncertainty of this life and how certaine wee are to dye yet the time of our death most uncertaine doe make and declare thys my last Will and testament in manner and forme following That is to say first and principally I bequeath my Soule into the hands of Almighty God my Creator hoping and assuredly believing by and through the meritts death and Passion of my onely Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Chirst to have full and free remission of all my sinnes and to see the Lord in the Land of the ever lyving And my Body I commit to the Earth to be decently buryed at the discretion of my Executors hereafter named And as for touching and concerning all such Estate as God in his infinite Goodness hath blessed mee withal in this life I doe give and bequeath the same as followeth Imprimis I doe give and bequeath unto my deare and well beloved wife Anne Forrest all my Estate right title interest and terme of yeares that I have of in and to the Messuage or Tenement Shopp and appurtenances thereunto belonging which I now have in situat and being upon or neere little Tower hill in the Parish of Saint Buttolphs Algate London together with the Lease thereupon granted And also all and every my Plate Linnen Bedding Pewter Glasse and other my household Goods whatsoever Item I doe give and bequeath unto my Sonn in Law John Bines and unto my daughter Alice his wife and Anne theire daughter the sume of Tenn Pounds of lawfull money of England towards buying of them mourning to weare in rememberance of mee Item I give and bequeath unto my sonn Thomas Forrest my fold sealed Ring The Rest and residue of all and singular my Goods Chattells debts ready money Lands Tenements and Estate whatsoever not before by mee given and bequeathed after my just debts and funeral charges shall be first paid and discharged I doe hereby wholy and soly give and bequeath the same and every part thereof unto my said loving wife Anne Forrest and unto my said sonn Thomas Forrest theire heires executors administrators and assignes forever to be equally parted and decided betweene them share and share alike And I do hereby make and ordeine my said wife Anne Forrest and my said sonn Thomas Forrest full and sole Executors of this my last Will and Testament desiring them to see this my Will performed according to my true meaning herein declared of which I make no doubt And I doe hereby revoke and make void all former Wills and Testaments by mee at any time heretofore made and this only to stand for and remaine as my only Will In witness whereof I have here unto sett my hand and seale the day and yeare first above written Tho: Forrest Sealed published and declared by the said Thomas Forrest to be his last Will and Testament in the presence of William Granger Joseph Coooke Snr – Andrew Haynes servant to the said Snr.

‘When the Queenes Maiestye is satisfied’: the Elizabethan will of John Manser

Mary Manser or Maunser of Wadhurst in Sussex was my 10 x great grandmother. In 1611 she married Stephen Byne of Burwash. Their son, Rev. Magnus Byne (1615 – 1671), and his first wife Anne, had a son named John (1651 – 1689) who became a stationer in London. His daughter Mary Byne (born 1683) married goldsmith Joseph Greene (1677 – 1737); their daughter Mary (1710 – 1790) married coal factor John Gibson (1699 – 1763), and their daughter Elizabeth, who married Joseph Holdsworth, was my 5 x great grandmother.

Parish church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Wadhurst

According to Walter Renshaw’s history of the Byne family, Mary Manser was the daughter of John Manser, a yeoman of Wadhurst, and he in turn was one of the sons of Robert Manser of Hightown in that parish. Robert had two other sons: William, his heir, and Abraham, who I believe inherited the estate of Wenbourne or Wenbans. 

John Manser of Wadhurst, my 11 x great grandfather, made his will on 26^th December 1597. It was proved in the Peculiar Court of South Malling on 27^th April 1598. I’ve managed to obtain a copy of the will from the East Sussex Record Office and my transcription can be found below. John made his will ‘in the fortieth yeare of the raigne of our soveraigne Lady Elizabeth’ and makes repeated reference to the Queen, mainly because the Crown appears (for reasons that are unknown) to have taken out an ‘extent’ – a writ giving a creditor temporary ownership of a debtor’s property – against him. (A century and a half later, the Crown would take out an extent against my 6 x great grandfather John Gibson, coal factor.)

‘The Ermine Portrait’ of Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hilliard

This is the first Elizabethan will that I’ve analysed, and it’s quite something to realise that, when it was written, most of Shakespeare’s major plays were still unwritten and America not yet colonised.  John’s will confirms that, besides his daughter Mary, he also had a son named Christopher, and a brother named Abraham. We also learn that his wife’s name was Jane. In my transcription, I’ve used a question mark (?) to indicate illegible or unclear words and letters, since John uses Roman numerals, so ‘xxx’ means ‘thirty’, rather than representing a missing word. As always, I’ve kept to the original spelling, including John’s idiosyncratic rendering of his own Christian name.

In the name of god amen the xxvith day of December in the fortieth yeare of the raigne of our soveraigne Lady Elizabeth by the grace of god of England Frances & Ireland Queene defender of the faith. I Jhon Manser of wadhurst in the county of Sussex yeoman being sick of body but of good remembrance, thanks be to almightie god, do make and ordaine this my present testament concerning my last will in manner & forme following, First I commend my soule unto almighty god & my body to be buried in the earth when it shall please god to call me to his mercy. Item I give to the poore people of wadhurst xxx to be paid to them by my executrix hereafter named within a convenient time after my decease given that whereas the Queenes most excellent maiesty hath on extent one of my lands in Burwash of three thousand pounds the yeare, I will that my executrix shall deliver unto Abraham Manser my brother ??? ??? Welham my brother in law the sum of fiftye pounds and they with the profit of the same shall consent and pay the rent to the Queenes maiesty during the terme of yeares yet to come & unexpired of the extent, and when the extent is quit payed and discharged to the queens maiesty, I will they shall pay & discharge Jhon Faulkner of higham serris in the countye of Kenth (?) the sum of forty pounds which I owe him when the Queenes Maiestye is satisfied & when the said Jhon Faulkner hath bought out the quit ?? from the Queenes Maiesty as he is bound to do. Item I give all my lands lying in Burwashe to my sonn Christofer and to the heires of his body lawfully begotten and for want of such issue, I give it to my daughter Mary & to the heires of her body lawfully begotten and for want of such issue I give the said lands to my brother Abraham Manser and to his heires for ever. Item I give to my daughter Mary lx pounds of lawfull mony of England, to be paid her at her age of one & twenty yeares, or at her daye of marriage which shall first happen, & I will that the mony shall within one yeare next after my decease be delivered unto Abraham Manser and William C???, and they to put it out to increase, and at her age of one and twenty yeares or her day of marriage to pay it unto her with the profit thereof and bequeath unto Jane my wife, whome I make my sole executrix of this my last will and testament and I apoint Abraham Manser & William C??? the overseers of this my last will and testament and I give to each of them x shillings a peece and their charges borne about the proving of this my will inventoryes and such affaires pertaining to this business.

Witnesses to this will Abraham Manser William C??? and the seale (?) of Jhon Manser.

Windle, Connop, Thirlwall, Holdsworth

In the previous post I wrote about Thomas Windle, a gentleman and magistrate who lived in Mile End Old Town at the turn of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and who was one of the executors of the will of Sarah Gibson in 1789. Sarah was the younger sister of my 5 x great grandmother, Elizabeth Holdsworth. When Elizabeth made her own will in 1809, one of the executors was Richard Eykin Windle, a surgeon and apothecary who (I am fairly certain) was a member of the same family as Thomas, though I’ve yet to discover their exact relationship to each other.

Mile End Old Town in the 18th century

As I noted yesterday, Thomas Windle was the son of another gentleman of the same name, who died in Bethnal Green in 1793. Thomas Windle made his son Thomas junior the sole executor of his own will, composed in 1784. There were three witnesses to that will: Ellen Flowen (or possibly Plowen), Susanna Connop and William Connop Junior.

William Connop Junior was, as his name implies, the son of another William Connop. William Connop Senior was born in about 1717 and at the time of his marriage was said to be living in the parish of St John, Wapping. On 3^rd February 1741 he declared his intention to marry Susannah Walter of the parish of St George (in the East?), Middlesex who was, like him, twenty-four years old. After their marriage the Connops lived in Mile End Old Town, where their daughter Susanna was born in 1746: she was baptised at the parish church of St Dunstan and All Saints on 9^th May that year. The Connops had a son named William christened on 22^nd October 1750, but he must have died in infancy, as another child of the same name was baptised at St Dunstan’s on 2^nd June 1752. On 15^th January 1753 a son named John was christened. All of these records describe William Connop senior as a surgeon.

18th century surgery demonstration

William Connop junior was married at St Dunstan’s church on 8^th October 1776. If the parish register is to be believed, his wife was another Susannah Connop – possibly a cousin. The witnesses included William Connop, presumably the groom’s father, two more Susanna Connops, perhaps his mother and sister, and a Richard Connop.  I haven’t found evidence of any children born to this second William and Susannah Connop. I’m assuming they are the people who witnessed Thomas Windle Senior’s will in 1784, but it’s possible that the Susanna named there was William Connop’s sister.

We know from his will that William Connop junior was a surgeon like his father, and from other sources that he (like Richard Eykin Windle) was also an apothecary. William made his will in June 1790 and it was proved in October of the same year: he would have been about 33 when he died. William left money to his ‘good friend’ Thomas Windle Junior of Mile End and also appointed him as one of the executors of his will.

Rev Thomas Thirlwall (via bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings)

William Connop Junior’s widow Susannah married again on 19^th June 1792. Her second husband was the curate of St Dunstan’s, Stepney, Reverend Thomas Thirlwall. The son of another vicar, Thirlwall studied at Brasenose College, Oxford and was curate at Holy Trinity in the Minories before taking up his appointment in Stepney. A prolific author, he was later appointed as Rector of Bower’s Gifford in Essex, where he died in 1827.

There’s a tenuous connection between my ancestors and Rev. Thirlwall. In 1804, my 4 x great grandfather William Holdsworth occupied property in Mile End Old Town owned by Thirlwall, who seems to have been a significant landowner in his own parish. We know that the Holdsworths had moved from Marmaduke Street, in the parish of St George in the East, sometime between 1798 and 1801, when my great-great-great-grandmother Eliza was born, in Mile End Road.

Connop Thirlwall

Thomas and Susannah Thirlwall had a son, born in 1797, to whom they gave the name Connop Thirlwall. He followed his father into the Church, and eventually became Bishop of St David’s in Wales. A precocious scholar and debater (John Stuart Mill once described him as the best public speaker he had ever heard), he was elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and tried his hand at the law, before becoming a clergyman, a role he combined with that of noted historian and author. Connop Thirlwall died in 1875.

Thomas Windle Esquire of Mile End Old Town

In the last post I wrote about the family of Richard Eykin Windle, a London surgeon and apothecary at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, who acted as executor of the will of my 5 x great grandmother Elizabeth Holdsworth née Gibson in 1809. I reported my discovery that his brother, oil and colour merchant John Hattam Windle, might have been a business partner of William Parker, who married Elizabeth’s daughter Sarah six years earlier.

One of the reasons for my interest in the Windles is that the reference to Richard in Elizabeth Holdsworth’s will is not the first record of that family’s connection with my ancestors. Twenty years earlier, in 1789, Elizabeth’s unmarried sister Sarah Gibson nominated ‘Thomas Windle Junior Esquire of Mile End in the parish of Stepney’ as co-executor of her own will, together with her brother Bowes John Gibson.

Who was Thomas Windle, and what was his relationship, if any, to Richard Eykin Windle? I’m fairly sure that Thomas Windle senior, the father of the man named in Sarah Gibson’s will, was the person of that name who was buried at St Matthew’s church, Bethnal Green on 23^rd April 1793. He would still have been alive when Sarah Gibson made her will four years earlier, thus making it important to describe his son as Thomas Windle Junior. Thomas Windle Senior had actually made his own will some years earlier, in 1784. From that document we learn that by then he was a widower: he asks to be buried ‘in a strong oak coffin filled up with sawdust as my wife was that my corpse may be directly laid over hers’. Rather confusingly, and perhaps as the result of an error, Thomas leaves property to ‘my son William Windle’ and in the same sentence appoints ‘my said son Thomas Windle’ as his sole executor. He signs his will ‘Thomas Windle Sen.’ and it was proved by ‘Thomas Windle Esquire the son of the deceased’.

Section of Horwood’s 1792 map, showing Mile End Old Town

There are various land tax records from the 1780s for properties in Bethnal Green belonging to Thomas Windle – presumably ‘Senior’, since all of the records for his son Thomas Windle Junior place him in Mile End Old Town. For example, in 1793, Thomas Windle Esquire of Mile End can be found in a list of subscribing members of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. In 1797, his name was proposed, for the King’s approval, as one of the deputy lieutenants of the Tower Hamlets militia, and by 1818 he had been appointed to that position, as well as being a magistrate. There are countless land tax records for Thomas Windle Esquire of Mile End or Stepney, from the 1790s through to about 1825. He also seems to have owned property elsewhere in London, including two houses in Rosemary Lane, Whitechapel. In 1807, Thomas Windle both occupied and owned properties on Mile End Road South. This means he was a near neighbour of the Gibson family, including Bowes John Gibson, brother to Elizabeth and Sarah, and the other executor of the latter’s will.

Thomas Windle Esquire of Mile End seems to have been married twice and to have had three children, two of whom survived. On 3^rd January 1791, Thomas Hattam Windle was christened at the church of St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney. He was the son of Thomas Windle Esq of Mile End Old Town and his wife Elizabeth. The name ‘Hattam’ provides an immediate connection with the family of Richard Windle, three of whose siblings had the same middle name, and at least two of whom passed it on to their own children.

Sadly, this particular Thomas Hattam Windle died when he was only three months old. His mother Elizabeth must have died soon afterwards, perhaps in childbirth, since in 1794, Thomas Windle, a gentleman of Mile End Old Town, and his wife Frances, had a daughter named Mary baptised at St Dunstan’s. The same couple’s daughter Sarah was christened there two years later, in 1796.

I can’t find records of any other children born to Thomas Windle after this date, nor have I found either marriage or death records for Thomas, Elizabeth or Frances. The absence of a will for Thomas seems very odd, too, particularly since Thomas Windle Junior seems to have left his two surviving children well provided for.

Neither Mary nor Sarah Windle married, and in fact the two sisters seem to have lived together on their inherited income for the remainder of their lives. They appear to have moved around the south of England, using their shared inheritance to endow and support various High Anglican churches. At the time of the 1841 census they were both in their forties, living on independent means, and sharing a house in Oxford with Stephen Reay, his wife Eleanora, and a young female servant.  The census record describes Stephen as a ‘clerk’, but that hardly does him justice: he was a clergyman, professor of Arabic at Oxford, and sub-Librarian at the Bodleian.

In 1851 the Windle sisters were living in High Road, Leyton, Essex, with two female servants: Mary and Sarah described themselves to the census clerk as a ‘gentleman’s daughters’. The sisters were said to be ‘fundholders’ ten years later, when the 1861 census found them living with a cook and housemaid in Brighton, where they appear to have funded the building of a new Anglo-Catholic church.

Church of St Michael and All Angels, Brighton, built with financial support from the Windle sisters

By 1871 Mary and Sarah had moved back to Oxford, to Stanley Villa at 2 St Giles Road, Headington. When the census was taken in that year they had a visitor: John William Burgon, the vicar of the university church of St Mary the Virgin, later the Dean of Chichester.

It was at Stanley Villa that Mary Windle died on 11^th July 1880, at the age of 86, leaving a personal estate valued at ‘under £9,000’. I haven’t found a record for her sister Sarah’s death, but I assume it must also have been in 1880, since before the year was out, Rev Burgon would erect a stained glass window in the parish church of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire, as a memorial to three benefactors, Eliza Hargrave and Mary and Sarah Windle.

Rev. John William Burgon

What do we know about the origins of Thomas Windle Esquire and his connection with the Windles of Shropshire? If he was, as seems likely, the son of Thomas Windle (Senior) of Bethnal Green, then perhaps he was the son of Thomas and Sarah Windle of Bethnal Green who was christened at St Mary, Whitechapel, in 30^th October 1748. On the other hand, that would mean he was already 43 when his first son Thomas Hattam Windle was born in 1791, which seems unlikely: so perhaps this was his father and there was a third Thomas Windle in the generation before? At any rate, the Thomas and Sarah Windle whose child were christened in 1748 were almost certainly the couple who declared their intention to marry in an allegation of 29^th October 1747. Thomas Windle was said to be a 30-year-old ‘chymist and widower’ of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street in the City of London, while his bride to be was Sarah Sculthorpe, a 26-year-old widow of the parish of St Mary, Whitechapel (though interestingly the Sculthorpes seem to have been associated with the parish of St Sepulchre, Holborn, the favoured London church of the Windle family). According to a record found at origins.net, in 1762 Thomas son of Thomas Windle of Old Fish Street, London, chemist was apprenticed to to Rees Williams, 17 Dec 1762, of the Fishmongers’ Company.

The fact that Thomas Windle Esquire Junior of Mile End Old Town gave his short-lived son the middle name ‘Hattam’ identifies him as a member of the same family as Richard Eykin Windle. However, the precise nature of his connection to that family remains to be determined.

Who were the Windles?

My 5 x great grandmother Elizabeth Holdsworth née Gibson died on 1^st March 1809 at the age of 76 and was buried a week later in the churchyard of St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney. In her last will and testament, signed and sealed on 11^th February, Elizabeth appointed Sarah Parker as her executrix and Richard E. Windle as executor.

Sarah Parker was Elizabeth’s daughter from her second marriage, to Joseph Holdsworth, who had died fourteen years before in 1795. Born in South Weald, Essex, Sarah had first married plumber Edward Porter at St Botolph’s church, Bishopsgate, in 1786, when she was nineteen. Edward died in Mile End Old Town in 1799 at the age of 33, leaving Sarah with a five-year-old child, also named Edward, who died three years later in 1802. In the following year, Sarah married William Parker of Whitechapel at the church of St Matthew, Bethnal Green.

William Parker was one of the witnesses to his mother-in-law Elizabeth Holdsworth’s will, as was Sarah herself, together with her younger brother, my 4 x great grandfather William Holdsworth. The fourth witness was Richard Windle, the same person that Elizabeth had appointed to act as executor of the will.

Who was Richard Windle? The question is made more interesting by the fact that another person with the same surname, Thomas Windle, had been appointed as co-executor of her will by Elizabeth’s unmarried sister, Sarah Gibson, some twenty years earlier, in 1789. So who were the Windles, and what was their relationship to the Holdsworths?

Early photograph of Wellclose Square

I’m reasonably certain that the Richard E. Windle named in Elizabeth Holdsworth’s will was Richard Eykyn Windle, a surgeon and apothecary who lived in Wellclose Square, Whitechapel. He was born in 1782 in Claverley, Shropshire, the son of another Richard Windle (1721 – 1786) and his wife Anne Eykin (1746 – 1786). The Windles and the Eykins, rather like my Byne and Manser ancestors, seem to have combined rural, landowning roots with a foothold in London and in ‘trade’. Richard Windle senior and Anne Eykin had married at the church of St Sepulchre, Holborn, in 1779: at the time, he was a widower of 57 while she was a spinster of 33.

Like the Windles, the Eykin family had their origins in Shropshire. Ann was the daughter of John Eykin of Ackleton and Martha Pitt of Astley Abbotts. However, at least one of her siblings had also been married at St Sepulchre’s, Holborn: four years earlier her younger brother John had married Elizabeth Browning there. John Eykin junior remained in London, living at Smithfield Bars and working as an oil merchant.

Church of St Sepulchre, Holborn

Richard Eykyn Windle was the fourth of five children, his siblings being Thomas Hattam Windle (born 1779), John Hattam Windle (1780), Ann Hattam Windle (1782) and Edward Whitmore Windle (1784). Thomas, the eldest son, appears to have remained in Shropshire and inherited the family farm at Claverley. The 1851 census describes him as a farmer of 126 acres employing 11 labourers. His younger siblings all seem to have moved to London. Ann Hattam Windle married James West, a widower from the parish of St Mary, Rotherhithe, in 1801. Edward Whitmore Windle married Anne Jones at St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, in 1804, and then followed his sister to Rotherhithe, before settling in Stepney.

Parish church, Claverley, Shropshire

As for John Hattam Windle, he followed a similar profession to his cousin John Eykin, working as an oil and colour merchant. In 1811 John married Jane Byron at St Mary’s church, Whitechapel. She was the daughter of John Byron of 50 Whitechapel (High Street), who may also have been an oil and colourman. Certainly his son George was, and he and John Windle went into business together at the same address: they insured their premises together in 1826.

However, before setting up shop with his brother-in-law, John Windle had been be involved in another partnership, a few doors away in the same street. On 1^st July 1812, this notice appeared in the London Gazette:

The Copartnership existing between us, and carried on under the firm of Parker and Windle, Oil and Colourmen, at No. 47, Whitechapel, in the County of Middlesex, was this day dissolved by mutual consent.—Witness our Hands,

William Parker. John Hattam Windle

Could this be the William Parker who married Sarah Porter née Holdsworth in 1803? After all, we know from the marriage record that he was from Whitechapel. And if so, does this help to explain the connection between the Windles and the Holdsworths?

It may not be a coincidence that a month after he dissolved his partnership with John Hattam Windle, William Parker took out a patent for an improvement in the manufacture of green paint. His fortunes were shortlived, however: six years later, in June 1818, William Parker of High Street, Whitechapel, Middlesex, oilman and colour manufacturer, was declared bankrupt.

Colourman’s shop

I’ve found the will of a Whitechapel oil and colourman named William Parker, but he died in 1799. At first, I thought that the William who was in partnership with John Windle might be his son. However, the will fails to mention any children. On the other hand, there is a reference to a nephew named William, as well as a niece named Sarah. William’s mother Mary is also mentioned, which should help in tracing the family.

According to the Whitechapel parish register, William Parker of High Street was buried on 11^th August 1799. This fits with the dates on the will: it was signed on 26^th June and proved on 13^th August. Helpfully, the register tells us that William was 50 years old when he died, so he was born in about 1749. The cause of death seems to have been dropsy. Interestingly, on the very same day, Mary Parker, aged 82, from the same address, was buried; she died of old age. I assume this was William’s mother.

Church of St Mary, Whitechapel

We now need to find a William Parker born in about 1749 to a mother named Mary, who was herself born in about 1717. We then need to discover another son born to the same parents, who had children named William and Sarah. Perhaps doing so will help to solve some of the mysteries surrounding the connections between the Parkers and the Holdsworths. For the link did not begin with the younger William Parker marriage to Sarah Porter in 1803. Nine years earlier, when married to Edward Porter, Sarah had given her son the name Edward Parker Porter, suggesting an already-existing association with the family, perhaps through Edward senior. Then there is the question of whether the Thomas Parker who married another Sarah Holdsworth, daughter of my 4 x great grandfather William, in 1821, was a member of the same family.

I’ll be following the trail of the Parkers and the Windles in future posts. I’m still not sure how, if at all, the Thomas Windle who witnesses the will of Sarah Gibson in 1789 was connected to Richard Windle and his family.

To return finally to Richard Eykin Windle. He died less than two years after witnessing the will of Elizabeth Holdsworth, at the age of 28, and was buried on 5^th January 1811 in a vault, presumably one belonging to his family, at the church of St Sepulchre, Holborn. According to the parish register, his address was Smithfield Bars, though in his will, he states that he lives at Wellclose Square. Perhaps he spent his final days being cared for by his uncle and aunt, John and Elizabeth Eykin, who lived at the former address? Certainly his will was signed and sealed there, and makes prominent mention of his uncle and aunt, as well as his now-widowed sister Anne West and his brother John.

Richard’s younger brother Edward Whitmore Windle died seven months after him, at the age of 27, and was buried in the same vault at St Sepulchre’s. John Hattam Windle died at Montague Street, Whitechapel, in 1833 at the age of 52 and was buried at St Mary’s church, Whitechapel. At the time of the 1861 census, his widow Jane, now 75, could be found living in Osborne Street, Whitechapel, with her two unmarried daughters Jane and Elizabeth, her son Hattam, a clerk in a London bank, her 80-year-old brother (and her late husband’s erstwhile business partner) George, and three servants.

Written before the mast: the last will and testament of Alexander Curtis

Earlier this week I wrote about the daughters of William Greene, the 17^th century Stepney chirurgeon who may turn out to be one of my ancestors. By researching his family, I’m hoping to discover whether William was a relative (perhaps even the father) of my 8 x great grandfather, Captain William Greene.

17th century naval battle

I believe that at least two of William’s daughters married mariners: Elizabeth married Richard Benson in 1658, and in 1662 her sister Mary married Alexander Curtis. In my earlier post I noted that Alexander’s father was John Curtis, a mariner and gunner, while he himself worked as a purser, initially on the ‘Monck’ and then on the ‘Newcastle’. Both were ships of the English navy, firstly under Cromwell’s Commonwealth and later in the service of the King. Alexander Curtis was serving as a purser on ‘his Majestie’s ship Newcastle’ when he wrote his last will and testament in 1677, at the age of 35. In fact, we can tell from the will itself that it was actually written at sea: Alexander asks to be buried in the next ‘Christian dock or place’ that his ship comes to, and stipulates that his personal belongings should be ‘sold before the Mast’.

There is no mention in the will of Alexander’s wife Mary, so we must assume that she had died before this date. However, the names of the children mentioned align with what we know of the family of Alexander Curtis and Mary Greene. Only William, born in 1668, does not appear to have survived until 1677.  As for those who are mentioned here: John would have been fourteen, Alexander junior twelve, Thomas eight, and Mary four, when their father died. It’s interesting that Alexander names his father John as one of his executors, since the latter must have been at least seventy when this was written and (unusually for the times) would outlive his son.

Greenville Collins’ mapping of the British coastline

Alexander Curtis appoints two other executors of his will. One is Captain Bernard Ludman, who was commanding officer of Alexander’s previous ship, the ‘Monck’, and then the ‘Victory’, though one source claims that he had died in 1673: either this is a mistake, or Alexander was not aware of it, or he was not (as he claimed) ‘of perfect memory and remembrance’ when he wrote his will. In the early 1670s Ludman commanded the ‘Monck’ in various engagements against the Dutch navy, in which Alexander Curtis was presumably also involved. The third executor of the will was John Ansell: could he be the buccaneer of that name who sailed with the notorious Admiral Henry Morgan and died in 1689?

Alexander asks the Newcastle’s ‘master’, Greenville Collins, who also witnesses the will, to take an inventory of his effects. Collins would later become commander of the ‘Charles’ and a noted map-maker: in fact, he was appointed by Samuel Pepys to survey the coasts of the British Isles, the results of which became enormously influential, and he was later made ‘hydographer to the King’ (see image above). Benjamin Walter(s), described here as the steward of the ‘Newcastle’, would go on to become a naval captain and commanding officer, serving in a number of battles against the French in the Nine Years War.

Part of Rocque’s 1746 map of London, showing Cock Hill, Ratcliff

Alexander Curtis’ will gives us some idea of where his family lived. He mentions the house currently occupied by his father John, but owned by himself, at ‘Cockhill’ in the hamlet of Ratcliff. Cock Hill was at the western edge of Ratcliff, extending southwards from Upper Shadwell (where we know Alexander and Elizabeth Curtis lived at one point) to Lower Shadwell and the riverside.

My transcription of Alexander Curtis’ will follows: 

In the Name of God Amen: The eighth of December in the yeare One thousand six hundred seventie seven according to the Computation of the Church of England I Alexander Curtis Purser of his Majestie’s ship Newcastle being of perfect memory and remembrance, Praised be God, doe make and ordaine this my last Will and Testament in manner and forme following (viz) First I bequeath my Soul into the hands of Almightie God my Maker hoping through the meritorious Death and passion of Jesus Christ my only Saviour and Redeemer to receive free pardon and forgiveness of all my Synns, And as for my Bodie to be buried in Christian Buriall at the first Christian dock or place his Majestie’s said Shipp Newcastle shall come at: Item I give unto my Sonn John Curtis my Sonn Alexander Curtis my Sonn Thomas Curtis and my daughter Mary Curtis All those moneys Goods houses Lands and Chatells which I have owing unto mee or shall be myne at any maner of tyme or tymes whatsoever to be equally distributed betweene all my said Children before exprest, making and ordaining by this my last Will and Testament John Curtis my deare Father Captaine Bernard Ludman and John Ansell my Executors, to see all my Children have all that is myne equally distributed betweene them, and likewise that my daughter Mary may have that house which my said Father John Curtis has nowe in his possession, and which is myne for her bringing upp to maturitie, which house lyes scituate by Cockhill in Ratcliff in the Countie of Middx; And likewise all those Cloathes and Sea-necessaries which are myne I desire may be sold before the Mast, and an Inventary taken of all by Greenvill Collins master and Benjamin Walter my Steward of the Newcastle to be delivered to my Executors before exprest for the use of my Children; And in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and Seale the day first above written. Alex: Curtis. Signed sealed in the presence of G. Collins: Benj. Walter: John Powell; J. Hunton; Since the signing and sealing of the Will before-writt I Alexander Curtis give unto my Sonn John Curtis one watch, and a Seale Ring, And one small Ring to my Sonn Alexander Curtis, And another to my Sonn Thomas Curtis, And likewise a Gold Watch with all lynnen, which belongs to women, and which is in England I doe desire that my daughter Mary Curtis may have: Alex: Curtis:.