On the marriage in England of two persons with New England ties
Douglas Richardson
Great research! And an interesting post as well! Thanks for taking
the time to share your findings with the newsgroup.
Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah
E-mail: royala...@msn.com
starb...@hotmail.com (John Brandon) wrote in message news:<942d5b80.04032...@posting.google.com>...
> I noticed the following interesting tidbit in a discussion of the 1698
> census of Fenny Compton, Warwickshire:
>
> "Fenny Compton was essentially a freeholders' village. Of the two
> manors which the parish comprised, one was held at this time by Robert
> Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, as a member of his manor of
> Wormleighton and the other, most probably, by Elkanah Breedon of Wing,
> Buckinghamshire, in the right of his wife, Bridget Willis. There was,
> therefore, no resident lord. The Willises, who came originally from
> Napton, had held the second manor for six generations in the male
> line, from Richard Willis, _temp._ Henry VIII to George Willis who
> died in 1670 leaving two daughters" (Philip Styles, _Studies in
> Seventeenth Century West Midlands History_ [Roundwood Press, 1978], p.
> 97).
>
> Knowing that Gov. George Wyllys of Connecticut was a member of the
> Wyllys family of Fenny Compton, I checked _VCH Warwickshire_, 5:47-8,
> an account of Fenny Compton:
>
> "[Margery (Beaufitz) Bellingham] sold Fenny Compton to Richard Wyllys.
> Richard died in 1532; and his son William died in 1578, seised of the
> manor and leaving a son Ambrose. He died in 1590, having settled the
> manor on his wife Amy. His son Richard came of age in 1593 and died
> in 1597, leaving a son George, then aged 6; the manor was then said to
> be held of the Crown in free socage. George Wyllys settled in
> Hertford (sic), Connecticut, where he became Governor in 1642 and died
> in 1645, leaving his Fenny Compton estate to his son George, who in
> 1655 conveyed 'the manor' to Ambrose Holbech and Nathaniel Ekins. A
> moiety of the manor, however, was in the possession of Bridget Wyllys
> in 1674 and was conveyed in 1769 by George and Samuel Wyllys to
> William Holbech. The manor then descended with that of Farnborough
> (q.v.)."
>
> No mention of Elkanah Breedon, husband of Bridget Wyllys. However, he
> must have been the son of Capt. Thomas Breedon, sometime of New
> England and Nova Scotia, by his first wife, Abigail Gladman, whom he
> married in 1649. Abigail Gladman was probably a daughter of Elkanah
> and Abigail (Breedon) Gladman, and a first cousin of her husband,
> Capt. Thomas Breedon.
>
> I think this is all proved by the evidence I've cited below. Note
> that Capt. Thomas Breedon's will of 1682 does not mention his son
> Elkanah, who had predeceased him. Elkanah (and later his son John)
> was the principal heir of his uncle, John Breedon, M.P.
>
>
> * * * * * * * * *
>
>
> Parish register of Chesham, Bucks.
>
> --Thomas Breeden to Jaane Carter, 27 April 1585
> --Abigail Breeden, dau. of Thomas and Jane, 2 Feb. 1604
> --Elkanah Gladman to Abigall Breedon, 5 Dec. 1626
> --Abigail Gladman, dau. of Elkanah and Abigail, 1 Jan. 1630
> --Elkanah Gladman, son of Elkanah and Abigail, 8 Sept. 1632
>
> Parish register of Wing, Bucks.
>
> --Elkanah Breedon, son of Thomas and Abigail, 22 Nov. 1653
>
> Parish register of St. Augustine, Watling Street, London
>
> --Thomas Breedon to Abigail Gladman, 6 June 1649
>
> Parish register of Pangborne, Berks.
>
> --John Brasier to Bridget Breedon, 29 May 1679
>
> Parish register of Rickmansworth, Herts.
>
> --John Breedon, son of Elkanah and Bridget, 3 Jan. 1675 [?
> 1675/6]
>
>
> NEHGR 48:128: Will of Jane Breedon of Great Chesham, Bucks., widow,
> 15 Sept. 1628, proved 15 Feb. 1632.
> --sons Zacheus and Benaia Breedon
> --daughter Bethsheba Grover
> --daughter Hannah Wigge
> --daughter Abigail Gladman
> --son in law Elkanah Gladman, full and sole executor.
>
>
> NEHGR, 15:137 (Boston, Mass., records):
>
> John ye sonne of Capt Thomas Breden & of Mary his wife borne 24th of
> April 1660.
>
>
> NEHGR, 15:351 (Boston, Mass., records):
>
> Zakeus ye sonne of Capt Thomas Breden & of Mary his wife borne first
> July 1661.
>
>
> NEHGR, 16:50 (Abstracts from early wills of Suffolk County, Mass.):
>
> [Estate of] Elkanah Gladman ? Amt. L211.10.11. ?
> Inventorye of Debts Due to the Estate of Mr Elkanah Gladman as they
> were found in His Book at His Death. From Capt. Thomas Bredon,
> Goodwife Cutler of Charlestowne,? Mr John Gifford, Mrs Susan Jacklin,
> Thaddeus Mackartye?
> ?
> It is stated that the Administrators, Capt. Thomas Bredon and
> Capt. Thomas Lake, brought into Court an inventory of said Estate,
> producing also "a Letter from Mr Elkanah Gladman, Father to the late
> Elkanah Gladman Deceased ?"
>
>
> B. D. Henning, _History of Parliament : The House of Commons,
> 1660-1690_, 1:713, biographical sketch of John Breedon (c. 1622-85),
> M.P., of Bere Court, Pangbourne, Berks.:
>
> "b. c. 1622, 2nd s. of Zaccheus Breedon, DD, rector of Croughton,
> Northants. by w. Margery. m. Mary (d. 1685), da. of John Brumpstead
> of Westminster, s.p. ? Breedon's father, the son of a Buckinghamshire
> glover, held the living of Croughton without interruption from 1631
> till his death in 1663. Breedon himself was apprenticed to a London
> tradesman, but he acquired his considerable wealth as a partner with
> Sir William Bucknall in the excise farm. ? A great-nephew inherited
> his estates in Middlesex and Hertfordshire as well as in Berkshire. ?"
>
>
> NEHGR, 47:399: Will of Zacheus Breedon of Croulton, in the County of
> Northampton, clerk, 10 Dec. 1662, proved 1 Oct. 1663 (PCC Juxon, 117).
> --son Zacheus Breedon
> --wife Margery Breedon
> --son John Breedon
> --daughter Elizabeth Sedgwick
> --son in law John Johnson and daughter Martha, his wife
> --son Robert Breedon
> --son Charles Breedon
> --son Thomas Breedon
>
>
> NEHGR 47:400: Will of Rose Brumpsted of St. Martin in the Fields,
> Middlesex, spinster, 18 Aug. 1665, proved 12 July 1666 (PCC Mico,
> 111).
> --brother in law Mr. John Breedon
> --Mr. Charles and Robert Breedon, to the use of the children of
> Mr. Stephen Sedgwicke
> --"To my god son Robert Breedon all those goods or adventure and
> advantage thereby arising which I lately sent to New England and came
> safe to the possession of his father, Captain Thomas Breedon."
> --good friends Mr. Stephen Sedgwick and his wife, Mr. Zacheus
> Breedon, Mr. Charles Breedon, Mr. Johnson and his wife ?
>
>
> NEHGR 47:401: Will of John Breedon of Pangbourn, Berks. Esq., 24
> March 1684, with a codicil dated 5 July 1685, proved 21 Oct. 1685 (PCC
> Cann, 117).
> --wife Mary
> --brother Robert Breedon
> --"To wife for life also my manor of Pangbourne &c and all my
> other estate in Berks., except the house or toft of ground adjoining
> &c. late in the occupation of one Spencer. And my desire is that my
> wife do live in my mansion house of Beare Court in Pangbourne, &c., my
> said wife to make a release to my nephew Mr Thomas Brumpsted and my
> cousin Mr Zacheus Sedgwick of all her dower and thirds &c. To my
> cousin John Breedon, son of my nephew Elkanah Breedon deceased, my
> said manor of Pangbourne and all other my estate in Berks. from and
> after the decease of my said loving wife, except as aforesaid (with
> provisions for entail), remainder to John Breedon, one of the sons of
> brother Thomas Breedon by his now wife, next to Zacheus Breedon,
> another son of brother Thomas, then Robert Breedon, another son of
> brother Thomas, and lastly to my right heirs forever. In case my
> nephew John Breedon, son of my cousin Elkanah Breedon, shall happen to
> die without issue, whereby the estate aforesaid shall descend to John,
> Zacheus or Robert Breedon, sons of my brother Thomas Breedon, or to
> any other my right heirs, that then and in such case I do charge the
> said estate with the payment of two thousand pounds to Mrs. Mary
> Breedon, daughter of my said [? brother] Thomas Breedon and now wife
> to one Mr. ____ Elmore in the Kingdom of Ireland, which sum is and
> shall be in full discharge of the trust reposed in me by the last will
> and testament of my nephew Elkanah Breedon and a discharge of a
> mortgage of houses in the Strand and Hartshorne Lane for securing the
> said sum. To John, son of the said Elkanah Breedon that farm &c.
> called Old Stockhouse in Rickmersworth, Herts., ? subject nevertheless
> to the payment of seventy pounds per annum unto Mrs Bridget Brasier,
> formerly wife to the said Elkanah Breedon, as part of her jointure
> during her natural life."
> --John, Zacheus, and Robert Breedon, sons of brother Thomas
> Breedon, five hundred pounds each.
> --children of my brother Zacheus Breedon, clerk, one thousand
> pounds, divided equally.
> --"In the codicil reference is made to the death of his wife Mary
> since the will was written. He now gives to brother Thomas Breedon
> Esq. and to Mary his now wife the yearly sum of one hundred pounds for
> life."
> --Commission 2 March 1697 to John Breedon Esq., grand nephew of
> deceased.
>
>
> NEHGR 48:127: Will of Thomas Breedon, 22 Oct. 1682, proved 1 April
> 1689 (PCC Ent, 48).
> --wife Mary sole executrix.
> --son John, 200 pounds at age 24.
> --same to sons Zacheus and Robert, at 24.
> --daughter Mary Aylemer and her three children.
> --grandson John Breedon, 20 shillings.
> --witnesses Z. Sedgwick, T . Jennings
> --"[The Probate Act Book shows that the testator was of Crowton
> in Northampton.]"
Nathaniel Taylor
starb...@hotmail.com (John Brandon) wrote:
> This reminds me of something I was going to mention back during the
> Dennis-Stradling debate. I ran across a very obscure source (from the
> mid 1700s) that mentions some heraldic evidence (a wall plaque or
> painting in an old house in Canongate, Middlesex) that may help in
> sorting the family out.
>
> The heraldry was Dennis impaling Russell, Corbet, Popham, and Danvers.
> The source may be incorrect about Popham; or, since the Pophams
> frequently intermarried with the Stradlings, there may be a Stradling
> line somewhere in there.
Impaling or quartering?
Nat Taylor
Tim Powys-Lybbe
> John Nichols, "History and Antiquities of Canonbury-House at
> Islington, in the County of Middlesex," _Bibliotheca Topographica
> Britannica_, 2:26-8:
>
> "The arms engraved in plate II. fig. 6 (lately taken down from over a
> chimney in that part of the old house which was adorned with a turret,
> and now in the possession of Mr. John Duval, mason, in Little Portland
> Street, Marylebone) are evidently the arms of _Dennys_ of
> Gloucestershire, and consist of four quarters; viz. First, Azure, 3
> leopards faces vorant fleurs de lis, Or, over all a bend of the
> second, for _Dennys_. Second, Or, on a chief Sable 3 torteaux, for
> _Russell_. Third, Argent, a raven proper, within a border, Sable,
> bezante, for _Corbet_. Fourth, quarterly, first and fourth, Argent on
> a bend Gules, 3 martlets, Or, for _Davers_; second and third, Gules, 2
> bars, and a chief Or, the latter charged with 2 bucks heads cabossed,
> for _Popham_; and, in the centre is a crescent, Or, placed upon a
> torteaux, which seems intended for a distinction of brotherhood.
Quarter IV is a bit odd. Usually it would be shown as two separate
quarters, even if the achievement then has to have six quarters in all.
> The supporters are two beasts, whose heads, horns, beards, and
> necks, resemble those of goats, their legs and bodies are like those
> of lions, and the tails are carved as if they were scaled.
>
> That the above arms were put up for one of the family of
> _Dennys_ of Gloucestershire is certain, as the same quarterings were
> used by that family, though they are here improperly marshalled,
> since, _Corbet_ being the first heiress they matched with, those arms
> should have been borne before _Russell's_.
The ordering of quarters has an interesting set of rules and the
earliest are not necessarily first.
> The circumstance of the supporters affords sufficient reason to
> assign them particularly to Sir _Walter Dennys_, son of Sir William;
> which Sir Walter was in 5 Henry VII. on Prince Arthur's being created
> Prince of Wales, made one of the Knights of the Bath, to which order
> the bearing of supporters has long been allowed, and is the lowest
> degree to which (in England) this privilege is permitted:
That is certainly current practice but I wonder if the use of supporters
had been that precisely codified in the early 16th century?
> Sir Walter married Margaret daughter of Sir Richard Weston, knt. and
> died Sept. 1, 21 Henry VII. and was buried in Olveston Church,
> Gloucestershire. The arms might have been placed here by _Joan_ one
> of his daughters, who was married to a _Compton_, or by Mary, his
> descendant, married to a _Fisher_. The Comptons had no interest here
> till a century after the death of Sir Walter Dennys, 1610.
>
> I don't think it's correct that the Walter Dennis who married Margaret
> Weston died in 21 Henry VII, so there may be other errors of
> interpretation.
>
> I'm guessing that it was Mistress Davers's mother who was the Popham,
> so this doesn't shed any light on the possible Stradling connection
> (although we can say that Mistress Stradling wasn't an heraldic
> heiress).
But there certainly seems to be enough information here to get close to
stating who the armiger was. But I have found families of those time
quartering arms to which they were not entitled - and which quarterings
are reproduced to the present day by the College of Arms.
--
Tim Powys-Lybbe t...@powys.org
For a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org
Tim Powys-Lybbe
wrote:
> Thanks for giving your thoughts on this. Can you tell if Nichols has
> properly identified the arms? I mean, might the arms he's assigned to
> Popham actually be for Stradling (or someone else)?
rec.heraldry may be a better newsgroup for answers to this sort of
question.
The problem is that of finding what arms the relevant people were using
at that point of time. Burke's "General Armory" is quite useless for
that (though I do have a copy).
A compendium that is generally more reliable is Fox-Davies' Armorial
Families where there are entries for a Stradling quarter borne by a
Danvers and a Popham quarter borne by Floyer. The seven editions of
Fox-Davies were compiled between the late 19th and early 20th
centuries and from the seventh edition we have:
Stradling: A paly of six argent and azure, on a bend gules three
cinquefoils or
Popham: Argent, on a chief gules, two bucks heads caboshed or.
A far better source of information is likely to be "Dictionary of
Medieval Arms. Medieval Ordinary" by Thomas Woodcock, Norroy and Ulster
King of Arms, in two volumes published 1992 and 1996. Heraldry Today
has a copy of both:
http://www.heraldrytoday.co.uk/
For early medieval arms, Brian Timms has made an excellent collection:
I can only repeat again, that identifying arms borne by particular
people requires scholarship both of heraldry and genealogy.