vikingsandvirginians.com
The following index of Gloucestershire (England) wills is part of a digitizing process that took place in 2014. I have selected ancestral names and related names contained in that index for further
research:
Source: GLOUCESTER WILLS, 1541 TO 165O (ALSO “DISPERSED WILLS” AND “PECULIARS” OF BISHOP’S CLEEVE AND BIBURY).
1550
Saunders, John [abode not given]
Holy Trinity Church
Badgeworth, GLoucestershire
Gloucestershire Wills 5
Crump, John, Badgworth [Badgeworth] [1545]
[Badgeworth is a village in the Tewkesbury district of Gloucestershire, between Gloucester and Cheltenham. Holy Trinity, Badgeworth is set in countryside . The older part of the church is an architecturally ornate early 14th century aisle with ball-flower moulding, considered to be the best example of the medieval decorated style in Gloucestershire.]
Gloucestershire Wills 6
Crumpe, Philip [1545?]
Crump, James, Westbury [1546]
Crump, Roger, Westbury [1546]
Gloucestershire Wills 8
Crumpe, John, Rodley, Westbury [1548]
Wikipedia describes Rodley in Gloucestershire as “a settlement in Westbury-on-Severn parish, Forest of Dean District, Gloucestershire, England. It lies to the south east of Westbury-on-Severn, surrounded on three sides by a loop of the River Severn”
[See my discussion of Westbury-on-Severn and the religious dissent ther at Quakers in Gloucestershire and Other Possible Ties with New Kent County VA.]
A map of the Severn River, showing locations of Bristol, Gloucester and Cheltenham. Westbury-on-Severn is a red dot at the Northeast curve at the Severn’s source.
[See also my quote from “Albion’s Seed”, Y-Chromosome “MRCAs”, and Clues Found in Gloucestershire “Note also that in the town of Westbury-on-Trym, to the North of the seaport town of Bristol in Gloucestershire (mentioned in the Armourer’s documents in 16th Century Gloucestershire, elsewhere on this website) resides the Saunders family.”]
[See also the reference “The king’s liberty of the duchy of Lancaster which extended within the hundreds of Bledisloe, Westbury [and] Botloe.; Huntley: John Stratford: 19s 4d.” in Miscellaneous Documents from Early 16th Century Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire Wills 12
Crumpe, William, Chursden, c. [1547] [Churston Court was a 12th century manor in Gloucestershire.]
Saunders, William, Bradwell [Broadwell] [1547]
A 12th century Norman frieze at Saint Paul’s Church in the market town of Broadwell, Gloucestershore
[Broadwell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Gloucestershire. It is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Stow-on-the-Wold. (From wikipedia.com]
From Richard Tracy (1501-1569) Stanway, Gloucestershire, U. K., “A Military Survey of Gloucestershire (1522), excerpts by WHB: Slaughter Hundred; Broadwell: John Carter 20 lbs., p.88; Upper Slaughter: Richard Tracy 10 sh., p.96″
Saunders, John, Avening [1548]
Doorway of the Church of the Holy Cross in Avening
[From British History Online: “The ancient parish of Avening, two miles north of Tetbury, comprised two detached portions separated by a small area of Cherington parish: the larger, western portion, containing the village of Avening, part of Nailsworth, and the hamlets of Forestgreen and Windsoredge was elongated in shape, stretching for seven miles from the Inch brook on the northwest to near the Tetbury-Cirencester road on the south-east.”]
Saunders, John, Avening (inv.) [1548]
Gloucestershire Wills 16
Saunders, Agnes, Bradwell (Broadwell) [1551]
Dursley, an 1879 painting by Edward Smith now in GLoucester Museum.
Crewes, Thomas, Dursley [1551]
[Dursley is a market town under the North East flank of Stinchcombe Hill, and about 6 km South East of the River Severn. Dursley gained borough status in 1471 and lost it in 1886.]
Saunders, Giles, Uley [1552]
[Uley is situated in a wooded valley in the Cotswold escarpment, between Dursley and Stroud. During the Industrial Revolution, the village was renowned for producing blue cloth.]
Crumpe, James, Rodley, Westbury [1552]
Gloucestershire Wills 21
Saunders, Thomas, Ashleworth [1555]
A Norman window set in a older Saxon door in parish church of Sts Andrew and Bartholomew, Ashleworth,
[Ashleworth is a village in the Tewkesbury district, about six miltes north of Gloucester. The oldest part of the village is Ashleworth Quay, on a flood plain on the west bank of the River Severn.
An ancient ferry, which used to link Ashleworth Quay to Sandhurst village on the east bank of the river closed in the 1950s. In medieval times the Quay was a major crossing point for the river as the flood meadows here are narrower than they are for many miles upstream. Consequently, Ashleworth would have been the last place from which to cross before reaching the outskirts of Tewkesbury, nearly eight miles upstream.
Near the Quay is the ancient parish church of Saints Andrew and Bartholomew, the Manor, the Court, the historic Tithe Barn and the Boat Inn which has been run by the Jelf family for nearly 400 years.
The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086), at which time it was called Escelesworde, which translates loosely as Aescel’s farmstead, or enclosure. After the Norman Conquest the manor was held by the Earls of Berkeley, but in the 12th century Robert Fitzharding, the earl at that time, gifted Ashleworth to St Augustine’s Abbey, Bristol. Henry VIII later gave the manor to the Bishop of Gloucester. [Infro from wikipedia.com.]
Saunders, Thomas, Tewkesbury [1555]
An illustration of the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) from an old illustration
[See the following notation, quoting www.cotswold.info cited at Ancestral Families and the Colonial Trade (1633-1637): “It was during the 16th and early 17th centuries that the area around Winchcombe was extremely poor , it was during this period that a family named Tracy established themselves at Toddington, the eldest son Sir John Tracy became involved with a John Stratford who was related to him by marriage, they set up a business together to grow tobacco in the area, with plantations at Toddington and Bishops Cleeve. “Tobacco was widely grown on the Cotswolds, the Vale of Tewkesbury and in an area which extended as far south as Wiltshire.
[See also Richard Tracy (1501-1569) Stanway, Gloucestershire, U. K. “According to the History of Parliament: [O]n 15 Jan. 1533, shortly before setting out for London to attend the fifth session [of Parliament] (which began on 4 Feb.) [RICHARD TRACY] wrote, presumably from Gloucestershire, to an unamed friend, recounting the sotry and promising to explain the situation to [Thomas] Cromwell who, he had heard, was commissioned to investigate. Whether Cromwell was brought into the affair, or whether, as some versions suggest, even the King took it up, does not appear.
“Cromwell was of assistance to Tracy in other spheres and helped him to obtain several properties and leases: on 16 Feb., during the fifth session, the abbot of Tewkesbury agreed to the minister’s suggestion to grant him the manor of Stanway, which immediately became his home. Tracy’s name appears in several of Cromwell’s memoranda, and it is evident that the two men were close.”
From Gloucestershire Documents: Medieval Manors and Estates Associated with Carters and Related Families, Part 1, quoting the Victoria History of Gloucester, v. 8, p. 223 “In 1086 there were 12 servi and ancillae on the 5-hide estate at Oxenton belonging to the Tewkesbury manor, and the demesne was cultivated with 5 teams (40) (40) Dom. Bk.(Rec. Com.) i 163v.”
[WHB Note: An examination of the children of Sir Paul Tracy and his wife Anne Shakerley yeilds the informaiton that the 11th child, born 1602, was a male given the name “Saunders Tracy”. The child did not survive infancy, but the name appears to confirm that the Tracy and Saunders [and also Carter] families had close relationships.]
Saunders, Thomas, Maisemore [1555]
A view of the Severn from Maisemore Bridge (from the photograph.org/uk project
[Maisemore is 2.5 miles northwest of Gloucester on the west bank of the River Severn. There is a church, dedicated to St Giles.]
Sanders, John [1556]
Gloucestershire Wills 22
Saunders, Alice, Maisemore [1557]
Carter, William, Broadwell [1557]
Gloucestershire Wills 28
Saunders, Hugh, Maisemore [1558]
Saunders, John, Stow [1558]
The Eagle and Child Pub of Stow-on-the-Wold, said to be nearly 1100 years old (dating from 947)
[Stow-on-the-Wold is a small market town situated on top of an 800 ft (244 m) hill, at the convergence of a number of major roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way. The town was founded as a planned market place by Norman lords to take advantage of trade on the converging roads. Fairs have been held by royal charter since 1330 and an annual horse fair is still held on the edge of the town.]
Gloucestershire Wills 29
Saunders, John, Cirencester [1558]
The following is extracted from the wikipedia.com article on Cirencester: “At the Norman Conquest the royal manor of Cirencester was granted to the Earl of Hereford, William Fitz-Osborne, but by 1075 it had reverted to the Crown. The manor was granted to Cirencester Abbey, founded by Henry I in 1117 . . . The manor was granted to the Abbey in 1189, although a royal charter dated 1133 speaks of burgesses in the town.
“The struggle of the townsmen to prove that Cirencester was a borough, and thus gain the associated rights and privileges, probably began in the same year . . .
Castle Street in Cirencester
Sheep rearing, wool sales, weaing and woolen broadcloth and cloth-making were the main strengths of England’s trade in the Middle Ages, and not only the abbey but many of Cirencester’s merchants and clothiers gained wealth and prosperity from the national and international trade. The tombs of these merchants can be seen in the parish church, while their fine houses of Cotswold stone still stand in and around Coxwell Street and Dollar Street. Their wealth funded the rebuilding of the nave of the parish church in 1515-30, to create the large parish church, often referred to as the “Cathedral of the Cotswolds”. Other wool churches can be seen in neighbouring Northleach andChipping Campden.]
I wrote extensively on Cirencester in Giles Carter (1634-1700) Henrico County, VA,
Gloucesterhire Wills 30
Saunders, John, Cirencester [1558]
Gloucestershire Wills 31
Saunders, Roger, Cirencester [1558]
Saunders, Thomas, city of Gloucester [1558]
An interior of Gloucester Cathedral
[The following is extracted from wikipedia.com: “King Henry II granted the first charter in 1155, which gave the burgesses [of Gloucester] the same liberties as the citizens of London and Winchester, and a second charter of Henry II gave them freedom of passage on the River Severn. The first charter was confirmed in 1194 by King Richard I. The privileges of the borough were greatly extended by the charter of King John (1200), which gave freedom from toll throughout the kingdom and from pleading outside the borough.
In the Middle Ages the main export was wool which came from the Cotswolds and was processed in Gloucester; other exports included leather and iron (tools and weapons). Gloucester also had a large fishing industry at that time.
Saunders, William, city of Gloucester [1558]
Gloucestershire Wills 32
Crumpe, William, Leckhampton [1558]
A bay window at Leckhampton Court
[The following was extracted from wikipedia.com “Leckhampton is a district in south Cheltenham. . . .The old village of Leckhampton stands at the foot of Leckhampton Hill, around the medieval parish church of St Peter’s. . . Leckhampton Court is a mediaeval manor house dating from about 1320, built by the Giffard family of Brimpsfield.”
Gloucestershire Wills 35
Crumpe, John, Tyriey [Tirley] [1560]
St Matthew parish church in Tirley.
[TIRLEY (St. Matthew), a parish, in the union of Tewkesbury, partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Westminster, and partly in that of the hundred of Deerhurst, E. division of the county of Gloucester, 8 miles (N. by E.) from Gloucester. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.]
Gloucestershire Wills 39
Crumpe, Agnes, Westbury [1563]
Saunders, Wilham, Witcombe [1563]
Crompe, Elizabeth, Westbury [1567]
Gloucestershire Wills 54
Sewell, John, Stroud [1573]
[Stroud is amarket town, situated below the western escarpment
Saunders, William, Gloucester [1571]
Gloucestershire Wills 59
Saunders, Thomas, Bledington [1574]
[In my post Winchcombe and the Benefactors of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, I referred to Bledington as one of the revenue-producing properties of Winchcombe Abbey.]
[According to wikipedia.com, “Bledington is a village . . . about four miles south-east of Stow-on-the-Wold [and is on] the River Evenlode . close to the Gloucestershire-Oxfordshire boundary . . .]
Saunders, Margery, Maisemore [1574]
Gloucestershire Wills 69
Crompe, John, Rodley Wes[t]bury [1579]
Gloucestershire Wills 70
Crumpe, Thomas, Wes[t]bury [1579]
Carter, William, Arlingham [1579]
[Arlingham (St. Mary The Virgin) is 1½ mile (S. E. by E.) from Newnham. The parish church is St Mary The Virgin. The town is situated on a nook of land formed by a curvature of the Severn, by which river it is bounded on three sides, and across which is a ferry to Newnham .There is a place of worshipfor Wesleyans.]
Gloucestershire Wills 71
Crewe, Peter, Titherington [Tytherington] [1580]
Crompe, John, Leckhampton [1580]
1581 Gloucestershire Wills 72
Crumpe, John, Tirley [1581]
Crewe, Isabel als. Eliz., Titherington [Tytherington] [1581]
Crewe, Edmund, Deilham [1583]
Drew, Crew, Thomas, Alderley [1583]
[Alderley (also previously known as Alderleigh[) is a village about fourteen miles southwest of Stroud and two miles south of Wotton-under-Edge. ]
Crew, John, BItton [1583]
Gloucestershire Wills 82
The parish church in Hartpury
Saunders, John, Hartpury [1587]
[Hartpury is a . . . village [that] is about 5 miles (8 km) north of Gloucester.]
Sewell, Walter, Bisley [1593]
Crewe, Joan, Kingscote [1593]
Crumpe, Silvester, Westbury [1595]
Gloucestershire Wills 83
Crewe, Thomas, Marshfield [1597]
Crumpe, Richard, Whittington [1599]
Gloucestershire Wills 105 1599-
Crumpe, John, Westbury [1599]
Gloucestershire Wills 118
Cromp, Jane, Westbury [1606]
Gloucestershire Wills 120
Crompe, Giles, Naunton [1607]
A dovecote in Naunton
[In my post Miscellaneous Documents from Early 17th Century Gloucestershire I quoted “The Hundred of Kiftesgate (pp. 77- Nauntone: Whereof Sr John Tracy knight is lord.; Todington: Whereas Sr John Tracy knight is lord. Smith, John, Men and Armour for Gloucestershire in 1608, Alan Sutton, 1980, p.85.”
Saunders, John, Bledington [1607]
[In my post Winchcombe and the Benefactors of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, I referred to Bledington as one of the revenue-producing properties of Winchcombe Abbey.]
Gloucestershire Wills 126
Saunders, John, Great Badminton [1611]
[BADMINTON, GREAT (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Chipping, Upper division of the hundred of Grumbald’s-Ash, W. division of the county ofGloucester, 6½ miles (E. by N.) from Chipping-Sodbury. The roads from Cheltenham and Cirencester to Bath unite here.]
Gloucestershire Wills 127
Crumpe, James, Rodley in Westbury [1611]
Gloucestershire Wills 128 1612
Ayres, Ann, proved at Gloucester [1612]
Saunders, Eleanor, Maisemore [1612]
Gloucestershire Wills 131
Saunders, John, Tewkesbury [1613]
Gloucestershire Wills 133
^Carter, Giles, Arlingham [1614]
[Arlingham is a village near Stroud. It occupies a peninsula on a sharp bend in the River Severn.]
Crewe, John, Hawkesbury [1615]
[In my post,Giles Carter (1634-1700) Henrico County, VA, I wrote heir were two Families of Carter’s from Gloucestershire that shared similar Names, The Carter’s of Arlingham and the Carter’s of Badgeworth , Charleton Abbots, Lower Swell , Neather Swell and Cirencester and Cheltenham and Blockley. I have wills of Several of these Carter’s but I am searching for a link to Early Virginia that would connect Carter’s here to the families in Gloucestershire.]
Gloucestershire Wills 138?
Sanders, Richard, parson of Daglingworth [1616]
Crumpe, William, Westbury [1616]
Sewell, Robert, Rodborow [1616]
Gloucestershire Wills 140
Crumpe, Henry, Gloucester [1617]
Gloucestershire Wills 141
Crumpe, William, Gloucester [1617]
Gloucestershire Wills 143 1619
Crumpe, Edward, Church Stanway [1617]
Saunders, George, Avening [1619]
Gloucestershire Wills 147
Crumpe, William, Badgeworth [1620]
Gloucestershire Wills 149
Crumpe, Henry, Westbury [1622]
Gloucestershire Wills 150? 1623
Carter, William, Arlingham [1623]
Gloucestershire Wills 155
Sanders, William, Cirencester [1625]
Ayre, William, Arlingham [1625]
Ayres, John, Gloucester [1625]
Carle, Ann, Wickwar [missing] [1626]
Gloucestershire Wills 157
t Ayers, Alice, Gloucester, pr. 1628
Ayers, Alice, Gloucester [missing]
Crumpe, Elizabeth, Gloucester [1628]
Crumpe, John, Gloucester [1628]
Crumpe, Elizabeth, Address not give [1630]
Waterman ah. Saunders, John [1630]
Carter, Joyce, Bitton [1631]
Sewell, Thomas, Nether Lippiott [1631]
Gloucestershire Wills 167
Sanders, Thomas, Maisemore [1632]
Gloucestershire Wills 168
Saunders, Mathew, Tirley [torn] [1632]
Sewell, Thomas, Bisley [1632]
Sewell, Thomas, Nether Lippiot [1633]
Volume of 1634-35
Saunders, John, Moreton Valence [1634]
Gloucestershire Wills 172
Oakes, Thomas, Wotton-under-Edge [1634]
Crewe, Mathew, Combe [missing] [1635]
Crewe, William, Alderly, gent. [1635]
Crewe, Walter, Frampton-on-Severn [1636]
Gloucestershire Wills 177
Crumpe, Thomas, Gloucester [1637]
Crew, William, Cromhall [1637]
Greyhurst als. Saunders, John [1637+]
Gloucestershire Wills 178
Saunders, John, Tirley [1638]
Saunders, Richard, Horsley [1638]
Sawnders als. Grayhurst, Redigo [1638]
Crumpe, Arthur, Werley, Westbury [1639]
[Note that 70 years later in 1710, the mariner Abraham Saunders of Westbury-on-Trym with an estate of 66 pounds was listed as 19th of the top 25 17th century Bristol area mariners, each of whose probate was betwee 50 and 975 pounds. Source: E. and S. George (1988) Guide to the Probate Inventories of the Bristol Deanery.]
Gloucestershire Wills 181
Okes, John, Wotton-under-Edge, linen draper [1639]
Carter, Walter, Arlingham [1639]
Sewell, Walter, Lippiott [1639]
Crumpe, Margaret, Lydney [1640]
Saunders, Lithew, Berkeley [1640]
Gloucestershire wills 190
Carter, William, Arlingham [1644]
Crew, Arthur, Hawkesbury [missing] [1639]
Ayres, Thomas, Newnham [1645]
Sewell, John, Bisley [1646]
Crew, Joan, Wotton-under-Edge [1647]
Crew, Richard, Wickwar, Tanner [1650]