Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Lywood Family Research of Milston, West Harnham, Fugglestone St Peter, South Newton, Fovant, and Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire

For the most part, I have learned about my Lywood family from the Lywood one name study which was created by Warwick Lywood. I had managed to work my way back a couple of generations from my 2x great grandmother Elizabeth Lywood (married to William Rawlin[g]s) but his work took me back another six generations to John Lywood who was buried 18 Apr 1618 at Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire and his wife Edith Thayer who was buried 24 Nov 1612 also at Compton Chamberlayne.This couple had two sons John and Robert. They appear to be the two distinct lines of Lywood family with my line descending from Robert Lywood who married Alice Baylie 10 Jan 1623 (Old Style) at Fovant, Wiltshire. Robert was buried 14 Dec 1660 at Fovant and Alice was buried 12 Apr 1675 also at Fovant.

The Lywood family left very few wills. On the Wiltshire and Swindon Archive Catalogue there are four wills/administrations. They are for William Lywood in 1725 at Burcombe, Andrew Lywood in 1727 at Fugglestone St Peter, Charles Lywood in 1718 at Salisbury and Mary Lywood in 1727 at Stratford Sub Castle. The last two can be purchased online. The alternative names Leywood, Lyewood do not produce any results.

There are six wills on the National Archives website namely Will of Lady Maria Lywood, widow of Amsterdam in 1786, John Lywood gentleman of Romsey 1766, Hugh Lywood cooper of St Mary Whitechapel in 1741, John Lywood mariner in 1700, Leonard Lywood gentleman of Barton Stacey in 1854 and John Lywood of Barton Stacey in 1830. None of these wills fit into my family lines but I did acquire the wills of John Lywood 1766, John Lywood 1700 and John Lywood 1830 which I will transcribe before moving on to my new thoughts on what research I could do instead on the Lywood Research day.

The one item that Warwick didn't know was that my George Lywood (grandfather of Elizabeth Lywood my great grandmother) was at Waterloo as well as serving at Martinique during the Peninsular Wars. George was in the 23rd Regiment of Foot now known as the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. I discovered a published history of the regiment at their Museum in Caernarfon (Carnarvon) Castle in Wales when we were on our bus tour in 2008 and of course I purchased it for just 20 pounds. I have read it cover to cover and it was fascinating reading. George came to Halifax in 1807 and was thus my first ancestor to set foot in Canada! However, he didn't stay moving on to Martinique with the troops.

It is unlikely that I can do any better than Warwick with my Lywood family. I shall contemplate between now and the next Lywood research day which family to work on. I am leaning towards the Holmes family. George married Martha Peck 26 Oct 1817 at Milston, Wiltshire and Martha was the daughter of Elizabeth Peck. I wonder if there is a story there completely untold and likely never to be told. Elizabeth was the daughter of Joseph Peck and Ann Holmes who married 26 Jul 1740 at Milston. Joseph and Ann Peck had eight children all at Milston namely:

John baptized 28 Apr 1741
Thomas baptized 15 May 1744
Samuel baptized 26 Apr 1747
Jane baptized 9 Feb 1750
Jonah baptized 27 Mar 1753
Anne baptized 30 Apr 1755
Elizabeth baptized 15 Apr 1758
Mary baptized 15 May 1761

Joseph was buried 7 Oct 1791 at Milston and Ann his wife was buried there 5 Jul 1778. Both the Holmes and the Peck families have a long history in this region with Ann having been baptized 17 Jul 1712 at Figheldean and Joseph baptized 4 Apr 1718 at Milston. I am interested in the Holmes family and perhaps that would be a good study to do on the Lywood research day. The father of Joseph was Thomas Peck and he married Joanna Holmes 13 Sep 1705 at Milston. Discovering the Holmes family would be an interesting project. I purchased the Milston parish registers some time ago and have now also purchased a few others on our trip to the WDYTYA Conference in London in February.

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