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Section 06 : Wotton under Edge

Chapter 06.B

Thomas of Wotton

There are actually two individuals we may describe as Thomas BRUSH of Wotton under Edge. (A village on the edge of the escarpment at the western edge of the Cotswold Hills in the south of Gloucestershire.) Both were buried at Wotton; one on 29 January 1638(9) and the other on 30 July 1642. Typically, the register of the parish church of St Mary the Virgin gives us no more information. Critically it does not tell us their ages at death.

Given the relative rarity of the BRUSH name we may reasonably confidently assume that one of these deaths is that of Thomas BRUSH[G14] who married Alice Smith at Charfield (just 2 miles away) in 1593. This conclusion is reinforced by the record of the burial of Alice BRUSH at Wotton in 1629 and by the baptisms of two sons at Wotton in 1599 and 1604. { Does the baptism register actually identify these as sons of Thomas, or of Thomas and Alice?} We do not know whether Thomas[G14] died in 1638(9) or in 1642.

Since Thomas[G14] appears to be the head of a significant section of family tree I have given him a second, alternative, designation as [W1]. He may have been my direct ancestor, my G?-grandfather, a possibility considered in chapter 11.A .

Particularly with a common name like SMITH it is not possible to identify Thomas's wife Alice with any precision. There are many Goucestershire baptisms of an Alice Smith in the period 1558 to 1578 that could be her. The two nearest to Charfield were at Alderley in 1563 and at Thornbury in 1572. The SMITH or SMYTH name was not simply numerous but also quite prominent in the area around Wotton at the time(1).

We know nothing more about the second Thomas[W2]. The one assumption we can make reasonably confidently is that he was an independent adult at the time of his death. This assumption is made on the basis that the burial records do not identify him as the son of anyone, which was the normal practice for the death of a child. {Does the general assumption hold specifically true for records of Wotton at that time?} If we are wrong in this assumption then one possibility is that he was the son (baptised 1633/4) of Robert[W4].

One highly attractive possibility is that Thomas[W2] was a son of Thomas[G14/W1] - probably born some time between the wedding in 1593 and the first recorded baptism of John[W3] in 1599 - a period of nearly six years which is a long time for a Tudor family to wait for a first child. If (and it is a very big if) the naming convention of first son follows father is applicable then the second Thomas would fit neatly as Thomas D2(2). {What register gaps exist at the relevant period in Wotton and surrounding parishes?}

One alternative is that Thomas[W2] was the father of Thomas[G14/W1] and pre-deceased him. A third theoretical possibility, though there is no evidence to indicate this, is that he was simply the son of a relative of Thomas[G14/W1].

In the absence of any better evidence to contradict us, let us proceed on the basis (which seems to me the most likely option) that Thomas[W2] was the eldest son of Thomas [W1] and that he was born c.1595. We know very little about him but this shadowy figure appears to be a key link between Thomas the elder of Wotton[W1] and the next 15 generations to the present day.

From the register entries for the Wotton area, this represents my best assessment of the family tree that can be constructed from the available evidence:

In addition to Thomas[W2], Thomas[W1] had three other sons - John[W3] born 1599, Robert[W4] born 1604 and Richard[W5] d.o.b. unknown ?? How do we know of Richard?

John may have moved at some point to Sherston, on the other side of the Cotswolds, 7 miles east across the county boundary in Wiltshire. The story of John of Sherston, and that of his descendants, is the subject of chapter 11.A.

Robert and Richard both stayed at Wotton under Edge and their story is continued in chapter 06.C .

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Next Chapter 06.C: Robert & Richard of Wotton

(1) back to text    The Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society have published online a transcript of the GLOUCESTERSHIRE (SOUTHWEST DIVISION) LAY SUBSIDIES for 1581-1595. They say "These were taxes levied by parliament on the rental value of land and actual value of goods of the better off people among the civil population. ...... By this period there was systematic evasion so the lists cannot be used to compare the wealth of one person or community with another, nor can they be used to assess economic activity. Their value lies in listing the most prominent inhabitants at a time when other nominal lists are relatively rare." There are plenty of SMYTH entres in these lists, but no BRUSH entries. There is an Alice SMITH in the 1581 list for Hinton in Berkeley where she is described as "of Overlond". The transcriber has added a note to this saying (presumably of Overlond) "unidentified". Overlond is apaprently an old spelling for Overland but this doesn't help identify it. I did wonder if might be a reference to the Tewkesbury 'Overlode' but, on further thought, this seems unlikely. Alice does not appear in the 1585, 1592 or 1595 so probably unlikely she is the lady who married in 1593.
Adapting to a New World: English Society in the ... - Google Books Result by James Horn - 1996 - History - 480 pages Wotton under Edge, the chief clothing town in the Vale, grew even more rapidly, ... According to John Smyth, Berkeley had never recovered from the ... books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0807846147...
The rural economy of England: collected essays - Google Books Result by Joan Thirsk - 1984 - History - 420 pages ... to John Smyth make clear his eagerness to start a new life overseas. ... A gardener, a glover, and a husbandman came from Wotton-under Edge,55 much ... books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=090762829X...