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Previous Section 05: East Midlands 1589 - 1624

Section 06 : Wotton under Edge 1572 - 1697

Chapter 06.A

Early Wotton and thereabouts
1572 - 1642

Twenty miles south of Brockworth, Agnes BRUSH[G8] marries at Alderley in 1572. A speculative birth date c.1548 puts her squarely in the same generation as Anthony[G3] of Painswick and Thomas, William and one of the Giles of Brockworth who we met in chapter 4.B . Alderley is merely a mile south of Wotton under Edge, of which more in a moment.

In 1573, there is a burial at Wotton of "E" BRUSH. { I didn't see this - check again} FWB slip has a hand written mark - which might be "ev" or "av" ?? - possibly v is vidua or avi is grandparent ?

In 1580 Marjerie BRUSH[G9] ( born c 1556?) marries at North Nibley - two miles NW of Wotton under Edge. A sister of Agnes?

Thirteen years later a Thomas BRUSH[G14] marries at Charfield in 1593. Charfield is just two miles south-west of Wotton under Edge. Was he the brother of Agnes and Marjerie - or maybe their father remarrying, or some other relative?  The further story of Thomas is continued in chapter 6.B .

The combination of these three/four sources says that a BRUSH family was living in the Wotton- under-Edge area - which suggests that a parent may have moved there. The question is - had they moved from Painswick or Brockworth or Tewkesbury (or from somewhere else) or had they been living there much longer, before parish registration had begun.

The Wotton registers begin only from 1xxx . Before that, all we have is a copy of the marriage registers taken from the Hockaday Abstracts for the years 15 to 15 and 15 to 16 . The Charfield registers ……… The Alderley registers The North Nibley registers

Can we make any connection between Agnes, Marjorie, "E" and Thomas and the other family groups we know of?

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One tempting connection is that Wotton, just like Painswick, is a weaving village on the Cotswold Edge and this idea will be reinforced later in section xx ( John of Sherston). Weaving was a widespread occupation, particularly in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset (and in East Anglia and Yorkshire) but it is a dominant activity in Wotton which sits on and under the steep scarp slope at the western edge of the Cotswolds with mills taking advantage of the streams running down the slope. A census taken in 1608 of "all able and sufficient men in body fit for his Majesty's service in the wars" lists 154 men in the Borough of Wotton. Of these 21 were in Agriculture, 69 in the cloth trade and 64 in trades or shops. Of the 69 in the cloth trade 35 were weavers. A counter argument, in support of a link to Tewkesbury, is that the rectory farm at Wotton was part of the property of the Monastry at Tewkesbury before the 15?? Dissolution. This property was just part of a huge list of land holdings but one of the bigger items. The later story of Thomas of Wotton under Edge is continued below and is of much significance, at least to me, as it is suggested that he is my direct ancestor. The issue for the moment is who was Thomas G14? If he came from outside the immediate Wotton area there are just 2 candidates from the individuals we know about. Just to confuse matters a Thomas BRISH also marries at Elkstone, a few miles east of Brockworth in 1593. We know from other instances that BRUSH and BRISH are often confused and there is no evidence of BRISH as a surviving name in its own right. Thomas T14(3), son of Humphrey, was baptised in 1562. There is no record at Tewkesbury of what happened to him or to his father. Using the formula we would be looking for a marriage around 1587 which is in one of the Tewkesbury register gaps, though there is of course no reason why he should not have married outside Tewkesbury. Or he could have died young while there were no burial registers. He would have been 31 at the time of the Charfield marriage. If Thomas G14 is Thomas T14 then he cannot be the brother of Agnes G8 and Marjorie G9. Thomas T14 did have a sister Agnes and a cousin Marjerie but their dates of birth would make them only 6 and 13 at the Alderley and North Nibley marriage dates. My father (FWB) has suggested that there was nothing to keep Humphrey in Tewkesbury after the death of Richard T1 since most assets went to Richard T2, but Humphrey was still in Tewkesbury 18 years later in 1576 for birth of daughter Lucy. On balance I believe it is unlikely that the Wotton grouping is explained by the move of Humphrey. There were clearly two different girls/women called Agnes and two Marjories. However, this is no reason why Thomas T14 could not be Thomas G14. Agnes and Marjorie could not be his sisters but they must surely have been cousins in some degree and this may have provided the link. The second alternative is Thomas G5(2) who was having children in and around Brockworth in the 1570s - assumed born c 1542 which would make him 51. We have no known burial for wife Elizabeth after 1578 (when daughter Ann was born) but such a lack of a record is far from conclusive. Relying on a late re-marriage feels a bit desperate, particulary since in chapter xx we will be attributing the births of children up to 1604 and suggesting possible dates of death in 1638 and 1642. It would also be unlikely that Thomas G5(2) was the brother of Agnes G8 and Marjorie G9 unless they both married late Also Alice T??, sister of Humphrey T3 marries John KEMBRIDGE. The Kembridge name reappears c 1630 at Minchinhampton , xx miles NE of Wooton. The other option is that Thomas G10 is previously unrecorded and was born, according to the formula, c.1568 which could make him the first born son of Thomas G5 of Brockworth. We need to be cautious here as we have also put this, assumed but unrecorded, Thomas forward as a candidate for marrying as Thomas BRISH at Elkstone in 1593. Again, the dates make it unlikely that Agnes and Marjorie were his siblings. Finally, if Thomas G10 was the brother of Agnes G and Marjorie G then that means that Thomas G5(2) was not their brother - which points to another family group in south Gloucs in the mid 16th century. We are left with the possibility that Thomas G10 is not part of one of the Tewkesbury or Brockworth groups but is indeed the brother of Agnes and Marjorie - another family group in south Gloucs in the mid 16th century with the link to the other groups back at least one more generation. Also Alice T??, sister of Humphrey T3 marries John KEMBRIDGE. The Kembridge name reappears c 1630 at Minchinhampton , xx miles NE of Wooton. In 1599 Queen Elizabeth I was still on the throne. In London in that year the Globe Theatre was opened. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was made Lieutenant of Ireland and took 20,000 men to try to suppress an Irish rebellion but failed, made a truce and returned to England in disgrace - an event we will return to later in another context .

Before concluding this chapter it is interesting to note that, in addition to the four known BRUSH entries, there are a considerable number of temptingly similar names in the Wotton area around this time - including BRATCH, BRACHE, BRUDGE, RUTCH, BUSHER, BRUGES and BURGE. None of these are common names.

6/11/1572 Wotton; Thomasine BRATCH marries James MARSH

18/8/1607 Ric. BRACHE marries Christian GAUNT

14/10/1652 Mary BRUDGE marries William DANGERFIELD}

also RUTCH and BUSHER}

(lease 1613 Birmingham City Archives MS3549/160 1613)land in village centre sold to Francis BRACHE, a girdler of London ( who also owned a house at Bradley Street, Wotton). Land later sold on to Richard POOLE.

Brache very rare as a name - see also Land grant by Peter Brache of Newland in Forest of Dean 1581 GlosRO D1677/GG/500 and 502 cf William Brache Swimbridge Devon1531 N DevonRO 186M/T69 and 70 and Henry & Eliz Brach and Richard Brache Kingston/Hook 1652-1685 Kingston Museum KC1/1/various

(1) Norrington, William, the younger, malster. (2) Burge, Ann, of Wotton-under-Edge, co. Gloucs., widow. Limitation and Appointment as security for £200 of a messuage, malthouse and lands in Rowde. And Lease for a year.

The Select rolls - a taxation document - for record a Richard BRUGES (For the possibility of a connection between BRUSH families and the, rather grander, BRUGES family see chapter xx)

The same series of documents record Alice

Next Section Chapter 06.B : Thomas of Wotton