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HENRY BYSH and MARY LEDGER (10)

 

HENRY BYSH was the eldest son of William Bysh and his wife Jone.

He was born in 1675, in the reign of Charle II.

He was the son of a well-to-do yeoman farmer and became a yeoman farmer himself. He had two brothers and a sister.

He was brought up in the parish of Tandridge, a village between Reigate and Oxted in Surrey. His home was probably at Snouts Farm, in the south of this long parish.

By the time of his death, he had moved into the parish of Godstone, 2 miles west of Tandridge.

 

MARY LEDGER. Her name is variously spelt Leadger and Lodger, but the commonest form is Ledger.

Mary was married in Horne, a village south of Godstone, and it is here that we find her baptism.

Baptism. St Mary, Horne.
1688/9 Feb 6  Mary daughter of Richard and Joan Leadger,

We know from Richard Ledger’s will that this is the right christening.

Mary was the elder of two known children of Richard Ledger and Joan Gravatt, from neighbouring Lingfield. She had a younger brother.

Like Henry, she was the child of a well-to-do yeoman, probably a dairy farmer.

Mary was only one year old when her mother died, three months after giving birth to her brother.

Her father married again, to Ann, whose surname we have been unable to find.

We have the baptism of only one half-sibling, a sister born in 1693. But we know from her father’s will that there were at least two half- brothers and four half-sisters.

In 1703, her father purchased the historic house of Bysshe Court in Horne, named for a 17^th-century relative of her future husband Henry Bysh. He was known thereafter as “Richard Ledger of Bish Court”, so it is likely that it became his home and Mary spent most of her teenage years here.

 

Marriage. St Mary, Horne.
1709 Sep 4  Henry Bysh & Mary Ledger

Henry was 34 and Mary was 20.

Although they lived in the parish of Godstone, this is a particularly long, thin parish, measuring 10 miles by 1 mile. The church was in the north, and the Byshes’ farm in the south. It was easier for them to use the church in neighbouring Horne or Lingfield, than their own parish church.

They had their children baptised in Horne.

Baptisms. St Mary, Horne.
1711 Oct 31  Mary
1713 Nov 14  Johanne
There is a burial in Horne on 20 Nov 1713 for Johanna Bish Infant. She lived only a week, and does not appear in her father’s will.
1714 Nov 16  Henry
1716 Feb 4  Thomas

Mary’s father, Richard Ledger, died in 1713. He left legacies to most of his children, but not to Mary. She had probably received a substantial gift at her wedding.

He did, however, make his son-in-law Henry Bysh one of his two executors in trust.
He and his fellow executor were charged with selling the farms of Water Whigey and The Heaths in Reigate, and Frogatt Heath in Horne, and dividing the proceeds between his wife and four younger daughters. Any money remaining after the payment of legacies, debts and funeral expenses they are to pay to his wife, four daughters and his youngest son Joseph.
If there was sufficient money left over, the two executors are to have ten shillings each to buy themselves mourning rings.

In 1725, there was a lawsuit in which John Ledger, yeoman of Burstow, was the plaintiff, and Henry Byshe and Mary Byshe his wife the defendants.[1] John Ledger is probably Mary’s brother. We do not know the nature of his complaint, or what the outcome was.

Henry Bysh, Yeoman of Godstone, wrote his will on 3 Sep 1750.
He gives his well-beloved wife Mary Bysh all the goods and furniture in and about the house where she is now living, for life.
To his sons Henry Bysh and Thomas Bysh he leaves each a feather bed with its furniture.
The rest of his goods he divides equally between Henry, Thomas and his daughter Mary Wicking. Mary was the wife of John Wicking, landlord of the Blue Anchor at Blindley Heath, south of Godstone.
Also, to his son Henry he gives several messuages, farms and lands, together with their arable land, woods and pastures. Foremost among these is Snouts Farm in Horne. Also Barnsfield, Woodsfield, Foxcroft, Hopgarden, Park Harris fields, and Cantfields Croft, also land at Haffridges. All these are in the parishes of Godstone and Tandridge. They exclude lands settled on his wife Mary at their marriage.
Henry junior is to pay his mother ten pounds, his brother Thomas two hundred pounds, and his sister Mary Wicking one hundred pounds.
He is also to pay two hundred pounds to his brother Thomas and his brother-in-law John Wicking. This is so that they can set up a trust, the interest, and if necessary the principal,  to be used for the maintaining, education and bringing up of the five children of Henry Bysh junior: Henry, William, Thomas, George and Elizabeth until they come of age at twenty-one.
When they have all come of age, the principal, or what remains of it, is to be divided equally between them.
To his son Thomas he leaves the Great Oak Tree on the south side of Woodsfield, with permission to fell it at any time in the next ten years, and to take away the wood, making good any damage done.
Anything remaining from his estate is to go to his eldest son Henry.
He appoints his sons Henry and Thomas and his son-in-law John Wicking as his executors.
Henry signs his own name.
Witnesses: Thomas Bysh, William Nash and Sw… Underhill.

Henry lived for another four years. We might have assumed that his was the burial of Henry Bysh in Godstone in 1756, but his will was proved in 1754. This means that his burial must be the one in neighbouring Lingfield in that year. Godstone is a long, thin parish, extending for 10 miles. If they were well to the south of Godstone village, the church of Ss Peter and Paul in Lingfield may have been nearer than St  Nicholas’s in Godstone.

It is also in Lingfield that we find Mary’s burial. She died the year before Henry.

Burials. Ss Peter and Paul,  Lingfield.
1753 Mar 24  Mary Bysh
1754 Mar 11  Henry Bysh

 Henry’s will was proved in London on 23 Oct 1754 on the oaths of his sons and executors Henry Bysh and Thomas Bysh, to whom administration was granted.
There is a note at the end of this grant that says, “Power reserved to make a like grant to John Wicking the other Executor, when he shall apply for the same”.
In fact, John Wicking died the following month. He was buried in Lingfield on Nov 19.

 

[1] National Archives: C 11/1447/22

 

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