5

Monk Tree

 WILLIAM WOODMAN and HESTER (10)

 

WILLIAM WOODMAN. In 1785 Henry Monk married Elizabeth Woodman in the village of Stone in Buckinghamshire. We can trace her lineage back through her father John Woodman, her grandfather, another John Woodman, to her great-grandfather William Woodman.

The most convincing baptism we have found for the older John Woodman, who raised his family in the village of Waddesdon, adjacent to Stone, is the following.

Baptism. St James, Bierton with Broughton.
1715 Jun 6  John son of William and Hester Woodman.
Bierton lies to the east of Waddesdon, close to Aylesbury,

Their oldest child was baptised in 1701, so we should expect William and Hester to have been born around 1675. The Bierton parish registers go back to the 16^th century, but we have not found William’s baptism there. The nearest of a suitable date is in Dunton, some 5 miles north of Bierton, where in 1678 William son of William and Mary Woodman was baptised. This may be the right birth, or it may have been in a parish whose registers do not go back that far.

 

HESTER. We have not found the marriage of William and Hester, so we do not know her maiden name, or where she came from.

There were baptisms in Hardwick in 1674 for Hester, daughter of William Plested, and in Aylesbury in 1675 for Hester, daughter of William Cannon. Either of these could be William Woodman’s wife.

It is likely that the couple married around the turn of the century.

They settled in Bierton. This is a farming parish half a mile NE of Aylesbury. Its wagon pond was a popular place to water horses and to swell the wooden axles of carts. Its principal industry was brickmaking, using the local blue clay. But the most common occupation was on the farms, principally in raising stock on the grasslands.

We know from a document of 1729 that William Woodman of Bierton was a yeoman.

Here, five children were baptised.

Baptiams. St James, Bierton with Broughton.
1701 Dec 26  Thomas
1708 Aug 3  Richard
1711 Oct 29   Henry
1713 May 1  Hester
1715 Jun 6  John

 William was also churchwarden in 1709, and thus a respected member of the community.

It was in 1709 that the Attorney General initiated a lawsuit on behalf of William Woodman and Francis Smith, churchwardens of “Bearton”, Buckinghamshire.[1]
The defendants were Nicholas Lepell, Mary Lepell his wife, Hannah Brooks, Amy Hope, widow, John Bosse, Henry Bosse, Franepecis Ligo and Thomas Jordan. It concerned the personal estate of the deceased Thomas Bosse of Bierton.

The case cropped up again in 1719.[2] This time, the Attorney General sued Mary Lepell on behalf of William Woodman and Francis Smith, formerly churchwardens of Bierton.

A different case was brought in 1729.[3] This time, the plaintiff was William Woodman, yeoman of Broughton, Bierton, and the defendants were Richard Harding junior and Henry Jordan.
Broughton is a hamlet within the parish of Bierton, of which little now remains.

We do not know the outcome of any of these cases, but they establish William’s place in the community.

We do not yet have access to the burials for Bierton with Broughton, but there are an administration, bond and inventory for William Woodman of Bierton dated 22 May 1731.

There is also an administration for Hester Woodman widow of Broughton on 1 Dec 1753. These would appear to be their death dates. William may still have been under 50.

 

[1] National Archives. C 5/223/13
[2] National Archives C 11/362/59
[3] National Archives C 11/2253/47

 

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