Fay Sampson’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)
GEORGE READE and ELIZABETH ARDEN (12)
GEORGE READE. We have traced our Read line back to Antonie son of George Reade, who was baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Sandwich, in 1602.
George Reade has proved harder to pin down.
He was married in at St Peter’s in Sandwich in 1584 in the reign of Elizabeth I. This gives him a likely birth date around 1560. No baptism has been found for him in Sandwich. There are three parish churches in Sandwich: St Mary the Virgin, St Peter and St Clement. The registers for St Mary and St Peter go back to 1538, the year Henry VIII ordered all parish churches to keep a record of baptisms, marriages and burials. St Clement’s registers have only survived from 1563. George could have been baptised there before then.
Against that is the fact that no burials of an older generation have been found in Sandwich, suggesting that George had come from elsewhere.
There is one possible baptism outside Sandwich, in the parish of Thanington, on the outskirts of Canterbury.
The baptism register for Thanington at this time is very unusual. It names the child’s godparents, but not the birth parents.
Baptism. St Nicholas, Thanington.
1564 The xxi day of May was Christened George Reede his godfathers were Mr George Venn? And Mr Stephen Holman? His godmother was Margery Binge.
At this time, the title ‘Mr’ was only given to men of high social standing.
His parents are likely to be William Reed and Alice Binge who married in Thanington in on 3 Oct 1560. Both were of that parish. This interpretation is supported by the fact that George’s godmother was Margery Binge.
This George had an elder sister, Alice, whose baptism is recorded in the same way.
I have found no evidence that this George Reede brought up a family in Thanington or was buried there. He could well have moved, first to nearby Canterbury, then to Sandwich 12 miles west.
Another possibility is that George Reade of Sandwich was baptised in a parish whose early records have not survived.
George’s son Anthony became a maltster. This may have been George’s occupation too. If so, he would have converted the starch in barley into sugar, and supplied this malted barley to brewers.
ELIZABETH ARDEN. We have found no baptism for Elizabeth Arden. The only Arden in the Sandwich registers before Elizabeth’s marriage is the burial of Roger Arden in 1564. This is too early to be a previous husband of Elizabeth, but may be her father.
The lack of other Arden burials suggests that this was not a Sandwich family.
The couple married at St Peter, Sandwich in 1584.
Marriage. St Peter, Sandwich.
1584 May 4 Geo Rode of St Peter, Sandwich to Eliz Arden of St Peter, Sandwich.
Notes on this marriage licence say that the groom’s surname may be Road or Roades. In the parish register it appears as Roade.
Reade and Rode or Rodes seem to be used interchangeably.
The problem with this marriage is that we have no baptisms in Sandwich for the children of George Roade/Reade until 1600, sixteen years after the wedding.
There are earlier baptisms in St Mary Bredman, Canterbury, for the children of George Rodes/Rhodes. Since their son Anthony married at St Mary Bredman to a bride from that parish, there may well be a family connection.
St Mary Bredman is one of Canterbury’s many parish churches. It was so called from the bread market close by. It was also known as St Mary Breadman, St Mary Andrewsgate, St Mary Fishman’s and Little Lady High-Street. It no longer exists. The church had no burial ground. Parishioners were either buried in the church or in the graveyard of St Mary of the Castle.
Baptisms. St Mary Bredman, Canterbury
1585 Apr 21 Thomas Rodes
1594 Dec 29 Robert Rhodes
Five years later we have the following baptism.
Baptism, St Paul, Canterbury.
1599/1600 Mar 2 Laurence the sonne of George Rodes.
This still leaves an uncomfortable gap of nine years between the first two baptisms.
We are back on firm ground with the baptisms of four children of George Read/Roade at St Mary the Virgin in Sandwich.
Baptisms. St Mary the Virgin, Sandwich.
1600 Sep 20 Elizabeth
1602 Dec 27 Anthonie
1605/6 Jan 1 Anna
1607 Sep 27 Patience
The following year their mother Elizabeth died.
Burial. St Mary the Virgin, Sandwich.
1608 Dec 29 Elizabeth Rodes the wife of George Rodes
If we are right about this marriage, she had been bearing children for over twenty years, suggesting that she married young.
We have not found a burial for George.
[1] Historic Canterbury. http://www.machadoink.com/ST%20MARY%20BREDMAN/map.jpg
NEXT GENERATION: 11. READE-SHEPHARD
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 13. REED-BINGE