Thomas Heap
Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Burial: 15 November 1730.
Place of Burial: Ringley, Lancashire.
The burial is recorded in the parish register.
Relationships
Father: Thomas Heape.
Mother: Margaret Wroe.
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: Ellen Dixon. Married 11 November 1679 in Middleton, Lancashire.
The marriage is recorded in the parish register, but it is very hard to read. Lancashire Online Parish Clerks gives her name as Elmes Dixson with a “sic” after Elmes. Ellen's brother John calls her Ellen in his will.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Thomas Heap (baptized 22 March 1681/2 in Prestwich)
John Heap (baptized 12 December 1683 in Prestwich)
Alice Heap (baptized 4 August 1685 in Prestwich, Lancashire - buried 28 February 1763 in Bolton, Lanshire) married (1) Adam Crompton 7 October 1707 in Bolton; married (2) Ralph Greenhalgh 21 August 1750 in Bolton.
Evidence
from the parish registers for Prestwich, St Mary:
Bapt. in March 1681
xxii Thomas filius Thomas Heape apud Ringley
Bapt. in Decemr 1683
xii John filius Tho: Heape Outwood
Bapt: in August 1685:
iiii Alice filia Thomas Heape: Outwood
from the parish registers for Ringley, St Saviour:
Ellen Wife of Thomas Heap of Ringleyfold Bur October the 14th 1730.
Thomas Heap of Pilkington Webster Bur. November 15th 1730.
Commentary
In his will, Edward Wroe names his grandson Thomas Heape, the son of Thomas Heape and Edward’s daughter Margaret.
The transmission of property also provides evidence for this relationship. Charles Heape (pp. 286 ff.) notes that the land in Pilkington which Richard Heape transferred in 1640 to his eldest son Thomas, an estate for ninety-nine years of three lives, worth £45 a year, (and subject to an annuity to his widow Jane), must have been the two farms still called “Heaps” farms in Pilkington. The smaller one (48 acres) was in Whitefield and the larger one, now divided into Higher and Lower, was in Outwood and totalled 345 acres. Jane, now Richard’s widow, is recorded in the 1666 hearth tax as at Outwood in Pilkington (4 hearths). Jane was buried in Prestwich in 1684 “apud Ringley” (in Outwood).
Richard and Jane’s son Thomas married Margaret Wroe in 1640, and Margaret is recorded as “Margreta vxor Thome Heape” of Outwood in her 7 November 1671 burial record. I have not found the burial record of Thomas. Thomas is not mentioned in his father’s 1660 will, but this is probably because the land was already settled on him. (Another son, Richard, is mentioned, who seems to have eventually ended up in Pillsworth.)
The Outwood property, so far as I can tell, seems to have passed, via the Thomas Heap of this page and his daughter Alice to Alice’s husband, Adam Crompton, who in his will mentions “a Messuage and Land & Premises thereunto belonging and a Tenement in Outwood, and some Part in the Mill Call’d the higher Mill.” Adam inherited his share in the Higher Mill from his father, but the Outwood property seems to have come with his marriage to Alice.
The simplest way to explain how Alice ended up with the property in Outwood is that her father inherited it from Thomas the son of Richard and Jane Heape. I haven’t found any evidence to suggest a more convoluted route. Therefore, I contend that the Thomas Heap of this page was the son of Thomas Heape and Margaret Wroe.
References
The Correspondence of Nathan Walworth and Peter Seddon of Outwood, and other documents chiefly related to the building of Ringley Chapel. (Chetham Society, 1880).
Heape, Charles, and Richard Heape. Records of the family of Heape of Heape, Staley, Saddleworth, and Rochdale, from circa 1170 to 1905. (Rochdale, 1905).
Parish registers of Middleton, Lancashire. Digital images on Ancestry.com accessed 20 May 2020.
Parish registers of Ringley, Lancashire. Digital images on Ancestry.com accessed 20 May 2020.
Parish registers of Prestwich, Lancashire (St Mary). Digital images on Ancestry.com accessed 20 May 2020.
The Royalist Composition Papers: Being the Proceeding of the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents (1643-1660) Vol. III G-H. (The Record Society for the Publication of Original Documents Relating to Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol. XXIX, 1896).
Taxation in Salford Hundred, 1524-1802. (The Chetham Society, 1924).
Will of Edward Wroe of Newton, Manchester. Proved 1661 in the Consistory Court of Chester.
Will of John Heap of Broadrod, Bury. Proved 1638 in the Consitory Court of Chester. Digital images on FamilySearch.org accessed 24 December 2020.
Will of John Heap of Pilkington. Proved 1728 in the Consitory Court of Chester. Digital images on FamilySearch.org accessed 24 December 2020.
Will of Lydia Heap of Pilkington. Proved 1694 in the Consitory Court of Chester. Digital images on FamilySearch.org accessed 24 December 2020.
Will of Nathan Walworth. Proved 1640 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Digital images on Ancestry.com accessed 24 December 2020.
Will of Richard Heap of Broadroad. Proved 1653 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Digital images on Ancestry.com accessed 24 December 2020.
Will of Richard Heap of Outwood. Proved 1664 in the Consitory Court of Chester. Digital images on FamilySearch.org accessed 25 December 2020.
Will of Richard Heap of Whitfields, Pilkington. Proved 1608 in the Consitory Court of Chester. Digital images on FamilySearch.org accessed 24 December 2020.