Events
Date of Baptism: 18 July 1630.
Place of Baptism: Stalisfield, Kent.
The baptism is recorded in the archdeacon’s transcripts of the parish register.
Date of Burial: 23 July 1699.
Place of Burial: Charing, Kent.
The burial is recorded in the parish register.
Relationships
Father: Gabriel Pierce.
Mother: Katherine Joslin.
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: William Henman.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Elizabeth Henman (baptized 11 July 1654 in Lenham) married John Knowler 23 August 1677 in Stalisfield, Kent.
Katherine Henman (baptized 23 March 1656 in Lenham - buried 4 October 1659 in Lenham).
Thomas Henman (baptized 10 April 1660 in Lenham).
William Henman (born about 1662 - buried 12 November 1746 in Leeds, Kent) married Rebecca Whitfield 23 October 1688 in Molash, Kent.
Alan Henman (baptized 13 April 1665 in Lenham - buried 26 February 1711/12 in Croydon, Surrey).
Evidence
from the Charing parish register:
1699
Burials
Affidavit Aug: 6. Mis Jane Henman Widow buried July. 23.
from the 1680 will of Joseph Pierce:
...Item in case all my said daughters shall departe this life before their said ages of one and twenty yeares or days of marriage Then I give and bequeath unto my Cosein Thomas Henman all my lease right title & interest of and in the Mannor of Orgarswick he payinge unto my Cosin Allen Henman duringe his life the sum[m]e of Ten pounds of Lawfull money of England yearely for the true payment of which I will that the said Thomas Henman shall give good security unto the said Allen And then I give unto my Cosin Sampson Peirce all my lands & Tenements in Chareinge aforesaid To have & to hold the same to him and his heires forever And all the rest of my personall estate before devised unto my said daughters in case they all dye before their said ages or days of marriage I devise to and amongest my aforesaid Sister Nowers Children to be equally devided betwixt them …
Commentary
Jane’s parentage
I am basing Jane’s parentage on indirect evidence. Here are the key pieces of evidence.
1) In his 1680 will, Joseph Pierce of Charing, Kent, mentioned his lease of the manor of Orgarswicke, his property in Charing, and personal property. He had three daughters and no sons. He made these provisions if all his daughters should die: his lease of the manor of Orgarswick was to go to his “cousin” Thomas Henman, Thomas paying to his brother Allen Henman ten pounds a year for life; his property at Charing was to go to his “cousin” Sampson Pierce; and the rest of his personal estate was to go to the daughters of his sister Mary.
(2) In the probate inventory connected to the will, it is noted that “Mr Tho: Henman” owed Joseph 20 pounds. It also appears in the inventory that Joseph was entitled to a considerable amount of corn at Syndane.
(3) Jane was buried 23 July 1699 at Charing (“Mrs. Jane Henman Widow”).
(4) Joseph Pierce had a sister named Jane.
It is reasonably certain that Thomas and Allen Henman were sons of William and the Jane of this page. William had died before Joseph made his will. Thomas was William’s eldest son, and Allen a younger son. Thomas’s probate inventory makes clear that he had a connection to Syndane, the Henman estate.
Joseph was born about 1640 (He is recorded as aged about 30 at his 1670 marriage.) Thomas Henman was born in 1660 and Allen in 1665. They are chronologically more likely to be nephews than cousins of Joseph. (“Cousin” in the period could be used to describe both relationships. The “cousin” referred to after the Henmans in Joseph’s will was his “cousin” Samuel Peirce, who was in fact his nephew.)
The context in which the Henman brothers appear in Joseph’s will suggests that they were closely related to him. Joseph made three bequests that were to take effect in the case that all his daughters died young. One was to Sampson Pierce (the son of Joseph’s brother Gabriel), one was to the daughters of Joseph’s sister Mary, and one (probably as valuable as the others) was to Thomas and Allen Henman.
It appears that Thomas and Allen Henman were related to Joseph as sons of his sister Jane. I have not located Joseph’s baptism, but Joseph was named in the 1654 will of John Pierce of Charing as one of the sons of John’s brother Gabriel Pierce. The Stalisfield register records the baptism in 1630 of Jane, the daughter of Gabriel Pierce. Thus, Joseph had a sister Jane.
27 years after her husband William Henman’s death, the Jane of this page was buried not in Lenham, where she had lived with her husband, but in Charing, where Joseph had lived. Joseph, as was mentioned above, seems to have had some interest in the Syndane estate, which was the Henman property.
The children of William and Jane Henman were minors when their father died in 1672. I suspect that (their uncle) Joseph assisted in rearing them after William’s death. Perhaps the Henmans even lived with him in Charing.
Taken together, I think the evidence strongly suggests that the Jane of this page was a daughter of Gabriel Pierce.
Gabriel’s eldest child was baptized in Stalisfield in 1624/5. In two of the baptism entries of his children there, the mother is recorded as “Katherin”. The parish register of St Ann, Blackfriars, London, records the marriage in 1623 of Gabriel Pierce and Katharin Joslin.
A slight piece of additional corroboration is that Jane’s two daughters were named Elizabeth and Katherine. “Elizabeth” was the name of the mother of Jane’s husband William Henman. “Katherine” was the name, I argue here, of Jane's mother.
Another slight piece of corroboration is that in the 1666 will of Edward Gurney of Doddington, William was put in the position of a trustee for Edward’s wife. Edward seems to have been related to Jane Pierce (In her 1640 will, Jane’s aunt Ursula Pierce mentions Edward Gurney and Edward’s daughter Elizabeth, whom Ursula calls her “cosen”.) Perhaps Edward’s wife was a Pierce.
References
Archdeacon’s transcripts of the parish register of Stalisfield, Kent. Digital image on FamilySearch.org accessed 24 May 2025.
Parish registers of Charing, Kent. Digital images on Findmypast.co.uk accessed 19 March 2021.
Will of Anna Rebecca Henman of Leeds, Kent. Proved 1752 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
Will of Joseph Peirs. Proved 1680 in the Consistory Court of Canterbury. Digital images on FamilySearch.org accessed 24 May 2025.
Will of William Henman of Maidstone Kent. Proved 1743 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.