Richard’s great-grandparents were Johannes (John) Woodbery, baptised in Burlescombe, Devon, in 1669 and Gratia Stanbury, born in 1671. John and Gratia were married in St Peter’s Cathedral at Exeter on 6 July 1693. They lived at Burlescombe and had 11 children. The family were "yeoman farmers" [I].
The Woodbury family clearly held an influential role in their parish at the time. We know from the wills of the oldest surviving son, John (baptised in April 1699), that he held the rights of “advowson” (or “patronage”) [ii] in the parish of Samford Arundel which he likely inherited from his father Johannes and which he subsequently bequeathed to his oldest son. The advowson included the right to nominate a person to be a parish priest and also, significantly, to collect tithes for the proper running of the parish church.
Included amongst the 11 children of Johannes and Gratia Woodbury was the second youngest child, Jeremiah, baptised on 23 December 1715, who would become Richard Woodbury’s grandfather. Grandfather Jeremiah married Ann Brier in nearby Holcombe Rogus in September 1737 where they had at least 2 children; Betty, baptised in May 1742 and Jeremiah (Jnr), who became Richard’s father, born in 1744 [iii].
Richard’s immediate family was large, even by the standards of the late 1700’s. His father, Jeremiah Jnr married Richard’s mother Elizabeth (nee Stone) in Holcombe Rogus on 2 February 1770. Jeremiah and Elizabeth were both 26 at the time. They had 8 children over the next 18 years. Richard was fourth in line after an elder brother and then twins who both died young. The children were:
1 John (baptised on) 20 October 1770
2 Richard (1) (twin) 31 March 1773 (died aged 1 year)
3 Anne (1) (twin) 27 April 1773 (died aged 7 years)
4 Richard 18 October 1777
5 William 15 May 1780
6 Ann 27 April 1783
7 Jeremiah 9 October 1785
8 Robert 22 December 1788
Richard’s parents followed a common practice at the time of using the name of a child that had died earlier in the family. Sadly, Richard’s mother, Elizabeth, died aged 50 in December 1794, when Richard was only 17. At this stage, Richard had 5 surviving siblings and may have already been working 60 miles away in Bristol as a brewer at the time of his mother’s death. If not, his mother’s death may have been the impetus for Richard choosing to move to Bristol to provide income to help support his father's family, or at least not to be a financial burden.
On 28 March 1796, Richard’s father Jeremiah married (the heavily-pregnant) 31 year-old Sarah Causey in Holcombe Rogus. Jeremiah and Sarah went on to have 7 children, as follows:
9 Mary (baptised on) 25 May 1796
10 Hannah 5 November 1797
11 James 2 February 1800
12 Sarah 5 January 1803
13 Elizabeth 16 November 1805
14 Jane 23 October 1808
15 Thomas 28 April 1811
By this account, Richard had 12 surviving (full and half) siblings by 1811, but many of these were born while Richard was already in Bristol; some while he was in prison and the two last-born, when he was already in Australia. Whether any of Richard’s family ever visited him at Newgate Gaol in Bristol or while he was on the hulk “Laurel” at Portsmouth is not known at this stage. It is likely that he never saw any of his family members again after he left England in January 1806.
REFERENCE NOTES
[i] In his will of 1750, John Woodbury (baptised in 1699 and oldest surviving son of Johannes and Gratia) described himself as a “yeoman”. Yeomen were landholders who farmed at least 100 acres (40 hectares) of land at an annual value of at least 40 shillings. Yeomen could serve on juries, vote for local officials and were often constables, bailiffs or churchwardens, or held other positions in their local parish.
(ii) Advowson was a hereditary right often held originally by the lord of the principal manor within a parish. In his will of 1750, John Woodbury (baptised in 1699 - see note [I] above) passed his rights of advowson to his son Jeremiah in 1750, (note this is not Jeremiah the father of Richard Woodbury, but his father's cousin). In turn, Jeremiah, in his will of 1792, transferred the right to his eldest son John (b.1768) and his daughter-in-law Jane Woodbury. John Woodbury sold the rights to William Bellet, the local squire, in 1802 and William Bellet sold them to Hannah Cliffe in 1827 for £1600. Hannah Cliffe sold the advowson to the Reverend Charles Sweet in 1831 for £2150 - equivalent to about £176,000 in today's value (www.measuringworth.com). Advowson rights diminished in value following reforms of parish administration in the late 19th century, which included the establishment of secular parishes and wider county and district land authorities.
The rights to advowson had no benefit to Richard Woodbury’s direct ancestors in the Woodbury family, because at that time hereditary rights passed from a father to the eldest surviving son (unless there was no such son). Richard Woodbury’s ancestors (his father and grand-grandfather, both named Jeremiah) were not legal beneficiaries of the advowson. Wills for Richard Woodbury's direct ancestors in the family line have not been located at this stage.
[iii] The link to Richard through Jeremiah born in 1744 is convincing but can only be proved by deduction from the rest of the family tree, as parish records for his baptism appear to have been destroyed.
Acknowledgement: This page was made possible through research by John Campbell, genealogist from West Country Ancestors, Taunton, Somerset, UK.
Page created on 13 June 2013.