The Holbrows, clothiers of Gloucestershire

The connection between the Parsons and Holbrow families is through Ann Gale (1691-1768) who married William Holbrow (1680-1741). Ann was a sister of George Parsons’ wife’s great-grandfather The Reverend Isaac Gale of Malmesbury.

Ann was born in Malmesbury in 1691. Her father Isaac Gale was a gentleman of private means and her mother Grace Estcourt also came from a wealthy family. Ann’s uncle Sir Thomas Estcourt had been High Steward of Malmesbury. Ann’s great-great-grandfather Thomas Machen is commemorated by a beautifully preserved 17th-century alabaster and marble memorial in Gloucester cathedral.

On the 4^th of June 1717, in Cirencester, Ann married William Holbrow, a widower from the village of Uley in Gloucestershire. His wife Mary (née Tippetts) had died eighteen months previously and their three children, all girls, had also passed away. Ann and William spent their married lives in Uley where he was a clothier (a manufacturer of woolen cloth). Having received a significant inheritance from his uncle William Holbrow (c.1647-1731) he became a wealthy and influential man and shortly before he died he was appointed High Sheriff of Gloucestershire.

Uley is in the south-west of England, roughly mid-way beteeen Bristol and Cheltenham. Its position is shown by the red letter U on the map.

The village lies in a valley at the edge of the Cotwold hills where the escarpment meets the valley of the river Severn. The area has always been known for sheep farming but by the 17^th century Uley and its neighbouring villages had become centres for the manufacture of woolen cloth. The area was favoured by the local availability of fuller’s earth, needed to remove the oils from sheep’s wool during the fulling process. Many mills, powered by streams, grew up and that part of Gloucestershire became wealthy.

The industry reached its peak during the Napoleonic Wars due to the demand for broadcloth for uniforms. Uley Blue cloth became famous. But from early in the 19^th century the rise of coal power enabled larger mills to be built, especially in the north of England, and the industry in Gloucestershire declined.

Uley is now a picturesque rural village.

William Holbrow’s first wife Mary Tippets was born in the market town of Dursley in 1682 and baptised there in October of that year. William came from the village of Kingscote about nine miles from Dursley. Mary and William married on the 31^st of May 1709 at the church of St Mary de Crypt in Gloucester. They settled in Uley where their three children were born. Their son William was born in 1710 and died the same year; Mary was born in 1711 and died a year later; Elizabeth was born in 1713 and died in 1715.

William’s wife Mary died in April 1714, eleven months before her daughter Elizabeth. She was buried in Dursley.

Just over three years after Mary had passed away William got married again, to Ann Gale, in Cirencester. He was then about 37 years old and she was about 26.

William continued to live in Uley and he and Ann’s four children were born there.

William Holbrow died on the 7^th of July 1741 and was buried in Uley the following day. Ann died 27 years later in July 1768 and was also buried in Uley.

Willam and Ann Gale’s children

• Grace was born in about 1719 and would have been about 21 years old when her father died. About two years later she married a widower called Richard Hawker who was a dyer from the nearby village of Kings Stanley. Little is known about Grace and Richard’s children except that their daughter Ann married a man called Richard Cooke from King’s Stanley and their youngest son, Thomas, who had been apprenticed to Grace’s brother John Holbrow in Uley, did not survive until his 21^st birthday.

• Elizabeth, William and Ann’s second child, was baptised in Uley on the 25^th of August 1721. In August 1751 she married the Reverend John Maule who had recently been appointed vicar of Ringwood in Hampshire. They had three children: John, who died very young; Thomas, who never married; and Sarah, who married the Reverend John Keble who was vicar of Coln St Aldwyns in Goucestershire. John Maule died in 1778 and when Elizabeth died six years later she was burried in Uley. John and Elizabeth Maule’s grandson John Keble, who was a well known priest and poet, became one of the founders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, was named in his honour.

• Ann, who was William and Ann’s youngest daughter, was baptised in Uley on the 10^th March 1723. On the 29^th of August 1753, in Uley, she married John Lyne who was a widower from Ringwood in Hampshire. It seems that they had no children and she died just eighteen months after marrying. She was buried in Ringwood on the 4^th of March 1755.

• John, like his father, was a clothier who lived in Uley. He was also a justice of the peace. His mill, the largest in the Uley valley, later became known as Sheppards Mill and after John died it passed to nis nephew Thomas Maule. Like some other wealthy clothiers in the area John assumed a coat of arms; his right to use it was later confirmed by the College of Arms. John was baptised in Uley on the 9^th of May 1726. In 1768, when he was about 42 years old he married his cousin Catherine Holbrow who was about 34. They had three children two of whom died very soon after birth. The third, Anne, died unmarried at the age of 20. John’s wife Catherine died about 12 years after they maried and she was buried in Uley in September 1780. About four years later John married again. His second wife was Elizabeth Phillimore who was from Wotton under Edge. Towards the end of his life John moved to Kings Stanley and he died there on the 15^th of November 1790. Elizabeth survived him by nearly eight years.

Willam Holbrow’s predecessors

There had been Holbrows in this part of Gloucestershire for centuries, and in adjacent parts of Wiltshire such as Malmesbury where Ann Gale’s family had come from. The earliest records of them come from around the village of Badminton. By the 17^th century many of them were involved in the manufacture or trading of woolen cloth. Most of Ann’s Holbrow relatives described themselves as clothiers, a few as dyers, and some of them, especially in later life, as gentlemen.

A precise ancestral lineage can be established only as far back as William’s grandfather who was born at the beginning of the 17^th century. He and his known descendants are shown in the following chart.

Willam Holbrow (c.1605-1688)

William (Ann Gale’s husbands’ grandfather) was born in Luckington in Wiltshire in about 1605. Luckington is only about two miles from Badminton in Gloucestershire where the earliest recorded Holborows had lived. In April 1645 he married Bridget Shillam in Leonard Stanley in Gloucestershire. He would have been about 40 years old so he might have been married before, but we have no details of his earlier life. He lived in turbulent times. When he and Bridget married the Civil War had been raging in the area for some time and in the previous year Parliamentary forces had besieged and occupied Malmesbury. There were also troops stationed near Uley, just a few miles from Leonard Stanley, keeping a watch over the Severn Valley below.

William and Bridget settled in the Gloucestershire village of Kingscote, only three miles from Uley. They lived there until he died at the age of 83. He was buried on the 5^th of April 1688. Bridget continued to live in Kingscote until her death seven years later.

In his will, dated 1687, William descrbed himself as a tailor. He provided for his widow (whom he named as executrix), gave £100 to each of two daughters, and made several small bequests including two shillings and six pence each to his sons in law John Andrews of Dursley, Samuel Deny of Tetbury, and Nathaniel Heren, of Minchinhampton. William’s son eldest John received his table-board and gun. William and Bridget were evidently well-off off but not rich.

William and Bridget’s children:

• John, their first child, was born in about 1646 and died in Kingscote in 1729. There are more details about John and his children in the next section.

• William was probably born early in 1647. He grew up at a time when the Gloucestershire cloth industry was recovering from the turmoil of the civil war. (Clothiers there had suffered persecution by the King’s side because they were suspected of supporting Parliament.) William became a highly successful clothier. He married Mary Beard, who came from Rodborough, near Stroud. In 1681 he purchased the large house by the green in Uley known as Uley House which remained in the family for several generations. William passed it on to his nephew William Holbrow (Ann Gale’s husband) and it was sold in 1799 by Thomas Maule who was a son of William and Ann’s daughter Elizabeth. William and Mary had only been married for a few years when, in September 1683, she died. They had had three children but none survived infancy. William died 47 years after Mary on the 23^rd of February 1731. In addition to Uley House he owned a house at Luggershall in Newington Bagpath parish (about three miles from Uley) and another in Leonard Stanley (about six miles from Uley). It appears from his memorial inscription that he was living at Luggershall at the time of his death.

• Daniel, was probably born around 1660. In his father’s will he, and his brother William, were given one shilling each. Nothing more is known of him.

• Mary, William and Bridget’s eldest daughter, who was baptised in Kingscote on the 9^th of November 1651. When her father wrote died in 1688 she she received a legacy of £100 to be paid on the day of her marriage. In 1695, in Uley she married William Jacob who was a saddler from Minchinhampton. William had probably been married before. Mary lived with him in Minchinhampton until he died in 1714. Mary died there in December 1730.

• Katherine, who was also baptised in Kingscote on the 9^th of November 1651 so was likely to have been Mary’s twin. She married Nathaniel Heren (or Hieron) who was a yeoman from Minchinhampton. Nathaniel died, probably early in the year 1689. In his will he named his wife as sole executrix. He also mentioned John Holborough of Kingscote and William Holborough of Eweley.

• Ann was born on the the 15^th of June 1654. She married a man called John Andrews. In 1687, when her father wrote his will, they were living in Dursley.

• Bridget was born in Kingscote on the 15^th of August 1657. In 1691 she married Jeremiah Day who was a clothier in Minchinhampton. On the day of her marriage she would have received the legacy of £100 specified in her father’s will. Bridget died in Minchinhampton in January 1729 and Jeremiah died there the following year.

• Thomas was baptised in Kingscote on the 10^th of July 1660 but died before his third birthday.

• Elizabeth married Samuel Deny from Tetbury in Kingscote on the 17^th of October 1678.

• Anthony, William and Bridget’s youngest child, was born on the 5^th of April 1662. He settled in Uley where he was a clothier and, in May 1689, he married Elizabeth Halling. They had several children there. Anthony died on the 19^th of May 1729. His wife Elizabeth died there in 1754.

John Holbrow (c.1646-1729)

John, the eldest child of William and Bridget Holbrow, was born in about the year 1646, probably in Kingscote, Gloucestershire. He was 34 years old when he married Mary Halling who was 24 and came from the village of Horsley which is about two miles from Kingscote. Their wedding was in Beverston, by licence, on the 4^th of February 1680. Beverston is about two miles west of Tetbury and about three miles from Kingscote. Mary’s parents were Thomas Halling and his wife Mary (née Jessip).

John and Mary spent their married lives in Kingscote. They had six children.

When Mary’s father Thomas Halling died in 1710 he left £100 to John and to each of John and Mary’s children. £100 then was a sizeable sum, equivalent to about £15,000 today.

Mary died in March 1729, nearly five months before her husband. Their memorial in Kingscote churchyard reads:

In memory of John Holbrow of this parish, yeoman, And Mary his wife.
She died the 25th of March in the 75th year of her age,
And he the 20th of August in the 85th year of his age, 1729.

John and Mary’s children:

• William (1680-1641). As has already been noted, William married twice, lived in Uley, became a wealthy clothier, and, shortly before he died in 1741, was appointed High Sheriff of Gloucestershire. Details of his life and his children’s lives are given in the opening paragraphs above. William’s second wife Ann was the link between the Holbrow familes of Gloucestershire, the Gales of Malmesbury, and Parsons families which are the main subjects of these pages.

• Mary was born in Kingscote on the 10^th of June 1682. In January 1721 she married, by licence, John Trotman, a maltster who came from North Nibley. Mary and John spent their married lives there and had several children. He died on August the 13^th in 1736, aged 40 years. Mary died in North Nibley in January 1760, more than 23 years after her husband.

• Elizabeth was born on the 21^at of April 1685 and died unmarried in Kingscote in July 1711.

• John, John and Mary’s second son, was born in November 1686 in Kingscote. He married Anna Clissold at St. Mary’s church in Tetbury on the 23^rd of August 1711. He was said to be from Horsley and she was from Nailsworth. They lived at first in Horsley and later in Kings Stanley where he was in business as a tallow chandler. They had five children. When John died in Kings Stanley in 1747 he owned several freehold and leasehold properties and he was described as a gentleman. His wife Anna died in 1759.

• Thomas was born in Kingscote in April 1687. In October 1718 he married Hester (or Esther) Hill in the village of Rendcomb. They had several children. Catherine, one of their daughters) married her cousin John who was a son of William Holbrow and Ann Gale. Thomas Holbrow died in Newington Bagpath in February 1744. His wife Hester died there in 1770.

• Daniel was mentioned in his father’s will — he was given a legacy of £40.

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You are free to make use of the information in these web pages in any way that you wish but please be aware that the author, Mike Parsons, is unable to accept respsonsibility for any errors or omissions.

Mike can be contacted at parsonspublic@gmail.com

The information in these web pages comes from a number of sources including: Hampshire County Records Office, Somerset Heritage Centre; Dorset County Records Office; Southampton City Archives; the General Register Office; several on-line newspaper archives; several on-line transcriptions of Parish Register Entries; and several on-line indexes of births, marriages and deaths. The research has also been guided at times by the published work of others, both on-line and in the form of printed books, and by information from personal correspondence with other researchers, for all of which thanks are given. However, all of the information in these web pages has been independently verified by the author from original sources, facimile copies, or, in the case of a few parish register entries, transcriptions published by on-line genealogy sites. The author is aware that some other researchers have in some cases drawn different conclusions and have published information which is at variance from that shown in these web pages.