Ancestral Trails 2016 » BARBARA GOULDSMITH (1566-1618)

Personal data BARBARA GOULDSMITH 

• She was born in the year 1566 in Rotherfield, East Sussex.

  Attention: Age at marriage (??-??-1576) below 16 years (10).

  Attention: Was younger than 16 years (14) when child (Mary BARHAM) was born (??-??-1580) .

• She was baptized on February 11, 1565/66 in St Denys, Rotherfield, East Sussex.Source 1
• (Relationship) in 9 x Great Grandparent.
• She died July 1618 in Ticehurst, Rother, East Sussex, she was 52 years old.
• She is buried on July 21, 1618 in St Mary, Ticehurst, East Sussex.Source 2
• A child of JOHN GOULDSMITH and THOMASIN

Household of BARBARA GOULDSMITH

(1) She is married to John WALKER.

They got married on July 21, 1618 at Ticehurst, Rother, East Sussex, she was 52 years old.Source 3

(2) She is married to WILLIAM BARHAM.

They got married in the year 1576 at Kent, she was 10 years old.

Child(ren):

1. William BARHAM  1600-????
2. Thomas BARHAM  > 1589-????
3. James BARHAM  1608-± 1614
4. Anthony BARHAM  1586-???? 
5. ROBERT BARHAM  ± 1603-1683 
6. Mary BARHAM  1580-> 1614
7. Richard BARHAM  > 1591-1638 
8. Joan BARHAM  1605-> 1614
9. John BARHAM  ± 1577-1615

Notes about BARBARA GOULDSMITH

1614 Executrix of the nuncupative will of her husband William Barham.

This branch of the Barham family had connections with both Ticehurst and Wadhurst - the adjacent parish. No Barhams were baptised at Ticehurst at this time, but the Wadhurst register, which frustratingly only starts in 1604 has two helpful entries. Joane, daughter of William Barham was baptised there on 8th November 1605 and a son James was baptised there on 6th May 1608 as:
James son of Willm Barham de Ticehurst.

Although James disappears from the records, presumably dying young, Joane is mentioned both in her father’s will and in the Court Book of Roberstbridge manor upon which FitzGerald-Uniacke bases much of his argument about Robert’s parentage. It is frustrating again that William Barham’s will was nuncupative, i.e. a spoken will, usually suggesting that the testator was close to an unexpected death and doing his best to pass on his dying wishes to whoever was at hand. Unfortunately, in extremis, he didn’t name all his heirs. His two daughters were named, as was his eldest son and:
three of the other sons of the said William but not Robert.

Fortunately, the Court Book makes good the defecit, as after her husband’s death, Barbara Barham went to the manorial court on behalf of her children: …filiis pred William Barham viz Thome Barham William Barham Rico Barham Anthonie Barham et Roberto Barham et duabus fillias pred Willm Barham patris viz Johanne Barham et Marie Barham. This, despite troublesome Latin and difficult paleography, makes it clear that William and Barbara had (in addition to the heir John, who is named earlier in the document) children named Thomas, William, Richard, Anthony, Robert, Joan and Mary.
SOURCE: http://www.genealogycrank.co.uk/pdfs/from_shropshire_to_the_weald_part_3.pdf

The only later trace of BARBARA being her subsequent marriage at Ticehurst on 21st July 1618, by licence as detailed below:
John Waker of Heathfyeld, yeoman and Barbara Barham of Tisehurst widow; sureties, said J W and Timothy Grover of Lewes, mercer.

She was born as Barbara Gouldsmyth, a fact which came to light through FitzGeraldUniacke’s
research. Her brother was Anthony Goldsmith of Framfield, whom FitzGerald-Uniacke describes as a noted ironmaster. Anthony’s will of 1611 leaves most of his considerable wealth in trust to his grandson Goldsmith Hodgson, and his daughter’s other children. However, he fortuitously also names a brother John - who is to inherit his copyhold land in the parish of Rotherfield - his sister Barbara Barham and her son Anthony:
I will to my sister Barbara Barham’s children twentie shillings apiece. …. I give to Anthony Barham my godson five pounds.

A trio of John, Anthony, and Barbara, baptised at Rotherfield, triangulates nicely with Framfield, two parishes to the south-west and Wadhurst and Ticehurst, one and two parishes to the east. This would suggest that they were the children of John Gouldsmyth, with John baptised on 26th April 1546, Anthony on 17th April 1553 and Barbara almost 13 years later, and maybe the child of a second wife, on 11th February 1566. There was another daughter, Margaret, baptised on 17th April 1547, who presumably died before Anthony, but had maybe married and produced a child.

The available evidence is messy. There is an extant will for a John Gouldsmyth, weaver of Rotherfield, which at first glance looks to belong to the right family. It does contain a bequest to a son named Anthony, but there is no reference to a daughter named Barbara. Family details are sparse. Initially this seemed not to be the will of a wealthy man, as his monetary bequests - to his wife Thomasin and son Anthony - are in shillings and pence, not pounds. However, he leaves money
for the poor and 20d for the bell of Rotherfield church, so it may be that his estate was mainly in his moveable goods and his house - income from which is willed to his wife, along with the said house and moveable goods. The only other beneficiary is his granddaughter Joan, daughter of John Phillips, who is to receive sheets and a bed-hanging when she is eighteen.

Initially I dismissed this will as belonging to the wrong family. However, if my assumption is correct that Barbara was the child of a second marriage - to Thomasin - then it is possible to make a reasoned case for her absence. On a second reading, given that his son John witnessed the will so was presumably acquiescent to it, it seems more likely that John junior and Anthony had probably already had their portions, and that the bequest to granddaughter Joan was a token for the child of his dead daughter Margaret. If the rest of the estate went to Thomasin, then presumably she could have been relied upon to pass everything on to her own offspring when the time came. Obviously, though, this is hypothesis and can’t be proved although it does seem to present the most likely scenario.

Another John Gouldsmith made a will at Rotherfield in 1614. There is no bequest to an Anthony, but he mentions his father John and calls himself John junior, so the most likely scenario is that this is Barbara Barham’s nephew, dying as a young man of around 24. He names a bevy of sisters: Elizabeth, Joan, Mary, Frances, Jane and Barbara, all of whom can be identified with certainty in the Rotherfield register. Given that the John who died in 1695 couldn’t be John senior to this man’s ‘junior’, it seems probable that john ‘junior’ was grandson to the earlier testator.

There are also Goldsmith wills at Framfield, where Anthony lived in later life. These may be related and may be why Anthony migrated from Rotherfield but none of the testators seem to link obviously to Anthony and Barbara’s family. In addition, Anthony married and baptised a number of children at Rotherfield of whom only his daughter Elizabeth, married to Barnaby Hodgson, is named in Anthony’s will. It seems likely that most of them died young. The various links to Rotherfield through
marriage, baptism and land tenure all tend to confirm that the Barbara baptised at Rotherfield was probably Anthony’s sister.
SOURCE: http://www.genealogycrank.co.uk/pdfs/from_shropshire_to_the_weald_part_3.pdf

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Timeline BARBARA GOULDSMITH

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