John Jeffery Williams 1770 - 1815

John Jeffery Williams 1770 - 1815.

John Jeffery Williams was born to Hutchins Williams in 1770 and was baptised in St. John The Baptist Church in Hillingden, West London, on 3rd April 1770. 
Hutchins was the brother of Thomas Williams, who was later the first secretary of the Bank of Ireland in Dublin.  Hutchins had been born to their parents, Richard Williams and Mary Hutchins, in Leighton Buzzard in Bedford on 26th December 1740;  his brother, Thomas Williams, had been born there on 30th December 1747.

The 'Faculty Office Marriage Licences Transcriptions' record the marriage of Hutchins Williams and Elizabeth Jefferys on 27th August 1766.   The register of St. Giles in the Field, Holborn, Middlesex, also records that:

"Hutchins Williams and Elizabeth Jefferys, both of this parish, were married in this church by licence this twenty-seventh day of August 1766..."     The witnesses to the event were David Lanker and Joseph Holman.

There seems to be confusion about the name of Hutchins Williams' wife (or wives) and a variety of names are recorded in the baptism register of their parish church in Hillingden.   The children and mothers are noted as follows:

a) Harriot Williams, baptised in St. John the Baptist Church, Hillingden, on 11th September 1767 by Hutchins and SARAH Williams.

b) John Jeffery Williams baptised in St. John the Baptist Church, Hillingden, on 3rd April 1770 by Hutchins and MARY Williams.

c) Thomas Williams baptised in  St. John the Baptist Church, Hillingden, on 21st February 1772 by Hutchins and SARAH Williams.

d) Betty Williams, baptised in St. John the Baptist Church, Hillingden, on 29th November 1775 by Hutchins and BETTY (ie Elizabeth) Williams.


Hutchins' son, John Jeffery Williams, mentioned in his will that he had one brother and more than one sister, but he didn't name them.  The brother may have been William Williams who was admitted to the Freemen of Dublin in 1817, and who was named in the admission papers as the nephew of Thomas Williams (brother of Hutchins William of Hillingden) of the Bank of Ireland.

The will of John Jeffery Williams, 1815:

‘This is the last Will and Testament of me John Jeffery Williams of Greys Inn, Gent, who owes outstanding debts to Mr. Andrew Duncan of Greys Inn aforesaid in the sum of two hundred pounds…and to Mr. James Kibblewhite of the same place...is one hundred and thirty pounds and which I direct may be discharged by the money which shall arise by sale of a set of Chambers belonging to me in Grays Inn and if any deficiency shall happen after appropriating the money to arise by sale of the set of Chambers in satisfying the said debts, then my will is that such deficiency shall be made up out of the money to arise out of the sale of my other effects not hereinafter specifically bequeathed.

I give and bequeath to my dear wife Mary Williams all my shares in the Amicable Society in Serjeants Inn. I give to my dear daughter Sarah my piano and all my books of music, also the (lease?) of my house in Greys Inn (Lane?) subject to the rent…………
….and I bequeath my silver teapot for her own use and I give to my dear son John my Encyclopedia Britannica and to my dear sons Thomas Hutchins and William I give all the rest of my printed books and I give to each of my said sons and daughter twenty pounds for mourning and I give to my Brother Sisters ten pounds for mourning and I also give to my dear beloved sister  (possibly Harriet) the further sum of twenty pounds.
I give to my beloved wife my gold watch and chain in trust for my dear son Richard, and all the rest and residue of my estate subject to the payment of my just debts and funeral expenses, I give and bequeath the same to my said dear wife and I desire to be buried in or near the grave where my late dear wife was buried and at as little expense as may be, and I request that my friend Mr (Twigg?) may lead the management of my funeral and I appoint the said Andrew Duncan and John Dignan Williams of Dublin executors of this my will and do hereby revoke all former wills by me made in witness whereof………this twenty first day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen. J.J.Williams. Signed sealed published and….by said testator John Jeffery Williams as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us who in his presence and at his bequest….our names as witnesses, Sophia Augusta (Mullon??) //Elizabeth Dart.
Proved at London 28^th June 1815 before the worshipful Samuel Kirke……surrogate by the oath of Andrew Duncan one of the executors.......to John Dignan Williams the son of the Testator.’

NB:  James Kibblewhite and Andrew Duncan, both mentioned in John Jeffery Williams' will, were solicitors of Grays Inn;   James Kibblewhite was admitted to Gray's Inn, aged 39, on February 28th 1811, and was the son of the late William Kibblewhite of Liddiard, Millicent, Wiltshire.   Andrew Duncan lived at Gray's Inn Place and practised law locally.   


The Family of John Jeffery Williams:
So, John Jeffery Williams married twice. He married Sarah Dignan (sometimes Dignam) in St. Leonards Church, Shoreditch, on 19th October 1788 - the witnesses were Thomas Blinson/Blanson and Thomas Quin, who was the Steward of Gray's Inn.


By Sarah Dignan, his first wife, he had:
1) John Dignan Williams who was baptised in St.Andrew's, Holborn, on 6th October 1789.
     http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/11/john-dignan-williams-grandson-of-thomas.html
2) William Williams (date of birth unknown, but possibly 1795) was later mentioned in his father's will of 1815.
3) Sarah Williamswas born in 1794, and was baptised in St. Andrew's on 2nd October 1794.
4) Harriot Williams was baptised on 16th August 1796.
A second daughter named Harriet was born in January 1798 and baptised on 30th January - neither Harriot survived, and were not mentioned in their father's will of 1815.  Both were named after an aunt named Harriet who was mentioned in their father's will.
5) Thomas Hutchins Williams was born to John Jeffery and Sarah, and was baptised on February 20th 1790 at Georges Court, and was baptised in the Church of St. George the Martyr in Queen Square; the family were living in Boswell Court near Grays Inn at the time.  Thomas later called himself Hutchins Thomas Williams.

Following the death of Sarah Dignan, John Jeffery Williams married Mary Oliver of Alresford, Essex, and had a further three children with her:
1) Richard Williams was born on 24th July 1812 and was baptised in the Old Church, St. Pancras on 3rd September 1812.  (I had originally believed him to be my immediate ancestor, Richard Williams of Dublin, who worked for the Williams family for many years but I now know this to be incorrect).
2) Mary Williams was baptised in the same church on September 3rd 1813;  the family's address at the time was what seems to be Mabledon Place, but this was difficult to decipher and may be incorrect.  Mary was not mentioned in her father's will, but she would later marry Rev. Samuel Farman.
3) Henry Jeffery Williams was baptised in St.Andrew's, Holborn on August 20th 1815, several months after the death of his father. The family were living at Gray's Inn Place. 

Mary Oliver, the second wife of John Jeffery Williams, was the daughter of Samuel Oliver and Susannah Martin of St. Osyth, Essex, who had married by banns on 8th October 1771.   They baptised their 4-year-old daughter, Mary Oliver, in St. Osyth in 1789, along with siblings Samuel in 1773, a second Samuel in 1787, Susanna in 1774, John in 1776, Sarah in 1778,  Thomas in 1780, a second Thomas in 1789, William in 1781, Charles Martin Oliver in 1783, George in 1784, Ann in 1787, 

John Jeffery Williams of Grays Inn, Holborn, was referred to in the records by three names - John Jeffery Williams,  John Williams and J.J. Williams.


He appeared in 'The Universal British Directory' of 1791, under the heading 'Inns of Court, Gray's-Inn, Holborn':
   'Stewart, Mr. Thomas Quin, Library Staircase, Gray's-Inn
    Under Steward, Mr. John Williams.'
The above Thomas Quin was probably one of the men who witnessed John Jeffery's marriage to Sarah Dignan;  Thomas Quin died in 1813 and was  buried in St. Andrews, Holborn, on February 13th.  He was succeeded as Steward of Gray's Inn by our John Jeffery Williams.
(Thomas Quin appears in the 'Pension Book of Gray's Inn' - on 23rd February 1787, he was appointed second butler and panyerman and Steward's and Chief Butler's man, in place of Peter davies who had resigned.  Later on 14th November 1787, he was noted as the second butler who was elected on this date as Chief Steward and Chief Butler.   Thomas Quin died, aged 68, in January 1813.  The Steward of Gray's Inn performed an administrative roll, dealing with admissions and correspondance.  John Jeffery Williams was, along with John Howell of Bartlett's Buildings, one of the witnesses to Thomas Quin's 1813 will - Thomas Quin mentioned two brothers in his will, William Quin, a painter/glazier of Camden, and James Quin, a yeoman of Crown Court near Grays Inn.  He also mentioned a son-in-law, Francis Millard, and it's interesting to note that John Jeffery William's son, John Dignan Williams, was apprenticed in London to a merchant tailor named Francis Millard.

John Jeffery Williams, who succeeded to the post of Steward, was himself buried in St.Andrew's, Holborn two years later on 27th May 1815. In the parish register he was noted as 'Steward to the Honorable Society of Gray's Inn'.
The same year an inquest was held in the chambers of the late John Jeffery Williams upon a member of Gray's Inn who had been found dead and badly decomposed in his own room.
In his will, John Jeffery Williams mentions the sale of this set of Chambers in Grays Inns, all of which seem to suggest that he was a barrister and his son, Henry's, marriage certificate later confirms this.
In Doane's 'Musical Directory' of 1794, he was cited as an alto, or counter-tenor, of 22 Great Warner Street, Cold Bath Fields (an area of Gray's Inns), who belonged to the Choral Fund and sang in the Drury Lane oratorios and in the Handelian performances of 1785 - 1791 in Westminster Abbey. This is more or less confirmed in his will when he leaves his piano and his music books to his daughter Sarah.

John Jeffery Williams was a kind individual - 'The Times' of May 14th 1801, published this appeal:
   'To Merchants and others - A Friend of a respectable youth of fifteen years of age, educated for the counting-house, takes this modic of presenting him, for employment;  he writes a good and improveable hand, knows Accompts, and understands the French language very well.  The parent has taken great care of his morals, and is flattered with having succeeded to the utmost wish in that respect.  Salary at present is not so much a matter of concern as a reputable connection, where a hope might be entertained that merit would meet reward.  Address, post paid, to Mr. J.J.Williams, Gray's Inn, Holborn, who will give particulars, and wait upon the parties if necessary.'

John Jeffrey's son, John Dignan Williams, aged 26, had already moved to Dublin by the time of his father's death in 1815. His activities as a merchant are quite well-documented - see my separate post on him - he was noted as a shareholder in the CDSPCo. His father named him as the executor of his will which seems to suggest that he was the eldest son in the family.

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2011/11/john-dignan-williams-grandson-of-thomas.html

The widowed Mary Williams, née Oliver,  might have been one of the shareholders of the East India Company, who, because she held £1000 worth of stock in 1826, was entitled to vote in the company.  In 'A List of The Names of the Members of the United Company of  Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, who appear by the Company's Books Qualified to Vote at the General Election, 12th April 1826.'  Her brother, Thomas Oliver, worked as a colonel in the service of the East India Company.
She was noted as 'Mrs. Mary Williams, Widow, Gray's-Inn Place.'

William Williams, the son of John Jeffery Williams, was taken on by the Gray's Inn solicitor, George Tennant, as a clerk/apprentice in 1811;  William's brother, John Dignan Williams, had started his apprenticeship in the London linen industry at the age of 16 - if William had started his clerkship at the same or similar age, then he would have been born in 1795.  A William Williams, who witnessed a deed of 1814 whereby 14 North Cumberland Street in Dublin was leased out to John Dignan Williams, and it was noted that William had previously lived at Dame Street but was now resident at Cumberland Street.

Later, a solicitor, William Williams, had offices at 3 College Green, Dublin, and this individual was involved in a property deal along with Richard and Hutchins Thomas Williams of Dame Street. The deed concerned was 1833-6-103, between John Boyd, accountant-general of Stephens Green, Richard and Hutchins Thomas Williams of Dame St., James Josiah Hardy, barrister, William Williams of College Green and Thomas Cusack of Dundrum.  The land concerned was at Ellis Quay.

William Williams of College Green also witnessed deed 886-120-586622, dated 13th July 1832, whereby land at Friarsland, Queen's County, was being tranferred to Hutchins Thomas Williams from James Lafarelle.
The subsequent deed, 886-120-586623, also dated 13th July 1832, between Crofton Fitzgerald of Simmonscourt Avenue, Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle and Hutchins Thomas Williams of Dame Street, concerned a house on Baggot Street which was demised to the same William Williams.


'Philip Reeve of Gray's Inn, Gentleman, maketh oath and saith, that by Articles of Agreement bearing date the twenty fourth day of April last past and made between George Tennant of Gray's Inn, aforesaid, gentleman, one of the Attornies of his Majesty's Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas at Westminster and a solicitor in the high Court of Chancery of the one part, and John Jeffery Williams of Gray's Inn Lane in the County of Middlesex and William Williams son of the said John Jeffery Williams of the other part,  the said William Williams for the considerations therein, did put, place and bind himself clerk to the said George Tennant to serve him in the profession of an Attorney at Law and Solicitor in Chancery from the day of the date of the said Articles for the term of five years from thence next ensuing and fully to be complete and ended and which said Articles were in due form of Law executed by the said George Tennant, John Jeffery Williams, and William Williams in the presence of this Deponent and George Smith of Gray's Inn aforesaid in the County of Middlesex and that the names "Philip Reeve" and "Geo. Smith" set and subscribed as witnesses to the due execution thereof, are of the proper Hand Writing of this Deponent and the said George Smith.
Sworn at my Chambers in Serjeants Inn this twelfth day of June One thousand Eight hundred and eleven.  Philip Reeve.'
(Taken from the UK, Articles of Clerkship, 1756-1874.  George Tennant was a Gray's Inn solicitor who was in partnership with Thomas Green.  Born in Wigan, in 1817 George Tennant bought the Glamorgan estate of Rhydings near Neath. He invested in and developed the local Welsh canal system and also had unfulfilled plans to develop the railway there.)

The 'Belfast Commercial Chronicle' of 19th May 1827 noted that the solicitor William Williams, who was a relation of Richard Williams of the firm of Gibbons and Williams (Richard Williams was the brother of Charles Wye Williams who founded the Dublin Steam Packet Company) had been assaulted by a Thomas Howard, William Williams having pressed him to pay a bill which was overdue.
Two days later, the 'Dublin Mercantile Advertiser' followed on with the case, but this time solicitor William Williams was noted as the brother of Thomas Hutchins Williams of the firm of Gibbons and Williams.

Before moving to 3 College Green, William Williams had offices at 20 and 26 Dame Street in the 1820s.   He would die unmarried and left no children.

('The Carlisle Patriot' of 16th June 1871 reported the marriage in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 3rd June 1871 of John Andrew Williams, the youngest son of the Dublin solicitor William Williams. This William Williams was acutally William Campbell Williams, the son of George Williams of Co. Down, and wasn't related to the Williams discussed in this post.  John Andrew Williams married Jane, the daughter of William Gill a plumber of Dacre St., Corporation Road, Carlisle.  The earlier 1871 UK census shows this John Andrew Williams as a 20-year-old boarder, in Newcastle.  He had been  born in about 1851 in Kingstown, Dublin, and was an engineer/draughtsman, and was boarding in the home of the mate of a steamship.)


Thomas Hutchins Williams, son of John Jeffery and Sarah Dignan,  also moved to Dublin, but reversed his given names and was known always as Hutchins Thomas Williams.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/09/hutchins-thomas-williams-son-of-thomas.html

The children of John Jeffery Williams and his second wife, Mary Oliver, were much younger than his children by his first wife, Sarah Dignan,  and it's unclear whether they had many dealings with each other.

Mary Williams, the daughter of John Jeffery and his second wife, Mary Oliver of St. Osyth, married Rev. Samuel Farman.  Her mother lived with her in Layer Marney.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/11/mary-williams-second-wife-of-john.html

John Jeffery's youngest son, Henry Jeffery Williams, who was born several months after the death of his father in 1815, married Eliza Richer in St. Dunstan All Saints Church in Stepney on May 16th 1840. He was a book-keeper, like his (possible!)  brother Richard of Eden Quay, and gave his address as 7 Willington Street. His father was, of course, John Jeffery Williams, a solicitor; Eliza's father was Thomas Richer, a builder, of 16 George Place. The witnesses were Elizabeth Jarnett and Ethel Price.
Thomas Richer had been born in 1781 in Washbrook, Suffolk, and died in Stepney, London, on February 24th 1855.  He appeared on the 1851 Census at 4 Cadbury Place as a carpenter, along with his wife, Eliza Richer, who had been born in Ipswich in 1789.  Their children had all been baptised at the Church of St. Mary le Tower in Ipswich -  Eliza, who would marry Henry Jeffery Williams in 1840, had been baptised on 21st July 1816.  A sister, Amelia, was baptised on 29th September 1822 - she would marry the mariner, James Vashon Rowed, in London in 1846.  (James Vachon Rowed had been born in March 1819 in Catersham, Surrey, to William and Eliza Rowed.   Following their marriage in 1846, Amelia Richer and James Vachon Rowed had a daughter, Amelia Kate Rowed, in 1850 in Stepney.  James Vachon Rowed died in St. Pancras in 1880 - the following year, his widow, Amelia, was living at 81 White Horse Lane, Mile End, where she worked as a seamstress.  She died in 1918 at Uxbridge, Middlesex.)
There were also two Richer brothers - Thomas, baptised in Ipswich on 20th February 1815, and John baptised in February 1815.

Following  Henry's marriage to Eliza Richer in 1840, he disappears from the records. I scoured the UK, American, and Canadian records for any trace of him, but had no luck - he should really have been on the 1841 Census for the UK, since he had married there the previous year, but he wasn't.  The passenger lists, available on Ancestry.com, showed up nothing for him.  His mother, Mary Williams, who lived with her daughter at Layer Marney, made her will in 1873 - a wealthy woman when she died, she left the greater part of her fortune to her daughter's family, and a mere £100 to her son Henry Williams.  However, she made no mention of his whereabouts, nor was her third child, Richard Williams, mentioned.  

(Note:  A Henry J. Williams was an investor with the Dublin Stock Market later; this may be the same man. Or not!)

Richard, born to John Jeffery Williams and to Mary Oliver in 1812, similarly disappears from view.  I scoured the UK, US and Canadian censuses for any sign of him, but without any luck. I suspected he might be our Richard Williams of Eden Quay, Dublin, who was a bookkeeper like Henry Jeffery, and who worked for the Williams' shipping business in their Dublin headquarters, but I've never found a positive link - nor have any DNA matches ever surfaced.  Our great-great grandfather was known to be the son of a deceased John Williams, but he is one of those mysterious ancestors who seem to have no relations nearby, which is highly unusual in Ireland!

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2011/08/richard-williams-and-geraldine-omoore.html


(Sophia Augusta Mullon/Mullen (1787 - 1839), who witnessed the will of John Jeffery Williams in 1815,  was the proprietor of a London lodging house who went bankrupt in 1831.  From 'The Law Advertiser, Volume 9' of 1831, under 'Insolvent Debtors':  'Mullen, Sophia Augusta, formerly of Tavistock-street, Covent-garden, then of York-street, Covent-garden, lodging-house keeper, then of Blenheim-street, Bond-street, and late of Leicester-square, out of business.'
She died in 1839, and was buried on 12th October in All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green. She had been living at 26 Surrey Street, The Strand, at the time of her death.)