This post concerns Mary Oliver, who was the second wife of the lawyer, John Jeffery Williams of Grays Inn, and their daughter, Mary Williams.
I don't believe my Williams family, who descend from Richard Williams (1812 - 1885) of 17 Eden Quay, is related in any way to the family of John Jeffery Williams. I did much research into this other Williams family so include it here for the use of other researchers. I descend from Richard Williams and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton:
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/08/richard-williams-and-geraldine-omoore.html
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/11/john-jeffery-williams-father-of-richard.html
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/04/updated-williams-genealogy.html
Following the death of his first wife, Sarah Dignan, John Jeffery Williams married Mary Oliver of St. Osyth/Alresford in Essex, who lived from 1784 until 18th July 1873.
The Oliver Family:
Mary Oliver, the second wife of John Jeffery Williams, was the daughter of Samuel Oliver (1743 - 1816) and Susannah Martin (1747 - 1833) 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.
Susannah Oliver (1747 - 1833), née Martin, of St. Osyth was named as the beneficiary in the 1784 will of her cousin, S. Gordon of Althorne, Essex. S. Gordon of Althorne also named Thomas Martin of St. Osyth as another of his cousins.
Mary's brothers William and Thomas Oliver both joined the Honorable East India Company and were posted to Madras where William Oliver married Zipporah Mary Sherson in St. George's, Madras, on 22nd August 1820. This couple had a daughter, Emily Catherine Oliver, on 6th July 1829 but the infant's mother Zipporah Mary passed away shortly the birth in July 1829. Catherine Emily appeared on the 1881 census living with her first cousin, Mary Musselwhite, née Farman, where she died on 4th December 1898, having been struck by a horserider while crossing the road.
Charles Martin Oliver, the brother of Mary Oliver, married on 4th May 1829 in St. Pancras, Harriet Camilla Downing; an upholsterer, he died on 29th April 1847 in Kensal Green.
Mary Oliver's paternal grandparents were Benjamin Oliver and Sarah Barrington of Great Clacton, Essex. They baptised Mary's father, Samuel Oliver (1743 - 1816) , in Great Clacton on 15th November 1743. They had other children there - Sarah Oliver was baptised on 1st October 1745. Richard Oliver was baptised by Benjamin and Sarah in Great Clacton in 1849; he died in 1850, and they baptised a second Richard on 4th May 1753.
When M. Barrington of Great Clacton made his will in 1779, he named as his executors, his sister, Sarah Oliver of Great Clacton (who had been married to Benjamin Oliver), and three of his nephews - Richard Oliver, John Oliver and Samuel Oliver who lived at St. Osyth. Also named in the will was M. Barrington's niece, Sarah Dean of St. Osyth.
Sarah Oliver, the daughter of Benjamin Oliver and Sarah Barrington of Great Clacton, married John Dean of St. Osyth in 1771. John Dean and Sarah Oliver of St. Osyth had three sons named John Dean. One was born in 1771 and died a month later; the second was born in February 1774 and must also have died very young; the third John Dean was born in St. Osyth in April 1776 and died in September 1814. Sarah Oliver and John Dean also had Henry Dean in October 1782 and Sarah Dean in October 1777.
When Samuel Oliver (1743 - 1816) of St. Osyth made his will in 1778, he named Sarah Dean as his daughter and John Dean as his son-in-law. Sarah Dean was also named in the 1799 will of M. Barrington of Great Clacton - she was noted as the niece of the deceased.
Mary Oliver and John Jeffery Williams must have married in about 1811, judging by the births of their three children. Richard was born in Holborn on 24th July 1812 (and this might possibly be our Dublin-based great-great grandfather who had been born to a John Williams in 1812), Mary was born in September 1813, and Henry Jeffery Williams was born in August 1815, a few months after the death of his own father.
John Jeffery's children by his first marriage to Sarah Dignan had all been born much earlier than this second batch - John Dignan Williams in 1789, Hutchins Thomas Williams in 1790, Sarah in 1794, William in 1795, Harriet No.One in 1796, Harriet No. Two in 1798. There was, therefore, a 14 year gap between Harriet and Richard.
Following their father's death in 1815 or before it, at least two, and possibly more, of John Jeffery's older children moved to Dublin. John Dignan Williams and Hutchins Thomas Williams operated there in linen and finance, and Hutchins was known to have had a sister living with him at 39 Dame Street in the 1820's, but which sister? Following the failure of Hutchins' finance company, 'Gibbons and Williams' in 1835, he left Ireland for good and headed with his family, first to New York and then to Simcoe, Ontario. John Dignan Williams seems to have maintained a business presence in Dublin from about 1814 until about 1841, but his Irish-born family were living in London again by 1841. A daughter, Marie Antoinette Williams married Daniel Henry Rucker in Dublin in 1847. John Dignan died in London in 1858. It seems that son William Williams also operated in Dublin as a lawyer.
Mary Williams, the widow of the lawyer John Jeffery Williams, must have accumulated great wealth at some stage. A benefiary of her later husband's 1815 will, she was also noted as a shareholder in the East India Company. She held £1000 worth of stock in 1826, was entitled to vote in the company. She was noted as 'Mrs. Mary Williams, Widow, Gray's-Inn Place' 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 brothers, William and Thomas Oliver, worked in the service of the East India Company.
Mary Williams (born 1814) , daughter of John Jeffery Williams abd Mary Oliver, married Rev. Samuel Farman (1808 - 1878) on 28th April 1835 in the Church of St. John of Jerusalem in South Hackney, London. The wedding was witnessed by Mary's widowed mother, Mary Williams, and by an associate of the Oliver family, William Humphries Genery. The Genery family were natives of St. Osyth, Essex, which is where Mary Williams and her siblings had been born.
In 1841, the widowed Mary Williams, née Oliver, was living in Hampstead, London, with her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Rev.Samuel Farman, along with four of their children, Mary, Samuel, Charles and Emily.
The Farman Family:
Rev. Samuel Farman, who married Mary Williams in 1835, had been baptised in St. Nicholas's, Ipswich, Suffolk, on 10th July 1808 by his parents James and Sarah Farman. He had an older sister, Sarah Farman, born circa 1802, and a brother, the builder James Farman who had been born on 2nd December 1805 in what seems to be 'Knighs', and who was baptised in St. Margaret's, Ipswich, on 30th March 1806. Other siblings were Hannah Farman baptised in Ipswich on 7th May 1813 and her twin Mary Farman on the same day. A second brother was the Ipswich builder, Robert Farman.
Samuel Farman's father, the carpenter James Farman, had been baptised in Geldeston, Norfolk, on 13th March 1774 by his parents Robert and Elizabeth, along with siblings Robert in 1766, Samuel in 1771 and Sarah in 1764. James Farman was present in Ipswich in 1841 along with his wife, Sarah, and his granddaughter, Sarah Farman, the daughter of builder James Farman Jr.
James Farman the elder died aged 91 on 25th February 1864. He had made his will in 1848, and named his wife, Sarah, as his beneficiary along with his sons, Robert Farman, John Farman, and James Farman Jr.
Sons James and Robert were builder of Ipswich. James Farman married Elizabeth Mudd on 13th June 1824. Children were Catherine born 1825, Sarah born 1831, Samuel George born 1833, George born 1836, John born 1838 and Elizabeth born 1841.
Robert Farman married Mary Ann Fisk in Ipswich on 25th September 1827 and had Robert born 1829, William born 1831, Henry born 1832, Francis born 1835, George born 1839, Maryanne born 1841 and Arthur born 1849. The young sons of builder Robert Farman of Ipswich occasionally made the national press, first when one of them nearly died eating shellfish, and secondly when another had a 21-foot tapeworm removed from his body following treatment. When Rev. Samuel Farman died in Layer Marney in 1858, the press named him as the brother of Robert Farman of Ipswich. Robert Farman of Ipswich died aged 57 on 6th June 1867.
William Charles Farman (1831 - 1872), the second son of Robert Farman of Ipswich, was the son who had suffered the giant tapeworm in 1841. The Australian papers are free to search on the Trove.au website and these show that Wiliam Charles Farman emigrated to Kangaroo Flat, Victoria, Australia, where he died in May 1872, leaving a wife and two children. The Australia birth records show up three children born to a William Charles Farman and Christiana or Mary Nunn in Victoria - William Robert in 1859, William Charles in 1870 and an unnamed daughter in 1860. The younger William Charles Farman died in Victoria in 1942 - his death record named his mother as Mary Nunn, rather that Christiana Nunn.
The Australian papers recorded the fiftieth wedding anniversary in March 1898 of a Robert S.Farman and Mary Anne Brighten of Kangaroo Flat who had married in Ipswich, Suffolk on 16th March 1848. On 19th October 1905, the papers recorded the death in Bendigo Hospital of Robert S.Farman of Kangaroo Flat. Aged 77 at his death in Victoria, he had arrived in Melbourne on 9th November 1852. A carpenter, he settled in Kangaroo Flat in 1853. He had two children - Mary Ann Brighten Farman was born to Robert Farman and Henrietta (or Mary Ann?) Brighten in 1857, while Robert Farman was born in 1860. On 31st May 1881 in Kangaroo Flat, daughter Mary Anne Brighten Farman married Robert William Bath of Golden Gully, Sandhurst. This family were buried together in Kangaroo Flat Cemetery in the one grave - Robert S. Farman who died aged 79 on 17th October 1905, his wife, Ann Martha (not Henrietta or Mary Ann) who died aged 84 on 25th September 1907, his daughter, Mary Anne Bath who died aged 84 on 11th June 1942 and her hisband, Robert William Bath who died young aged only 39 on 13th March 1908.
The son of Robert S. Farman and Ann Martha Brighten, Robert William Farman, died aged 81, in August 1941 in Kangaroo Flat. He had married Agnes, onlt daughter of Edward and Charlotte Wright of Collingwood on 8th March 1883. At his death in 1941 he left sons Harold and Roy Farman - a son, Basil Farman had predeceased him - granddaughters Jean Hall, Marjorie Marshall, Margaret Farman, a grandson Basil Farman, and a great-grandson Darryl Farman.
Rev. Samuel Farman had been ordained as a curate in 1834, and as a priest in 1838. Rev. Samuel and Mary Farman spent several of these years living in Istanbul/Constantinople, and the first of the couple's 13 children were born there, Mary in 1836, and the twins, Charles and Emily, in early 1838.
In 1831, Samuel Farman had been appointed by The London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews as assistant to Rev. John Nicolayson, and together the pair travelled widely around the Middle East. The pair were noted in Beirut, Malta, Algiers and Tripoli. Samuel was ordained deacon by Blomfield (I'm unsure who this was) on 12th December 1824, and commenced work in Constantinople in 1835, presumably following his marriage to Mary Williams. He left the city briefly during an outbreak of plague, and, during his absence, embarked upon a Judeo-Spanish translation of the scriptures. Following his return to Constantinople, he settled in the Galata district. He circulated the scriptures in Hebrew, and converted three Jews to Christianity. Rev. Samuel Farman resigned in 1841 and returned to England. This info was found online in 'The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews'.
In 1844, Rev. Samuel Farman, who had attended St. John's College, Cambridge, had become the rector of Layer Marney Church in Essex, following a stint in Peldon. His mother-in-law, Mary Williams, had her origins nearby in Alresford, and Mary's sister, Sarah Oliver of St. Osyth (born 1780) had recommended Samuel for the job in Layer Marney.
In December 1858, Mary Williams, the widow of John Jeffery Williams, purchased the Layer Marney Hall Estate for £28,200 from Quentin Dick. The estate comprised 841 acres, Layer Marney Tower, 11 and acres of meadow let to Rev. Samuel Farman. This from the papers of the day. A conveyance of 1859 records the sale to Mrs. Williams under the will of Quintin Dick for £30,448 of Tower Farm, 635 acres and Thorrington Farm, 205 acres. Her will shows that she also had a property in London.In an 1871 directory for Layer Marney, Mary Williams was noted as the lady of the manor.
Rev. Samuel Farman built the schoolhouse next to the Rectory in 1850, and carried out the restoration of the church in 1870. He published several works over the years - 'Part of the Hebrew and Spanish Scripture', 'Il futuro Destino d'Israele' and 'Constantinople in connection with the present war' (1855).
By 1851, the census shows the family at Layer Marney. Along with Mary, Emily (also called Oratia) and Charles, there was Harriet born in Sussex, Thomas Frederick born Layer Marney, Margaret born Layer Marney in 1848, Anna, and baby Thomas born 1851. A further son, Samuel, had been born in Constantinople in about 1838, but he was boarding in 1851 at the Collegiate School in Leicester.
Rev. Samuel himself had been born in Ipswich, Suffolk in about 1808. His mother-in-law, Mary Williams, was also there, named as a fund holder who had been born in nearby Alresford, Essex, in about 1786. The family had three servants.
Mary Williams was still with them in Layer Marney in 1861 and was described on the census as a landed proprietor of 452 acres employing 3 boys and 17 labourers.
By 1861, Samuel and Mary Farman had had two additional children - Samuel George born in 1838 and who later became the vicar of St. John's in Colchester before converting to Catholicism in 1880, and Susan born 1854.
Mary Williams continued to live with her daughter and son-in-law at Layer Marney until her death on 18th July 1873. Her will was proved by two of her Farman grandchildren, the younger Rev. Samuel Farman (rector of Layer Marney, Colchester and then Harwich) of St.Martin's, Colchester, and Edward Farman of 21 Lion Terrace, Portsea.
Her son-in-law Rev. Samuel Farman of Layer Marney died aged 72 on the 15th or 16th December 1858. One of the papers noted him as the brother of the late Robert Farman of Ipswich.
In the 1980s, Jane Eames of Essex researched the villages of Layer Marney, Birch and Layer Breton, and the research has been published online. She had accessed the will of Mary Williams, widow of John Jeffery Williams. Nearly all of the beneficiaries of her will had to make an annual payment to an Elizabeth Gentry of St. Osyth, Essex, the payments being 'in lieu of and in satisfaction of the annuity whereon the proper duty to Government has been paid which was bequeathed to the said Elizabeth Gentry by the will of my late sister Sarah Oliver . . . . . charged upon and made payable out of the annual proceeds of certain personal estate thereby bequeathed to me.'
Elizabeth Gentry appeared on the 1871 census at nearby St. Osyth working as a housekeeper. The 1835 marriage of Mary's daughter, Mary, to Samuel Farman, had been witnessed by a William Gentry, so there must have been some family connection between the Oliver and Gentry families.
Mary Williams left most of her substantial effects to her grandchildren, including a London property which was left to her oldest granddaughter, Mary, who went on to marry Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite, vicar of West Mersea.
Nothing was left to Mary's son-in-law, Samuel Farman, but Mary Williams left £100 to her son, Henry Williams although the will doesn't mention where he lived, and I've had no luck tracking him down. Her second son, Richard, wasn't mentioned at all. Henry married Eliza Richer in 1840, and then promptly disappears from view. Similarly, I can find no sign of Richard anywhere on the various UK censuses.
To return to Mary Williams' 1873 will....the unmarried granddaughters of Mary Williams, Oratia and Susan Farman, both received a legacy payable on their marriage or at their mother's death. The other two married daughters, Margaret, wife of Henry Garnell and Harriet wife of Walter Hammond Thelwall each received £500. The surviving sons, Samuel, Charles, Thomas, and Edward were made the residuary by their grandmother.
The children of Mary Williams and Rev. Samuel Farman were:
a) Mary Farman born in Turkey in 1836. Known as Minnie, on 13th September 1865 in Layer Marney, she married Rev. Thomas.R. Musselwhite (12th May 1816 - 7th August 1888) of Devizes, Wiltshire, vicar of West Mersea; her brother Rev. Samuel Farman Jr. carried out the ceremony along with the groom's brother, Rev. Edward Musselwhite. In 1881 Mary and T.R. Musselwhite were still living in West Mersea, along with two daughters - Mary M. Musselwhite born circa 1867 and Hilda in 1877. Mary's first cousin was visiting - this was Emily Catherine Oliver who had been born in Madras on 6th July 1829 to Mary's maternal uncle William Oliver of the East India Company and his wife Zipporah Mary Sherson.
b) Samuel Farman born Constantinople, Turkey, circa 1838. Samuel entered the church in the footsteps of his father, servinf as curate in Layer Marney from 1860 to 1867, and in St. Paul's, Colchester amingst others. In October 1880, Rev. Samuel Farman of St. John's in Colchester announced his intention of leaving the Anglican church to convert to Catholicism.
The younger Rev. Samuel Farman married Clara Letitia Clarke, the second daughter of J.P. Clarke, Esq., of de Montfort Square, Leicester. The wedding took place on 6th February 1861 in St. John's Church, Leicester. Clara Letitia, wife of Rev. Samuel Farman, died on 30th July 1875 at the Vicarage in Harwich,
Samuel Farman and Clara Letitia Clarke had four children, the twins Edgar and Ernest in 1862, Agnes Ethel in 1864 and Harold Augustus on 1st August 1865.
A solicitor, Harold Augustus Farman married Marion Robertson, the daughter of the late Henry Finch Robertson of Billericay, Essex, on 18th September 1887.
The elderly Harold Augustus Farman married, on April 9th 1946, at St. Paul's, Clacton-on-Sea, Florence Mary Pullin, who was the daughter of Stephen Pullin of Frogmore, Hayes, Middlesex. In 1911, Florence Pullin, who had been born in Buckinghamshire in about 1880, had been living with Harold and Marion Farman in 1911 in Kensington.
In 1939, Harold and Florence Mary were living together at the hotel she owned in Clacton, along with Harold's single sister, the art teacher Agnes Ethel Farman.
Harold Augustus Farman died shortly after his marriage on December 14th 1948 - he was living at the Westleigh Hotel, 33 Carnarvon Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, and his death notice in The Times noted that he was formerly a partner in 'Farman Daniell & Co.' of 329 High Holborn, solicitors. He was 83 when he died.
The solicitor Edgar Farman, son of Rev. Samuel Farman and Clara Letitia Clarke, married Adelaide E. Hammond in London in 1888. They had a son Sigmund Watkin Farman. On 17th September 1919 in Clifton, Bristol, Paymaster-Lieutenant Sigmund Watkin Farman of the Royal Navy, only child of the late Edgar Farman of Ealing and of Mrs. Farman of Cheltenham, married Olga Janine/Jennie Bullen or Pullen, the only child of the late F. St. John Bullen of Clifton. They would have a son on 7th July 1921, and a daughter on 30th July 1930 at the parsonage house in Easton-in-Gordano.
c) Charles Farman, born Turkey in 1840. He was the twin of Oratia Emily. A civil engineer, he died on 21st June 1880 in passage from Algoa Bay, South Africa, to London, and was buried in Layer Marney. He had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Dennis, overseas in 1876.
d) Oratia Emily born Turkey in 1840, the twin of Charles Farman. In 1871 the census shows her sharing a lodging house in Hastings with her first cousin, Bessie Law Williams, the daughter of john Dignan Williams. Oratia Emily's mother, Mary Williams, was the half-sister of John Dignan Williams. In both 1881 and 1911, Oratia Emily Farnan was living with her brother-in-law and her sister, William Hampden Thelwall, and Harriet Farnan. Oratia Emily Farnan of 3 Earls Court Square, South Kensington, died aged 84 and and was buried in Brompton Cemetery on 30th May 1924.
e) Harriet Farman, born Shoreham, Sussex in 1842. She married civil engineer William Hampden Thelwall in Layer Marney on 9th March 1865. He was the youngest son of the late Algernon Sydney Thelwall of Terrington Square, London. The ceremony was performed by the bride's brother, samuel Farman Jr. and by her brother-in-law Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite.
f) John Arthur born Layer Marney in 1843; he died in 1849 and was buried in Layer Marney.
g) Thomas Frederick born Layer Marney in 1845. On 31st August 1868 in St. George's, Hanover Square, London, Thomas Frederick, third son of Rev. Samuel Farman of Layer Marney, married Sophia Louisa Mudford, youngest surviving daughter of the late William Mudford of Canterbury. In 1871 the young couple were living with Sophia's brother, newspaper editor James Mudford, and his family in Canterbury.
Thomas Frederick Farman, a journalist like his brother-in-law, moved to Paris where he worked for thirty years as the Paris correspondent for the 'London Standard'. He had three sons who achieved notoriety as early Fench aviation pioneers - Henry, Maurice and Dick. Henry or Henri had been christened in Paris as Henry Edgar Mudford Farman on 26th May 1874 and would be buried on the Ile-de-France on 18th July 1958. All three brothers were instrumental in the development of early aircraft, and their achievements are documented in 'Contact!: The Story of the Early Aviators' which is viewable on Google Books and which does better justice than I could to the subject. All three settled in France pemanently.
h) Margaret born Layer Marney 1847. On 5th June 1873, she married Henry Garnell, son of Henry Garnell, in Layer Marney. Henry Garnell, who married Margaret Farman, was a shipbroker who'd been born in Croyden, Surrey in about 1836. In 1881 Henry and Margaret were living in Tottenham with two children Henry, born in Newcastle in 1877, and Sybil F., born in Kensington in 1879. By 1891, they had two extra children - Gladys C. Garnell/Gannell, born 1883, and Margaret F.D. Gannell, born 1891.
i) Anna born Layer Marney in 1849 - she died in June 1868 in Layer Marney.
j) Edward baptised in Layer Marney on 19th January 1851. A solicitor, in 1881 he was living with his widowed mother, Mary Farman, née Williams, and his unmarried younger sister, Susan Farman, in Hammersmith. An Edward Farman died in 1894 in Fulham and was buried in Layer Marney.
k) George born 1853. A George Farman was buried in Layer Marney on 7th May 1863.
l) Susan born 1854.
Mary Williams' will mentions that Sarah Oliver was the sister of Mary Williams, née Oliver. Another sibling appears to be Thomas Oliver who himself made a will on 2nd November 1869, in which he left shares in a railway company to Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite, who was married to his niece, Mary Farman. Thomas Oliver appeared as an unmarried lodger in Hanover square on the 1871 Census; he had been born in St. Osyth - as had Mary Williams, his sister - in about 1790, and he states that he had been a general in the Bengal Army. Twenty years earlier, the 1851 census shows him as a lodger, once again in Hanover Square, and this time his occupation was 'Colonel: E.I.C. Service' which I presume refers to the East India Company. His will also made mention of an Emily Catherine Oliver. In 1881 this unmarried woman was living with Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite and his wife, Mary Farman, at the West Mersea vicarage - Emily Catherine Oliver had been born in about 1831 in Madras, India, and the 1881 census calls her a 'cousin', presumably a cousin of Mary Farman, rather than Thomas Ralph Musselwhite who had been born in Devizes, Wiltshire, rather than Essex. The LDS birth records for India only show up a Helen Grace Oliver, born 1831 to a Thomas and Lucy Oliver.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2013/01/the-will-of-sarah-oliver-saint-osyth.html
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/11/john-jeffery-williams-father-of-richard.html
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/04/updated-williams-genealogy.html
Following the death of his first wife, Sarah Dignan, John Jeffery Williams married Mary Oliver of St. Osyth/Alresford in Essex, who lived from 1784 until 18th July 1873.
The Oliver Family:
Mary Oliver, the second wife of John Jeffery Williams, was the daughter of Samuel Oliver (1743 - 1816) and Susannah Martin (1747 - 1833) 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.
Susannah Oliver (1747 - 1833), née Martin, of St. Osyth was named as the beneficiary in the 1784 will of her cousin, S. Gordon of Althorne, Essex. S. Gordon of Althorne also named Thomas Martin of St. Osyth as another of his cousins.
Mary's brothers William and Thomas Oliver both joined the Honorable East India Company and were posted to Madras where William Oliver married Zipporah Mary Sherson in St. George's, Madras, on 22nd August 1820. This couple had a daughter, Emily Catherine Oliver, on 6th July 1829 but the infant's mother Zipporah Mary passed away shortly the birth in July 1829. Catherine Emily appeared on the 1881 census living with her first cousin, Mary Musselwhite, née Farman, where she died on 4th December 1898, having been struck by a horserider while crossing the road.
Charles Martin Oliver, the brother of Mary Oliver, married on 4th May 1829 in St. Pancras, Harriet Camilla Downing; an upholsterer, he died on 29th April 1847 in Kensal Green.
Mary Oliver's paternal grandparents were Benjamin Oliver and Sarah Barrington of Great Clacton, Essex. They baptised Mary's father, Samuel Oliver (1743 - 1816) , in Great Clacton on 15th November 1743. They had other children there - Sarah Oliver was baptised on 1st October 1745. Richard Oliver was baptised by Benjamin and Sarah in Great Clacton in 1849; he died in 1850, and they baptised a second Richard on 4th May 1753.
When M. Barrington of Great Clacton made his will in 1779, he named as his executors, his sister, Sarah Oliver of Great Clacton (who had been married to Benjamin Oliver), and three of his nephews - Richard Oliver, John Oliver and Samuel Oliver who lived at St. Osyth. Also named in the will was M. Barrington's niece, Sarah Dean of St. Osyth.
Sarah Oliver, the daughter of Benjamin Oliver and Sarah Barrington of Great Clacton, married John Dean of St. Osyth in 1771. John Dean and Sarah Oliver of St. Osyth had three sons named John Dean. One was born in 1771 and died a month later; the second was born in February 1774 and must also have died very young; the third John Dean was born in St. Osyth in April 1776 and died in September 1814. Sarah Oliver and John Dean also had Henry Dean in October 1782 and Sarah Dean in October 1777.
When Samuel Oliver (1743 - 1816) of St. Osyth made his will in 1778, he named Sarah Dean as his daughter and John Dean as his son-in-law. Sarah Dean was also named in the 1799 will of M. Barrington of Great Clacton - she was noted as the niece of the deceased.
John Jeffery's children by his first marriage to Sarah Dignan had all been born much earlier than this second batch - John Dignan Williams in 1789, Hutchins Thomas Williams in 1790, Sarah in 1794, William in 1795, Harriet No.One in 1796, Harriet No. Two in 1798. There was, therefore, a 14 year gap between Harriet and Richard.
Following their father's death in 1815 or before it, at least two, and possibly more, of John Jeffery's older children moved to Dublin. John Dignan Williams and Hutchins Thomas Williams operated there in linen and finance, and Hutchins was known to have had a sister living with him at 39 Dame Street in the 1820's, but which sister? Following the failure of Hutchins' finance company, 'Gibbons and Williams' in 1835, he left Ireland for good and headed with his family, first to New York and then to Simcoe, Ontario. John Dignan Williams seems to have maintained a business presence in Dublin from about 1814 until about 1841, but his Irish-born family were living in London again by 1841. A daughter, Marie Antoinette Williams married Daniel Henry Rucker in Dublin in 1847. John Dignan died in London in 1858. It seems that son William Williams also operated in Dublin as a lawyer.
Mary Williams, the widow of the lawyer John Jeffery Williams, must have accumulated great wealth at some stage. A benefiary of her later husband's 1815 will, she was also noted as a shareholder in the East India Company. She held £1000 worth of stock in 1826, was entitled to vote in the company. She was noted as 'Mrs. Mary Williams, Widow, Gray's-Inn Place' 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 brothers, William and Thomas Oliver, worked in the service of the East India Company.
Mary Williams (born 1814) , daughter of John Jeffery Williams abd Mary Oliver, married Rev. Samuel Farman (1808 - 1878) on 28th April 1835 in the Church of St. John of Jerusalem in South Hackney, London. The wedding was witnessed by Mary's widowed mother, Mary Williams, and by an associate of the Oliver family, William Humphries Genery. The Genery family were natives of St. Osyth, Essex, which is where Mary Williams and her siblings had been born.
In 1841, the widowed Mary Williams, née Oliver, was living in Hampstead, London, with her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Rev.Samuel Farman, along with four of their children, Mary, Samuel, Charles and Emily.
The Farman Family:
Rev. Samuel Farman, who married Mary Williams in 1835, had been baptised in St. Nicholas's, Ipswich, Suffolk, on 10th July 1808 by his parents James and Sarah Farman. He had an older sister, Sarah Farman, born circa 1802, and a brother, the builder James Farman who had been born on 2nd December 1805 in what seems to be 'Knighs', and who was baptised in St. Margaret's, Ipswich, on 30th March 1806. Other siblings were Hannah Farman baptised in Ipswich on 7th May 1813 and her twin Mary Farman on the same day. A second brother was the Ipswich builder, Robert Farman.
Samuel Farman's father, the carpenter James Farman, had been baptised in Geldeston, Norfolk, on 13th March 1774 by his parents Robert and Elizabeth, along with siblings Robert in 1766, Samuel in 1771 and Sarah in 1764. James Farman was present in Ipswich in 1841 along with his wife, Sarah, and his granddaughter, Sarah Farman, the daughter of builder James Farman Jr.
James Farman the elder died aged 91 on 25th February 1864. He had made his will in 1848, and named his wife, Sarah, as his beneficiary along with his sons, Robert Farman, John Farman, and James Farman Jr.
Sons James and Robert were builder of Ipswich. James Farman married Elizabeth Mudd on 13th June 1824. Children were Catherine born 1825, Sarah born 1831, Samuel George born 1833, George born 1836, John born 1838 and Elizabeth born 1841.
Robert Farman married Mary Ann Fisk in Ipswich on 25th September 1827 and had Robert born 1829, William born 1831, Henry born 1832, Francis born 1835, George born 1839, Maryanne born 1841 and Arthur born 1849. The young sons of builder Robert Farman of Ipswich occasionally made the national press, first when one of them nearly died eating shellfish, and secondly when another had a 21-foot tapeworm removed from his body following treatment. When Rev. Samuel Farman died in Layer Marney in 1858, the press named him as the brother of Robert Farman of Ipswich. Robert Farman of Ipswich died aged 57 on 6th June 1867.
William Charles Farman (1831 - 1872), the second son of Robert Farman of Ipswich, was the son who had suffered the giant tapeworm in 1841. The Australian papers are free to search on the Trove.au website and these show that Wiliam Charles Farman emigrated to Kangaroo Flat, Victoria, Australia, where he died in May 1872, leaving a wife and two children. The Australia birth records show up three children born to a William Charles Farman and Christiana or Mary Nunn in Victoria - William Robert in 1859, William Charles in 1870 and an unnamed daughter in 1860. The younger William Charles Farman died in Victoria in 1942 - his death record named his mother as Mary Nunn, rather that Christiana Nunn.
The Australian papers recorded the fiftieth wedding anniversary in March 1898 of a Robert S.Farman and Mary Anne Brighten of Kangaroo Flat who had married in Ipswich, Suffolk on 16th March 1848. On 19th October 1905, the papers recorded the death in Bendigo Hospital of Robert S.Farman of Kangaroo Flat. Aged 77 at his death in Victoria, he had arrived in Melbourne on 9th November 1852. A carpenter, he settled in Kangaroo Flat in 1853. He had two children - Mary Ann Brighten Farman was born to Robert Farman and Henrietta (or Mary Ann?) Brighten in 1857, while Robert Farman was born in 1860. On 31st May 1881 in Kangaroo Flat, daughter Mary Anne Brighten Farman married Robert William Bath of Golden Gully, Sandhurst. This family were buried together in Kangaroo Flat Cemetery in the one grave - Robert S. Farman who died aged 79 on 17th October 1905, his wife, Ann Martha (not Henrietta or Mary Ann) who died aged 84 on 25th September 1907, his daughter, Mary Anne Bath who died aged 84 on 11th June 1942 and her hisband, Robert William Bath who died young aged only 39 on 13th March 1908.
The son of Robert S. Farman and Ann Martha Brighten, Robert William Farman, died aged 81, in August 1941 in Kangaroo Flat. He had married Agnes, onlt daughter of Edward and Charlotte Wright of Collingwood on 8th March 1883. At his death in 1941 he left sons Harold and Roy Farman - a son, Basil Farman had predeceased him - granddaughters Jean Hall, Marjorie Marshall, Margaret Farman, a grandson Basil Farman, and a great-grandson Darryl Farman.
Rev. Samuel Farman had been ordained as a curate in 1834, and as a priest in 1838. Rev. Samuel and Mary Farman spent several of these years living in Istanbul/Constantinople, and the first of the couple's 13 children were born there, Mary in 1836, and the twins, Charles and Emily, in early 1838.
In 1831, Samuel Farman had been appointed by The London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews as assistant to Rev. John Nicolayson, and together the pair travelled widely around the Middle East. The pair were noted in Beirut, Malta, Algiers and Tripoli. Samuel was ordained deacon by Blomfield (I'm unsure who this was) on 12th December 1824, and commenced work in Constantinople in 1835, presumably following his marriage to Mary Williams. He left the city briefly during an outbreak of plague, and, during his absence, embarked upon a Judeo-Spanish translation of the scriptures. Following his return to Constantinople, he settled in the Galata district. He circulated the scriptures in Hebrew, and converted three Jews to Christianity. Rev. Samuel Farman resigned in 1841 and returned to England. This info was found online in 'The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews'.
In 1844, Rev. Samuel Farman, who had attended St. John's College, Cambridge, had become the rector of Layer Marney Church in Essex, following a stint in Peldon. His mother-in-law, Mary Williams, had her origins nearby in Alresford, and Mary's sister, Sarah Oliver of St. Osyth (born 1780) had recommended Samuel for the job in Layer Marney.
In December 1858, Mary Williams, the widow of John Jeffery Williams, purchased the Layer Marney Hall Estate for £28,200 from Quentin Dick. The estate comprised 841 acres, Layer Marney Tower, 11 and acres of meadow let to Rev. Samuel Farman. This from the papers of the day. A conveyance of 1859 records the sale to Mrs. Williams under the will of Quintin Dick for £30,448 of Tower Farm, 635 acres and Thorrington Farm, 205 acres. Her will shows that she also had a property in London.In an 1871 directory for Layer Marney, Mary Williams was noted as the lady of the manor.
Rev. Samuel Farman built the schoolhouse next to the Rectory in 1850, and carried out the restoration of the church in 1870. He published several works over the years - 'Part of the Hebrew and Spanish Scripture', 'Il futuro Destino d'Israele' and 'Constantinople in connection with the present war' (1855).
By 1851, the census shows the family at Layer Marney. Along with Mary, Emily (also called Oratia) and Charles, there was Harriet born in Sussex, Thomas Frederick born Layer Marney, Margaret born Layer Marney in 1848, Anna, and baby Thomas born 1851. A further son, Samuel, had been born in Constantinople in about 1838, but he was boarding in 1851 at the Collegiate School in Leicester.
Rev. Samuel himself had been born in Ipswich, Suffolk in about 1808. His mother-in-law, Mary Williams, was also there, named as a fund holder who had been born in nearby Alresford, Essex, in about 1786. The family had three servants.
Mary Williams was still with them in Layer Marney in 1861 and was described on the census as a landed proprietor of 452 acres employing 3 boys and 17 labourers.
By 1861, Samuel and Mary Farman had had two additional children - Samuel George born in 1838 and who later became the vicar of St. John's in Colchester before converting to Catholicism in 1880, and Susan born 1854.
Mary Williams continued to live with her daughter and son-in-law at Layer Marney until her death on 18th July 1873. Her will was proved by two of her Farman grandchildren, the younger Rev. Samuel Farman (rector of Layer Marney, Colchester and then Harwich) of St.Martin's, Colchester, and Edward Farman of 21 Lion Terrace, Portsea.
Her son-in-law Rev. Samuel Farman of Layer Marney died aged 72 on the 15th or 16th December 1858. One of the papers noted him as the brother of the late Robert Farman of Ipswich.
In the 1980s, Jane Eames of Essex researched the villages of Layer Marney, Birch and Layer Breton, and the research has been published online. She had accessed the will of Mary Williams, widow of John Jeffery Williams. Nearly all of the beneficiaries of her will had to make an annual payment to an Elizabeth Gentry of St. Osyth, Essex, the payments being 'in lieu of and in satisfaction of the annuity whereon the proper duty to Government has been paid which was bequeathed to the said Elizabeth Gentry by the will of my late sister Sarah Oliver . . . . . charged upon and made payable out of the annual proceeds of certain personal estate thereby bequeathed to me.'
Elizabeth Gentry appeared on the 1871 census at nearby St. Osyth working as a housekeeper. The 1835 marriage of Mary's daughter, Mary, to Samuel Farman, had been witnessed by a William Gentry, so there must have been some family connection between the Oliver and Gentry families.
Mary Williams left most of her substantial effects to her grandchildren, including a London property which was left to her oldest granddaughter, Mary, who went on to marry Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite, vicar of West Mersea.
Nothing was left to Mary's son-in-law, Samuel Farman, but Mary Williams left £100 to her son, Henry Williams although the will doesn't mention where he lived, and I've had no luck tracking him down. Her second son, Richard, wasn't mentioned at all. Henry married Eliza Richer in 1840, and then promptly disappears from view. Similarly, I can find no sign of Richard anywhere on the various UK censuses.
To return to Mary Williams' 1873 will....the unmarried granddaughters of Mary Williams, Oratia and Susan Farman, both received a legacy payable on their marriage or at their mother's death. The other two married daughters, Margaret, wife of Henry Garnell and Harriet wife of Walter Hammond Thelwall each received £500. The surviving sons, Samuel, Charles, Thomas, and Edward were made the residuary by their grandmother.
The children of Mary Williams and Rev. Samuel Farman were:
a) Mary Farman born in Turkey in 1836. Known as Minnie, on 13th September 1865 in Layer Marney, she married Rev. Thomas.R. Musselwhite (12th May 1816 - 7th August 1888) of Devizes, Wiltshire, vicar of West Mersea; her brother Rev. Samuel Farman Jr. carried out the ceremony along with the groom's brother, Rev. Edward Musselwhite. In 1881 Mary and T.R. Musselwhite were still living in West Mersea, along with two daughters - Mary M. Musselwhite born circa 1867 and Hilda in 1877. Mary's first cousin was visiting - this was Emily Catherine Oliver who had been born in Madras on 6th July 1829 to Mary's maternal uncle William Oliver of the East India Company and his wife Zipporah Mary Sherson.
b) Samuel Farman born Constantinople, Turkey, circa 1838. Samuel entered the church in the footsteps of his father, servinf as curate in Layer Marney from 1860 to 1867, and in St. Paul's, Colchester amingst others. In October 1880, Rev. Samuel Farman of St. John's in Colchester announced his intention of leaving the Anglican church to convert to Catholicism.
The younger Rev. Samuel Farman married Clara Letitia Clarke, the second daughter of J.P. Clarke, Esq., of de Montfort Square, Leicester. The wedding took place on 6th February 1861 in St. John's Church, Leicester. Clara Letitia, wife of Rev. Samuel Farman, died on 30th July 1875 at the Vicarage in Harwich,
Samuel Farman and Clara Letitia Clarke had four children, the twins Edgar and Ernest in 1862, Agnes Ethel in 1864 and Harold Augustus on 1st August 1865.
A solicitor, Harold Augustus Farman married Marion Robertson, the daughter of the late Henry Finch Robertson of Billericay, Essex, on 18th September 1887.
The elderly Harold Augustus Farman married, on April 9th 1946, at St. Paul's, Clacton-on-Sea, Florence Mary Pullin, who was the daughter of Stephen Pullin of Frogmore, Hayes, Middlesex. In 1911, Florence Pullin, who had been born in Buckinghamshire in about 1880, had been living with Harold and Marion Farman in 1911 in Kensington.
In 1939, Harold and Florence Mary were living together at the hotel she owned in Clacton, along with Harold's single sister, the art teacher Agnes Ethel Farman.
Harold Augustus Farman died shortly after his marriage on December 14th 1948 - he was living at the Westleigh Hotel, 33 Carnarvon Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, and his death notice in The Times noted that he was formerly a partner in 'Farman Daniell & Co.' of 329 High Holborn, solicitors. He was 83 when he died.
The solicitor Edgar Farman, son of Rev. Samuel Farman and Clara Letitia Clarke, married Adelaide E. Hammond in London in 1888. They had a son Sigmund Watkin Farman. On 17th September 1919 in Clifton, Bristol, Paymaster-Lieutenant Sigmund Watkin Farman of the Royal Navy, only child of the late Edgar Farman of Ealing and of Mrs. Farman of Cheltenham, married Olga Janine/Jennie Bullen or Pullen, the only child of the late F. St. John Bullen of Clifton. They would have a son on 7th July 1921, and a daughter on 30th July 1930 at the parsonage house in Easton-in-Gordano.
c) Charles Farman, born Turkey in 1840. He was the twin of Oratia Emily. A civil engineer, he died on 21st June 1880 in passage from Algoa Bay, South Africa, to London, and was buried in Layer Marney. He had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Dennis, overseas in 1876.
d) Oratia Emily born Turkey in 1840, the twin of Charles Farman. In 1871 the census shows her sharing a lodging house in Hastings with her first cousin, Bessie Law Williams, the daughter of john Dignan Williams. Oratia Emily's mother, Mary Williams, was the half-sister of John Dignan Williams. In both 1881 and 1911, Oratia Emily Farnan was living with her brother-in-law and her sister, William Hampden Thelwall, and Harriet Farnan. Oratia Emily Farnan of 3 Earls Court Square, South Kensington, died aged 84 and and was buried in Brompton Cemetery on 30th May 1924.
e) Harriet Farman, born Shoreham, Sussex in 1842. She married civil engineer William Hampden Thelwall in Layer Marney on 9th March 1865. He was the youngest son of the late Algernon Sydney Thelwall of Terrington Square, London. The ceremony was performed by the bride's brother, samuel Farman Jr. and by her brother-in-law Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite.
f) John Arthur born Layer Marney in 1843; he died in 1849 and was buried in Layer Marney.
g) Thomas Frederick born Layer Marney in 1845. On 31st August 1868 in St. George's, Hanover Square, London, Thomas Frederick, third son of Rev. Samuel Farman of Layer Marney, married Sophia Louisa Mudford, youngest surviving daughter of the late William Mudford of Canterbury. In 1871 the young couple were living with Sophia's brother, newspaper editor James Mudford, and his family in Canterbury.
Thomas Frederick Farman, a journalist like his brother-in-law, moved to Paris where he worked for thirty years as the Paris correspondent for the 'London Standard'. He had three sons who achieved notoriety as early Fench aviation pioneers - Henry, Maurice and Dick. Henry or Henri had been christened in Paris as Henry Edgar Mudford Farman on 26th May 1874 and would be buried on the Ile-de-France on 18th July 1958. All three brothers were instrumental in the development of early aircraft, and their achievements are documented in 'Contact!: The Story of the Early Aviators' which is viewable on Google Books and which does better justice than I could to the subject. All three settled in France pemanently.
h) Margaret born Layer Marney 1847. On 5th June 1873, she married Henry Garnell, son of Henry Garnell, in Layer Marney. Henry Garnell, who married Margaret Farman, was a shipbroker who'd been born in Croyden, Surrey in about 1836. In 1881 Henry and Margaret were living in Tottenham with two children Henry, born in Newcastle in 1877, and Sybil F., born in Kensington in 1879. By 1891, they had two extra children - Gladys C. Garnell/Gannell, born 1883, and Margaret F.D. Gannell, born 1891.
i) Anna born Layer Marney in 1849 - she died in June 1868 in Layer Marney.
j) Edward baptised in Layer Marney on 19th January 1851. A solicitor, in 1881 he was living with his widowed mother, Mary Farman, née Williams, and his unmarried younger sister, Susan Farman, in Hammersmith. An Edward Farman died in 1894 in Fulham and was buried in Layer Marney.
k) George born 1853. A George Farman was buried in Layer Marney on 7th May 1863.
l) Susan born 1854.
Mary Williams' will mentions that Sarah Oliver was the sister of Mary Williams, née Oliver. Another sibling appears to be Thomas Oliver who himself made a will on 2nd November 1869, in which he left shares in a railway company to Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite, who was married to his niece, Mary Farman. Thomas Oliver appeared as an unmarried lodger in Hanover square on the 1871 Census; he had been born in St. Osyth - as had Mary Williams, his sister - in about 1790, and he states that he had been a general in the Bengal Army. Twenty years earlier, the 1851 census shows him as a lodger, once again in Hanover Square, and this time his occupation was 'Colonel: E.I.C. Service' which I presume refers to the East India Company. His will also made mention of an Emily Catherine Oliver. In 1881 this unmarried woman was living with Rev. Thomas Ralph Musselwhite and his wife, Mary Farman, at the West Mersea vicarage - Emily Catherine Oliver had been born in about 1831 in Madras, India, and the 1881 census calls her a 'cousin', presumably a cousin of Mary Farman, rather than Thomas Ralph Musselwhite who had been born in Devizes, Wiltshire, rather than Essex. The LDS birth records for India only show up a Helen Grace Oliver, born 1831 to a Thomas and Lucy Oliver.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2013/01/the-will-of-sarah-oliver-saint-osyth.html
This is really interesting. Thank you for posting this.
ReplyDeleteThomas and Mary Musselwhite (formally Mary Farman) are my Great Great Grandparents on my dad's side.
Their daughter Hilda Ann married Alfred Cooke and one of their two daughters, Minnie, is my dad's mom.
This means that Mary Williams (nee Oliver) born 1786 was my Great Great Great Great Grandmother.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your family details with me...I'm glad you're finding the post interesting....let me know if you ever come across any information about the two sens of Mary Williams, née Oliver, ie: Richard and Henry J. Williams. I believe I descend from the older son, Richard, but I've yet to come across a watertight link.
ReplyDeleteHi Alison, hope you are doing well.
ReplyDeleteI've been ancestor hunting a few weeks back and visited Layer Marney where Samuel Farman was and West Mersea where his daughter Mary and her husband T R Musselwhite were. It has been very interesting. I also went to the British Library and saw two books by S Farman.
I noticed on the above blog that Samuel Farman was ordained deacon by Blomfield, but you didn't know who he was. He was a Bishop. There is a wiki entry about him. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Blomfield
Btw. Are you based in UK? I would be interested to meet up some time and talk about our common roots !
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