Henrietta Woodgate of Binsted married the Curate of Frensham
Background to Woodgate Family
During the 1600’s, the Woodgate Family were mercers selling articles relating to clothing and furnishings at The Cliffe in Lewes, Sussex. Henry Woodgate (Henrietta’s father) made sufficient money to allow him to retire from the business in the 1670’s and he leased Wheatley, a country house in Binsted, close to Frensham.
Henry Woodgate’s daughter, Henrietta Woodgate was 37 and was considered a spinster! However, she made an alliance with Joseph Monday, Curate of nearby Frensham, 13 years her junior. Marriage to a poorly-paid country curate may not have seemed especially illustrious, but Joseph Munday was a university-trained, respected member of the Frensham community and being ‘Mistress Munday of Frensham’ was probably better than being ‘Mistress Henrietta Woodgate of Binsted’ living with elderly parents! Henrietta had property in Neatham Manor from which she could derive an income. After their marriage, Joseph would have had access to this money, but once widowed, it was Henrietta’s to use as she wished and allowed her to make bequests in the Will discussed below. (Mistress was an honorific title for a ‘gentlewoman’ had no connection to marital status).
Exploring Surrey’s Past Record 1680: A copy of the Neatham Manor Court Roll (Binsted was in Neatham Manor) ~ transfer to Henrietta Woodgate, spinster, daughter of Henry Woodgate, gentleman, and Elizabeth of an 18 acre parcel of land by her parents, subject to the approval of the Lord of the Manner.
Henry Woodgate’s son, John Woodgate, continued the family business and a number of records exist, including his marriage to Dorothy Lane in Lewes Parish Church in 1679.
Henrietta Munday’s Last Will and Testament
On 19 February 1742, Mistress Henrietta Munday, Widow of Frensham, was ‘weak’ and decided it was time to finalize her Will:
- to be buried in the porch of Frensham Church near to my deceased husband, Joseph Munday, late Curate of Frensham
- to my niece, Elizabeth Smith widow, £5, four best gold rings and two best diaper tablecloths
- to my kinsman, Edward Smith, Clerk in Holy Orders, £5
- to my kinswoman, Charlotte Smith, £10, six gold rings and all my silver plate, two pairs of holland sheets and two pairs of pillowcases
- to my kinswomen, Amy and Mary Munday of Salisbury, £10 each
- to Elizabeth, wife of Reverend James Ford of Farnham, 2 guineas for a ring
- to Mistress Jane Buckham of Farnham, widow, 2 guineas for a ring
- to William Bishop Esq of Frensham, 2 guineas
- to Reverend Francis Bishop and Frances, his wife, 5 shillings each to buy a pair of gloves and my couch and its trappings
- to Augustine Crafter, 40 shillings, and to his wife, Elizabeth Crafter, my second best bedstead and its trappings, and one half of my wearing apparel
- to 8 poor widows of Frensham, 20 shillings to be divided amongst them at the discretion of the Church Wardens
- the residue of my estate, to my loving friend, Anne Stillman, widow of Frensham
- Executor: Anne Stillman
- Witnessed by George Paine and William Heath
- Administration was granted to Anne Stillman on 25 April 1743
Can we work out the identities of any of these People?
Elizabeth Smith, widow, described as Henrietta’s niece, and Rev Edward Smith and Charlotte Smith. The easiest way to explain who these people were, is with a Woodgate family tree:
Mary Munday (born 1700) and Amy Munday (born 1710) of Salisbury are straightforward; they were the unmarried ‘spinster’ daughters of Francis Munday, the brother of Henrietta’s husband, Joseph Munday.
Elizabeth Forde, was wife of Reverend James Ford of Farnham who was 34 years Vicar of Farnham Parish Church and died in 1744 with ‘the widow Forde’ dying in 1751; both were buried in Farnham. Elizabeth and James had a number of children born in Farnham including John Ford, born around 1719, who followed his father’s footsteps into the church. The eldest son, James Ford, born in 1717, was apprenticed to a London Merchant with his father, Rev Forde, paying a premium of £105.
Mistress Jane Buckham of Farnham was the former Jane Sprainger, member of a minor gentry family, who had married John Buckham, gentleman of Farnham, in 1723. Jane was widowed 8 years later, and she herself, died in 1751.
Surrey History Centre 1735 Record: Jane Buckham, formerly Jane Sprainger, inherited a property from her Uncle John Stanton and sold it to Charles Humphrey, victualler. The property was known as ‘the sign of the Valiant Soldier’ and it was located on the west side of Downing Street near the Parish Church. This inn had previously been a barn and hop garden in the 1600’s.
William Bishop Esq – as a wealthy man, he would hardly have needed Henrietta’s money but as the patron of the Frensham living and, in essence, Henrietta’s deceased husband’s, employer, she may have felt something was due.
Reverend Francis Bishop – Francis was the youngest son of William Bishop and his destiny was to become a church minister. After attending, Queen’s College, Oxford, Francis was ordained and in 1733, his father gave him the living at Bentley (William Bishop leased the tithes and the right to appoint the clergy at Frensham, Elstead, Seale, and Bentley). Francis was Curate of Bentley until his death in 1760. Frances Holloway married Rev Bishop in 1737 at Bentley.
Augustine Crafter – often shortened to ‘Austin’ – was appointed Frensham Parish Clerk in August 1719 and held the position until he died 25 August 1745, and on the very same day, his son Austin Crafter, was appointed Parish Clerk. Augustine Crafter was baptized in Witley in 1690, the son of William Crafter, a tailor. The 1743 Will of James Crafter, Tailor of Headley mentions Augustine and 3 other brothers – all tailors – who lived in various places in West Surrey. Augustine Crafter married Elizabeth Chandler in 1727 (after the death of his first wife Mary Harding) with Rev Munday performing the ceremony. So this would be the Elizabeth Crafter who inherited Henrietta’s ‘second best bedstead and its trappings, and one half of my wearing apparel’.
The Parish Clerk: Much of the work of the parish was carried out for a small salary by the Parish Clerk, an office held for life and commonly passed from father to son. He attended practically every service, keeping dogs out and people awake and collecting pew rents and customary fees. He wrote the accounts if the wardens and overseers were illiterate, made out fair copies of the lists of church rates, assisted officers in their collection. He collected tolls on farm animals pastured in the churchyard and on those who hung their washing there and from those who set up stalls along the path on market days. He collected money also on the approved ‘briefs’ circulated to assist those who had suffered loss by fire or other misfortune. familysearch.org
Anne Stillman – Henrietta’s friend and executor of her Will, inherited all Henrietta’s estate other than that which Henrietta had given to others. Unfortunately, that is all I can say about her as I can find no matching records, even using various spellings.
George Paine – the person who wrote out Henrietta’s Will. The Paine family of Frensham were prosperous hop-growers and maltsters with property in Frensham, Dogflood (Farnham), Seale, and Tongham. George was born in 1707 and baptized in Frensham Church by Rev Munday (as were his siblings Richard, Henry, Thomas and Ann Paine), and his parents were James Paine and Anne Lintott. James Paine couldn’t read or write but he made sure that his sons were educated and their signatures crop up in many records. The Will of James Paine of Frensham in 1733 mentions ‘two furnaces, two pumps, malt mill and plate for drying malt’ in Frensham. As a younger son, George Paine did not get the maltings when his father died but did receive ‘freehold land at Ricketts Hill, Seale which my late grandfather John Lintott bought’. George Paine, Yeoman of Seale, was buried at Seale in 1758.
William Heath Junior – I can see the baptism and burial records in the Frensham register for William Heath Senior and William Heath Junior but, I know nothing more except that William Junior was available to witness Henrietta’s Will.
William Roe – William was a Master Cooper and was able to take apprentices and those records have survived. William’s first wife died in 1730 and he remarried a lady called Elizabeth Boral and they chose a ‘clandestine marriage’ in Fleet Goal in London. Getting married in Fleet Goal was done for a number of reasons including: it was fashionable, it didn’t involve any religious service so that appealed to non-conformists, it didn’t involve prior notice or church banns, and it was not uncommon for a second marriage. A Fleet Goal marriage would be like a Las Vegas marriage today!
Reverend James Phipps – we know that he officially replaced Joseph Munday as Perpetual Curate of Frensham at Michaelmas 1840, being the 29 September but he was acting Curate within a week of Rev Munday’s death as the change in hand-writing it so apparent. James Phillips was curate of Frensham until 1761, when he was replaced by Richard Bridger.
Quick link back to Reverend Henry Munday:
Select Sources
- Surrey and South London Will Abstracts, 1470-1856 (London Metropolitan Archives)
- Surrey History Centre Archive reference FREN/1/1
- Google Images