Ann Burley (1775-1850).
My 4th great-grandmother. She married into the Finch family.
Ann Burley was the daughter of John Burley of Limpsfield and Sarah Goodman of Kingston, both in Surrey (see below). She was born on the 27 April 1775 and baptised on 3 June that year at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, where her carpenter father lived.
She married Thomas Finch of Reigate, Surrey, at St Mary’s church there on 13 July 1792. He was also from a family of carpenters. The couple settled in Reigate, where she raised a family of at least 10 children. Ann died in 1850 while living in nearby Kingswood, potentially with or near her son Michael, but she was buried back in Reigate on 10 February 1850.
Read more about Ann, Thomas and their family here.
Note that the Burley surname has also been written: Borley, Burleigh, Borle and so on.
John Burley (1746-1795) and Sarah Goodman (1746-1813).
My 5th great-grandparents.
John Burley was born in the Surrey village of Limpsfield in 1746 and baptised at St Peter’s Church on the 4 November that year. His parents were carpenter John Burley (sometimes Burly) and Frances Hutchins, who was often called Fanne or Fanny in the records (see below).
John married Sarah Goodman at All Saints Church in Kingston, Surrey, on 27 June 1774. How he met her is a mystery but she was described as of the parish of Kingston in the records so perhaps she was working as a servant in Limpsfield, or they met through his work. They settled in Limpsfield and had at least five children.
John Jnr’s father died in 1774 and in his will he left property and goods to John and another son, Richard. These included two tenements and his stock of timber, which was shared between them. John also took on his father’s tools, as well as responsibility for his apprentice George Osborn’s indentures. Later, in 1780, apprentice records show that John had taken on an apprentice called William Jackson.
Other records track him as an adult. A poll for the knights of the shire of Surrey held in October 1774 record him, as a freeholder of property, casting his votes for Sir Frances Vincent and James Scawen esq. Various Land Tax records from the 1780s and 1790s list him as both proprietor and resident of property in Limpsfield. A 1791 record held by the Sun Fire Office shows John as insurer of property on Pebble Hall Hill (or Pebble Hill), Limpsfield.
John died at the end of 1795 and was buried in the village on 2 January 1796. Sarah lived until 1813 and was buried on the 29 May. Her burial record suggests she was born in around 1746 but I’ve been unable to trace her parents or place of birth with any confidence.
John and Sarah had several children:
- Ann Burley (1775-1850), my 4th great-grandmother. See above for details.
- John Burley (1776-1809), my 4th great-grand uncle. John was born on 16 November 1776 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 15 December that year. Land tax records for the late 1790s suggest that he took over his father’s property in the village, although without a will this cannot be proven. Research also suggests that John married a woman called Mary, although I’ve yet to find a convincing record to prove it. Three children were born to them in Limpsfield and baptised there. John died in 1809 and was buried in the village on 14 May. His wife’s fate is a mystery. Their children were:
- John Burley (1805-1850). John was a gardener by trade.
- Mary Burley (1807-????).
- Charles Burley (1809-1828).
- Charles Burley (1779-1799), my 4th great-grand uncle. John was born on 10 January 1779 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 31 January that year. It’s likely that he was the Charles buried on 16 May 1799 in Limpsfield.
- James Burley (1780-1847), my 4th great-grand uncle. James was born on 13 December 1780 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 7 January 1781. He married Martha at some point in his life but I’ve yet to find a record of her birth or death, and she wasn’t living with the family at the time of the 1841 census. Various records track him in Limpsfield. From 1811, Land Tax records listed him renting property from various proprietors including a house from the corn dealer John Clark in the early 1820s. Lists of jury-qualified freeholders and copyholders recorded him under Limpsfield in the early 1820s and noted that he worked as a gardener. An 1832 electoral roll showed him as qualifying to vote in elections as freeholder of a house and land in Limpsfield occupied by various tenants, including John Unstead and Thomas Barling. By 1839 another electoral roll noted that he owned several houses in the village, one of which he occupied. James lived until 1847 and was buried in the village on 11 June. He signed a will but there’s no mention of Martha in it and he left all his property and goods, including a number of properties and land, to his son. Martha remains a mystery. The couple appear to have had just the one child.
- James Burley (1814-1862). Mentioned in his father’s will, James Jnr inherited all his father’s estate. He married Suffolk native Hannah Edwards and went on to raise a family in the village, where he ran his own business as a gardener and nurseryman, employing several locals, before his death in 1862. Various publications, including the The Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, Volume 18, mention his propagation of calceolarias as a particular interest. Hannah died in 1898 and left her estate to her son James, described as a ‘gentleman’.
- Sarah Burley (1786-????), my 4th great-grand aunt. Sarah was born on 18 April 1786 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 21 May that year. I’ve not been able to track her down with any certainty after this but it’s possible that she was the woman who married John Harbour in Beddington, Surrey, in 1808 (a James Burley was a witness).
John Burley (1701-1774) and Frances Hutchins (1715-1771).
My 6th great-grandparents.
John Burley’s descendants may have lived and worked in the Surrey village of Limpsfield but he came from Chiddingstone in Kent, today a picture-postcard village on the tourist trail. Confirmation comes from the baptism record of his daughter Frances, in which he was described as from ‘Chitinstone’. John was born in 1701 to parents John Burley Snr and Elizabeth Blackman and baptised on 25 May that year at St Mary’s Church, his father described as a husbandman.
His father died when he was a young boy, in 1707, and he must’ve spent some years supporting his mother. This might explain why he married later in life, in 1739. His bride was Frances Hutchins and they wed at West Kingsdown in Kent, although Frances was said to be from Limpsfield and John from nearby Oxted, both in Surrey. Quite why they married there, or what had led John to move from his home in Chiddingstone to live in the neighbouring county, remains a mystery. It may be that this is where Frances was born but I’ve yet to find a baptism record for her.
Settling in Limpsfield, where he worked as a carpenter, John and Frances had at least eight children. Judging by his will, he must’ve been reasonably successful as he owned property. He died in 1774 and was buried on 26 January at St Peter’s Church in the town. In his will he left his freehold house and lands, as well as two tenements occupied by others, at Pebble Hall Hill in Limpsfield, to his sons John and Richard Burley. They also shared his stock of timber, but his carpentry tools went to John Jnr. The latter also took over the indentures of his father’s apprentice George Osborn. John Snr’s household goods, bedding and other furniture were shared between sons John and Richard and daughters Elizabeth and Ann Burley. Ann was also to be paid £15, Elizabeth £10. His daughter Mary, wife of Joseph Newton, received the sum of £1 1s, as did his other daughter Frances Burley.
John’s wife Frances had died in 1771 and was buried in Limpsfield on 22 December. The burial record describes her only as the wife of John Burley and doesn’t even give her name.
The couple’s children:
- William Burley (1740-1760), my 5th great-grand uncle. William was born in 1740 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 7 December that year. He died in 1760 and was buried in the village on 10 February.
- Frances Burley (1742-????), my 5th great-grand aunt. Frances was born in 1742 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 15 August that year. She is referred to in her father’s will, dated 1773, the beneficiary of £1 1s. No mention is made of her being married (unlike her sister Mary below). I’ve not found references to her after the will.
- Mary Burley (1744-????), my 5th great-grand aunt. Mary was born in 1744 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 11 October that year. She married at St Luke’s Church in Finsbury, north London, on 11 June 1764, her father giving his consent as she was a minor at the time. Her husband was Joseph Newton. What had taken her to the area is not clear. She is mentioned as a beneficiary of £1 1s in her father’s will, proved after his death in 1774, but after this I’ve not been able to trace her.
- John Burley (1746-1796), my 5th great-grandfather. His details are above.
- Richard Burley (1748-1788?), my 5th great-grand uncle. Richard was born in 1748 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 21 July that year. He is listed as a voter in the poll books for Limpsfied in 1774, then married Mary Brett by licence in the village on 28 March 1776, described in the document as a carpenter. A Richard Burley was buried in the village on 18 September 1788 but this could be another family member. The confusion is that land tax and other records continue to show a Richard Burley as an owner and occupier of land in the village late into the 1790s. I have no record of Mary’s death.
- Elizabeth Burley (1750-????), my 5th great-grand aunt. Elizabeth was born in 1750 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 30 September that year. She was still alive when her father, who died in 1774, wrote his will as she is the beneficiary of £10. I’ve not traced her beyond this.
- Ann Burley (1753-????), my 5th great-grand aunt. Ann was born in 1753 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 30 September that year. She was the beneficiary of £15 in her father’s will, proved in 1771, and then married James Dew on 17 March 1776 at St Peter’s. A marriage licence dated 8 March described James as a tailor. They had a child, Elizabeth, born in September 1776 but the family then disappears from the records.
- Phoebe Burley (1755-????), my 5th great-grand aunt. Phoebe was born in 1755 and baptised at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, Surrey, on 19 October that year. I’ve not traced her beyond this but the fact she wasn’t mentioned in her father’s will of 1771 suggests she may have died young.
John Burley (1668-1707) and Elizabeth Blackman (1670s?-????).
My 7th great-grandparents.
John, my 7th great-grandfather, grew up Chiddingstone, Kent with parents James Burley and Ann Chapman. He was baptised on 23 March 1668 at St Mary’s Church, his surname written ‘Borle’.
He married Elizabeth Blackman in the village on 21 April 1701 and the record stated that both were of the parish and that he was a husbandman – a farmer of a small number of acres that were usually held leasehold or copyhold. While Elizabeth was from Chiddingstone at the time of her marriage, there are no Blackman christenings surviving in the village records. Two girls with the name were baptised in Sundridge (1674) and Westerham (1677) about seven or eight miles north but I’ve not been able to narrow down further.
John died in 1707 and was buried in Chiddingstone on 17 August but what happened to his wife is unclear. I’ve found no proof that she remarried. Was she the Elizabeth Burley who was buried in nearby Penshurst in 1748, or the Elizabeth Burleigh buried in February 1719 a few miles away in Speldhurst?
The couple appear to have had just the one child:
- John Burley (1701-1774), my 6th great-grandfather. His details are above.
James Burley (????-1694) and Ann Chapman (????-????).
My 8th great-grandparents.
Records get more unreliable at this point in history, not helped by the Civil War and the resulting period of the Republic. The latter saw the disestablishment of the church and introduction of Puritanism, as well as changes to how baptisms, marriages and funerals were carried out and recorded. Justices of the Peace, for example, were solely responsible for marriage ceremonies. Because of the turmoil of those years, some records were damaged or destroyed. Those still favouring the Anglican church were known to get former parish clergy to secretly carry out the old services, such as marriages, without them being officially recorded.
James, my 8th great-grandfather, was more than likely born before the Civil War but I have no baptism record to prove it. However, there are records showing he married Ann Chapman on 3 July 1656 in her home village of Chiddingstone in Kent. He was a husbandman of Brasted, a village about seven miles north. The marriage was also noted in the records of Brasted the following day.
Ann’s origins are also shrouded in mystery although a girl by her name was baptised in Penshurst, a few miles from Chiddingstone, in April 1626. She died in March 1690, noted as the wife of James Burley, and was buried in Chiddingstone on the 26th. James was buried in the village on 11 December 1694.
The couple had a number of children:
- James Burley (1662-1662), my 7th great-grand uncle. He was baptised in Chiddingstone on 27 March and buried on 19 July 1662.
- Richard Burley (1664-????), my 7th great-grand uncle. He was baptised in Chiddingstone on 16 January 1664. He married Sarah Walter of nearby Penshurst on 29 March 1687 in his home village and had several children with her but she died days after giving birth to their son Thomas and was buried in Chiddingstone on 1 October 1690. Richard’s fate is not known.
- James Burley (1665-????), my 7th great-grand uncle. He was baptised in Chiddingstone on 8 January 1665 (noted as 1664 under the old calendar) but I’ve not traced him further.
- John Burley (1668-1707) my 7th great-grandfather. See above.
- Ann Burley (1671-1671), my 7th great-grand aunt. She was baptised in Chiddingstone on 9 April and buried on 17 May 1671.
- Joan Burley (????-1675), my 7th great-grand aunt. I’ve not found a baptism record but she was buried on 21 January 1675 (1674 in the old calendar).
Sources: BMDs, census and other records on Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and familysearch.org. Wills at The National Archive.