Background

John Woodward was baptised in Morton Bagot, Warwickshire on 6 September 1732. He was the eldest child of Paul Woodward (1706-1782) and Elizabeth Moor (d.1769). John married Eleanor Chester in 1752 and they had six children. John's baptism record is shown below.

History

Almost nothing is known about John between his baptism and his marriage in 1752. His father, Paul Woodward, was a master butcher who had a shop in Studley, Warwickshire, just over two miles from Morton Bagot. John had three younger brothers and three younger sisters, all baptised at Morton Bagot. His brother Richard (b.1737) married a Sarah Leighton in Morton Bagot in 1772 and they had eleven children in the village. Sarah lived to be 100 years old (d.1843). His sister Elizabeth (b.1741) had two illegitimate children from 1762-1773 and his sister Ann (b.1743) died aged 8 years old. His sister Betty (b.1750) married a Thomas Chester in Morton Bagot in 1771 and they had eight children. Thomas may have been a relative of John's wife, Eleanor Chester. His last two siblings, Robert and William (b.1750) were baptised on the same day so were probably twins. Robert lived at Feckenham, Worcestershire and Coughton, Warwickshire, and had ten children, but William had only one child after his wife died soon after childbirth.

At the time of his marriage to Eleanor in 1752 John is shown as a 'Sojourner', that is someone who makes a temporary stay or has a brief period of residence. Usually in the 1700s this meant that he travelled from village to village to find work although three of his children were baptised in Alcester and three in nearby Coughton which suggest that he did not travel too far. Perhaps what the vicar really meant was that he had no fixed abode at the time of his marriage.

Eleanor Chester

Eleanor's surname is a bit uncertain. Her place and date of birth cannot be found and consequently her parents' names are not known. The parish record of the marriage (below) in Alcester on 27 April 1752 refers to her as Eleanor Chesier, but the Bishop's Transcript version shows Chester. The latter name links in with Thomas Chester who married John's sister Betty. There is only one Elinor Chester on Ancestry.com, born 1737 in Warrington, Lancashire, but she would only have been 15 years old when she married John unless baptised later in life. Marriage at age 15 was legal in 1752 but usually confined to the nobility or royalty; more research is required.

Family

John and Eleanor had six children:

• John Woodward b.1755 Alcester, died 1780 at Coughton, a bachelor.
• William Woodward, b.1760 Alcester, married Elizabeth Richards in Alcester, had three children and died in 1797 in Alcester.
• Hannah Woodward, b.1762, had an illegitimate child in 1784 then married Thomas Mander (a widower) at Gt Alne in 1784. They had three children in Gt Alne.
• James Woodward b.1765 Coughton, married Ann Ellis (a widow) who died a year later, then married Mary Horton in 1793 at Coughton and had ten children.
• Joseph Woodward, b.1769 Coughton, married Sarah Richards, the sister-in-law of his elder brother William. They had a child in 1798 but Sarah died. Joseph then married Sophia Woodbine (1801) and had five children at Alcester.
• Richard Woodward, b.1776 Coughton but died aged five days old.
  

The parish records for Coughton show burials of three John Woodwards that could have been Eleanor's husband. One was a labourer buried at Gt Alne on 3 July 1778 - Gt Alne is where John's sister and her husband Thomas Chester lived. Another John, also a labourer, was buried at Gt Alne on 5 June 1785 and the last John was a pauper, buried at Coughton on 3 August 1786. The latter was at the right place, but John's father had been a master butcher with his own business which makes his eldest son dying as a pauper less likely.

Eleanor was buried at Coughton on 24 January 1798. Her age was not recorded.

Compiled by Graham Woodward, Nottingham, England (UK).