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WattsFamily

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 2 months ago

The Watts Family

page in preparation, Feb 2008

A note of caution 3 July 2008: researching this article for the Watts Family for this website I have found that the Yateley History Project (YHP) in the 1980s missed transcribing wills and inventories for 12 key members of the Watts family. Five of these fall in the crucial third quarter of the 16th century. So my assumption that Nicholas Watts (d.1636 husband of Grace Reynolds) was the son of Henry Watts of Bramshot (d.1592) is by no means certain. I hope to transcribe all these wills and inventories in the near future now that the Hampshire Record Office has reopened.

Link to Watts Wills & Inventories page

 

Herman Reynolds, the Farnborough potter from the Rheinland, married his two daughters Alice and Grace to two different men named Nicholas Watts. Grace married Nicholas Watts of Bramshott, an ancient farm in the parish of Yateley. Grace's marriage took place in Farnborough on 17 Oct 1596 - just over a year after her sister Alice's marriage to Nicholas Watts of Hooke (Farnborough) on 28 Jul 1595. Who were these two sons-in-law?

 

The Watts family - Early records

No Watts surnames occur in the Crondall Manor Rental of 1287. However many men did not yet have surnames. Thus Robert de Brambesshate held one hide of land in the tithing of Brambesshate and Halle (Bramshott and Hawley) and William of Suthwode held one virgate of land, other encroachements of the waste in Suthwode (Southwood). These two men may well be the progenitors of the Watts families who have held land in Southwood and Bramshott for the next six centuries.

 

The earliest occurrence of the Watts surname in Baigent's Crondal Records 1890 (page 45) is in a writ in Latin dated 20 Jan 1365 issued by King Edward to the Sheriff of Hampshire. This writ required the Prior of Saint Swinthun's Winchester, Lord of the Manor of Crondall, to appear before the King‘s justices in Westminster to answer a complaint by the tenants of the Manor of Crondall "to show wherefore he exacts from the aforesaid men other customs and other services than they ought to perform, and their ancestors, tenants of the aforesaid manor, have been accustomed to perform at the time when that manor was in the hands of our progenitors, late Kings of England, against our prohibition". The name of William Watts is listed together with 61 other tenants of the manor 200 years before the name appears in the next set of documents to which we currently have ready access.

 

The next records of the Watts family are 16th century wills, but before we look at those it is instructive to list all the members of the Watts family listed in the Customary of 1567. At least ten different Watts males are mentioned in these property records, 8 of whom lived in the tithing of Hawley in Yateley parish. There are no Watts listed for Farnborough and Cove in the Customary since these places were not directly administered by the Dean & Chapter of Winchester: Cove was a freeholding in Crondall Manor, and Farnborough was a separate Manor in the Hundred of Crondall.

 

The records of Yateley parish in the 16th and 17th centuries include the tithings of Hawley and Cove. There were 36 Watts wills proved before 1660. Of these, 21 specified only the tithing of residence: Hawley (9), Cove (8), and Yateley (3). However 15 wills gave a more specific location of the residence of the testator: Southwood (7), Bramshot (4), Brook in Cove (2), Pale in Cove (1), Kinges in Cove (1), and Broomhill (1).

 

In the period 1537 to 1660 the Watts family thus lived mainly in the southern parts of the parish of Yateley, mostly in and very close to Cove, and predominently at Southwood and Bramshot. Southwood and Brook survived into the 20th century as names of farms. Today Southwood gives its name to a Business Park and a large residential estate a short distance to the south east of Junction 4A of the M3. Bramshot is now a listed building just west of this junction.

 

Who was William Watts apprentice to Thomas Browne, potter to King Charles I

Very confusingly Herman Reynolds' two daughters were each married to a different man named Nicholas Watts:

  • Nicholas Watts of Hooke, Farnborough was married to Alice Reynolds
  • Nicholas Watts of Bramshot was married to Grace Reynolds

 

Our task is to find the lineage of these two men: one living in Farnborough in 1609 when Herman Reynolds‘ will was written, and the other living in Bramshot, Hawley.

 

Building a family tree of the Watts family is difficult. They were not armigerous so do not appear in the visitations of the Heralds. The main sources are the wills, and lay subsidies, since Yateley parish registers only started in 1636. The manorial records of the manor of Crondall in the Winchester Cathedral library would help, but they are in Latin and not yet transcribed. There is also the usual problem from that period that may brothers used the same Christian names for their own children as their parents had used for them. Six wills were written by Watts family members in a single year (1558) and three of the testators were called Henry:

  • Henry Watts of Bramshot, will written 6 Sep 1558, inventory dated 22 Sep 1558;
  • Henry Watts of Cove, dwelling at a house called Kinges with another house at Hyffely (Iveley), will written 28 Sep 1558, inventory not dated;
  • Henry Watts of Southwood, will written 1 Aug 1558, inventory dated 4 Jan 1560.

There were two different men named John Watts who died in 1591: John Watts of Hawley and John Watts of Southwood (wills not yet transcribed)

 

Nicholas Watts of Bramshot

Henry Watts of Bramshot wrote his will on 6 Sep 1558 mentioning sons John, Thomas, Richard and Stephen, daughters Ellen and Joan, his brother Thomas' son Thomas, and his sister Alice Young. He mentions he has a house at Farnborough, left to Stephen, and property in Frimley called Sedgemore Mead, the lease of which went to John. The inventory taken on the 22 Sep 1558 lists only items related to husbandry.

 

Richard Watts died at Bramshot in 1570 and his inventory also contains items related to husbandry, such as 60 sheep, but also spinning wheels. He mentions his wife Agnes, his two youngest daughters Elizabeth and Eleanor, his two eldest daughters both called Joan, and his two sons, Harry (probably Henry) and John. They were old enough to be executors together with his wife. Richard was probably one of the sons mentioned in the will of Henry Watts d.1558.

 

Another Henry Watts of Bramshot wrote his will on 1 Jul 1592 dividing his property with unexpired leases to his sons Nicholas and Humphrey. The back rooms of the house in which the testator then dwelt was divided between his sons during their mother‘s lifetime. Until the death of Henry‘s wife, Nicholas, who was therefore presumably the elder son (but see note at head of this article), had to pay an annuity to his mother and after her death to Humphrey. Robert Watts of Frimley was appointed one of his three executors. Henry's inventory included 108 fleeces of wool, plus coarse yarn at the weavers, 160 sheep and lambs and 75 beehives.

 

Nicholas Watts of Bramshot who died 1636, but wrote his will in 1631, is chronologically the next Watts whose will gives Bramshot as his residence. He was the husband of Grace Reynolds. There seems no good reason to assume that he was not the eldest son of Henry Watts of Bramshot who died in 1592. Although he could not sign his name this Nicholas Watts is only the second member of the family to describe himself as Yeoman, and to appoint the main gentry of the time as his overseers. The first Watts family member to give himself Yeoman status was another Nicholas Watts, who died in 1603 in Southwood with married daughters. So the earlier Nicholas could not have been one of the sons-in-law of Herman Reynolds.

 

Herman Reynold's daughter Grace Watts

The burial of Grace Watts nee Reynolds is recorded in the parish registers of St Peter‘s Yateley on 21 Dec 1659. She was described by the Rev Robert Scott as "an aged widow of 80 years of age". Robert Scott's wife's mother was Constance Watts, so it is more than likely he knew Grace Watts personally. Assuming therefore that her age in the registers is accurate, Grace was born in 1579. The parish registers of Farnborough did not start until 5 years after Grace was born. There are 5 entries for Reynolds in the Farnbrough registers before 1600

  • 27 Apr 1586 Judith, daughter of Harmon Rinalds baptised
  • 06 May 1587 Judith Rinalds buried
  • 28 Jul 1595 Nicholas Watts and Alse Rinalds married
  • 01 Aug 1595 Julyan Rynalds buried
  • 17 Oct 1596 Nicholas Watts married Grace Rynalds

Tragically it seems that Gillian Reynolds, whom I assume was Herman Reynolds‘ first wife, died only a few days after her daughter Alice‘s wedding, and did not live to see Grace married the following year when she was about 17.

 

The Baptism of William Watts of Southwood in 1600

There are 4 entries in the Farnborough baptismal registers for Watts, and the father‘s name was given as Nicholas for each baptism:

  • 02 Jul 1595 Anne daughter of Nicholas Wattes baptised
  • 12 Feb 1598 Robert son of Nicholas Wattes baptised
  • 20 Apr 1600 William son of Nicholas Watts of Southwood baptised
  • 13 Jul 1600 Elizabeth daughter of Nicholas Wattes baptised

Anne, daughter of Nicholas and Alice was thus baptised a few weeks before the marriage. Robert and Elizabeth followed born in wedlock to Nicholas and Alice.

 

William Watts was baptised in 1600 so soon before Elizabeth that he could be Grace‘s first born son rather than another child to her sister Alice. To make this clear the record states that William was the son of Nicholas Watts of Southwood, a small community to the west of Cove and Farnborough, but in the Tithing of Hawley in the parish of Yateley. It is possible that Nicholas and Grace were living at Southwood before they later moved to Bramshot since the terms of his father‘s will still gave occupancy of the house at Bramshot to his mother.

 

It is this William, baptised in 1600 in Farnborough, who I think is the William Watts who was apprenticed to Thomas Browne of Queenhithe in London on 25 Jan 1615 (new calendar). But we do no yet have positive documentary evidence that this William Watts was the grandson of Herman Reynolds. New evidence recently (Jan 2009) discovered by Michael Brian Readhead indicates that we should not jump to this desired conclusion.

 

At this point we must recall that there was in 1600 a third Nicholas Watts who was not married to one of Herman Reynolds daughters. This third Nicholas made his will in 1603 described as "Nicholas Watts of Southwood".

 

Nicholas Watts of Southwood

.....to be continued (4 Jan 2009)....

 

 

Back to Potter Families

Back to Herman Reynolds, potter of Farnborough

Back to Thomas Browne of Queenhithe, potter to King Charles I

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