I read with interest the article on the
Wiltshire Wills project by Lucy Jefferis, as
Margery Williams of Baydon, Wiltshire (one of the
examples given) is in my late husband's family
tree. Margery obviously made her codicil after
William (her husband) died in November 1796 aged
90. William and Margery had seven sons and two
daughters and lived at Baydon Farm, Wiltshire.
William, like his father, was a churchwarden at
Baydon church, and his name is inscribed on one
of the bells. Gideon and his wife Joanne are
buried in the Williams' family vault underneath
the chancel. Also interred in the vault are
William, his wife Margery and their fifth son
Francis. None of their other sons are mentioned.
They do seem to have all been a long-lived family
as Gideon, William's father, lived to 80 and one
of William's grandsons was 79 when he died. The
Williams family in Baydon originally came from
Lambourn in Berkshire and some of them were still
there in the 1881 census, so if anyone in
Berkshire is interested I have a family tree from
the early seventeenth century.
Thank you for your interesting publication,
instantly devoured as soon as it comes through
the letter box, but a special thank you to Lucy
Jefferis of the Wiltshire Record Office.
