KAY OF EMLEY
There
was more than one John Kay having children in the Emley area in the early and
middle parts of the eighteenth century, so establishing the full details of the
family of Dorothy (Kay) (Grime) Sowerby is not straightforward. Beginning in
1737, the baptism entries name the mother as well as the father, and in the
following years, there was a John Kay with a wife named Elizabeth and another
with a wife called Martha.
John Kay
of Emley, carpenter, died in 1764 and his will shows him to be the one who
married Elizabeth.[1] His will
does not mention a daughter Dorothy, but his children can be identified as John
Kay, Joseph Kay, Thomas Kay (bap 1735/36), David Kay (bap and bur 1738),
Elizabeth Kay (bap 1740, m 1762, Joseph Silverwood), Charles Kay (bap 1742),
Rebecca Kay (bap and bur 1744) and Ruth Kay (bap and bur 1747).
A key
reason for thinking that Dorothy (Kay) (Grime) Sowerby was a daughter of John
and Martha is that after the death of her second husband, Dorothy resided in
the chapelry of Worsbrough in the parish of Darfield.
The Worsbrough registers record the marriage in 1730
of John Kay of the parish of Emley, butcher, and Martha Wood of Birdwell
(in Worsbrough), spinster. Therefore, it appears that
Dorothy moved to the area in which her mother had previously lived.
A clue
to the earlier ancestry of Dorothy is that one of the witnesses at her marriage
to Thomas Grime in 1755 was George Parker, and a George Parker married an Ann
Kay at Emley in 1721. Ann seems to have been baptised
at Emley in 1701, daughter of Joseph Kay. This suggests that Dorothy’s father
was the John Kay baptised at Emley on 14 March
1705/06, son of Joseph Kay. However, at least two Joseph Kays were having
children in the parish around that time, so further details are not immediately
apparent.
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KAY
1 JOSEPH KAY.
Children
of Joseph Kay:
i ANN
KAY, bap 22 Dec 1701, Emley, Yorkshire;[2] m
5 Nov 1721, Emley, GEORGE PARKER.[3]
2 ii JOHN
KAY (bap 1705/06); m MARTHA WOOD.
2 JOHN KAY of Emley, butcher, was baptised on 14 March 1705/06 at Emley.[4] He married on 16 July 1730 at Worsbrough, MARTHA WOOD.[5]
Children
of John and Martha (Wood) Kay:[6]
i DOROTHY KAY, bap 30 Jan 1732/33, Emley,[7]
bur 7 Mar 1798, Worsbrough;[8] m(1) 18 Dec 1755, Emley, THOMAS GRIME;[9]
m(2) 22 Sep 1765, Kirkheaton, JOSEPH SOWERBY[10]
(see here).
ii JOSEPH KAY, bur 2 Feb 1741/42,
Emley.[11]
iii MARTHA KAY, bap 25 Sep 1737, Emley,[12]
bur 2 Feb 1741/42, Emley.[13]
iv ALICE KAY, bap 6 May 1739, Emley;[14]
m 22 Feb 1762, Emley, JOHN GRIME.[15]
v JOHN KAY, bap 23 Oct 1740, Emley,[16]
bur 28 Jan 1761, Emley.[17]
vi GEORGE KAY, bap 25 May 1746, Emley,[18]
bur 24 Jun 1747, Emley.[19]
vii FRANCES KAY, bap 22 Oct 1749, Emley,[20]
bur 11 Mar 1821, Darfield;[21]
m 19 Aug 1782, Darfield, JOSEPH NURSAW.[22]
[1] Will dated 13 Jul 1764, proved 9 Nov 1764 (Borthwick Institute).
[2] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[3] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[4] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[5] Worsbrough parish registers. The Worsbrough registers include the baptisms of Martha, daughter of John Wood, on 22 Jun 1704, and Martha, daughter of Anthony Wood, on 21 Dec 1704. Martha (Wood) Kay may be the Martha Kaye buried at Emley on 16 Feb 1767, or the one buried there on 29 Jan 1779.
[6] Another likely child is Mary, daughter of John Kay, baptised at Emley on 10 Oct 1731. John Whittel and Mary Kay were married at Kirkheaton on 23 Oct 1752 and one of the witnesses at the marriage of Joseph and Dorothy (Kay) (Grime) Sowerby was a John Whittell. However, Mary (Kay) Whittel is said to have been of the parish of Kirkheaton at the time of her marriage and there were some possible baptisms for her in that parish, so further evidence would be desirable.
[7] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[8] Worsbrough parish registers.
[9] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com). His surname is given as Greyham in the listing of parties but as Grime in his signature. The forms Graham and Grime are used as variants in the area in that period.
[10] Kirkheaton parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[11] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[12] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[13] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[14] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com). She may be the Alice Graham aged 84 buried on 19 Feb 1822 at Kirkheaton, but that could be Alice Sowerby who married Joshua Grime at Kirkheaton in 1764.
[15] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com). The dates of their children’s baptisms seem to preclude the alternative that Alice (Kay) Grime was the Alice, daughter of John Kay senior, baptised at Emley on 5 Apr 1730. Ruth Margaret (Daniels) Davies, a descendant of Dorothy (Kay) (Grime) Sowerby, has two DNA matches, each of 12 cM, with descendants of John Grime and Alice Kay.
[16] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[17] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[18] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[19] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[20] Emley parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[21] Darfield parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[22] Darfield parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).