WOODWARD OF DUNHAM-ON-THE-HILL AND DUDLEY
When Mary (Woodward) Lilley was buried in January 1832, the entry in the Dudley parish registers gave her age as eighty-six, indicating that she was born about 1745 or 1746. At her marriage in 1765, she was stated to be a spinster of Dudley. There was a Mary Woodward baptised at Halesowen on 15 June 1746, daughter of Thomas and Sarah of Oldbury.[1] However, it seems that Mary was actually baptised at Thornton-le-Moors in Cheshire in 1746, a daughter of Matthew Woodward. This is a significant distance from Dudley but there is evidence that the family made the move as Matthew Woodward of Dunham-on-the-Hill in the parish of Thornton-le-Moors had married Frances Griffith at Thornton earlier in 1746 and Frances, wife of Matthew Woodward, was buried at Dudley in 1767. I have not found any other plausible marriage for a Matthew Wood(w)ard and Frances. Matthew and Frances’s family does not seem to appear in the records of Thornton-le-Moors after 1749/50, which is consistent with them leaving the area. The first son of Mary (Woodward) Lilley was called Matthew, which provides some onomastic support for the identification of her as the daughter of Matthew Woodward.
A marriage bond made by Matthew Woodward in 1746 describes him as a blacksmith of Dunham and gives his age as twenty-nine years.[2] No baptism has yet been located for him but he was apparently a son of John and Margaret (Newport) Woodward who were married in 1707 at Frodsham, a neighbouring parish of Thornton-le-Moors. The evidence for this is in records from 1741, during the pregnancy of Elizabeth Jellicoe, a single woman, when Matthew Woodward of Dunham-on-the-Hill, blacksmith, was named as the father of the child. The men who joined him in the associated bond were Matthew Newport of Great Barrow, yeoman, and Robert Cook of Manley, blacksmith.[3] Margaret Woodward, widow, had married Robert Cook in 1719. It would therefore seem that Matthew Woodward’s bondsmen were his uncle and his stepfather.
The parentage of Frances (Griffith) Woodward has not been confirmed. A Thomas Amery of Dunham was the bondsman with Matthew Woodward for the latter’s marriage to Frances Griffith in 1746,[4] so Frances may have been a connection of Katherine Griffith of Hapsford in the parish of Thornton who married Thomas Amery, also of Hapsford, in 1709.[5] The latter Thomas was buried in 1713[6] so could not be the bondsman of 1746 but he did have a namesake son.[7] However, the 1712 will of Thomas Amery and the 1728 will of Katherine’s subsequent husband John Norland do not mention any Griffiths.[8] Another possible close relative of Frances Griffith is a Hannah Griffith of Dunham-on-the-Hill, spinster, aged about twenty-two, who married William Worthington in 1739.[9]
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WOODWARD
1 JOHN WOODWARD of Manley, Frodsham, Cheshire, was buried on 13 March 1717/18 at Frodsham.[10] He married on 14 April 1707 at Frodsham, MARGARET NEWPORT,[11] daughter of William Newport (see here). Margaret was baptised on 11 July 1678 at Barrow[12] and buried on 17 March 1757 at Frodsham.[13] After the death of John Woodward, Margaret married, on 24 June 1719 at St Oswald, Chester, ROBERT COOK.[14]
Child
of John and Margaret (Newport) Woodward:
2 i MATTHEW WOODWARD (ca 1716-1778);
m(1) FRANCES GRIFFITH; m(2) CATHERINE (TURNER) FULLWOOD.
2 MATTHEW WOODWARD of Dunham-on-the-Hill and Dudley, blacksmith, was born ca 1716[15] and buried on 5 June 1778 at Bilston.[16] He married first, on 23 April 1746 at Thornton-le-Moors, FRANCES GRIFFITH.[17] She was born ca 1705[18] and buried on 9 December 1767 at St Thomas, Dudley.[19] Matthew married second, on 12 August 1770 at St Thomas, Dudley, CATHERINE (TURNER) FULLWOOD, widow of Edward Fullwood.[20] She was buried on 24 September 1799 at Bilston.[21] After the death of Matthew Woodward, Catherine married, on 1 July 1779 at St Peter, Wolverhampton, Joseph Hill.[22]
Illegitimate
child of Matthew Woodward and Elizabeth Jellicoe:[23]
i MARGARET
WOODWARD, alias JELLICOE, bap 30 Aug 1741, Thornton-le-Moors,[24] bur 8
Jul 1771, Frodsham;[25] m 9 Oct
1769, Frodsham, THOMAS BERRINGTON.[26]
Children
of Matthew and Frances (Griffith) Woodward:
ii MARY
WOODWARD, bap 18 Nov 1746, Thornton-le-Moors,[27] bur 8
Jan 1832, St Thomas, Dudley;[28] m 15
Dec 1765, St Thomas, Dudley, THOMAS LILLEY[29] (see here).
iii JOHN
WOODWARD, bap 11 Mar 1749/50, Thornton-le-Moors.[30]
[1] Abstracts of Halesowen parish registers. The Aston bishop’s transcripts show the marriage of “Thos Woodart & Sarah Harvey of Handsworth” on 24 Nov 1745. Also, a Thomas Woodard and Sarah Greves were married at King’s Norton in 1724.
[6] Thornton-le-Moors parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[8] Katherine is known to have been the mother of some of Thomas Amery’s children as well as being the mother of a daughter of John Norland.
[9] St Peter, Chester, parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com); marriage bond.
[10] Frodsham parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk). There was more that one John Woodward buried at Frodsham in this period, but the one on 13 Mar 1717/18 seems most likely to be the one married to Margaret as the burial entry gives his residence as Manley, which matches the residence given for Margaret on the bond for her remarriage in 1719.
[11] Frodsham parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[12] Barrow bishop’s transcripts.
[13] Frodsham parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[14] St Oswald, Chester, parish registers; marriage bond.
[16] Bilston parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk): Mathew “Woodarts”.
[17] Thornton-le-Moors parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com); marriage bond.
[19] St Thomas, Dudley, bishop’s transcripts (online at www.ancestry.com): “Frances Wife of Matth. Woodard”; abstracts of St Thomas, Dudley, parish registers, where the surname is spelt “Woodward”.
[20] Abstracts of St Thomas, Dudley, parish registers.
[21] Bilston parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[22] St Peter, Wolverhampton, parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk). The Catherine Woodward, widow, who married Joseph Hill in 1779 would not be the Catharine Dience who married Charles Woodward at Wolverhampton in 1771 because Catharine, wife of Charles Woodward, was buried at Wolverhampton in 1778.
[23] Cheshire quarter sessions, 1741 (Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, Q/J/F/169/2, 220r, 220v, Q/J/F/169/3, 114).
[24] Thornton-le-Moors parish registers (online at www.ancestry.com).
[25] Frodsham parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[26] Frodsham parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[27] Thornton-le-Moors parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[28] St Thomas, Dudley, bishop’s transcripts (online at www.ancestry.com).
[29] St Thomas, Dudley, parish registers (Society of Genealogists, Mf 2797).
[30] Thornton-le-Moors parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).