I hit the wrong key and my reply posted before I was done!
There is a record for an Ann HAYWARD marrying a William FISHER on 15 July 1778 in Ampney Crucis. I think it is a virtual certainty that these are the parents of the William FISHER born ca. 1790 in Cirencester, wife Mary ______?. (By the way, according to census records, Mary was born in Cheltenham ca. 1803-1804.) There is also a record for a Thomas HAYWARD marrying a Sarah FISHER on 17 December 1775 in South Cerney. So Ann and Thomas may be brother and sister, and William and Sarah may also be brother and sister. I also found a record for an Ann HAIWARD being christened on 22 March 1759 in Ampney Crucis, father's name Thomas HAIWARD and mother's name Sarah ______? The dates would seem to match up with this being the same Ann who married William FISHER in 1778.
I am mystified as to who left an inheritance of $40,000 in 1897 to Robert Boyd Fisher and his son W. J. (William) Fisher. Here's the full text of the newspaper article in the Logansport Reporter (Logansport, Indiana), on Tuesday, August 3, 1897:
"W. J. Fisher, a Wabash engineer, received a letter Saturday from an attorney at Kansas City notifying him that he had fallen heir to an estate of $40,000. The letter was written July 23d and sent to Andrews where it remained until Saturday when it was forwarded to Peru. The inheritance is not a surprise to Mr. Fisher, as he has long been expecting it. The wealth is the accumulation of his great aunt and uncle who at their death left the property to their only son, a cousin of Robert Boyd Fisher, father of W. J. Fisher. By the death of the recent owner of the estate the property reverts to Robert Boyd Fisher and W. J. Fisher, the only surviving heirs. Mr. Fisher's father left for Cheltenham, Glouserter [sic], England, three weeks ago and is now there to represent his claim to the estate. Mr. Fisher left Saturday night for Kansas City to meet the English representative who is there awaiting him."
I wish the article had spent less time identifying the path of the letter and more time identifying the great aunt and uncle who left the estate!
Robert Boyd Fisher and W. J. Fisher were not the only surviving heirs -- Robert Boyd Fisher had several sons by his various wives. However, as near as I can determine, Robert Boyd Fisher was the oldest son of William Fisher, and W. J. Fisher was the oldest son of Robert Boyd Fisher, born of his first wife, Mary Durham. So if the inheritance was to pass from oldest son to oldest son, then they would be the ones in line for the inheritance. Esther Boyd left an inheritance to her nephews, including William, father of Robert Boyd Fisher, but the sum was less than 800 pounds, distributed among her heirs, and that was in 1833, not 1897. The inheritance could have come from William Fisher's wife Mary's family, but since her maiden name remains unknown, that makes it impossible to investigate that possibility.
William and his brothers appear to have been engaged in the trades, so it seems unlikely that any of them could have amassed a large estate. This is why genealogy is so intriguing!
Thank you for checking for a baptism for Robert Boyd Fisher's brother George. Perhaps they didn't have him baptized? And thank you for the information on the Fisher baptisms in Cirencester!
