Illegitimacy 18th century gentry

[WillowG]

Found your Wrights:

"Delivered to Charles Wright at his 2nd home of Willingham House, Market Rasen – (the Wright family’s other estate was Anston Hall – occupied by the family from the late 1600s to 1947 when it was sold). The Willingham Estate came into the Wright family ownership via the union of the daughter of the 1st owner of Willingham - Florentine Tenturier (a Huguenot who had fled France) & Matthew Boucherett in the late 1600s. In 1724 their grandson Matthew Boucherett married Isabella Ayscough of Stallinborough and their son (born 1755) was christened Ayscough Boucherett I – there were 3 subsequent Ayscoughs. The “new” Willingham House was designed in 1790 by Robert Mitchell for Ayscough II - MP, High Steward of Grimsby & responsible for the introduction of Grimsby’s new harbour prior to his death in 1815 when his curricle (a fast horse-drawn trap) overturned at the base of Willingham Hill. 1792 saw the birth of Ayscough III who became High Sheriff of Lincolnshire – he fathered 3 sons & 2 daughters - Ayscough IV died aged 15, Henry 1818/1877, Hugo died aged 20. Louisa (1821/95) and the remaining daughter Emelia (1825/1905) a noted suffragette & founder of Women’s Suffrage Journal. In 1905 with the ending of the Boucherett bloodline Willingham was inherited by the Barnes family, due to Michael Barnes marrying Mary Boucherett in 1798 (in 1552 Sir George Barnes was Lord Mayor of London). After a few years due to the end of the Barnes bloodline the property passed into the hands of the Wright family – Charles & Margarita had 7 daughters & 2 sons! Sadly both sons - Robert & Charles were killed alongside each other whilst serving with teh 1/1 Lincolnshire Yeomanry during WWI in Israel. Charles Wright only owned GF7 for 2 years as he died in 1926 when his gun went off by accident at Willingham House. During WWI the house was used as a convalescent hospital and in WWII it housed German PoWs who, due to excellent woodland cover around the house escaped on a regular basis!! The logbook shows that GF7 remained with the Wright’s until Margarita’s death in 1942 when it was transferred into the name of a relative Douglas Wright, however, the chassis cards show GF7 as being with Lt. Col. Charles Francis Cracroft Jarvis of Doddington Hall which dates from the 1600s and is still with the Jarvis family – perhaps they know more?"

http://www.realcar.co.uk/view-cars/2094

[wildwitch]

I agree with WillowG. Trying to understand the information one has and speculating on the various things that these records can mean makes one look in directions one had not yet considered. One should also always try and understand the times in which these people lived.  This in turn has many a time led to results when I have hit a brick wall in my research. Answers can often lie in the most unusual places. I have extensively researched the original records that are available on this family. It is now time to understand what can be understood and to think where further information can be found and for that it is useful to try and understand what may have gone on in their lives.

[sallyyorks]

Could you please give us your basic information, and source (eg parish records) , about your indirect 'aunt' ancestor Mary White/Wright.

There are now *two topics running about 'Mary' and it's getting confusing, especially with all the Burkes Peerage stuff thrown randomly into the mix as well

*
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=769479.0

[sallyyorks]

I agree with WillowG. Trying to understand the information one has and speculating on the various things that these records can mean makes one look in directions one had not yet considered. One should also always try and understand the times in which these people lived. 

The facts of 'the times in which these people lived' are this
85 percent, if not more,  of people in England were of the labouring class. They lived simple lives and left few records. You have an indirect ancestor named Mary White/Wright? from Yorkshire?
Why do you think this ancestor is related to 'the gentry' exactly?

This in turn has many a time led to results when I have hit a brick wall in my research.

Yes, this is what happens when the records of most lines for most people, run out. Around about the early 18th century

Answers can often lie in the most unusual places. I have extensively researched the original records that are available on this family.

If so, then could you please give us the basic details you have about Mary White/Wright

It is now time to understand what can be understood and to think where further information can be found and for that it is useful to try and understand what may have gone on in their lives.

Or perhaps the records for Mary have run out?

[wildwitch]

These are the known facts based on original parish registers, family letters, wills etc:

1748/9 Ayscoghe Boucherett (1712-1789) inherited the estates of North Willingham and Stallingborough from his parents. No marriage record found for him at any stage.
Lincolnshire pedigrees records his 'partner/wife' as Mary, dau of ... White: died in King street, St James' Square, 20 Aug 1788. She was recorded as mother to both of Ayscoghe's children
16.4.1755, first known child, a son named Ayscoghe was born birth place & baptism so far not found
16.12.1764 Stallingborough parish register baptisms: 'Mary daughter of Ayscoghe Boucherett Esq and Mary White December the 16th' (entry contains no further information, neither the word wife, nor illegitimate. The clergy man held his living through Ayscoghe).
1776 Ayscoghe made his will. In this he doesn't once utter the word wife as far as I can see, but makes bequests to a Mary White the exact wordings are: 'Mrs Mary White who now lives or resided with me at North Willingham.' There is no mention of who she is to him i.e. cook or mistress. Amongst other things he left her the ‘two pearl necklaces which she now wears’ a diamond ring, somewhere to live and £500, which to me doesn't sound like a cook. I do appreciate she could be a companion, relative or anything, but do point out that she appears to be the mother of his daughter at least!
March 1781: Ayscoghe jnr wrote a letter containing: 'we talk of setting out for London very shortly but when is to happen I cannot possibly tell….My Mother & Sister have got colds & sore throats' (I appreciate this could be his actual mother or stepmother)
15.7.1788 Mary Boucherett's (born 1764) received a letter from a James Wright of Bushy Park:  ‘’I hold myself much obliged by your attention to me in writing the Progress of your Journey & the more so as it speaks favourably of your Mother’s Health. I need not tell you I have known Her long; & with Reason have ever had a great Regard for her. I should be very sorry to hear that the Evening of a Life spent in the worthy endeavours of promoting the Happiness of not only her own Family, but all within her Circle should moulder away in constant Pain, with the addition of seeing all her friends in vain expecting themselves to afford some Relief where none can be effectual. I will & really do hope better; She must quit all Family concerns & attend only to herself, Exercise, Buxton or some other Journey.’  I have no idea who James was (friend/relative of Mary's) but am pretty certain he was not a Boucherett relation. Any information on who this man was would be amazing.
20 Aug 1788 at King Street, St James Square London: Mary White or Mary Boucherett died. The burial records her as Mary Boucherett (all it states under burials, St James, Piccadilly is: 24.8.1788 Mary Boucherett). The Gentleman's magazine recorded: 'In King-street St James's Squ Mrs Boucherett wife of A.B. esq of Lincolnsh.' Interestingly too: Ayscoghe himself was buried in Stallingborough in 1789 and all other Boucherett's were buried in Stallingborough or North Willingham except for this woman.
This is the information I have on Mary White herself and this is the woman I am trying to understand. Was she his wife or was she his mistress?

[wildwitch]

I previously listed the letter in which in 1782 Ayscoghe outlined his income versus the debts he still had 30 after inheriting the estate. I feel the daughter (later Mary Barne) had a very generous dowry of £10000 considering Ayscoghe still had £9200 of debts to pay off on money borrowed by his ancestors. His income was £3800. The son went to uni, failed to gain a degree, then went on grand tour (no sponsor mentioned in his letters). The son had no allowance but in 1779 his account book apparently suggests expenditure of around £600/year (original not yet seen, source Imray: The Boucherett family Archives). By the late 1770s letters indicate the family lived on a 'farm' in North Willingham. Stallingborough manor house is known to have fallen into disrepair/ruin. A new house was completed in North Willingham in around 1790, but there is mention in these letters that they were struggling to find money to build this house from at least 1782 onwards.
The estate remained in the Boucherett family until the last owner Ayscoghe's great-granddaughter the feminist Emilia Jessie Boucherett died in 1905, a spinster. She left the estate to the Barne family of Sotterley (descendants of Ayscoghe's daughter Mary b.1764). The estate later went to Charles Wright of Anston near Sheffield. Websites suggest he was related to the Boucherett's but I can't find how. I do though find it strange that we have a James Wright (see earlier) in 1788 and a Mary White (not sure how similar these names are).
1. The purpose of this thread for me was to understand who Mary White was to Ayscoghe. I have not found a marriage record (yes it may be lost) but I am heavily thinking that the records may suggest they were not married (certainly by 1776).There is an awful lot more information available on this family from their letters, a diary etc but none that give me any clarity. If anybody can find who Mary White was I would be grateful and also if somebody knows who James Wright was
2. In my other thread I was trying to establish and go through Charles Wright's family tree to try and establish whether there is a family connection and if so where. I am wondering here also if there is more to Mary White, i.e.whether she was a Wright and find it a funny coincidence that there was this James Wright in 1788 (could he hold the key). James may have been a relation of Mary's or simply a friend I simply do not know and need to find records to clarify matters, suggestions would be gratefully received.

[wildwitch]

Ayscoghe Boucherett's 1776 will can be viewed online (the Genealogist) it is full of legal stuff and I find it difficult to read, maybe somebody can understand more than I can. He died in 1789, almost exactly 1 year after his wife/partner Mary.

[wildwitch]

This has been suggested online, but I am not sure where the evidence has come from and I cannot see how to contact the author: 'Willingham House passed to the Barnes of Sotterly, with these being the next descendents of the Boucheretts due to an earlier marriage with one of the Boucherett daughters. The final occupants of the house were the Wrights,  also related to the Boucheretts. Of these the first, Charles Wright of North Willingham, died on 10th December 1926 when his gun was triggered by accident in Willingham House, but his death was preceded by that of both of his sons, for Major Robert Wright and Lieutenant Charles Wright of the 1/1st Lincolnshire Yeomanry both died on a troop ship in Palestine on the 28th November 1917. Charles Wright's wife Isabella Margarita lived until the 10th July 1942, and a marble tablet honoring both her and her husband was placed in the church by their remaining children.'
I have seen the tablet. It doesn't tell me anything new except that Charles Wright was from Anston Hall Sheffield.
I note also it states related to, not descended from, which may hold a clue or not.

http://www.willinghamhouse.co.uk/willingham_house.htm

Anston Hall (North/South Anston) is close to (aprox 5 miles) a place named Shireoaks, which in the mid 18th century belonged to Ayscoghe's first cousin John Hewett/Thornhagh. Letters dating to the 1770s/1780s suggest that the Boucherett's visited Shireoaks regularly. He appears to have succeeded to the estate at Shireoaks in 1756.
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/thornhagh-john-1721-87

[sallyyorks]

Sorry, but this is all way too complicated to understand

We need the basic facts and their sources

For example

John Bloggs baptised on date **** at such and such church in the town of *****-  with source eg Parish Register 1600- 1750 at such and such church in ****** town

John Bloggs marriage such and such and so on - with source

Mary Bloggs baptised at ***** and so on - with source

John Bloggs will at such and such - with source.

We need to start with the bare bones of what we know from reliable sources