Surely these two 18th century Drury Layts are related

[Richard Knott]

Wills and parish registers make this tree very likely:

James LAYT (d1675) m J(o)an(e)
       1. James (1649-1722) m 1672 Grace BRIGHT
               a. Drury m Diana (d1730)
                        i.  Grace (1704-)
                        ii. Susan (1707- )
                        iii. Drury (1711-41) m1 1731 Elizabeth THIRLING (d1732)
                                                           1. Thomasin (1732-)
                                                       m2 1735 Esther HOLYDAY (m2 1745 Abraham BLANCHFLOWER)
                                                           2. Edmund (1736-36)
                                                           3. Daniel (1737-?1771)
                                                           4. Sarah (1740-) m? 1760 Henry ROBBINS
                       iv. James (1714-) m 1754 Mary HEWMAN
                       v. Thomas (1717-) m 1747 Susannah HART
               b. Jane
       2. John (1651-1653)

This family was based in Ovington.

Fifteen miles to the north-east this marriage took place:
1755  Drury LAYTE of Great Witchingham & Ann FILLIHOE

The only child I can find from this marriage is Mary (b1756) who married Robert CLARKE in 1775.

The Drury Layte who married in 1755 can't be the one who died in 1741 and is hugely unlikely to be his 80 year-old father. There is space for him to be born in the gap 1732-5 (his putative mother is not clear as one wife died in 1732 and the next married in 1735) but there is nothing in the Ovington register. James (d1765) mentions only two grandchildren in his will (Drury and Jane) but there could, of course, be another who then named a son after his brother.

I can find no other information about Drury and Ann (nee FILLIHOE) LAYT.

Any suggestions?

Richard

[Ili1133]

To add support for a Drury Layt(e) b. Ovington 1732-35, son of Drury.

Thomasin Lait (Drury's half-sister?) m. James Laws, 1758, Swanton Morley. Swanton Morley is also north of Dereham about 5 miles from Great Witchingham.

Witchingham is fifteen miles north-east of Ovington, but Dereham was a market town hub for the area and equidistant from both villages (although Witchingham is the other side of the River Wensum). What interests me about Drury's possible move to Witchingham is that a North Norfolk branch of our tree appear to have moved twenty miles to a neighbouring village (Attlebridge) at around the same time in the 1750s. We've asked the same question about why they moved that distance - maybe there were specific opportunities opening up on the land round there?

Where did Sarah (b.1740)'s marriage take place?

Hope this is useful in the absence of anything more specific on Drury and Ann.

Helen

[Richard Knott]

Thank you very much. I hadn't looked for that marriage but it's all grist to the mill.

I probably should have put at least two ? next to Sarah's marriage as the entry says LIET and it was in Swainsborough, south of Norwich.

I'm surprised there is nothing else out there about Drury Layt/Ann Fillihoe - births (apart from a hugely unlikely Ann Philo in 1741) or deaths or other children.

Richard

[Mowsehowse]

Have you seen this info about Drury Layt  born 1711 here.....
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LHGC-WWG/drury-layt-1711-1741

Might be worth a look? 

If all sons named there first boy after their father, you can, potentially, end up with several cousins around the same age and with the same name!

[Richard Knott]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. That entry pretty much matches the tree I put in my first post except that it misses out Drury's first wife (Elizabeth THIRLING) so has the wrong mother for Thomazin.

I agree that there might be several cousins called Drury (my guess is that James Layt's wife Joan may have been Joan DRURY), but there is precious little space to fit them in unless Drury and Esther had a child before they were married.

I'm also slightly baffled as to why there is no evidence of the Drury/Ann/Mary family after Mary's baptism in 1756 (except her likely marriage in 1775).

Richard

[Mowsehowse]

I found a useful register page on Ancestry. It has 4 refs to the family.

https://www.ancestrylibraryedition.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/61045/images/4033379_00029?treeid=&personid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=oaF149&_phstart=successSource&pId=3621851

I have saved it, so pm me if that doesn't work for you.

[Richard Knott]

These Drurys do get about!

I havednow found a Drury LEIGHT who married Alice INGRAM in 1763 in West Walton (the entry says WRIGHT but must be wrong) before having children Ann (1766), William (1769), Sarah (1771), Mary (1773), Alice (1780) and possibly others. Drury's burial entry in 1805 (Alice died in 1783) suggests he was born around 1729. He may, of course, be the same as the Drury who married Ann FILLIHOE in 1755 (except that he is listed as a bachelor) but it's difficult to see how he might fit in the tree.

Going further afield a Drury LIGHT died in Ely in 1784 aged 67 (although places like Runcton Holme are in Ely diocese, so it may be somewhere like that.

Richard

[Ili1133]

Your suggestion that Drury relocated to West Walton is a good one but unfortunately becomes less likely as Ann nee FILLIHOE almost certainly outlived him.

The Sparham PR gives Anne Layht/Liyht/Leight, widow, d. 1825 age 92.

Born 1733 (Sparham) was Ann PHILIPPO, dau Robert and Mary - the family name appears well established across Norfolk, but a tall order for the transcriber.

One other detail:
Settlement certificate: Late, Drury, his wife Ann and child Mary, Feb 1757. Certifying parish: Great Witchingham. Parish of residence: Sparham. There's also a 1755 removal order from Sparham to Witchingham for John Drury and wife Ann - could be relevant?

Afraid this doesn't take you much further forward in explaining what happened to Drury after 1757, but helps with context. There's no mention of Ann dying a pauper.

Of course Drury could have abandoned the family in Sparham and started a new one with Alice in West Walton - Ann would still be described as a widow. But there's certainly room to explore your and mowsehowse suggestions that the Drury Layt/Leights in West Walton/Cambridgeshire  were cousins - did James d. 1675 have brothers? They must be related in some way and born 1711-1729 suggests the same generation.

Helen

[Richard Knott]

That's very useful; thanks. I had looked for baptisms for variations of Ann FILLIHOE/PHILO but I think I stopped short of adding a second P so missed PHILIPPO. Well spotted. I had seen the settlement certificate on NROCAT but it could be more relevant than I thought.

As you say, it now seems less likely that the two Drurys are the same although I've seen men having two families several times. I don't know whether James d1675/6 had any brothers. His will mentions only his wife, son (James) and two grandchildren (Jane and Drury), together with an unnamed daughter who is pregnant. (I haven't established her name).

In general I'm not that interested in pushing back trees - filling out biographies seems more interesting - although I have become a little obsessive about establishing where the Drury came from. Perhaps it's time to pause for a while!

Richard