Dineley family of Bromsgrove and Cropthorne/Charlton

[SLDreew]

Hello all!
I wondered if anyone could help me with some of my research on the Dingley/Dineley family of Bromsgrove/Church Lench/Evesham/Cropthorne.

My line so far is this: my 8th great grandfather Francis Emes was born in Bishampton, Worcestershire and baptised on 10 Jul 1695. The family were listed as 'anabaptists' at the time, and his parents John and Elizabeth had two other sons, Josiah and John. I believe John and Elizabeth married on 8 Dec 1692 in Bromsgrove Baptist Church. Elizabeth was (I believe) the daughter of Josiah (c.1646-1685, Bromsgrove) and Mary Dineley (d.1692, Bromsgrove), born on 14 Aug 1673. The couple had 5 other children: Mary, Hannah, Sarah, Josiah, and Mark (I viewed these records in person on microfilm, they are not online). This matches with his will and with the Visitation of Worcester, 1682-3. I believe Josiah's parents were Mark Dineley/Dingley (d. about 1654, Church Lench) and Mary (Martin?) (d. about 1671, Church Lench). I can't find Josiah's baptism but have viewed Mary's will and the will of Josiah's brother Mark of Norgrove/Peopleton (c.1641-1682, Norgrove).

There's a lot more on this family in the Visitation but I would like to see other sources for these relationships and would also love to hear from anyone else researching this family to see if my information lines up with theirs. Mark Dingley (d. about 1654, Church Lench) was said to be the son of Henry Dingley and Jane Pitts, and Henry was said to be the son of Francis Dingley and Elizabeth Bigge/Biggs, however I can't seem to find Mark's baptism or Henry's will to prove this.

Thanks!

[SLDreew]

So since this post I have found a little bit more information on the family, and I thought I'd update this post in case anyone else is interested in them. Mark Dineley's will (which I admittedly hadn't read through in its entirety in a huge amount of detail when I viewed it in Worcester) does actually name both his grandfather Henry and his great grandfather Francis which agrees with the Visitation. Henry died between 1619 and 1624 but I can't find any burials for him. The final record of his life in 1619 suggests he lived in Sheriff's Lench whose parish registers for the time have not survived so I imagine he was buried here. There was a Joan Dingley buried in Church Lench in 1661 which may be his wife (she left a will which I'll view soon to confirm this).

There are quite a few documents on The National Archive on Henry and his father Francis as well as many of Francis' other children. (Various books online list these children as: Henry, William, Thomas, Giles, Francis, Edward, John, Anthony, Philip, Eleanor, Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Dorothie, Magdalen, and Katherine, plus three who died young. I can find evidence for all of these except for Edward, Magdalen, and two of the three who died young.)

The Visitation and many books state that Francis was the son of Henry Dingley (d.1589) and Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Neville (d.1538) (this also appears on Francis' tomb). I haven't found anything for definite on Francis' mother but there is a document on the National Archives' website that mentions Henry together with his son (C 2/Eliz/D5/7, C 3/211/24, and C 2/Eliz/H21/14). There is a record after a Henry's death naming his wife 'Marie' which may be them too (REQ 2/28/29). Sir Edward didn't leave a will (as far as I can tell). His two sons did and neither mention Mary, and Mary's "grandfather" (Edward's wife's father) Andrew, Lord Windsor does not mention her either in his will of 1543. Burke's Peerage and Plantagenet Ancestry (Douglas Richardson) however both have Mary marrying Henry Dyneley.

There are a few mentions of John Dyneley from the early 1500s who was potentially Henry's father. There are mentions of him regarding land in Hanley (705:134/1531/59/3/5, mentions son Henry). Francis' tomb mentions his descent from the family of St. Nicholas of Goshall, Kent, and there are a couple of records of the Dingleys related to Goshall lands (C 2/Eliz/H21/14) which had been held by the St Nicholas family.

[SLDreew]

There seems to be some disagreement on the ancestry of Henry Dingley, Esq. (d.1589). His father was John and his grandfather was William. This comes from Wolmer v Dyngley, 1538-44, (C 1/1082/30) in which John Wolmer complains to Henry Dingley, requesting the repayment of money he had paid to William Dyngley, deceased, for the marriage of his son John Wolmer (I think) to William's daughter. The original record describes Henry as the son of John Dyngley, Esquire, son of William Dyngley.

John Dyngley, Esq., may have died in 1541/2 (C 142/64/103) but this record doesn't name Henry. William may have died in 1515/6 (C 142/79/170). His wife was Alice, daughter of John Hardwick of Lindley, Leicestershire, by his first wife. John had more daughters with his second wife: Dorothy, Mary, Anne, Joyce, and Elizabeth (in no particular order) (C 1/301/2 and C 142/29/37).

As for the ancestors of William Dyngley, there are several different pedigrees given by various sources. The Visitation of Worcestershire, 1569, gives the following line:
Richard Dyneley m. Eleanor Handsacre
Thomas Dyneley m. ..... Throckmorton/Throgmerton
Richard Dyneley m. Margarett Tracye
William Dyneley m. Alice Hardwick

E.A.B. Barnard in 'The Dingleys of Charlton, Co. Worcester' gives this line (note the inclusion of an extra generation):
Richard Dingley m. Eleanor Handsacre
Thomas Dingley m. ..... Throckmorton
Richard Dingley
Richard Dingley
William Dingley m. Alice Hardwick

I can't find anything on William's parents for certain but did find this: C 139/26/50. It is the proof of age of Thomas Dyneley from 1426/7. The original document begins "Thomas Dyneley fil Willi fil Alianore (sister of) Elizabeth (wife of) Peter Melbourn". The Eleanor I believe refers to Eleanor Handsacre, wife of Richard Dingley, but Richard isn't named. None of the pedigrees mention William but both give Thomas as Richard's son. Barnard states that Richard and Eleanor had married by 1383/4. If Thomas had come of age about 1426 then he would have been born probably around 1405. This seems to be too late to have been Richard and Eleanor's son but would fit to be their grandson via this William. I think this is the same Thomas who appears in this charter of 1434 regarding lands in Charlton (705:134/1531/76/25) and maybe here (E 153/1938). To have come into possession of Charlton, William must have been a descendent of Thomas.

Francis Dingley's tomb of 1624 states that he "deriu(ed) his masculine line from ... the Dineleys ... Ennobled by many ... matches as of Huntaker (Handsacre?) deduced from the ancient Kinges of Scotland, Throgmortn Rowse of Ragley, Tracye Hardwick St Nicolas, Neuell, & Bigge". These seem to all be in order (Francis married a Bigge, his father Henry married (supposedly) a Neville, etc, John married a St Nicholas, etc). This seems to suggest five generations (inclusive) between Richard and William Dingley which agrees with Barnard. Strangely, either Barnard nor the Visitation make mention of the Rowse family of Ragley. Based on this I think William was the grandson of Thomas Dingley (c.1405-?) via an unknown son (potentially Richard if the Barnard and the Visitations are to be trusted). (EDIT: british-history.ac.uk in their page for Cropthorne cites a source (though I couldn't locate the original) stating that in 1484-5 "Sir William (Gascoigne) brought an action against Robert Throckmorton and John Hardwyk on a 'plea why they took away William Dineley a minor,' son and heir of William Dineley, who had been seised of the manor of Charlton". While the only evidence for Richard is the Visitation, this contemporary source would suggest this man's name was actually William.) It seems to me that it was actually more likely that it was William who married a Throckmorton, then Thomas who married a Rowse, his son married a Tracye, and then his son William married Alice Hardwick.

It may instead be that there was another Thomas, another son of Richard Dingley, and his line is correctly given by Barnard. I am not sure how likely this is based on the above, but I am by no means an expert. This is my best guess at how the line should go:
(Richard?) Dyngley m. Eleanor (Handsacre?)
William Dyngley m. ..... Throckmorton
Thomas Dyngley m. ..... Rowse, of Ragley
(EDIT: William?) Dyngley m. ..... Tracye
William Dyngley m. Alice Hardwick, daughter of John Hardwick of Lindley, Leicestershire
John Dyngley m. Elizabeth St Nicholas, daughter of Roger St Nicholas of Thanet, Kent
Henry Dingley m. (Mary Neville?)
Francis Dingley m. 1575 Elizabeth Bigge, daughter of Thomas Bigge of Lenchwick, Worcestershire

It would be great to hear from anyone else researching this family to compare our research.
Thanks!