Meet the people of Long Melford

Notes and more from the earliest-surviving Long Melford parish register. Aside from the Martins, Cloptons, Cordells/Cordwells, Darcys, and Savages of the town, whose names are well-known, there are many other people from Long Melford’s past for you to meet.

Unusual names
The butcher, the baker, the musician, the clothier, the weaver…
Just passing through…
Tragic deaths
The “bretheren of the hospitall”

Unusual names

Feargod Stebbing was baptised here in 1600.
A chap called Theophilus has a surname that no one writing in the register can decide how to spell. He’s Jeece and Jeese in just one entry, then he’s Jees, Gees, Gee, etc.

The butcher, the baker, the musician, the clothier, the weaver…

William Dash, who died in 1600, was the “inkeeper of the White harte in this towne”.
Stephen Sheapard was “a master of Artes and somtimes schoolmaster of this towne.” He died in 1600.
A woman only named “Jane” was buried in Long Melford in March 1609/10. We might not be told her surname, but we are told that she was “a Recusant”. It’s not surprising to find someone labelled as a recusant Catholic in Long Melford’s register, as the prominent Martin family who lived in the town were recusants as well. She’s very likely to have known them.
John Hogg, buried here in 1613, was “a pasinger from St Edmond Bury.” He presumably died on his journey.
Long Melford boasted several musicians: John Coe, “blind man teacher in the arte of musique” died in 1610, just after his father, Henry Coe the elder. Richard Loxton was a “master of musique and servant to the Right Worshipful Sir Roger Martin” – Richard died in 1634.
Sir James Croft, knight, was buried here in August 1624. He appears in the book “Savage Fortune” (eds. Lyn Boothman, Sir Richard Hyde Parker) mentioned as a friend of the Darcy family.
Thomas Partridge was one of the clothiers in Long Melford: his profession is recorded when his son Richard was baptised here in 1633.
Richard Curtice (Curtis) was one of the weavers, and his daughter Sarah was baptised here in 1633, his occupation recorded in the register.
Some “ancient Batchelors” were buried here: Thomas Lee in 1632 and William Aggas in 1634.
Children of William Smith, “the butcher”, were being baptised here in the 1640s. This differentiates him from William Smith, in a piece of excellent nominative determinism, “the smith” – this other William Smith had children baptised in Melford at the same time.
And, also in the 1640s, there was a Thomas Smith, butcher in Melford too – and another Thomas Smith, “de Acton”. Presumably Thomas Smith the butcher and Thomas Smith from Acton were different men. And maybe Thomas Smith the butcher was related to William Smith the butcher.
William Shave, the farmer, lost his wife in July 1647, and William Shave the carpenter, died in December the same year.

Tragic deaths

Various waves of the plague ended many lives in Long Melford. A note entered in the register towards the end of 1604’s burials says: “This Plauge lasted from the beginninge of May to the end of September in wch 5 monthes The Tottall that died & are her registred were juste one hundred & nineteene men woomen and children.” Thomas Cooper and Suzan, wife of Edward Clerke, were buried on 10 May 1604, and have the ominous words “First of the plauge” written beside their names.
Tragically, in March 1600, “a whole household [was] buried.” This was Clement Hibble and his family. His sons John and William were both buried on 4th March 1599/1600, followed by daughter Mary two days later, and another daughter Elizabeth on 9th March. Sarah was buried on 12th, Clement on 15th, and finally, his wife Alice was buried on 16th March. Clement left a will, held at Suffolk Archives, but if all his household had died, one wonders if he had any family left to inherit anything. This doesn’t appear to have been during a widespread epidemic, and there’s no other clues in the register to help, but clearly something infectious had taken root in his family.
John Read died in 1598; he “drowned at the hill milne.”
In 1601, an unnamed child was “found dead in the hall mill damme.” It sounds as if no one knew who this poor child was.
In 1607, a little boy called Robert was buried in Long Melford. No surname is given or parents’ names – all we’re told is that his “parentes wer not knowne.”
We know a lot about Alice Wyat, who died in August 1617, as she received an unusually long and informative note in the burial register: “dau to Richard Wyat borne at Sudbury & late servant to Thomas Johnson of Pentlowe in Essexe: was drowned by accident at Hume mill in Mellford in Suffolk the 28th of August & was bur in Mellford churchyard.”
In July 1611, a boy named only as John was buried in Long Melford. He was “a strange boy killd with a cart.” At this point, “strange” or “stranger” tend to mean that this isn’t a local person, rather than there being anything especially odd about the unfortunate John.
In 1618, Rose Sheapard died in childbirth. What this poor woman must’ve gone through doesn’t bear thinking about, as she delivered conjoined twins: “Rose the wiffe of Wm. Sheap. was delivered of a childe with 2 faces 4 arms 4 leggs.”
James Flower died in 1621, from falling off his horse.
Jonathan, son of Theophilus Gee (also Jeece, Jees, Jeeze, Geese etc), “was drowned at the Bridge in the hart lane” in the summer of 1627.
In 1632, the unnamed child of an unnamed “Travellinge woman” was born in “Kentwell barne” and died soon afterwards.
Thomas Payne, “a vagrant sent one to this Towne because hee was borne here” was buried in Long Melford in February 1633/4. This demonstrates what happened because of the Poor Laws and the decisions made about which parish a person was deemed to “belong to”. It’s possible Thomas was the son of William Payne, baptised in Long Melford in January 1575/6.
In 1634, the “Flogging Pit” claimed the lives of two people by drowning: William Page, “a London prentice in this towne comminge from London was drowned in the floggin pitt” in the June, and William Chapman, “whoe was drowned in the flogging pitt” in the November. Coroner’s inquests were held on both deaths; by the time the pit claimed a second life, the coroner must’ve despaired.
“Edward Drew and Mary his wife having beene married 43 yeeres lay both sick and dyed & were both buried in one grave in the church” on 22 August 1638.
“Wm. Malkin of Ballington falling from his horse & soe dyeing the 25th day being Satturday Ane. Dom. 1639 on whom the Coroner sate with his jury: was buried the 26th day.” William’s sudden death was tragic, but it’s also astonishing how quickly the coroner’s court was held – perhaps on the Sunday, with the burial taking place immediately afterwards on the same day. We’re not told who the coroner was (was it the same person who had to look into the Flogging Pitt deaths a few years earlier?), but they may have been a Long Melford local so could sit quickly on any unexpected deaths.
Alice Spencer died in January 1641/2. The note seems to imply a violent, frightening death, which I don’t feel I can write about here. Some of the words are difficult to decipher as well. (I’m recording it here without going into specifics, though, as it was not an insignificant event).

The “bretheren of the hospitall”

Sir William Cordell left a bequest in his will to build almshouses for “twelve aged men” and a warden. It opened in the 1570s and was called “The Hospital of the Blessed Holy Trinity”. The first resident to receive a note in the burial register telling us he lived there was Thomas Burrowes, who died in 1601. John Allen, governor of the hospital, was buried in Long Melford in 1607, and in 1632, Mr Gilbert Somerton, a subsequent governer, was buried. The other “bretheren of the hospitall” are:

John Crisp, died 1603
Thomas Gray alias Heath, died 1603
John Winckfeeld [Wingfield?], died 1603
Nicholas Beard, died 1603
John How, died 1604
John Cornwell, died 1605
John Gray alias Heath, died 1607 (brother of Thomas?)
William Smith, died 1608
Barnaby Hurrold, died 1610
“Ould Williams”, died 1611
Henry Lacy, died 1612, “a scoller” as well as one of the “bretheren”
Richard Gentleman, died 1612
Richard Todd alias Tindall, died 1612
John Hum, died 1612
Edward Howe, died 1613
Gilbert Willis, died 1616
William Polle, died 1617
William Rosbrooke, died 1619 (Rushbrook?)
Francis Euers, died 1619 (Ewers or Evers?)
Andrew Monson, 1619
Simon Nicholson, died 1621
Hercules Turner, died 1621
George Diggons, died 1621
Roger Beard, died 1622
Father Masson, died 1622
Nicholas Talmage, died 1622
John Goodchild, died 1623
Henry Godward, died 1624
John Gager, died 1624
Robert Colman, died 1624
Giles Shawe, died 1624
Thomas Dread, died 1625
John Hammond, died 1625
Sage Lorkin, died 1626
John Kinge, died 1626
William Browne, died 1627
John Chrispe, died 1628
John Phalkoner, died 1629
John Snellinge, died 1630
George Hamblinge, died 1631
Richard Gentleman, died 1633
John Manhood, died 1633
Thomas Honiball, died 1633
Lawrence Allen, died 1633
Robert Price, died 1634
John Dash, died 1637
Willliam Hubbert (var. Hubbard), died Feb 1637/8
John Manhood, 1638
Father Sutton, 1640
John Tuck, 1641

In 1603, the wife of “Bannston Smeeth” was buried in Long Melford (her forename isn’t recorded). A note tells us that “Hee was one of the brethren in the hospitall.”

Compiled by Helen Barrell from her transcriptions of Long Melford’s parish register.