BENTLEY and RELATED FAMILIES

Chapter 12: James WOODFORD (c1580->1618)

James (I) Woodford married An(ne) Taynton in St Margaret’s, Alderton’s parish church, on 10 October 1607; the same year as Shakespeare wrote ‘Coriolanus’. James was probably born about 1580, the year in which Francis Drake returned from his three years voyage of circumnavigation. James (I) was probably born in Alderton but the registers have only survived from 1596; the first 60 years are missing. The Woodford surname is derived from places of the same name, of which there are many in England; hence the name probably has several different geographical origins. Most of the Woodford place locations are in the Southwest, including one in South Gloucestershire.

Alderton, where James (I) married and raised his family, is a village of about (today) 500 people in north Gloucestershire, on the western edge of the Cotswolds. Equidistant from Bristol and Birmingham, the village's nearby towns include Winchcombe, Tewkesbury, Evesham and Cheltenham. The village is now a mixture of half-timbered cottages with thatched roofs, Regency and Victorian brick houses and modern homes built from local yellow limestone.

James (I) and An(ne) had at least five children, all baptised in Alderton between 1609 and 1618. Their first born died as a young child in 1613. The last two children were twins, only one of which survived. Four actual pregnancies represented a small family in the seventeen century, it is possible therefore that An(ne) died whilst giving birth to the twins. Only one of the other surviving children, James (II), is known to have married. He married Francis (sic) Harris in 1659 and had four children of his own born in his home parish. He predeceased his wife by five years in 1709 and was buried in Alderton. Francis too was buried in Alderton. James (II) and Francis’ oldest child was James (III).

Like his father and grandfather before home, James (III) lived his whole life in Alderton, Gloucestershire. He married twice, first in about 1684 to Anne who bore him a son James (IV), who died as an infant, and secondly in 1686 to Bridgett Wiggett who bore him three more children, James (V), Anne and Mary. All were baptised in Alderton parish church. Mary’s baptism was in the same year as four of the six existing church bells were cast and hung. Little else is known of James (IV) and Bridgett other than James (IV) was buried in Alderton churchyard on 3 June 1709 and Bridgett on 22 May 1735.

James (V) kept up the family association with Alderton. He was born there in 1687 and buried there in 1755. In the mean time his wife, Sarah, had born four children, two boys and two girls. One of the girls recorded the first known Woodford family event outside Alderton when Elizabeth married James Minett in Winchcombe in 1750. In a break with family tradition James (V) and Sarah’s first son was named John rather than James. John in turn had a small family by his wife Anne, but died when his wife was still pregnant with his second daughter. John had returned to the family tradition and named his first son James (VI).

James (VI) was the first male Woodford known to have left Alderton, for he raised his six children in the hamlet of Gretton in neighbouring Winchcombe parish. His six children were all born in Gretton between 1776 and 1794. None appear to have married, but a daughter, Mary, had three illegitimate children in Gretton and Winchcombe. The first died at a few days old, the second at a few months old. John, Mary’s surviving child, married Ann Tustin (Chapter 15) in Winchcombe in 1833, and fathered eight children of his own. James (VI) was buried in Gretton in 1814.

John was a boot and shoemaker living in Sudeley Tenaments in Winchcombe in the 1840s, before moving to North Street before 1851. He had moved to Aston in Birmingham by 1860. At least during the period 1881 to 1891 he lived at 12 Thomas Street, Aston. At least two of John and Ann’s children remained in Winchcombe. Their oldest son followed on in his father’s trade and the second son became a police sergeant in the town. Two of John and Ann’s daughters, Eliza and Mary Ann, moved to Birmingham with their father and are known to have married Samuel Bentley (Chapter 6) and John Cook respectively. They both then had children of their own. The latter was living with her husband at her father’s home in 1881.

0 .James WOODFORD b.c1580 m.An(ne) TAYNTON/ TEYNTON (chapter 16)
1 . . James WOODFORD b.1617 d.1709 m.rancis HARRIS
2 . . . James WOODFORD b.1660 d.1709 m.#1 Anne - #2 Bridgett WIGGETT
3 . . . . .#1 James WOODFORD b.<1684 d.1684
3 . . . . .#2 James WOODFORD b. 1687 d.1755 m.Sarah –
4 . . . . . . John WOODFORD b.1710 d.1758 m.Anne -
5 . . . . . . . James WOODFORD b.1751 d.1814 m.Mary -
6 . . . . . . . . .Ann WOODFORD b.1776
6 . . . . . . . . .Mary WOODFORD b.1778 d.<1785
6 . . . . . . . . .James WOODFORD b.1780 d.<1794
6 . . . . . . . . .William WOODFORD b.1782
6 . . . . . . . . .Mary WOODFORD b.1785 d.>1809 m.unmarried
7 . . . . . . . . . . John WOODFORD b. 1809 d.1891 m.Ann TUSTIN/ TUSTEN (chapter 15)
8 . . . . . . . . . . . George W. WOODFORD b.c1833 d.>1901(chapter 13)
8 . . . . . . . . . . . William WOODFORD b.c1837 d.1910 (chapter 14)
8 . . . . . . . . . . . Eliza WOODFORD b.1838 d.>1901 m.Samuel BENTLEY (chapter 6)
8 . . . . . . . . . . . Elizabeth Ann WOODFORD b.1843 d.>1851
8 . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Ann WOODFORD b.1845 m.John COOK
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Eliza (?aka Ella) COOK b.c1878 d.>1881
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .John William COOK b.c1880 d.>1881
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Annie COOK b.c1883
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Harry COOK b.c1887
8 . . . . . . . . . . . Emily Rosa WOODFORD b.1851 d.1852
7 . . . . . . . . . . William WOODFORD b.1800 d.1800
7 . . . . . . . . . . Ann WOODFORD b.1802 d.1803
6 . . . . . . . . .James WOODFORD b.1794
5 . . . . . . . Henry WOODFORD b.1753 d. 1757
5 . . . . . . . Sarah WOODFORD b.1756 d.1756
5 . . . . . . . Elizabeth WOODFORD b.1759
4 . . . . . . Elizabeth WOODFORD b.1712 m.James MINETT
4 . . . . . . Sarah WOODFORD d.1744
4 . . . . . . James WOODFORD b.1726 d.1728
3 . . . . .#2 Anne WOODFORD b.1691
3 . . . . .#2 Mary WOODFORD b.1695
2 . . . Henry WOODFORD b.1675
2 . . . Francis WOODFORD b.1669 m.Edward FIELD
2 . . . Henry WOODFORD b.1666 d.1667
1 . . Frances WOODFORD b.1609 d.1613
1 . . John WOODFORD b.1613
1 . . Richard WOODFORD b.1618 d.1618
1 . . William WOODFORD b.1618