Bexley and Bixley Family Research
Which John Bixley?
Here are the reasons why I think that John Bixley who married Grace Brown was the son of Richard and Mary Bixley, born in 1759 in Great Bookham.
John Bixley born 1766, Dorking
Parents: John Bixley and Elizabeth Worsell
The PDF from Bourne Hall about the Bixleys of Surrey, shows John Bixley born Dorking 1766 buried in Great Bookham in 1826. This led us to believe that he was possibly the John who married Grace Brown because we know our John died sometime between the death of his son Henry Bexley in 1818 in Epsom and the 1841 census. However, the John who is buried in Great Bookham is far more likely to be Daniel Bexley and Elizabeth Amey’s son John who married Sarah Shirlock and died in Bookham at that time – we know this because John and Sarah’s son William Bexley was born in Great Bookham in 1824 and Sarah was a widow and remarried in Sussex in 1828. Surrey History Centre state that no age is recorded for the John who died in Great Bookham, so I am sure we should dismiss this record as not being relevant to our John.
The other connection with John of Dorking was that his Grandfather, Joseph Bixley was born in Tuxlith, Sussex. Admittedly, Tuxlith, now known as Trotton, is about 10 miles north of Chichester area where Grace Brown was born (Oving) but the family were only there three years and were back in Surrey by 1704 and no further link with the area can be found after that date.
The names of John of Dorking's siblings are as follows:
Joseph
Olive
Richard
Elizabeth
Mary
Jane
Sarah
Robert
William
Only the common names William and Elizabeth feature in our family (Richard and Robert feature much later)
Other names associated with the family are Katherine/Catherine, James, Sophey, Daniel, Henry and Eleanor only the common names feature in our family
John Bixley, father of John of Dorking died in 1787 when John would have been 21. His mother, Elizabeth, died in Great Bookham in 1804. His sister's Olive and Sarah both had daughter's Elizabeth born after 1804 in memory of their mother. It is strange that if our John was the son of John and Elizabeth that he chose to call his only daughter Charlotte in 1808.
John Bixley born 1763, Ash
Parents: John Bixley and Elizabeth Poney
John of Ash only had a brother Stephen and other than their Baptism records, no trace of either can be found
John Bixley born 1759, Great Bookham
Parents: Richard Bixley and Mary Frost
Richard and Mary had four sons Richard b. 1757, John b. 1759, Daniel b. 1762 and Edward b. 1765
Richard Bixley died in 1768 when son Richard was 11, John was 9, Daniel was 6 and Edward was 3. Mary was left to bring up the four boys on her own.
Richard moved away and married Susanna Tilly in West Clandon in 1778. At this time, Edward was still only 13. This would explain why John married late in life as he stayed with his family to provide for them until Edward was old enough to support himself and Mary. Brother Richard did not have any children. Susannah Bexley died in West Clandon in 1798 and Richard married again in 1824 in leatherhead to Ann Cooke.
Brother Daniel married Elizabeth Amey in 1789. By this time Edward was 24 and I believe he was left to support Mary.
John married in 1794 in Oving Sussex. We have no idea when John left Surrey for Sussex or if Grace Brown and her family travelled to Surrey for some reason and met John. At that time, Epsom was a spa town, so people from all over England would travel there to bathe in the waters to cure any ailments. We just can't be sure how John and Grace met. Their first son, John, was born in South Bersted where Grace's older sister was living with her husband Henry and their family. I believe John and Grace moved back to Surrey shortly afterwards and eventually settled in Epsom where Charles was born in 1800. I believe Charles was named after Charles Hollis born in South Bersted in 1789, a relation of Grace Brown whose mother was a Hollis. James was born in 1803, I believe he was named after the witness at John and Grace's wedding, James Martin. Henry Bexley was born in 1805 and I believe he was named after Grace's brother-in-law Henry Herman. Charlotte Bexley was born in 1808 and I believe she was named after Charles Hollis' sister Charlotte born in South Bersted in 1782.
An Edward Bixley married Sarah Pearce in Epsom in 1813. His wife Sarah was buried in Ewell in 1817 and he married again in Kingston in 1818 to Elizabeth Bachelor. He died in Ewell in 1826 but the record says he was 44. If he was Richard and Mary's son, he would have been 61. Was there an error in the record or was this Edward born in 1782? No other record of an Edward Bixley can be found.
Daniel Bixley and Elizabeth Amey had the following children:
Daniel - father's name
John - mother's father's name and father's brother's name
Mary Ann - father's mother and mother's mother's name
Elizabeth - father's mother's name
William - ? - father's Great Uncle's name
Sarah - ? - father's Great Aunt's name
Ann - mother's mother's name
Daniel and Elizabeth's oldest son, Daniel moved to East Sussex where he married in 1807 to Hannah Evans. Son William married Elizabeth Ives in 1823 in Thames Ditton and stayed in Great Bookham. He would have been 1st cousin of John and Grace's son Charles and the similarity in the two family's names in noticeable.
Here is a table to show 2 generations of John and Elizabeth Worsell's family's names and Richard and Mary's family names in comparison to our John's family's names. The colours show the name's match. Daniel Bixley and Elizabeth Amey's son William's children's names are an especially close match:
Bexley Names John and Elizabeth Worsell Richard and Mary Frost John and Grace and descendents Richard John Joseph John Charles John Daniel James Olive Edward Charlotte Richard Henry Elizabeth Daniel and Elizabeth Amey Mary Daniel John and Charlotte Wallis Jane John Eliza Sarah Mary John Robert Ann Henry William Elizabeth James Catherine William James Sarah Charles and Jane Rowley Sophey Ann Mary Daniel Ann Henry William and Elizabeth Charlotte Eleanor Elizabeth James Jane Henry George William William George Ann Eliza Charles Charles Charlotte Edward James and Hannah Bartlett Henry John Sidney William James Henry Charles Alfred Edward 11 7 More about Charles and William Bixley Names
John and Grace's children's names Charles and Charlotte were the first in the records of Bexley/Bixley and these names continued in Daniel's and our John's lines.
Another possible connection between Daniel and Elizabeth Amey's family and our Bexleys is that their son John's widow, Sarah Bexley married Henry Otway and moved to Northchapel where her son, William Bexley, born 1824 can be found living in the 1851 census and just a few doors away is living Henry Ware b. 1828, Northchapel, the father of Jane Ware who later marries Henry Bexley's son, William James Bexley. William Bexley would have been Charles Bexley's first cousin, so did Henry Ware become a friend of the family at this time and is this how William James met Jane?
Richard married in Leatherhead in 1824 and died in Epsom Union Workhouse in 1845. John's family lived in Epsom and moved to Leatherhead in around 1825, Daniel's son John married Sarah Shirlock in Epsom and if Edward who married Sarah Pearce is Richard and Mary's son, he married in Epsom and lived in Ewell, so that would mean all four brother's had a connection with Epsom.
The marriage records for Daniel and Edward may provide more clues?