12. LILLY-BARROW

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Fay Sampson’s Family History

This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)

ISAAC LILLY and JUDITH BARROW (12)

 

ISAAC LILLY. The Lilly records in Wingham go back to at least the close of the 16th century. This was towards the end of Elizabeth I’s reign. The poor state of the registers means that there are likely to be a number of other Lilly entries now illegible. The earliest we can decipher is in 1595. [1]

1594/5 Feb 2. Richard Lilly was buried.

From the date of Isaac’s marriage in 1623 Richard is more likely to be his grandfather than his father.

In 1641 the will of another Richard Lilly of Wingham was proved. He is a more likely candidate for Isaac’s father, but could be his brother.

After the burial of the older Richard, we then jump at least a generation.

1623 Oct 7. Izhak Lilly married Judeth Barrow.

The marriage index says that both were resident in Wingham.

 

JUDITH BARROW. There are two versions of the marriage index. In one, she is Judith, in the other Judeth. No doubt the latter is how her name was spelt in the parish register.

Judith was resident in Wingham when she married. From the date of her wedding, we should expect her to have been born around 1600, or shortly before. There seems to be only one Barrow fathering children in Wingham then. We have found seven baptisms or burials for Robert Barrow’s offspring. Judith is not among them, but since so much of the early registers is illegible, that is not surprising.
   Robert Barrow married twice in Wingham. First to Catheren Nixson in 1583, then to Sara Goodden, widow, in 1593.
The second of these is more likely to be Judith’s mother.

 

There is a gap of six years before the marriage of Isaac and Judith and their first known child. Very likely there were others whose baptisms cannot now be read.

1629/30 Jan 10  Abraham son of Izaak Lilly was baptised.

There were probably more baptisms following this. Marriages and baptisms in Wingham in the 1660s and 70s show a younger Isaac and Michael Lilly fathering children then. These may be other sons of Isaac and Judith.

There is tentative evidence that a Richard Lilly was also fathering children in the 1630s.

1636 Nov 2 Robert Lilly baptised. Parts of the entry are very hard to read. The mother’s name is Elizabeth. The father’s could be Richard.
If so, this could be the Richard Lilly who died in 1641, though an older man is more likely.

If Isaac did indeed have a brother Richard, then the younger Isaac and Michael, who were fathering children in the 1660s and 70s,  could be the sons of either. We can only be certain about Abraham being the child of Isaac and Judeth.

Abraham became a weaver, probably of linen. We do not know whether this was Isaac’s trade too.

The Lillys of Wingham favoured Old Testament names: Abraham, Isaac, Amos. Michael Lilly named one of his sons Amos and another Repent. This strongly suggests that the family had Puritan sympathies.
If the 17th century Lillys were indeed Puritans, and not simply carrying on a family naming tradition, they would certainly have backed the cause of Parliament against King Charles I in the Civil War.
Whatever their sympathies, Isaac and his family would have been caught up in it. Isaac would have been of fighting age in 1642. He may have been enlisted as a soldier.
The Oxendens, a leading family in Wingham, espoused the Parliamentary cause, though with some misgivings. In 1639, the king was preparing an expedition against Scotland. Workers in East Kent were being press-ganged into service “even at the plough’s handle”.  Sir Henry Oxenden managed to evade the obligation to provide men from Wingham. He later became a lieutenant-colonel in Fairfax’s army.
Another major landowner, Thomas Palmer, was an avowed Royalist. The Parliamentary Committee which governed the district under the rule of Cromwell, held its meetings at the Red Lion, to the embarrassment of Palmer, who lived opposite. It was the Oxenden family who managed to keep the peace. The community remained united and the village avoided taking sides. [2]

Red Lion, Wingham [3]

Most of East Kent also remained neutral. So Isaac may have escaped conscription. On the other hand, he could have volunteered to fight for Parliament.

Isaac and Judith’s grandson, Richard, married Hannah, daughter of Robert Beane, a Wingham innkeeper. We do not know if his inn was the Red Lion.

We have no certainty about Judith’s death.  There is a burial which may be hers.

1660/1 Feb 19  Goodwife Lilly.

A number of women were entered into the burial register as “Goodwife”, rather than given their baptismal name.

This was the first year of the Restoration of the monarchy.

Isaac lived to a ripe old age.

1677/8 Jan 31  Burial of Isaac Lilly “an Ancient Widdower”.

1678  The will of Issac Lyllye of Wingham was proved.

 

 

[1] BMDs from Findmypast.
[2] http://www.dover-kent.com/Red-Lion-Wingham.html
[3] http://www.dover-kent.com/2014-photos5/Red-Lion-print-Wingham.jpg

 

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13. BARROW

Baker Tree