is
for Tayloris
for Taylor
There were two Thomas Taylors back in the
1700s, the first was tenant of Church Farm for 20 years from 1754 until his
death in 1774 (buried at Bawburgh on 12 May 1774). He had a son - also
Thomas Taylor - who took over the farming tenancy of Church Farm from his
father. Although Thomas was his eldest son, there is no record of his
baptism in the church records. His wife's name was Sarah and there were
other children. Thomas Taylor Senior wrote a particularly detailed will in
which he is named as 'Thomas Taylor the Elder, farmer of Bawburgh'. Thomas
Taylor Junior inherited Church Farm, as well as land at Bunwell. In his will
Thomas left various miscellaneous items to Sarah, including '... the chair
that she, my said wife, usually sits on in the kitchen'. What a kind thought
- although he did say that these things were only hers so long as she
remained a widow, and that she would have to pass everything (including
presumably her kitchen chair) to her second son, Henry Taylor, if she
remarried. As it happened, she did remarry - on 5 October 1775 - to Daniel
Elmer of Fundenhall at Bawburgh Church. (It is interesting that her
daughter, too, had married an Elmer.) In his will Thomas Taylor the Elder
refers to 'James Elmer, my son in law' (though does not give his daughter's
name) as co-executor with his son, Thomas Taylor. No doubt the daughter
would have been married in Bawburgh Church although it is likely that she,
and her brothers, were baptised at Bunwell since they do not appear in the
Bawburgh records. Thomas Taylor's son married Mary Chapman of, and at,
Bawburgh in September 1775 and they had a son, another Thomas, who was
baptised at Bawburgh in July 1776. Unfortunately, Thomas himself died soon
afterwards (in 1779) and Church Farm passed to his brother, Henry Taylor.
However, it seems likely that by this time he was not farming on his own
account, but was Bailiff to Joseph Muskett, who acquired the lease of Church
Farm in 1799 (Joseph Muskett, is the first name in the Unthank history, as
his legacy goes to his grand-daughter, Mary-Anne Unthank, nee Muskett—see
U
is for Unthank
Henry Taylor, now the tenant at Church Farm, married his widowed sister-in-law at Bawburgh on 3rd October 1782 and soon afterwards the first child arrived - Sarah (in February 1783), named for Henry's mother. They had 7 children altogether including a son, Henry, who married in Bawburgh in 1812. His bride was Mary Elizabeth Norton, of Bawburgh Hall. Young Henry Taylor, and his wife Elizabeth, moved to Costessey and he came a Lieutenant in the 65th Regiment. He died on active service abroad. The last Taylor connection with Bawburgh was the baptism of Henry and Elizabeth Taylor's son, Henry Lionel, at Bawburgh in January 1816.