Our Bathurst Line: From Medieval Merchant to Baron

Old engraving of the earls Bathurst coat of arms from 18th century

If you knew our grandfather, Frank Whitman Raney, you'll recall that he had good table manners, unusual for an Indiana farmboy. Did he instinctively suspect he was descended from English gentry?

I originally intended to trace our family's lines only to our ancestors' arrivals in the New World, but I found the Bathursts of particular interest, so I expanded my Ancestry subscription to include research outside the U.S., in order to delve deeper into Bathurst roots, but find myself researching more in the U.K. National Archives.

The motto over the Bathurst coat of arms is "Have Faith." There are seven variations of the Bathurst coat of arms, which was granted to an individual, not to a family line.

Here's our ascent to Lancelot/Launcelot Bathurst (Lancelot was a fairly common gentry name in 16th and 17th century England.) Grandfather: Frank Whitman Raney (1888 Gibson Co., IN -1969 Spokane, WA); Great-grandfather James Samuel Raney (1868 Pike Co., IN -1954 Spokane, WA);Great-great grandfather Everett Rainey/Raney (1844 Pulaski Co., KY-1899, Blodgett, Scott Co., MO ); 3rd Great-grandfather James Rainey (1814 Pulaski Co., KY-1860/70 Pike Co., IN); 4th Great-grandfather James Rainey (c1778 Sussex Co., VA -1838/40,White Co., TN), who married in 1800 Martha Parham (c1784 Sussex Co., VA-1817-20 Pulaski Co., KY) in Sussex Co., Virginia. Our 4th great-grandmother Martha Parham's father was Ephraim Stith Parham (1732 VA-1793 Sussex Co, VA), who married Lucretia Sturdivant in 1771, widow of a Parham cousin. 5th great-grandfather Ephraim Stith Parham's father was William Parham (1696 Surry Co., VA-1758 Sussex Co., VA), who married in 1723 Anne Stith (1700 VA-after 1758 VA). Our 6th great-grandmother Anne Stith's father was Lt. Col. Drury Stith (1670 Charles City Co., VA-1741 Charles City Co., VA), who married in 1693 our 7th great-grandmother Susannah Bathurst (1674 England or New Kent Co., VA-1745 Charles City Co., VA). Her father was our 8th great-grandfather, Lancelot Bathurst, the Immigrant.

County Sussex, England

We'll begin with the earliest known Bathurst ancestor. Our 17th great-grandfather, Richard Bathurst (1390-1423) of Bodehurst or Bathurst Castle, Warbleton Parish, East Sussex, is the first reputed lineal ancestor, married to an Agnes (surname unknown). They lived and died in Warbleton Parish.

St. Mary the Virgin in Warbleton Parish, East Sussex, so old the Bathursts must have worshiped here before the destruction of their castle during the Wars of the Roses

Richard's apparent 2nd son, our 16th great-grandfather, Lawrence Bathurst (1415-1464), supported the dethroned Kng Henry VI during the Wars of the Roses.HERE For his "treason" the Bathurst lands in Sussex were confiscated, the castle demolished, and its lands granted to Battle Abbey. Vestiges of the castle remained as of 1890, but I couldn't locate it on Google Earth.

Ruins of Battle Abbey, a Benedictine abbey built on the site where King Harold was killed in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conqueror and his Normans conquered England .

Lawrence retired to another Bathurst holding in Cranbrook, County Kent. It seems he then fought for the Lancastrians up north in Northumberland at the Battle of Hexham in 1464, after which, defeated and captured, he and other noblemen and knights  were executed.HERE. His only son, our 15th great-grandfather, Lawrence II (1432-1461), had predeceased him, possibly in battle, but left a minor son, Lawrence Bathurst III (1457-1549), who was allowed to keep the Cranbrook lands in Kent, about 38 miles southwest of central London.

Medieval clothmaking, a cottage indurstry.

In 1332, King Edward III had invited Flemish clothmakers to come to County Kent to teach the English their craft.  The area became famous for its fine, smooth woollen cloth called broadcloth, and Cranbrook especially found reknown in its manufacture. The landowner-merchants who controlled the clothing trade were called the "greycoats of Kent," for the fine grey gowns they wore, made of their own cloth. It was their tenants, who wove the cloth in their cottages.

Lawrence Bathurst III (1457-1549) continued to possess lands in Cranbrook, Canturbury, and Staplehurst, 6 miles from Cranbrook, and was one of those greycoats. He married Godleve Chapman (1462-1547), daughter of Robert Chapman, Esq. of Kent, who lived nearly as long as 92-year-old Lawrence. Our 14th great-grandparents are buried at Staplehurst, County Kent.

As an aside, one of Lawrence's grandsons, Lancelot Bathurst (d.1594) by Lawrence's oldest son Edward, after whom our Lancelot may have been named, was a grocer in London and an alderman, who became rather wealthy during the reign of Elizabeth I, rebuilt the estate of Franks in County Kent, and was the ancestor of the earls of Bathurst. This enobled line still exists. One of Lancelot the alderman's sons was pressed to death for refusing to plead when arraigned on a charge of murder in 1609. A good thing old Lancelot wasn't alive to witness it. Nowadays, if an accused stands mute, a plea of not guilty is entered for him.

Franks Hall, Kent, was completed by Lancelot Bathurst the London grocer in 1591.

Lawrence and Godleve had a younger son, Thomas Bathurst (1475-1542) of Cranbrook Manor in Kent, who married Anna Chapman (1480-1547), probably a cousin. They were our 13th great-grandparnets.

Returning to the cloth industry that made out ancestors wealthy, this area of Kent had streams to drive mills, oak trees to build them and deposits of the special rock, fuller's earth, used to finish the cloth. 

Thomas' and Anna's third son, our 12th great-grandfather, Robert Bathurst (1513-1577) of Horsmonden, County Kent, was a clothier (but don't imagine his doing manual labor). He belonged to a guild, as perhaps his father and brothers did also, whose closed ranks allowed its members to prosper and rise in the wealthy merchant class. Wives were chosen from families of guild members or from the minor nobility, forming strong alliances. Robert married Alice Saunders (1518-1596), our 12th great-grandmother, daughter of Sir William Saunders, Esq.  Robert lent money to King Henry VIII in 1542, and owned Sprivers Manor in Horsmonden during Elizabeth I's reign. The most famous of the Kent broadcloths was Cranbrook Grey. When Queen Elizabeth I visited the town in 1573, she was said to have walked along a mile-long piece of Cranbrook Grey made specially for the purpose, although it's difficult to imagine her walking a mile, rather than riding.  Robert, who had three years left to live, and his son John (b.1533), our 11st great-grandfather, must have been present to greet their queen.

St. Margaret's in Horsmonden, built in 14th century, where Robert Bathurst's family worshiped in the 16th century. Jane Austen's ancestors are buried there.

Robert and Alice are buried at Horsmonden. Their son John (b.1533) married Mary Dodge, our 11th great-grandmother, in 1562. And that brings us to Robert Bathurst IV (1563-1623), our 10th great-grandfather, who inherited Lechlade Manor, Gloucestershire, from his mother's uncle, Edward Dodge of Wrothom, Kent, who had purchased it in 1588 from a pair of haberdashers in London, who'd purchased it from the previous owner's creditor on speculation. Edward Dodge left it to Robert in 1597. I don't know how long this line of the Bathurst family bore a coat of arms, but Robert Bathurst, Esq. apparently was a baronet or at least a knight, and was High Sheriff of the shire in 1611. He married Elizabeth Waller (1586-1627), our 10th great-grandmother, daughter and heir of Ralph Waller, Esq. In 1623, the year he died, Robert applied for and was granted an alteration to his coat of arms, adding a bay horse standing on a green mount - Horsmonden - get it. 

Edward Bathurst's coat of arms on his tomb slab. Note the two horses upper right, and the one lower left, although they do resemble dogs. The left side retains the old Bathurst design with the three crosses and the hand.

Edward Bathurst (1615-1674), our 9th great-grandfather, was not his father Robert's heir for Lechlade Manor. His older brother Robert was heir, but died a minor in 1626, making Edward the heir of it all. 

St. Lawrence Church, Lechlade, where the Bathursts worshiped

Lechlade, Gloucestershire, a borough and market town from the early 13th century, early on played some part in the Cotswold wool trade. Its chief function, however, was as a staging-post for goods and passenger traffic, for it lay at the head of the navigable Thames River, and at the entrance into Gloucestershire of a major road route from London. By the late 17th century large quantities of cheese were being shipped downriver from Lechlade. 

The manor that Edward Bathrust (1616-1673) inherited in 1626 was composed of 40 messuages, 16 tofts, 3 watermills, 4 dove-cotes, 40 gardens, 2,000 acres of land, 1,000 acres of meadow, 1,000 acres of pasture, 20 acres of wood, 100 acres of furze and heath, free fishing, the fairs of Lechlade (for fees), the rectory, and the avowson of the rectory of Lechlade. Some of the land had originally been part of St. John's Priory, taken by the Crown when Henry VIII dissolved the monestaries. I found this bit interesting. An ancient charity known as the Maiden Dole, said to have been given by two maiden sisters in early times, comprised 5 bushels of wheat and 5 bushels of barley, charged on the estate for the poor. The charity lapsed in the late 16th century, but was restored by royal order in 1602 together with the arrears of 21 years, and in 1604 Robert Bathurst charged it on a part of the manor estate. A gift of 5 pounds yearly for the poor was charged on the manor estate by Edward Dodge when he died in 1597, and became known as Dodge's Dole. A commission for charitable uses c.1679 directed that Dodge's Dole to educating and apprenticing children, but there is no record of it being so used.

Lechlade Manor in Gloucester, actually built in 1873. It wasn't where Lancelot grew up, but it's lovely, isn't it.

Edward had three wives, two of which gave him a total of 12 children. Susan Rich (1615-1669), his 2nd wife and our 9th great-grandmother, was the mother of Lancelot Bathurst, the Immigrant, our 8th great-grandfather, who most likely was born at Lechlade Manor in 1646, and died c.1707 in New Kent County, Virginia Colony.

Lechlade in County Gloucester on the River Thames

Edward Bathurst was knighted by King Charles I on 4 December 1643, at the height of the English Civil War, and shortly thereafter was made 1st Baronet of Lechlade, Gloucester, with lands still held in County Kent. Oliver Cromwell, King Charles' fierce Puritan opponent, ordered Bathurst's land squestered in 1645 for allying himself to Charles, but I don't believe Edward Bathurst actually fought in any battle. It was money the Parliamentarian armies needed, so the sequestration was lifted and a heavy fine imposed by Cromwell's parliament in March 1647. They really socked it to Edward:  

Resolved, &c. That this House doth accept of the Sum of Seven hundred and Twenty Pounds, for a Fine, for the Delinquency of Edward Bathurst, of Leechlad in the County of Gloucester, Esquire [his new title of Baron not acknowledged]: His Offence, That he adhered unto and assisted the King against the Parliament: Rendered in September 1645: His Estate in Fee, in Possession, per Annum, Four hundred and Ten Pounds; in old Rents, per Annum, Six Pounds; for One Life, per Annum, One hundred Pounds; in Reversion, after One Life, per Annum, Two hundred Pounds; in Fee, after Forty Years, per Annum, One hundred and Twenty Pounds; in Goods and Chattels, One hundred and Fifty Pounds: He owes, One thousand Five hundred and Fifty Pounds: There issues, out of his Estate, for ever, per Annum, One hundred and Fifty-three Pounds; and there is charged upon his Lands, in Debts, One thousand Two hundred and Two Pounds: . . . . leaves the Fine, at a Tenth, Seven hundred and Twenty Pounds. . . An Ordinance for granting a Pardon unto Edward Bathurst, of Leechlad in the County of Gloucester, Esquire, for his Delinquency, and for taking off the Sequestration of his Estate, was this Day read; and, upon the Question, passed; and ordered to be sent unto the Lords for their Concurrence.

 It's possible Sir Edward got out from under this onerous fine, for it's of record that he swore he'd sided with the Royalists under duress. He turned over Lechlade Manor to his eldest son Laurence in the late 1660s, but Laurence died in 1670 and the estate went to Laurence's minor son. Sir Edward died in 1674, and that was about the time our 8th great-grandfather, Lancelot Bathurst, 8th child and 5th son of his father, left England for Virginia. When Edward began dividing his estate in the late 1660s, he must have given Lancelot his share.

9th Great-grandfather Edward Bathurst grave marker at St. Lawrence Church, Lechlade, Gloucestershire. Note that he was buried under the church floor as befit his station

We don't know whether Lancelot, who had studied law, married Susanna in England or in Virginia, but they had a son by 1671. By 1680 they had settled in New Kent County and he was listed as a lawyer. In April 1683 he acquired 1200 acres. In November 1683 he and Edward Chilton together acquired 850 acres in that county. Bathurst appears to have acquired an additional 600 acres for himself the same day. He was on his way to becoming a man of note. As expected, it was tobacco that made him wealthy, but also his lawyerly skills. He became Deputy Attorney General of Henrico County, next to New Kent, in 1684.

He acquired 5000 acres in 1687 in New Kent. In 1688 he was Clerk of the Committee of Private Causes in the House of Burgesses; in 1689 he was Clerk of the Committee of Examination of Records. He became High Sheriff in 1698. The St. Peters Parish Vestry Book contains this entry: Capt. Lancelot Bathurst, High Sheriff of this county, is ordered to collect from each tithable inhabitant in this parish fourty fower [forty-four] pounds of tobacco to defray the parish charges. Oct. 3d 1699. The Anglican Church was the official church of Virginia, supported by taxes that landowners in the parish paid in tobacco, which was shipped to Great Britain and sold. He became a Justice in 1699, and successively captain and colonel of militia. He died in 1707 at age 61.

Lancelot and Susanna Bathurst had son Lawrence, who died without issue, and three daughters, including Susanna Bathurst (1674-1745), who married Drury Stith. They were our 7th great-grandparents. I will write about the Stith family soon.

St. Peter's Parish Church, New Kent, built in 1703 in English bond brick style during Lancelot Bathurst's lifetime. George Washington married Martha Custis here in 1759.

In honor of our English medieval roots, we'll end with The Lyke Wake Dirge, an English folk song that tells of the soul's travel, and the hazards it faces, from this earth to purgatory, sung by Buffy Saint-Marie HERE  Its lyrics and explanation are HERE