My 10th great grandparents Stephen Byne and Mary Manser of Burwash, Sussex, had six children – two daughters and four sons – all of them born in the later years of the reign of King James I or the early years of the reign of his ill-fated son Charles. As mentioned in an earlier post, one of their daughters, Elizabeth, who was born in 1613, married Gregory Markwick but died at the age of 26, while their other daughter Mary, who was born in 1620, seems to have remained unmarried. Remarkably, for a family of yeoman farmers, two of their sons, my 9thgreat grandfather Magnus (1615 – 1671) and his brother Edward (1623 – 1682), studied at Cambridge and entered the Church. Their lives will be the subject of later posts.
Countryside near Burwash (via bandbchurchouse.co.uk)
Stephen and Mary Byne had two other two sons, John and Stephen the younger, both of whom followed in their father’s (and indeed their grandfather’s and great grandfather’s) footsteps and became yeoman fathers. My principal source for what follows is Walter Renshaw’s history of the Byne family.
John Byne, who was baptised at Burwash on 2nd May 1617, was Stephen and Mary’s third son. He married Elizabeth, the widow of Simon Coney of Burwash. Renshaw deduces this from a Chancery suit in which John and his wife Elizabeth were plaintiffs and John Polhill of Tunbridge and John Coney were defendants.
Simon Coney died in 1648 and his widow Elizabeth’s marriage to John Byne seems to have taken place shortly after this date, when John would already have been in his thirties. The Coneys were another old Sussex family whose lives intertwined with those of my ancestors in a number of ways. For example, Simon was probably a close relative of Mark Coney, who married Ellen or Helen Byne, sister of the Anne Byne who married Christopher Manser (see previous post), and of Elizabeth, the third wife of Magnus Byne of Framfield, the brother of Stephen Byne.
John and Elizabeth Byne had five children: Stephen, baptised at Burwash on 14th April 1650; Mary, baptised there on 28th December 1651; John Byne, christened on 24th April 1657 and buried on 15th September 1659; Edward Byne, baptised on 12th September 1661; and Anne, buried there on 15th May 1680.
John Byne made his will on 20th April 1662, leaving a property in Burwash called Woodlands to his son Stephen, and another called Herrings Mead, which he had inherited from his uncle William, to his son Edward. He directed that his executors should sell his houses in Burwash Town ‘and use the money arising thereby for the educating and bringing up of my two daughters Mary and Anne.’ John appointed his brother Stephen as his executor and the will was proved at Lewes on 5th May 1662, which means that John predeceased his father, Stephen Byne senior, by two years. His widow Elizabeth was buried at Burwash on 15th February 1689.
Burwash churchyard
Stephen Byne the younger, the fifth son of Stephen and Mary Byne, was also a yeoman of Burwash and was married twice. His first marriage was to Ann Peckham, daughter of John Peckham of Framfield. She was buried at Burwash on 17th January 1678. Stephen’s second wife, whom he married on 19th October 1678 at Maresfield, was Alice Heathfield of Burwash. Like his father before him, Stephen was a churchwarden at Burwash, in the years 1670-72.
By his first wife Ann, Stephen Byne had three children: Magnus, baptised at Burwash on 11th April 1672; Anne, baptised there in 1674; and Mary. By his second wife Alice, Stephen had four children: Alice, baptised at Burwash in 1681 and buried there on 10th February 1734; Stephen, baptised on 14th February 1684; William; and John, baptised on 9th February 1690.
Stephen Byne the younger made his will on 14th October 1691, directing that all his lands, both copyhold and freehold, should be sold, and requesting his loving friends John Polhill and Stephen Coney (see above), both of Burwash, to aid and assist in the sale. Stephen left sums of money to his children and to his wife Alice, whom he appointed as executrix of his will. Stephen Byne was buried at Burwash on 17th November 1691.
Yeomen and Kinsmen 