♀Alice Coys

Alice Coys (died 1585) was the daughter of a London mercer^W and the first wife of John Elmes, a gentleman of Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. She was the tenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son John Elmes (died before 1653). Her father, Roger Coys, described himself in his will as “gentleman and citizen and mercer” of the City of London.

Marriage

When Roger Coys, a mercer of London, made his will in November 1578, his daughter Alice was one of four daughters still unmarried, each left a portion of one hundred marks, and another daughter was already the wife of Anthony Elmes, gentleman, whom Roger named one of his executors. That Anthony was most likely John’s brother, so two Coys sisters married two Elmes brothers. John Elmes and Alice Coys are said to have married at Harpsden on 5 October 1579.

Her son and her death

Their son John is said to have been baptized at Henley-on-Thames on 3 May 1585, and Alice to have been buried there ten days later, on 13 May. Before the year was out her husband had married again. Her family stayed close to the Elmeses: when John made his will in 1607/8 he named “my loving brother in lawe William Coyse esquire”, Alice’s brother, as one of its overseers.

Notes

Her father’s will

Roger Coys is written “Coise” and “Cois” in his will, which was made on 3 November 1578 and proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W on 24 March 1579/80. It leaves a third to “my wife Thomasyne”, names “my sonne William Cois” and “my brother William Cois”, and gives “to my doughters Alice Susanne ffraunces and Martha Cois to eche of them one of my porcions … the some of one hundred marks”. His sons-in-law Richard Blake, Anthony Elmes and Christopher Allen are named too; Anthony Elmes is an executor with William, and “my doughter Elmes his wife” is left a black gown and forty marks. John Elmes’s own will calls a living Anthony Elmes, esquire, his brother; that the two are the same man is an inference, though a close one.

Her marriage, son and burial

The Harpsden marriage, where she is written “Alice Coyse”, her burial at Henley on 13 May 1585 and the baptism of her son John on 3 May 1585 come from Robert Battle and Henry B. Hoff’s study of the family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2022). Her husband’s will confirms the tie to the Coys family through William Coyse. The article identifies the son baptized in 1585 as the John Elmes later of Rotherfield Greys, father of the emigrant Rodulphus Elmes; that is probable rather than proved.

Her mother

The 2022 article names her mother as Joan Warren. Her father’s will calls a Mr Warren “my brother”, which would fit, but it does not name her mother. His wife in 1578, Thomasyne, had a daughter of her own, Elizabeth Burkfolde, whom he calls “my wives doughter”.