♂Anthony Elmes

Anthony Elmes (died before 26 April 1574) was a gentleman of Bolney, in the parish of Harpsden near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, who married a daughter of Sir Humphrey Forster of Aldermaston, a Berkshire knight. He was the eleventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son John Elmes (1561–1607/8).

Early life

He was probably the Antony Elmes whose parents, Humphrey Elmes of Harpsden and his wife Elizabeth, both died in 1526. Humphrey made his will on 12 July that year. By 2 October Elizabeth was a widow and made hers, asking to be buried “in the Chapell of Saint Leonard in the parishe church of Henley upon Thamys” and for a stone to be laid “upon Humfrey Elmes my late husbond and me”. To “Antony Elmes my sonne” she left “a newe fetherbed a buckell of golde and a brasse pott”. She also provided for five daughters, Anne, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Katherine and Martha, and made her mother’s husband, Thomas Polsted, and her brother Henry Polsted her executors. Both wills were proved on 20 October 1526.

Marriage and family

Anthony married Margaret Forster, a daughter of Sir Humphrey Forster of Aldermaston. When Sir Humphrey made his will in September 1556 she was already “my doughter Margaret Elmes”, and he left her twenty pounds’ worth of household goods “in suche household stuff as she shall chose”. Two sons are known, both most likely Margaret’s: Anthony, the eldest son and heir, later styled esquire, and John, baptized at Harpsden on 10 April 1561.

Anthony is said to have died without a will, before 26 April 1574, when his widow Margaret was charged with accounting for his estate.

Notes

His parents

The Antony of the 1526 wills is taken to be Anthony of Bolney on the strength of Robert Battle and Henry B. Hoff’s study of the Elmes family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2022), which also cites a 1556 will of Henry Polsted naming “Anthonye Elmes Squier my nephew”. Both families belonged to Harpsden and Henley. The identification is probable rather than proved.

His sons

John’s baptism at Harpsden, which names his father as Anthony, is known from an index of the Oxfordshire Church of England registers. John’s will of 1607/8 names “my lovinge Brother Anthony Elmes esquire”, and a printed edition of the Oxfordshire heralds’ visitations^W calls that brother “Anthony Elmes, of Bowlmey, in Com. Oxon. eldest sonne and heire to Anthony”. Margaret is the only wife known for Anthony, and the 2022 article takes her to be the mother of both sons; it places the elder son’s birth about 1547.

His death

No will of his is known. The administration of 26 April 1574, in the court of the Archdeacon of Oxford, is known from an index cited in the 2022 article, which is also the source for his dying without a will.