♀Jane Whitfield

Jane Whitfield (living 1584) was the wife of Richard Porter, a Sussex ironmaster of Bayham in the Wealden iron trade^W, and was carrying their eighth child when he made his will in August 1584, five days before his burial. She was the tenth great-grandmother of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through her daughter Jane Porter (baptized 1577).

Life with Richard Porter

She married Richard Porter at Worth, Sussex, on 13 July 1573; the register copy reads “Richard Porter and Jane Whytffeld weare maried.” Her husband’s will, made on 22 August 1584 as “Richarde Porter of Begham in the Countye of Sussex beinge sicke in bodye”, calls her “Jane my wief”. The will does not give her maiden name; the couple had married at Worth, her father’s parish, not at Frant, the Porters’ own. The will calls two men “brother”, Thomas Aynscombe and Thomas Whitefield, a word that then covered a brother-in-law on either side. The will of Richard’s brother George shows that Aynscombe had married a Porter sister, so he was not Jane’s brother. Her father’s will of 1591 names her brother Thomas as his son and executor; Richard’s will does not say whether its Thomas Whitefield was that man.

Her father was Robert Whitfield of Worth in Sussex, with copyhold lands at Wadhurst, so her maiden name was Whitfield. A pedigree compiled for the 1619 Visitation of Kent, a heraldic visitation^W, gives her as the daughter of Robert Whitfield of Wadhurst (see Notes). Her father’s will of 6 December 1591 names her among his daughters, with her sister Joan Baker, and her sister Joan’s son, Robert Baker of Bayham, was the first husband of her daughter Elizabeth Porter.

Her mother, Agnes Atwood, was buried at Worth on 20 September 1591, the register calling her “wife of Robert gent.” Her father died on 9 December 1597, and a compiled family history gives his burial at Emmington, near Thame in Oxfordshire. Her sisters Frances and Margaret both married at Worth in 1576, to Richard Harris and to Thomas Digons, and her brothers were Thomas of Mortlake, who married Mildred Manning, and William, vicar of Mayfield, who married Mary Kempe.

The couple had at least seven children. Six were baptized at Frant between January 1575/76 and June 1583, among them the younger Jane on 8 April 1577; an elder daughter, Mary, named first in the will, does not appear in the Frant baptisms. The will provided for a further child “yet unborne”: two hundred pounds if a girl and three hundred if a boy. Jane herself received household goods, cattle and corn, and two hundred pounds within three months. Richard was buried at Frant five days after making the will, on 27 August 1584, and the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W records its probate as 5 September 1584. The Frant register holds no baptism of the expected child, and no later marriage or burial of a Jane Porter.

Second marriage and widowhood

Jane later married Edward Quinby, Esquire, of Titchfield in Hampshire. The date is not recorded, but it fell between Richard’s burial in 1584 and Edward’s will, made on 3 February 1612/13, which names her as his wife. That will was proved on 28 February 1613/14, so Jane was a widow by then.

On 6 August 1618 Jane Quinby, widow, made her own will at St Margaret’s in the parish of Titchfield. A codicil of 25 June 1621 gives her residence as Lamberhurst in Kent, where her son John Porter lived. The will and codicil were proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 17 June 1624.

Her will named her children: her son Thomas; her daughters Jane, who had married Edmund Hawes, Mary Goodman and Susan; her sons Richard and John; and a daughter whom the will calls “Fowell”, probably Elizabeth. Her son John was made sole executor. Susan was probably the child expected in 1584.

Notes

Maiden name and father

The 1619 Visitation of Kent (Harleian Society vol. 42, 1898), p.155, is a heraldic pedigree compiled from the family’s own report, not a parish record. It gives Richard Porter of Bayham as married to “Jana filia Rob’ti Whitfeild de Wadhurst”. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England, vol. 2, pp.1354 and 1437, gives the same father, “Robertus Whitfield de Wadhurst”, and calls Jane a sister of Thomas Whitfield of Mortlake. The Hawes family history of 1906 (p.12 footnote) gives the father as “Robert Whitfield, of Worth in the same county”. The father’s own will, made 6 December 1591 and proved 16 February 1597/98 (Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PCC Lewyn 18; Waters, vol. 2, p.1345), calls him “Robert Whytfeld of Worth in Sussex gent.” and his copyhold lands lay at Wadhurst, so the Visitation and Hawes do not conflict (see Robert Whitfield’s bio). The Thomas of the 1584 will is most likely her brother, Thomas Whitfield of Mortlake: Robert Baker of Withyham’s will of 1585 names “my brother in law Thomas Whitfield” beside “my father in law Robert Whitfilde”.

Her marriage and family

The marriage of 13 July 1573 is in the Worth register, in a copy certified against the original (“Exam. concordat cum orig.”). The 1591 burial of Agnes and the 1576 marriages of Frances and Margaret are in the same register; Margaret’s is taken here as 11 November 1576; the numeral is faint in the copy, and other transcripts give the 12th or the 17th. The death and burial of Robert Whitfield, and the marriages of Thomas and William, come from Threlfall, The Ancestry of Reverend Henry Whitfield (1989), a compiled family history that cites the Emmington register for Robert. The Visitation of Sussex (Harleian Society vol. 53, 1905), p.97, a heraldic pedigree, lists the children without dates. Threlfall also gives Robert an earlier wife, Ann Roberts of Brenchley, and says it is not known which children were hers; the heralds put Jane, like all her brothers and sisters, under Agnes.

Second marriage

Edward Quinby’s will, dated 3 February 1612 (1612/13), describes him as “Edward Quinbuye of Allington, co. Southampton, Esq.” and was proved on the last day of February 1613/14 (Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PCC Lawe 18). Waters, vol. 2, pp.1436-7, prints its bequest “To my well beloved wife Jane Quinbuye three score pounds yearly”. Jane’s own 1618 will gives her residence as St Margaret’s, Titchfield. The marriage date is not recorded; the records place it between 1584 and 1613.

The 1618 will and the codicil

The will of 6 August 1618 and the codicil of 25 June 1621 were proved on 17 June 1624 (PCC PROB 11/144, Byrde 115). The register copy of the legacy clauses reads: “Item I give to Jeane Hawes my daughter twentye pounds … Item I give unto my Children Richard Porter Mary Godman Susan Porter and John Porter five pounds a peece … Item I give to my daughter ffowell to buy a peece of plate the some of five pounds.” The register spells the name Godman; Waters gives her husband’s surname as Goodman. The codicil opens “Item I Jane Quinby of Lamberst widdoe”, and the register spelling Lamberst is taken as Lamberhurst in Kent. The codicil also leaves twenty pounds to “Jane Hawes my grand daughter”.

Waters (vol. 2, p.1436) prints the same clause as “my grandchildren”; the register’s word is “children”, so the printed word is a misprint.

Susan and Elizabeth

Waters (p.1354) gives four daughters, Mary, Jane, Elizabeth and Susan, and the 1619 Visitation lists “Susanna” last among the children. Susan’s birth about 1585 and her identity with the child expected in August 1584 are inferences. The will’s “daughter ffowell” is probably Elizabeth, whom the Visitation records as married first to Robert Baker of Witham and then to Anthony Fowle. Both identifications rest on names alone.