♂John Elmes

John Elmes (died before August 1653) was a man of Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, where four of his children were baptized between January 1617/18 and March 1624/5. He was the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Rodulphus Elmes (1620–1712), who sailed for New England in 1635 at the age of fifteen.

Early life

He was probably the John Elmes baptized at Henley-on-Thames on 3 May 1585, the son of John Elmes the elder and his first wife, Alice Coys. His mother was buried at Henley ten days later, on 13 May 1585, and before the year was out his father had married again, to Margery Woodroffe, who was his stepmother until her death in 1601. His father, who described himself in his will as “John Elmes the elder of the parishe of Rotherfield Graye”, made that will on 9 February 1607/8 and was buried at Henley a month later. It named John, his eldest son, as executor, so at about twenty-two he took charge of his father’s affairs.

Marriage and family

When and where John Elmes and Sarah Chelsham married is not known. Their children were born near Henley-on-Thames, in Oxfordshire: a son Anthony seems to have been baptized at Henley in August 1611, and four more children - Margaretta, Rodulphus, Jonathan and Henricus - were baptized at Rotherfield Greys between January 1617/18 and March 1624/5, Rodulphus on 27 August 1620. The family is said to have lost two small children, a son John in 1609 and a daughter Sara in 1616.

In April 1635 Rodulphus, then fifteen, was licensed at London to sail for New England in the Planter. By 1648 the family appears to have settled at Kingston upon Thames, Sarah’s birthplace, where John was described as a yeoman.

Death

He died before 25 August 1653, when Sarah made her will as a widow of the parish of St Saviour in Southwark.

Notes

His parentage

His baptism and the names of his mother and stepmother come from Robert Battle and Henry B. Hoff’s study of the family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2022), which traces him as the son of John Elmes the elder (baptized at Harpsden in 1561), who married Alice Coys at Harpsden on 5 October 1579 and Margery Woodroffe there on 6 December 1585. The elder John’s will, proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W on 15 March 1607/8, names his eldest son John as executor. That this son is the John Elmes of Rotherfield Greys whose children were baptized there from 1617/18 is probable rather than proved.

His wife and children

The Rotherfield Greys register names only the father of Margaretta, Rodolphus, Jonathan and Henricus; no record of his marriage is known. Sarah is taken to be his wife because her 1653 will names sons Radolphus “now in parts beyond the Seas”, Jonathan, Henry and Anthony and a daughter Margaret, and because the 2022 article ties her to him. The baptism of “Anthonie”, son of John, at Henley on 25 August 1611 is known from an index; the two children who died young, and an earlier John baptized at Henley in March 1609/10, are from the 2022 article, which also cites a 1647 will of this couple’s son John.

Kingston in 1648

The record behind the move to Kingston is a Haberdashers’ Company entry of 8 December 1648, printed in the 2022 article, for “Jonathan Elmes fil[ius] Johnis Elmes de Kingston super Thames yeoman”. It does not say whether John was then still alive.