♂John Elmes

John Elmes (baptized 10 April 1561 – buried 9 March 1607/8) was a gentleman of Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, and a grandson of Sir Humphrey Forster of Aldermaston, a Berkshire knight. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son John Elmes (died before 1653). When he made his will in February 1607/8, “beynge weake in bodye”, he left a house in Friday Street to one son, money to three more children, and all the rest of his lands in Henley-on-Thames, Rotherfield Greys and Kingsey to his eldest son John.

Early life

He was baptized at Harpsden, Oxfordshire, on 10 April 1561, the son of Anthony Elmes. His mother, Margaret, was a daughter of Sir Humphrey Forster, who had died some five years before John was born; in his will of September 1556 Sir Humphrey left “my doughter Margaret Elmes” twenty pounds’ worth of household goods, “in suche household stuff as she shall chose”. John’s father died in 1574, when John was about thirteen.

Marriages and family

When Roger Coys, a mercer^W 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.

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 John married again, to Margery Woodroffe, at Harpsden on 6 December 1585. They had two sons, Forster and Richard, and two daughters, Anne and Margaret. Margery died before him and was probably buried in April 1601.

Will and death

On 9 February 1607/8 “John Elmes thelder of the parishe of Rotherfeild Graye in the Countie of Oxon gent.” made his will. To his son Forster he left a house on the south side of Friday Street in Rotherfield Greys, to pass to Richard after him. Richard was to have £150 at twenty-one, and Anne and Margaret £150 each at twenty-four or on marrying; Anne was also left all the clothes of her mother, his late wife.

Everything else - his lands in the parishes of Henley-on-Thames, Rotherfield Greys and Kingsey - went to his eldest son John, whom he made sole executor. He named as overseers his brother Anthony Elmes, esquire, his nephew Humfrey Elmes, and “my loving brother in lawe William Coyse esquire”, Alice’s brother, twenty-three years after her death. He was buried at Henley-on-Thames on 9 March 1607/8, and on 15 March his son John swore to the will in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W.

Notes

His baptism, marriages and burial

The baptism at Harpsden (“son of Anthony”) and the burial at Henley (“Mr John Elmes”) are known from an index of the Oxfordshire Church of England registers. Robert Battle and Henry B. Hoff’s study of the family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2022) gives the same dates, and is the source for both Harpsden marriages, where his first wife is written “Alice Coyse”, for Alice’s burial on 13 May 1585, and for Margery’s burial on 29 April 1601. The will itself bears out the first marriage: it calls William Coyse his brother-in-law, and Roger Coys’s will names a son William and a daughter Alice.

His mother

Sir Humphrey Forster’s will names “my doughter Margaret Elmes”, and the 1566 heralds’ visitation of Berkshire, as printed in the 2022 article, calls her “seconde doughter maried to Anthony Elmes of Bowlnehaye in com Oxon esquire”. The name John gave his son Forster fits that descent. The 2022 article also says that his father died without a will, by April 1574.

The two Elmes brothers

Roger Coys’s will makes “my sonne in lawe Anthonie Elmes gentleman” an executor and leaves “my doughter Elmes his wife” a black gown and forty marks. John’s father Anthony was dead by 1574, so the son-in-law of 1578 was not he; John’s own will names a living “Brother Anthony Elmes esquire”. That the two are the same man is an inference, though a close one.

His eldest son

The will makes the eldest son John sole executor, and the probate calls him “filii naturalis et legitimi”, the deceased’s natural and lawful son. The 2022 article identifies him as the John Elmes baptized at Henley on 3 May 1585, Alice’s son, who later lived at Rotherfield Greys and was the father of Rodulphus Elmes, the emigrant to New England. That identification is probable rather than proved.