♂Robert Chelsham

Robert Chelsham (died 1592) was a beer brewer of Kingston upon Thames, in Surrey, England. He was probably the tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Sarah Chelsham (baptized 1588). He married Mary Adnett at Kingston in January 1575/6, and when he died sixteen years later he left money to a son and five daughters and made his wife his executrix.

Early life and trade

The Kingston baptism register records the baptism of Robert, son of Robert, written Chelsun, on 18 April 1545. He was most likely that Robert Chelsham. In a Kingston deed of 27 August 1586 he is described as a beer brewer. He and John Gilpin, a tailor, were parties to it with their wives, Mary and her sister Agnes, the “daughters and heirs” of an Adnett “late of Kingston”.

Family

Robert Chelsam and Mary Hadnet, as the register writes their names, were married at Kingston on 16 January 1575/6. Eight children are known: daughters Susan, Rose, Grace, Mary, Magdalen, Sarah and Elizabeth, and a son John. Sarah was baptized at Kingston on 5 May 1588 and Elizabeth on 4 March 1589/90.

Death and will

Robert made his will on 25 August 1592, when Sarah was four. He left twenty-five pounds each to his daughters Susan, Mary, Magdalen, Sarah and Elizabeth and thirty pounds to his son John, made his wife Mary his executrix, and named his “brother” Mark Collins overseer. He died within the month: the will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W on 21 September 1592.

Notes

Sources

The Kingston upon Thames register entries for the family, the 1586 deed and an abstract of the 1592 will are printed in Robert Battle and Henry B. Hoff’s study of the English ancestry of Rodolphus Elmes in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2022). The register gives the marriage as “Robert Chelsam & Mary Hadnet”; the deed is known from the article’s note on it, which leaves the first name of the wives’ father blank.

His baptism

The baptism is in the FreeREG transcript of the Kingston All Saints register for 1538 to 1569, which records the baptism of Robert, son of Robert, on 18 April 1545 and writes the surname Chelsun. The article gives the same date and identifies him as “probably the Robert Chelsham, son of Robert, who was baptized 18 April 1545 in Kingston”. It names no parent for the elder Robert.

The identification with the brewer is an inference, not a record. In the transcript the only Robert baptized at Kingston in those years is this one; the other Robert of the Chelsham entries was buried at Dorking in 1558. The brewer is known from the 1586 deed and the 1592 will, so the link is one candidate, not a proof.

Sarah’s parentage

That the Sarah Chelsham who married John Elmes was Robert’s daughter is probable rather than proved. Her own will of 1653 names “my loving sister Elizabeth Sturmey” and makes “Mr John Chelsham” an overseer, and Robert’s daughter Elizabeth married Robert Sturme at Kingston on 27 February 1608/9.

“Brother” Mark Collins

In wills of the period “brother” was used of a brother-in-law as well as a brother, and the will does not say which of the two he was. Sarah’s will of 1653 named “my loving Cozen Mr Raph Collins” as her other overseer.

Rose and Grace

The will names five daughters and a son. Rose and Grace, counted among the children, are not named in it.