♂Roger Coys

Roger Coys (died 1579) was a mercer^W of the City of London who described himself in his will as “gentleman and citizen and mercer” of the city. He was the eleventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Alice Coys (died 1585).

His will and family

“Citizen and mercer” was the style of a freeman of the City who belonged to the Mercers’ Company^W. When Roger made his will on 3 November 1578 he was married to Thomasyne, who was left a third share, and he named her daughter, Elizabeth Burkfolde, as well. His son William and his son-in-law Anthony Elmes, gentleman, were to be his executors, and Anthony’s wife, Roger’s daughter, was left a black gown and forty marks. Four daughters were still unmarried, Alice, Susan, Frances and Martha, and each was to have a portion of one hundred marks. Another son-in-law, Christopher Allen, gentleman, was named an overseer.

John Elmes and Alice Coys are said to have married at Harpsden on 5 October 1579, eleven months after the will was made. John was a gentleman of Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, and the Anthony Elmes of the will was most likely his brother, so two of Roger’s daughters married two Elmes brothers. Roger died before 24 March 1579/80, when his will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W.

Notes

His will

He is written “Roger Coise” in the will and his children “Cois”: “I give to my doughters Alice Susanne ffraunces and Martha Cois to eche of them one of my porcions … the some of one hundred marks”. The will also names “my brother William Cois”, a Mr Warren whom he calls “my brother”, and a third son-in-law, Richard Blake. The date of 3 November 1578 is the one given by the 2022 study of the Elmes family cited below; the proving date comes from the index to the court’s wills.

Alice’s marriage

The Harpsden marriage comes from Robert Battle and Henry B. Hoff’s study of the Elmes family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2022). John Elmes’s own will of 1607/8 names “my loving brother in lawe William Coyse esquire”, which bears out the tie to Roger’s family. John’s father, also Anthony, was dead by 1574, so the son-in-law of 1578 was not he; John’s will names a living brother Anthony Elmes, esquire. That the two are the same man is an inference, though a close one.

Alice’s mother

The 2022 article names Alice’s mother as Joan Warren, Roger’s first wife. The will does not name her, but his calling a Mr Warren “my brother” would fit. Thomasyne, his wife in 1578, had a daughter of her own, whom he calls “my wives doughter”.