♀Susan Lawrance

Susan Lawrance (died 1610) was the wife of Henry Sherman, a clothier of Dedham, in Essex, England, and the mother of at least ten children. She outlived her husband by barely two weeks, and in the will she made three days after his burial she remembered her children, her grandchildren and “Robert Salmons Sonne my great Grandchild”. She was most likely the tenth great-grandmother of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through her son Samuel Sherman (1573–1616).

Family

Susan was probably a daughter of John Lawrence of South Elmham, in Suffolk, a preacher remembered as “the grave and godly minister”, and was probably born about 1548. In 1601 William Garrard of Dedham, the husband of her sister Alice, named Susan’s husband in his will among his “brothers-in-law Thomas Lawrence and Henry Sherman”. Her husband left his best cloak to “my brother Lawrence of Esthorpe”, and in 1600 Henry and Thomas Lawrence of Easthorpe, a yeoman, were sued together for twenty pounds each.

Henry Sherman and Susan Lawrance are said to have married at Moze, in Essex, on 14 June 1568. Their children were baptized at Dedham from Phebe in 1570 to Ezekiel in 1587, with Henry, Samuel, Anne, Nathaniel and John between them; Daniel and Edmund were born to them as well, and a first Nathaniel probably died as a baby in 1580. Wood’s study of the family counts a daughter Mary among their children, baptized at Dedham in 1592; she probably died young, as neither parent’s will of 1610 names her. Nine of the children lived to be named in their parents’ wills in 1610.

Widowhood and will

Henry made his will on 21 August 1610 and was buried at Dedham on 28 August. He made Susan his sole executrix and left her the house and its lands for her life, with its woad house, sixty pounds, eight of his best milch cows, his black ambling mare and half the household goods.

On 31 August Susan made her own will as “Susan Shearman of Dedham in ye County of Essex, Widdow being sicke of body”. She shared her goods among all her children: the silver and gilt salt and her best tapestry covering to Henry, whom she made her executor; the six silver spoons “wch my husband gave mee marked wth E and S” and the parlour featherbed to Samuel; money to Daniel, Nathaniel, Ezekiel and Edmund; the parlour cupboard to John; a cow, a silver cup and a needlework cushion to Phebe Fenn, and two beasts, a cushion and a Danske chest to Anne Whiting. Samuel’s daughter Mary had a joined chest, Daniel’s daughter Susan a table, and Robert Salmon’s son a cow. Her black mare went to Mr. Rogers, most likely the Dedham preacher her husband had also remembered. She signed with her mark.

Death

Susan proved her husband’s will at Colchester on 8 September, through her proctor George Cole, but she did not live to settle his estate. By 12 September she too was dead: that day, at Chelmsford, her son Henry proved her will and took over the administration of his father’s goods. She was buried at Dedham on 13 September 1610, entered in the register only as the wife of Henry Sharman the elder.

Notes

Her name and family

Susan’s maiden name and the marriage at Moze on 14 June 1568 rest on Thomas Townsend Sherman’s Sherman Genealogy (1920), which cites the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 67, p. 154. Her father comes from Michael Johnson Wood’s study of the family (NEHGR 167 (2013): 38–43), which joins Bishop Thomas Tanner’s pedigree of the South Elmham preacher to the Moze and Dedham records; the pedigree is Wood’s reconstruction, no record seen names her father, and her mother is unknown. The will of William Garrard (16 February 1600/1) is the one document that ties her to the family, through her brother Thomas. In wills of the period “brother” often meant a brother-in-law, so the “brother Lawrence of Esthorpe” of Henry’s will was most likely one of her own family; Sherman Genealogy sets the 1600 lawsuit against Thomas Lawrence of Easthorpe and Henry beside that line of the will without saying more.

Her daughter Mary

Wood numbers eleven children of Henry and Susan, the last of them Mary, baptized at Dedham on 25 July 1592 (NEHGR 167 (2013): 35–54, at 44–45). The FreeREG transcription of the register gives 27 July 1592. Wood says she died “evidently before her parents as she was not mentioned in either’s will.” Neither will of 1610 names her.

The wills

Both wills are printed in full in Sherman Genealogy, pp. 73–79, from the Consistory Court of London register “Hamer”. The quoted words follow that text. The book does not say who Robert Salmon was; the will of Simon Fenn, the husband of Susan’s daughter Phebe, names a daughter Susan Salmon and “my son Robert Salmon”, so the great-grandchild was most likely Phebe’s grandson. The black mare left to Mr. Rogers was most likely the black ambling mare Henry had left her.

Death and burial

The grant of 12 September 1610, made at Chelmsford, calls her “jam etiam defuncta”, now also dead, so she died between 31 August, when she made her will, and 12 September. The Dedham register as transcribed for FreeREG records her burial on 13 September 1610 with no forename, as the wife of the Henry Sharman “the elder” buried on 28 August.