Francis Fane Taylor of Winsley, Wiltshire (Born 1802)

3^rd Great Grandfather – FFFMF¹

Elsewhere on this site, I describe the life of my 2nd Great Grandfather Robert Nurse who married Ann Jane Taylor.  Ann Jane Taylor was the eldest daughter of Francis Fane Taylor of Winsley in Wiltshire.  In this article I will describe the life of Francis Fane Taylor, who was a Farmer nr Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire.

Francis Fane Taylor was born in Farley, Wiltshire - just to the east of Salisbury - to Henry and Jane Taylor.²

Francis’s parents moved quite a lot during the early 1800s but by the time Francis was grown up the family had moved to Bearfield, in Bradford on Avon, where his father was a Farmer³.  Francis married Mary Hanks, by license, at St. Nicholas, Winsley on 1 Sept 1825⁴. Francis was a carpenter, and Francis and Mary lived at “Bleak House” in Winsley Village, where the older children were born.

Bleak House is a Grade II listed building.⁵ According to the description on British Listed Buildings, it was built in 1824. I am not sure if Francis and Mary were the original owners or whether they moved in later but members of the family resided there up until 1945, as Ann Jane Taylor was living there with her younger brother Charles when she died in 1912⁶, and her daughter Alice Nurse was living there when she died in 1945⁷.

Francis and Mary had five children Ann Jane, the eldest and only daughter and four boys, Thomas, George, James and Charles. The oldest 4 children were baptised in St. Nicholas, Winsley, Ann Jane on 4^th June 1826⁸, Thomas on 9^th August 1829⁹, George on 17^th November 1833¹⁰ and James on 15^th January 1837¹¹ but there is no record of Charles’ baptism. He is however mentioned in the 1841 Census.¹²

After some years Francis and Mary Taylor went to live at Bradford Leigh Farm, where they lived for many years¹³. Anne Jane, the only daughter, worked at home until she married. She was a clever needlewoman – she did very beautiful lace darning on both black and white.

Her great achievement was a long white shawl darned in patterns at both. She wore this shawl as her wedding veil and Janet Anne Nurse her great grand daughter (my aunt) wore it at her wedding in Hanham Parish Church on June 21 1947, it having been lent to her for the occasion by her cousins Harold and Bertha Nurse. (see Nurse (1953))

Ann Jane married Robert Nurse at St Michael’s Two Mile Hill on 30th May 1854, and settled with her husband at the Rose and Crown, St George - a public house in a fairly good area on the eastern outskirts of Bristol.

Ann Jane’s aunt Eliza Williams (nee Hanks) was living in St George in the early 1850s, and I expect she met Robert when visiting her Aunt.

Francis Fane Taylor died in 1867 and was buried in Winsley on 5^th December 1867¹⁴ In his will he left Bradford Leigh Farm to his son Charles, who by then was operating the farm¹⁵. Mary Taylor lived for another 11 years, dying in 1878. She was buried at Winsley on the 7^th December 1878¹⁶

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