William Hanks of Hartly, Bradford on Avon (Born ~1743)

5^th Great Grandfather – FFFMMFF¹

I believe that William Hanks was tha father of Thomas Hanks my 4^th great grandfather. I do not have any definitive evidence for this claim but I am fairly confident based a few pieces of information that lead me to this conclusion.

The first is that William Hanks in his will declares that he is ” of Hartly” a Hamlet that is just north of Winsley, Wiltshire. This William Hanks mentions his son Thomas in his will, and Thomas, likewise in his will mentions that one of his messuages is called Hartley House and that he also owns other land in Hartley, so I think its a pretty safe bet that this William Hanks was the father of Thomas, and therefore is my 5^th great grandfather.

William was born in the early 1740’s. Again, I have no direct evidence regarding his parentage, but I believe his parents were William and Amy (nee Holloway) Hanks of Bathford, Somerset. William and Amy were married at St Swithuns, Bathford on the 18^th May 1743². There is a gap in the baptism records for the parish from late 1743 until 1754, so its possible that William was baptised during this period.

One intriguing possibility is that it appears that Amy possibly had children prior to her marriage to William, one of whom’s name is probably William, although it is difficult to read. This child was baptised on 21^st January 1738/39³. If this was the case, William may have taken his step-father’s name.

William married Prudence Edwards in Monkton Farleigh on 25^th April 1761. Prudence was from Monkton Farleigh and the Banns were read in both Bathford⁴ and Monkton Farleigh⁵.

William and Prudence initially settled in Monkton Farleigh, as there first two children were baptised there, William on 27^th December 1761⁶ and Samuel on 11^th September 1763⁷.

Thomas was born about 1765 according to the age reported on his death certificate but I haven’t been able to find his baptism record. According to my great aunt Nell’s notes [see FEN], John was born about 1778, but again I have not been able to find a baptism record. The last two children Mary and Prudence were both baptised on 24^th August 1781⁸ at Bradford on Avon. Whether they were twins is not identified.

William was obviously quite successful as in 1798, according to the Land Tax Redemption he was the owner of some property in Hartley⁹. William died in 1807, being buried at Winsley on 25^th September of that year¹⁰. His wife Prudence lived a further 2 years being buried at Winsley on 5th July 1809¹¹. William left his property to be split between his 5 surviving children with William and Thomas acting as co-Executors¹²

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