5^th Great Grandfather - FFFFMFF¹

Jonathan Couch’s father John Jeffris Couch was born in 1717. His father was John Couch, but his mother’s first name is unknown.

John’s mother’s maiden name might be Jefferis, which would explain the unusual middle name. John’s mother and father had been married the previous year on 28^th Jan 1716² at St Philip and St Jacob parish in the City of Bristol and the register entry just refers to his mother as Mrs Jefferis (see Figure 1). Usually, this would mean that John’s mother had been previously married to a Mr. Jefferis, but then it would be unusual to use the middle name Jefferis for her and John Couch’s first son. If Jefferis was her maiden name there are quite a number of candidates who were born in Bristol about 1690, as Jefferis (usually spelt Jeffreys today) is quite a common last name.

John was baptised on the 26^th December 1717³ at St Philip and St Jacob in the City of Bristol. John’s younger brother was also baptised at St Philip and St Jacob just over a year later on 15^th January 1718/19⁴.

John married Mary Stratton at St Andrew’s Clifton on 26^th May 1740⁵. Sometime during the 1740s John and Mary settled in Hanham, as 4 of their 5 known children were baptised there, Sarah on 24^th September 1749⁶, Jonathan on 13^th October 1751⁷, Daniel on 28^th September 1755⁸ and Ann on 25^th September 1757⁹.

I have not been able to find a baptism for the fifth child George, but according to the journal of John’s grandson John, he was born in ~1749. There was quite a long time between John and Mary’s marriage in 1740 and the birth of the first children, so it is possible that John and Mary had other children who died in infancy whose baptism records have been lost.

John became active in the church and in 1757 he is recorded as Overseer of the Poor¹⁰. In the rate of 1762 that Hanham parish applied to land-owners within the parish for defraying the expenses incurred in church repairs, John is listed as the proprietor of 4 properties - Bickley’s, Castle Inn, Harris’s and part of Wattmores¹¹. In 1765 John was elected Church Warden¹², a position he held a few years during the late 18^th century.

In a further rate assessed in 1770, John is assessed for 2 additional properties, Lyddiards and Jones Mead¹³. John was still in possession of those 6 properties, plus one additional property - Huntington’s when the 1775 Land Tax Assessment was recorded (see Figure 4)¹⁴, where he was assessed £7 3s 2d for them.

Mary died on 9^th May 1799 and was buried at St. Mary, Bitton on 14^th May¹⁵. According to her grandson’s journal, she was 84 years old which would have made her birth ~1715. John died on 23^rd February 1802 and was buried at Bitton on 1^st Mar 1802¹⁶. In his will¹⁷, John leaves most of his estate to his grandson John, with smaller provisions for his granddaughters Salley and Mary, John’s sisters and the children of his daughter Ann.

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