4^th Great Grandfather - FFMMMF¹

Dinah Leonard, Robert Willis’s wife was the daughter of Samuel Leonard. The Leonard family were fairly well off, many of them being called Yeoman.

Samuel Leonard was born about 1740 to Samuel Leonard and his wife Dinah Cool. While I have been able to find out quite a lot about Samuel Leonard the Elder, I haven’t been able to find as much about the son.

Samuel married Sarah Foord on 28^th April 1766 at St Mary Redcliffe² in the City of Bristol (see Figure 1).

I believe that Sarah came from Keynsham. There are quite a few Ford/Foord families in the Keynsham registers during the first half of the 18^th century. Regardless, Samuel and Sarah settled in Keynsham as the first child Robert Foord Leonard was baptised there on 8^th June 1767³, and Mary Foord Leonard was baptised there on 26^th Jan 1784⁴, although I believe she was born much earlier than that in about 1768.

By the early 1770’s the family had moved to Hanham, and Fanny and Solomon were both baptised on 22^nd September 1771⁵ at Hanham church. In addition to my 3^rd great grandmother Dinah Leonard, Samuel and Sarah had another son Samuel, whose baptism I have not found⁶.

Dinah, however, was baptised, althogh much later, at the age of 27, not long before she married Robert Willis, at Hanham on 2^nd November 1807⁷ (see Figure 3.

Samuel was a property owner in the Hanham parish and as such was one of those present at a meeting of the “Owners and Occupiers of Estates ithin the Hamblet of Hanham” called for 24^th December, 1782, to discuss whether to pay a rate to help the parent parish of Bitton with its church repairs, as his name is marked in the Churchwarden’s Accounts⁸ (see Figure 4).

There is no record in the Churchwarden’s accounts of the collection of the money, it is probable that the information was recorded in the accounts of Bitton parish. However in the Gloucestershire Land Tax returns for 1784, Samuel is recorded as the Owner of 2 properties - Dunns and Bridge House, for which he was assessed £1 10s(^4.5.7]. In 1786, in addition to these two properties in Hanham, for which he was again assessed £1 10s⁹, he is also shown as the owner of 4 properties in Oldland - Highetts, Isles Kittmead and Hick’s, where he is assessed £1 4s 6d¹⁰. In 1800, he is no longer listed as the owner of the Hanham properties, and for only 3 of the Oldland properties¹¹.

I have not been able to find any burial record for either Samuel or Sarah. However, I believe Samuel died in 1809, as there is a Death Duty Register entry for a Samuel Leonard of Bitton for 7^th September 1809¹², and Samuel’s son Robert Foord Leonard was granted Administration the same day claiming his father died intestate¹³.

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