5^th Great Grandfather - FFMMFFF¹

Thomas Willis, Samuel Willis’s father was born about 1714, the son of William Willis and his wife Sarah. He was baptized at Hanham Abbots on 22^nd August 1714² and he was one of 6 children.

Thomas married Elizabeth Hicks on 16^th April 1734³ at St Philip and St Jacob in the City of Bristol. I haven’t been able to find out anything about Elizabeth’s ancestry, or why Thomas was resident in the the parish of St Philip and St Jacob, but given that there are no other marriages of a Thomas Willis and any woman named Elizabeth, and Thomas mentions his wife in his will, I am fairly confident that this marriage is correct.

Over the next 25 years Thomas and Elizabeth had 12 children (see Figure 3) , most of whom were baptised at St George’s Hanham Abbots.

Eight of their children grew to adulthood and were married and had families of their own. Robert the eldest boy married Elizabeth Bright in 1768 at St Mary, Bitton⁴. Elizabeth must have died as Robert was married to Hester Tucker in 1783 st St Augustine the Less in Bristol⁵. He had one child by Elizabeth, who died in infancy, and two children, Elizabeth and Thomas by Hester, who both grew to adulthood.

Elizabeth the eldest married Thomas Waters in 1779⁶, Katherine married William Derrick in 1767⁷, Bethia married Samuel Lapham in 1770⁸, Thomas married Mary Frampton in 1777⁹, Hester married William Lear in 1776¹⁰ and Susanna married Morris Britten in 1778¹¹, all of these marriages were in St Mary, Bitton. As mentioned above, Samuel my 4^th great grandfather married Sarah Rawbone, also at St Mary, Bitton in 1774.

Thomas was quite involved in parish life. In 1762 and again in 1777 he served as Church Warden. Interestingly, there are two entries in the Church Warden’s Accounts for 1762. One just says “Thomas Willis for Burnells, 1762”¹², which implies that to be Church Warden at the time you had to be a landowner within the parish, while the other is the usual record of the vote¹³ (see Figure 4).

Also in 1762, the parish applied a rate of six pence in the pound on all the landowners in the parish and Thomas was required to pay 4s 6d for Burnells¹⁴. The rates were charged when major work was required on the church, or when the chappel funds were low. A total of £15 2s 5d was raised from this rate. A further rate of three pence in the pound was applied in 1770 so Thomas was required to pay 2s 3d¹⁵.

By 1775 Thomas had aquired quite a lot of property, as the Land Tax Assessment of 1775¹⁶ required him to pay the sum of £2 4s 4d for 5 pieces of property (see Figure 5). Thomas is noted as an Assessor for 1780¹⁷, 1782¹⁸ and 1784¹⁹ Land Tax Assessments

Thomas died in 1786 and was buried at St Mary, Bitton on 22^nd Mar 1786²⁰. His wife Elizabeth died 6 years later in 1792 and was buried at St Mary, Bitton on 1^st Feb 1792²¹.

In his will, Thomas left his Estate to his children Robert, Samuel, Thomas, Elizabeth, Bethia, Hester and Susanna and his grand-daughter Ann, daughter of his deceased daughter Katherine.

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