Answers

MADDOX & GLASCOCK, Wormley, 17/18th century

May, 2008

Basil Maddox (jennbas @t aol.com) of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, writes I am researching family genealogy for a book, and to keep my children in touch with their English heritage, and hope that you can help me fill in an important gap in my knowledge - albeit it goes back a little before your 1700 deadline. 

Here is my one question: "Can you find any traces of the presence in Wormley, Herts, of Benjamin Maddox and Dorothy Glascock, whose marriage took place, perhaps in Wormley, around 1667-70, or of their descendents, notably a daughter Jane Rudyard. Did any of them own the original Wormley Bury?"

Dorothy's father was Sir William Glascock, LL.D., Master in Chancery, of Wormley, Herts, and his son-in-law Sir Benjamin Maddox (knighted 1675) is recorded as being 'of Wormley Bury, Herts'. Another clue is that in 1710 Sir Benjamin conveyed 14 acres called Oakells in Codecote, from the rent setting up a charity which paid a stipend of £6 to the rector of Wormley. The charity still exists.

However Sir Benjamin was not himself from Wormley - he had a house in Great Marlborough Street, London, and also owned the Manor House in Little Bookham, Surrey.  Perhaps that came later. He inherited numerous properties from his father and grandfather.

For the Hertfordshire connection to make sense, I speculate that Sir William Glascock - perhaps a person of note in Cromwell's time - may have been the owner of a manor which pre-dated the present Wormley Bury (built 1765), and that Sir Benjamin acquired it through his marriage. However I did not see any of these names on the Wormley Bury website.

As requested, here is my research to this point.

I have a family tree ( henceforth 'The Tree') researched by my great uncle Charles Maddox, of which I have a copy in his hand dated March 1891. So all his resources preceded that date. The ones tagged against specific names as shown are:

i) Publications of the Harleian Society (which still exists).
ii) Curiosities of Hertfordshire (pre-1891 of course).
iii) Burke's extinct baronetage.
iv) Herald's Visitation of the county of Herts 15th and 16th centuries.
v) British Heraldry.

I don't need to give you the whole Tree, except to say that Sir Benjamin (ref. iii) was born 1644 and died 1716. He was granted Arms in 1676 - a Bengal Tiger pass guard, dually gorged (ref.v). His father, also Benjamin Maddox (d.1665) of Cornhill, is my great (x6) grandfather, as I am descended in direct line from Sir Benjamin's brother Thomas. Their grandfather William owned several London properties, listed in Wikipedia, and Sir Benjamin possibly inherited all of it. Maddox Street in London was named after him in 1720.

The Tree gives Dorothy's lineage also. Sir William Glascock's grandfather was from Felstead Essex, and his father (William of Aldhawkhurst Essex) is also from Essex, but Sir William's ref. is iv) above, so it looks as if he moved to Herts! The reference for Sir William is ref. i). He married Mary, daughter of William Shere , "of London". But maybe Shere was also from Wormley?

Sir Benjamin and Dorothy had no sons. They had two daughters. Jane married Robert Rudyard. Dorothy ( elsewhere named Mary?) married Edward Pollen; their son Benjamin Pollen inherited the Little Bookham Manor which was still in the Pollen name in 1900 and is now a boarding school. Maddox Lane is nearby. So if elder sister Jane Rudyard (ref.ii)  was a "curiosity of Hertfordshire", perhaps she stayed in Wormley. I speculate that Sir Benjamin might have left one house to each daughter, but the Tree does not mention any descendants for Jane and Robert. 

Various websites add a little to the Maddox side of the family, but I have not located the Glascocks. I would very much like to know if they were Royalists - it seems likely from the various church connections. Sir Benjamin's nephew Dr. Isaac Maddox became Lord Bishop of  Worcester, so I doubt if the rest of the family were either Catholic or Puritan! I wonder if the parish records of Wormley go back far enough to add anything.

One of the reasons why I prefer to duck questions before 1700 is that without the restriction I get innumerable queries from people (usually from the USA) who, having never done any serious genealogy research themselves, have found an old family tree. They take the earliest name on the tree (which had defeated the person who had drawn up the tree) and simply ask "Can you tell me the parents of xxxx who was born in Hertfordshire sometime between 1600 and 1620?" They give absolutely no background but expect me to be able to give a full answer without their having to waste their time by providing me with enough information to allow me to consider a serious reply.

Your question is the delightful exception in that you provided much highly relevant information - and so I have carried out a more detailed search than I would normally do.

Your question about records of the marriage between Benjamin Maddox and Dorothy Glascock may be "answered" by the fact that the marriage registers for Wormley parish Church before 1685 have been lost. The usual fallback when the registers are missing are the Bishop's Transcripts but these are even worse with none surviving for Wormley before 1800 (see Tracing Your Family History in Hertfordshire - which is a useful guide to the various type of local records that may be available). Their marriage is not mentioned in the online Hertfordshire marriage index on the HALS website.

Because the standard ancient histories of Hertfordshire are strong on the ownership of manors, but may not be easily available to you, I decided to start by looking there for any connection between Maddox or Glascock and Wormleybury:

Chauncy, writing in 1700, records that:

In this Parish there is a small Seat heretofore erected by Mr. Tooke, called Farnebeds, which was since sold to Sir Benjamin Maddox, who by Letters Patents dated the 11th of March, 1675, 28 Car. II was created Baronet, and has been a Justice of the Peace divers years for this County.

The Tooke family were Lords of the Manor of Wormley for most of the 17th century. This, and later references, show that Fernbeds was a small [freehold] estate situated within the manor of Wormley and was distinct from Wormleybury. Fernbeds is marked on Dury and Andrews' 1766 Map of Hertfordshire. The Victoria County History (1912) say that "Hill House" occupies the site of an older house called Fernbeds.

Chauncy also records the following monument on the wall of the Church:

Proprè hic (in Cæmeterio) jacet Dame Mary Glasscock, late wife of Sir William Glascock, Kt. and formerly the wife of Francis Foster, Esq; Deceased. She died the last day of the Month, 1670, without Issue. She was the Daughter of Arthur Sheere, Esq; and Mary (Gardiner) his wife, both Deceased.

As Mary Glascock nee Shere died without issue she cannot have been the mother of Dorothy Glascock who married Benjamin Maddox, so presumably Sir William Glasscock married twice.

Salmon (1728) is far more helpful:

Sir Benjamin Maddox, Bart, in 1710 gave £320. with which was purchased a Farm of Lands of £10 per Annum, in Codicote, in this County, and £5 per Annum in Waltham in Essex. Ten Pounds of this, as a Rent-Charge, he augmented the Rectory with; the rest is to be divided every Christmas amongst the ancientest poor Inhabitants, by the Church-wardens and Overseers.

Sir Benjamin, by Will dated 1714, gave Fern Beds (his Mansion House in this Parish) with 16 acres of Land, for the Use of two of the most necessitous poor Men, and as many Women of Fore-street, and Redcross-street, in the Parish of Cripplegate, the Rent to be distributed amongst them between Allhollowtide and Christmas. In Redcross-street Sir Benjamin was born 1637, and died 1716.

Salmon also recorded the Mary Glascock monument in the church, and some tombs in the churchyard, some of which were already hard to read by 1728:

Clutterbuck (1821) mentions the charity (identifying the land in Codicote as being called Oakleys) and repeats the Mary Glascock inscription. It also lists one relevant tomb in the Churchyard, as it shows that Jane and Robert Rudyard had at least one daughter.

Here lies Mrs Jane Shipley, daughter of Robert Rudyard, Esq. and Grand daughter of Sir Benjamin Madox, Bart. of this parish who died 3rd November 1810 aged 86 years.

[Familysearch shows there was also a son called William, also baptised at Wormley - and you may want to check whether William married, or whether Mrs Jane Shipley had a family.]

Clutterbuck also gives details of a petition in support of King William in response to a papist conspiracy in 1696. This was signed by the senior people in Hertfordshire and included Ben. Maddox - which fits in with his being a Justice of the Peace (J.P.).

Cussans (1876) records the same inscription - and also records a slab on the floor of the Chancel (which may have been covered when earlier historians visited the church, probably by one of the box pews):

Here lyes ye body of Mary Sheer widdow ye relict of Arthur Sheere Esq & Daughter of John Gardiner Dr of Lawes who died ye 18 day of July 1660 & in ye 75 year of her age leaving Mary her sole daughter & heire then widdow & ye relict of Francis Foster Esq.

None of the above sources provided any other information linking the Glascock or Maddox families to Wormley, much less Wormleybury, so I decided to see if there were other Hertfordshire sources of relevance.

As Sir Benjamin was a magistrate I looked at the Herts County Records, Volume I, Sessions Rolls 1581-1698 (available on CD). One of the duties of magistrates was to ensure that road bridges were kept in good repair and there are a number of entries where he authorised expenditure on bridge repairs. There may well be many other documents in the HALS collections which relate to his actions as a magistrate. I did a quick search of the HALS index on the Access to Archives data base and was delighted to find the entry headed Records of the Earls Cowper of Cole Green House and Panshanger [DE/P/Q1 - DE/P/Z13] which shows how information can turn up in unlikely places. The expanded entry reads:

      Millfield and Conduit Mead; plot for the building of house in Great George Street [Including abstracts of title to Millfield, 1622-1716, and Conduit Mead, 1666-1717; copy of settlement on the marriage of Benjamin Maddox and Dorothy Glascock, 1664; building lease, giving details of interior fittings, etc, 1718; copy of chancery decree of 1690 for erecting a church (? St George's Hanover Square) and for setting up a chapel pending its completion] - ref.  DE/P/T4192 A-L  - date: 1713 - 1720

Why the marriage settlement should be in this bundle is unclear except that it presumably relates to the ownership of property. It may not be a complete transcript and it may not say where the wedding took place, but it could provide information on the family and its property. HALS should be able to provide a copy for a fee.

The book Wormley in Hertfordshire is very helpful - and indicates that Sir William Glascock occupied Fernbeds before Sir Benjamin Maddox. The index contains 11 separate page references to Sir Benjamin, including some on his religious views. There is a sketch map of Wormley drawn up in 1908 which shows Wormley Bury. It also shows a small field called Fern Beds adjacent to a field containing Wormley Hill Farm. There is also an extensive bibliography of sources consulted and I noted a reference in the index to a Captain Benjamin Rudyard. As the book is available on the internet at a very reasonable price (some local history books are very rare with sky-high prices to match) I suggest you purchase a copy. (See Second Hand Books).

As you mentioned you had used the internet I also did a quick search. The Worldwide Maddox etc Project web site is a real goldmine of references to the family and I quickly spotted a number of document references which could pay with following up - as the texts of the documents indexed are not online.

Finally there is one puzzling reference in your query. This is the reference to Curiosities of Hertfordshire. A search of the larger UK Libraries (including the British Library) failed to reveal any publication with this title. Definitely there was a market for books on the unusual and I have a damaged family volume which belonged to my great great great grandfather. While the title page is missing I believe it is Biographia Curiosa, or Memoirs of Remarkable Characters by George Smeeton, published in 1822. Unfortunately there is no reference to Jane Rudyard. Perhaps someone published something similar for Hertfordshire - or perhaps the reference came from a page taken from such a book. Perhaps someone reading this web page may be able to help.

There is a web page for Wormley

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

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