John (1583-1609) and Alice WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite
New page 27 December 2020
Links:
Immediate ancestors: Nicholas and Margaret WILLIAMSON and unknown
Immediate descendants: Had children, but I do not have much information on them and don't plan to make pages
The Williamson of Crosthwaite story - WILLIAMSON of Crosthwaite research notes
index of surnames
(Apart from the overall shakiness of the Crosthwaite connection). John describes himself as son of Nicholas in his will and of Applethwaite (Nicholas's main residence) so I believe he is Nicholas's son. Nicholas's own page describes the reasons for believing him to be related to the WILLIAMSONs of New Hall and earlier Applethwaite, who I think are my direct ancestors.
This John also leaves, if his own line dies out, the reversion of property to the children of John WILLIAMSON of New Hall, suggesting strongly a close connection between them (I believe they are first cousins in the WILLIAMSON line).
John's parents were Nicholas and Margaret WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite and Grange in Crosthwaite.
I have not yet identified Alice's parents but she may have been a RADCLIFFE - several members of this family married WILLIAMSONs in this parish about this period.
John was the eldest and only surviving child of Nicholas and Margaret WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite and Grange. John was born in Grange, which was I think his mother's ancestral home. The family lived during John's infancy at Applethwaite, where his father was from, and John's two younger siblings Gawine and Janet were born there. However, Janet died at just a few months old in 1587. Later that winter the family seems to have returned to Grange, where first Gawine and then Nicholas died also.
So John was left at age three with his widowed mother Margaret. Nicholas's will gave the family property to John, but left John and presumably the property in Margaret's charge until he came of age. There was a clause that if Margaret remarried and would not keep John he was to go to his uncles.
Margaret did indeed remarry, to George Radcliffe FOSTER (or George RADCLIFFE; I've seen both transcribed and I'm not sure whether Foster was a description or a surname). It seems likely that this took place in 1602, when John would have been about 19. John and George seem to have formed a reasonable relationship; see below.
I do not have any information on Alice's early life, but she may also have been of the RADCLIFFE family, who were the rising local aristocratic name, though perhaps quite distantly related to the actual Baronet, since the Radcliffes had been in the area since around 1420.
John and Alice, if indeed this was Alice RADCLIFFE, married on the 2 March 1602/3. They had children; there are baptisms to parents John and Alice WILLIAMSON as follows:
Thomas, 12 February 1604/5
Thomas, 16 March 1605/6
Simon, 1 November 1607
Elizabeth, 19 February, 1609/10
I don't have other evidence to tie either Thomas baptism to this family, except that there's no evidence of another John and Alice WILLIAMSON couple who could be the parents. There are no births to these names in the parish before the 1602 marriage or after 1610 (see below), suggesting that there probably isn't another couple that happens to overlap
Assuming these are all John and Alice's children, evidently the first Thomas died in early infancy, and the second Thomas also died by the time of John's will in 1609; I must check for burials. (FamilySearch turns one up in July 1605, which would explain the baptism in the same name later in the year, one in July 1606 and one in January 1607/8, to father John. All are just given as Cumbria without a parish.)
John made his will in February 1609/10 (I think I read the 15th, but early modern handwriting is tricky), aged only about 26. In those days people usually made deathbed wills. His inventory was taken on 7 March the same year, showing that he had died by then, and the will was proved in 1610 (possibly as soon as the 25th of the same March) so a burial in Crosthwaite on 22 February seems likely to be him. He was survived (at least at the time of making his will) by Alice (apparently pregnant), Simon (aged two) and Elizabeth (an infant).
John seems to have held property in Under Skiddaw and perhaps elsewhere in the county, but he does not break it down or specify it in his will and I don't have any other evidence for it. He gives his status as yeoman, implying an owner-worker of agricultural land.
John's will makes provision in case his wife is carrying a son and in case she is carrying a daughter, suggesting she was pregnant in February 1609/10, but there is not a Williamson baptism to match so I guess either she lost the baby, went out of parish to give birth (unsurprising if she had family elsewhere and had just lost her husband) or the will clauses are speculative.
Since John's heir Simon was so young (about two) when the will was made, his care, and occupation of the property during his minority, needed to be assigned. Both went to George Radcliffe FOSTER, Margaret his wife (John's mother) and Alice (named in that order, suggesting a strong role for the FOSTERs). Alice is left in possession of the movable goods and chattels in trust for her daughter.
There was an Alice WILLIAMSON who married a Lancelot RICHMOND in the parish in 1612 - this may be her, but I will need to look that far through the parish register to check for residence or widow status in the entry. There was then a 1616 marriage of Nicholas WILLIAMSON to Alice RICHMOND. Whether this is a twice-widowed Alice marrying back into the WILLIAMSONs, a second alliance between different members of the same families, or just coincidence I similarly have not got yet. This Nicholas and Alice marriage was followed by a run of baptisms to parents of that name: John in 1616, Thomas in 1617, Edward in 1618, Elizabeth in 1620, Gawain in 1621. (The last two, in January and June of the same Gregorian year in my database, seem too close together to be successive births to the same children - maybe some entry error or possibly the generally tight sequence of births is actually two families coinciding closely.)
John left his landed property to Simon, his surviving son and heir, but made detailed provision for what should happen if Simon or his heirs should die. The property should go first to any posthumous son of John, then to Elizabeth his daughter, then to any posthumous daughter of John, then to Humphrey WILLIAMSON, the eldest son of John WILLIAMSON of Newhall (who I think, partly because of this reversion, was this John's first cousin), then (if Humphrey's heirs should also become extinct) to Humphrey's younger brother Francis, then similarly the remaining brothers in that family Anthony and John.
Elizabeth, only baptised about the time of her father's death, was not neglected, bequeathed John's movable goods when she should come of age or marry.
Alice was left in possession of these goods (and with her parents-in-law of the land) until the children were grown.
I do not know what became of Simon or Elizabeth.
If you are interested in this family I'll be pleased to hear from you. Click this link to email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider.
Links:
Immediate ancestors: Nicholas and Margaret WILLIAMSON and unknown
Immediate descendants: Had children, but I do not have much information on them and don't plan to make pages
The Williamson of Crosthwaite story - WILLIAMSON of Crosthwaite research notes
index of surnames