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AYSHFORDS OF AYSHFORD |
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We left Amias and Agnes Ayshford in 1585 struggling with their inheritied "table boord" but by then they had been married for over three years. They were married on 26th February 1582 at Burlescombe. Amias would have been about 30 since he does not appear on the muster of 1569 which should have included all males over 16. His wife, Agnes Incledon, however, was almost 34! In an age when a large percentage of gentry woman did not marry at all, we should not be too surprised. The real point of interest is how the pair met ... In 1565 Elizabeth, the sister of Agnes had married William Binford of the Bunrew estate in Willand. She had her first child baptised at home in Braunton, as was customary, then, we must assume, the happy pair made their way to Willand. As a 17 year old, Agnes would have stayed in Buckland House with her father John Incledon but HE died in 1570 and his son Lewis would have assumed responsibility for his unmarried sister. How many times Lewis trawled eligible batchelors in front of Agnes we will never know. Perhaps her marriage portion was of insufficient size to attract the social cream! By the time Lewis married for the second time around 1575 we believe that Agnes was something of a liability and it is then we think that she went to live with her married sister, just a couple of miles from her eventual husband. Amias and Agnes had two sons William and Edward. We only know this because of the will of Roger, their uncle, mentioned earlier; the parish registers being incomplete at this period. This may also account for the "lost" marriage of Juliana Ayshford to Henry Chard in October of 1582. She must have been another child of the prolific Nicholas. Although Amias was left some money by his father, along with the infamous table, by July of 1593 he already owed 10/- to one Mary Bruer, widow of Willand, as mentioned in her will of that date. Once again the Willand connection. The next mention of Amias is in the will of his brother Roger in 1609. By this time it is likely that his eldest(?) son William was already apprenticed in Exeter, perhaps to the drapers trade which seems to have been the career of choice in the family. Edward, the other son, may have started farming or some other trade, we simply don't know. If both boys were settled, and an apprenticeship cost a lot of money up front, this may account for the rather nominal amount left to them by their uncle Roger. In 1617, Edward married Susanna Crudge in Halberton and took up residence in the hamlet of Muxbeere in the extreme East of the parish where it adjoined Willand. They had a son Amias, in 1622 and maybe, a son, Edward whose possible career we will follow later. On December 30 1626, Amias Ayshford, gent, was buried at Burlescombe. Agnes, his widow, went on until January of 1635 when she was buried as Agnes Ayshford, gentlewoman of Ayshford, she was about 86. Perhaps she was allowed to live at the main house in her later years by her nephew the cavalier.
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