21.2 5xgreat grandmother Mary Fossey (1752-1819) and beyond

My 4xgreat grandfather John Hill was baptised at Treyford cum Didling in 1780, the second child of Nicholas Hill and his wife, Mary Fossee/Fossey, who married at Treyford in 1777.

Her surname has variously been shown as Lopey, Jopey and Fossey in marriage record transcripts at FamilySearch and elsewhere. There is a baptism record for a Mary Fossee at Elsted at FamilySearch:

This shows (faintly): Feb 18 1752 Baptised Mary ye daughter of Willm & Elizabeth Fossee.  

Assuming she was baptised a month or so after birth, she would have been about 25 when she married Nicholas Hill in 1777.

A search for the marriage of a William Fossee/Fossey to an Elizabeth at FamilySearch finds a record at Elsted in 1747:

Oct.ber 18 1747 Married William Fossee & Elizabeth Goldring both of Elsted.

This couple are – possibly – my 6xgreat grandparents.
They appear to have had three children including my 5xgreat grandmother:

·       20 January 1748: John Fossey baptised at Elsted

·       16 February 1752: Mary Fossey baptised at Elsted

·       17 August 1760: Elizabeth Fossey baptised at Elsted

Their eldest child John Fossey may have married Elizabeth Hobbes at Harting, Sussex, in 1773.

Their second child, my 5xgreat grandmother Mary Fossey, died in 1819, aged 67, and was buried at Treyford cum Didling on 9 February 1819. Her husband, Nicholas Hill, pre-deceased her, dying in 1811.

Their youngest known child, Elizabeth Fossey, married Henry Elliot in 1782 at Elsted and had at least one son, Harry Elliot, baptised in 1786. This Harry married widow Jane Bachelor in Trotton in 1809. She was born Jane Goldring, possibly a relative of his mother Elizabeth Goldring. They appear in the 1841 and 1851 census at Little Langley, Rogate, where he is a farmer of 55 acres. In 1851, his wife Jane is 80, while he is 67. There is a headstone on another Ancestry family tree for the couple at Bramshott Cemetery, Hampshire; he died on 26 August 1852, she on 23 May 1855.

If William Fossey and his wife Elizabeth Goldring were in their 20s on marriage in 1747, they were likely born around 1720-1727.

I have not found a baptism record for William Fossee/Fossey in the online records. There are two possible baptisms for Elizabeth Goldring at FamilySearch and Ancestry:

1. Stedham, Sussex: Elizabeth Goldring baptised …. April 29^th 1723 (no parents listed on baptisms)

2. Rogate, Sussex: A Copy of ye Register for ye year 1727 Baptized … Elizabeth Dr. of Henry Golding Octbr 1st (see below):

Although the name in the image leaft has been transcribed as Goldring, it could just as easily be Golding. Rogate is about 6 miles from Elsted, in the River Rother valley. Stedham is closer, and an easier or, at least, more straightforward, journey.

However, neither can be proved as connected to ‘my’ Elizabeth Goldring, so this and the Fossey line will have to stop at another brick wall for now.

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view