21.3 The children of Nicholas Hill and Mary Fossey

My 5xgreat grandparents Nicholas Hill  and Mary Fossey appear to have had six children, including my 4xgreat grandfather John Hill.

1. William Hill (1782-?)

Their first child was William Hill, who was baptised at Elsted on 19 July 1778, just over nine months after they married. Perhaps he was named for Mary Fossey’s father, William Fossey. Aged 22, he may have married Sarah Shire/Shine at Harting, Sussex, although both are said to be of that parish rather than Elsted. There are various records for a William Hill of about the right age in Harting censuses and baptisms of three children, but these are not proved.

2. John Hill (1780-1853)

My 4xgreat grandfather’s story is told elsewhere.

3. Mary Hill (1782-?)

Mary Hill was baptised at Elsted on 29 September 1782. I have not found any further obvious records for her marriage or burial.

4. Elizabeth Hill (1785-?)

Elizabeth Hill was baptised at Elsted on 14 August 1785. She may have married at Harting on 29 December 1802, aged just 17, to James Bowles, but other Hill families were living at Harting at the time, so the connection cannot be proved. There are no obvious burial or other marriage records at Elsted for her.

5. Charlotte Hill (1788-1788)

Nicholas Hill and his wife Mary Fossey’s fifth child was Charlotte, who was baptised in Elsted on 13 April 1788, and buried there a few weeks later on 8 May 1788.

6. Nicholas Hill (1796-1826)

Their last known child was born after an eight year gap in children, when his mother would have been in her early-mid 40s. It is possible that baptism records in the intervening years have not survived. Nicholas was baptised at Elsted 28 August 1796. I have found no further records about him apart from a burial record on 8 July 1826, at Elsted. The burial record at FamilySearch shows him as 29 years old and ‘of Elsted’.

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

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  

21.1 5xgreat grandfather Nicholas Hill of Elsted (1752?-1811) Another brick wall

 My great-grandmother was Susan Caroline Hill, born in London in 1875. Her father, grandfather and great-grandfather (my 2x, 3x and 4x great-grandfathers) were all called John Hill and were all born in the small rural village of Elsted, Sussex. My 4xgreat grandfather John Hill was baptised at Elsted’s Saxon church on 4 May 1780. The digitised copy of the parish register at FamilySearch is faint and not very legible, but shows that John Hill was the son of Nicholas Hill and his wife Mary.

I was lucky enough to visit Elsted in 2021 on the way home from a post-lockdown trip to Winchester and Chichester. 

Elsted – St Paul – Sussex Parish Churches website records that the nave is 11^th century, other parts from the 12^th and 13^th centuries.

In the doorway hang two lists of all the incumbents of the church, going back to ‘Ralph the Priest’ in 1086 and ending with the most recent – Mark Morton, appointed in 2011. 

The Sussex Parish Churches website also notes that “The parish was long united with Treyford and Didling and after a new church at Treyford was built in 1849, Elsted church fell into partial ruin.  It was only taken back into full use after the C19 church had been demolished in 1951”. At the time that my 4xgreat grandfather John Hill was baptised at Elsted in 1780, the vicar was Walter Islip.

Islip also married his parents, Nicholas Hill and Mary Fossey, at Treyford & Didling – Elsted’s sister church – on 28 October 1777.

FamilySearch has a copy of the page from the Parish Register which reads:

No 22 1777

Banns of marriage between Nicholas Hill & Mary Fossey of the Parish of Treyford cum Didling were published three several Sundays without impediment in the Churchs of Treyford & Didling and they were married this 28^th day of Oct. 1777 in the Parish Church of Treyford by me W.Islip, Curate.

This marriage was solemnized between us this 28^th day of October 1777

Nicholas Hill X his mark

Mary Fossey X her mark

In the presence of

Thos Snelling

Richard ?eall?

A search of the registers for more baptisms of the children of this couple indicate that they had at least six children between 1778 and 1796. John Hill, my 4xgreat grandfather, was their second child (and second son).

Assuming Nicholas Hill was about 21-25 when he married, he would have been born around 1752-1756. Unfortunately, I have not found a likely baptism for him. There is, however, a burial record for Nicholas Hill at Elsted on 25 April 1811; he is aged 57 (born around 1754). The image from FamilySearch shows the Bishop’s Transcript of this, the only burial in the parish by August 1811:

Unfortunately, no information is given on the children’s baptisms that would tell us what Nicholas Hill did for a living … although it is likely that he was an Agricultural Labourer like the majority of his descendents who were recorded in the 1841-1861 censuses in Elsted. While his baptism (and therefore parents) isn’t known, the Hill line for now ends with Nicholas Hill.

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