The Proudley family, who particularly favoured the southern counties of Sussex and Hampshire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, are a difficult tribe to trace effectively, partly due to their constant use and re-use of family names across every generation. But, just as Francis Proudley left a will that revealed some detail about his initial union, his children and his wife, so his father, Henry Proudley, prior to his death in Graffham, Sussex in May 1808, did exactly the same.
Henry Proudley was born in about 1737, the son of John and Alice, in Romsey, Hampshire, and he married Sarah Rook in 1776, just weeks after he had witnessed his brother Richard’s wedding to Mary Whitts, both events taking place in Sidlesham, Sussex. He names his children in his will, including some of their unions, as well as his housekeeper, Elizabeth Bailey, surely his partner following the death of his wife, Sarah Proudley, at Graffham in 1796, ‘aged 55.’
The will makes clear that Henry Proudley, a pedlar, was extremely concerned Elizabeth Bailey should be provided for, leaving her ‘two working asses and a pair of hampers,’ as well as household goods, furniture and the use of the tenement and garden, ‘where I now live rent and tax free until Old Michaelmas.’ He then goes on to name his children, the husbands of his daughters, and an orphaned granddaughter.
John Proudley, ‘now living in Slindon, a pedlar,’ had been born in about 1763; Charlotte, born about 1768 and married to Thomas Ragless in 1793; Henry Proudley jnr., born in 1765; Elizabeth, who wed John Ragless in 1791, presumably a brother of Thomas Ragless. Martha, born about 1780, ‘now the wife of Joseph Green of Angmering,’ having married in 1798; Susannah, born in 1768, who wed Daniel Connor in 1786, three more sons, Richard, born in 1773, William, born in 1777, Francis, born in 1782, and Rhoda, born in 1779, who married James Powell in April 1808, the month before her father’s death. Henry Proudley also named his deceased son, Edward, born in abut 1771, who had married Ann Rickland in 1793, as their daughter, his granddaughter, Ann Proudley, was by this time an orphan of about 14 years, having been born in 1794, her mother dying the following year.
John Proudley married Martha Green in 1800 and the couple seem to have had a large family: Sarah, born in 1801, but dying in 1803; Rhoda in 1803; Ann in 1805; Martha in 1807; William in 1810; Francis in 1816; Ruth in 1822; James in 1824. The couple are still at Slindon in the 1841 census, John, ‘a scavenger,’ claiming birth in 1766 is with his wife, a son, John jnr., (25) and a daughter, Ruth (15). John Proudley died there the following year.
Charlotte and her husband, Thomas Ragless, an agricultural labour, also appear in the 1841 census in Horsham, Sussex, with a daughter, Ann, who had been born in 1796, they had also baptised six other children in Sussex: Sarah in 1798; Emanuel in 1801; Rhoda in 1802; David in 1804; Elizabeth in 1807; Edward in 1809. Their son David is living close by his parents in the census with his wife and family. Elizabeth and John Ragless do not appear in the census, but John Ragless is mentioned in a newspaper report in January 1804 by the London Courier and Evening Gazette, together with Edward Proudley and Richard Proudley as rogues and vagabonds who were convicted of vagrancy, evidence surely of the families travelling together. Elizabeth and John also appear to have had, like Charlotte and Thomas, seven children: baptising Sarah in 1791; Henry on Christmas Day in 1793; John in 1795; Joseph and Thomas together in 1797; Elizabeth in 1800 and Charlotte in 1802. Susannah and Daniel Connor also remained in Sussex, baptising Mary in 1788; John in 1789; Daniel in 1791; Susannah in 1793; Catherine in 1795.
Martha and Joseph Green baptised William in Lewes in 1799; Joseph in Angmering in 1803; Rose in the same place in 1805; perhaps Henry, baptised in Lodsworth in 1813; Elizabeth in Slindon in 1815. There are other baptisms in the same county about this time to a Martha and Joseph Green, it is unclear if this is the same couple, since their names are not distinctive. However, they do appear in the 1841 census in Poling, Sussex, where Joseph is an agricultural labourer, the young woman, Ann, with them is probably a granddaughter.
It is probable, too, that the marriage of Henry Proudley to Mary Faro in Sussex is that of Henry and Sarah’s son, if so the couple baptised Fanny in 1792; John in 1796; Richard in 1798. It is surely Sarah and Henry’s son William Proudley who married Rose Stanley in Hampshire, his brother Francis Proudley forming a union with Collony Stanley, Rose’s sister, afterward marrying Ann Parker in 1813 (see story about Francis Proudley.)
Hopefully, Henry Proudley’s will of 1808 offers threads for people to trace their ancestors through the naming of his children, and reference to their unions.