Did Edward Bland marry the same woman twice? When I was looking for a record of his marriage to a woman named Hannah, this is what I found.
These records, from the Chapel of St. Paul in Hammersmith, are out of order chronologically. I am recording them in the order in which they appear in the record books on Ancestry, and while some of the records go from early to late dates, as one would expect, occasionally some go from late to early. Also the records are largely organized so that all like categories (birth, marriage or burial) are listed together, which means that a certain baptism, for example, could appear in the records earlier than the marriage which preceded it, if baptisms are placed before marriages in the listings. The first record book available (1671-1689) has no entries for the Bland family, which suggests that they perhaps came from elsewhere. The following are from the record set of St Paul Hammersmith from 1690-1728. There are very few marriages listed in this register, and none at all for the Bland family.
Burial. February 19, 1697. Edward Bland buried S of Edward & Mary.
Baptism. November 12, 1699. John Corles Bland S of Tho (Gardener) & Elisa.
Baptism. March 23, 1697/8. Elisabeth Bland baptism, d of Edward and Mary.
Baptism. February 23, 1695/6. Thomas Bland baptism. S of Edmund (sic) and Mary.
Baptism. January 28, 1692. Edward Bland baptized Son of Edward and Mary, died age 5 (see above).
Record book 1707-1717:
Burial. May 8, 1714. Elisa wife of Tho Bland.
Baptism. January 1, 1709/10. John S of Edward Bland & Mary.
That's it for this record collection. There were some marriages recorded for the Hammersmith Chapel, but interestingly, they were all for people who came from other parishes. I have no idea why. The next record set is 1717-1723.
November 28, 1722. John son of John Bland & Elisa. Could be John Eland?
Burial record. March 22, 1718/9. Mary wife of Edward Bland.
The record group 1723-1727 has nothing on the Bland family except the baptism of Edward, son of Edward and Frances. No John Highlord Bland anywhere.
Hey, did anyone else know that there are records of a Whitfield family in Hammersmith? The records seem to be before the era of Eleanor (Whitfield) Bland and then after, but not during. Perhaps there is a family connection, which could explain how she and Stephen became acquainted.
In a recent post I explored which Bland family members had been sextons at St Paul Hammersmith chapel. The first one identified by the vestry minutes was Edward Bland, who married Frances Winchester on June 9, 1726, at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn, London. Frances was the daughter of John Winchester, yeoman, and his wife Mary, and she was baptized on August 8, 1699, at St John the Baptist, Pinner, Harrow, Middlesex. They were apparently married by licence but I have not located it so far. The marriage record doesn’t say if Edward was a bachelor or a widower.
Frances Winchester had several siblings, who are identified in the will of her brother John Winchester “of the Hamlet of Pinnor in the parish of Harrow on the Hill”, proved April 21, 1742. John gives two acres of land, which he calls a close, to his sister Mary Chandler, widow of the late George Chandler, for the course of her life and makes her his executrix. After Mary’s death the land passes to his sister Susanna Chandler, also a widow, and after Susanna’s death the land finally goes to Mary’s daughters Mary and Elizabeth Chandler. John gives his sister Frances Bland one guinea, and his sister-in-law “Anne the widow of my late brother James” one shilling. Here’s the source for the will if you’d like to see it yourself:
These are the children of Edward and Frances that were baptized at Hammersmith:
I hadn’t ever seen a copy of Eleanor (Whitfield) Bland’s signature, but it’s turned up today, as I was perusing marriage records from Hammersmith. Cool find. I don’t know the relationship between Eleanor and the newlyweds.
