Person:John Puddephatt (9)

John Puddephatt was baptised on 11th August 1754 at Caddington in Bedfordshire. He was the youngest of seven children of Mary Puddephatt, formerly Roe, and her husband Joseph Puddephatt, a carpenter.

In 1775 banns of marriage were read between John and Elizabeth Briden at Caddington. However, they did not marry straight away after the banns were read. Instead there was a delay of over three years before they married. By the time they did marry, Elizabeth had moved to Kimpton, a few miles east of Caddington, and they married there.

After their marriage John and Elizabeth returned to Caddington, where they had seven children baptised between 1781 and 1798. John's father appears to have died in 1780, whilst his mother died in 1784.

John and Elizabeth's eldest two sons both married in 1803, and they became grandparents later that year when their son Jeremiah's son Jeremiah was born. John was about 49 when he became a grandfather.

In 1831 John and Elizabeth's granddaughter Sophia (their son Jeremiah's daughter) married, and they became great grandparents in 1832, when John was 77 years old.

In August 1836 John wrote his will. He described himself as a carpenter of Felden Bottom. Felden Bottom was the name for the area between Aley Green and Lower Woodside in the part of Caddington parish then in Hertfordshire. John left everything to his wife Elizabeth, but with the stipulation that a loan he had made to his son Peter of £290 should be allowed to continue - this was presumably to avoid Peter suddenly having to repay a large debt on John's death.

John was buried at Caddington on 19th February 1837. He was 82 years old. He and Elizabeth had been married for 58 years. Elizabeth survived him by less than seven months.

1. ↑ Bedfordshire Family History Society. Caddington Parish Register Transcript 1538-1812. (Bedford).

   ch. 11 Aug 1754: Jn s Jos & Mary PUTTIFORD

   Needs to be confirmed at Bedfordshire Archives. Whilst no named connection has been found, this baptism has been linked to the John Puddephatt who married Elizabeth Briden on the basis that it is at about the time indicate by the age on his burial record and in the parish that John was said to live at the time of his marriage and where he had all his children and was buried. John was also a carpenter, which was the occupation of the Joseph the father of the John baptised in 1754. No evidence has been found suggesting that the John baptised in 1754 died young or married anyone else. Whilst there was another John Puddephatt baptised in the nearby town of Dunstable in 1761, he would have only be fourteen when John and Elizabeth's banns were first read.

2. ↑ England. National Burial Index.

   BURIALS in the Parish of Caddington in the County of Bedford in the Year 1837
   No.	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   760	John Puddephat	Pipers Bottom	Feb[ruar]y 19	83 y[ea]rs	W. Mellard, Vicar

3.   Church of England. Province of Canterbury. Prerogative Court. Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Probate Records, 1384-1858
   PROB 11/1889; Image 348.

   I John Puddephatt the Elder of Felden Bottom in the Parish of Caddington in the County of Bedford Carpenter do make this my last Will and Testament I do nominate and appoint Elizabeth my Wife and John Bradshaw of Caddington aforesaid Victualler Executrix and Executor of this my Will and do direct them in the first instance to pay and satisfy all my just debts funeral and testamentary expences And I do give and bequeath unto my said Wife All and Singular my monies and Effects of what nature or kind soever for her absolute use and benefit and whereas there is now due to me on Bond from my son Peter the principal sum of two hundred and ninety pounds it is my Will and I do direct my said Executrix and Executor to allow such principal money or so much thereof as my said wife shall not require for her [maintenance?] to continue on such Bond at Interest so long as my said Executrix and Executor shall consider the same safe In Witness whereof I the said John Puddephatt have hereunto set my hand by making my mark and affix my seal this fourteenth day of September one thousand eight hundred and thirty six - The mark and seal of X John Puddephatt (LS) - Signed Sealed Published and declared by the above named John Puddephatt as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us G. Hooper Dunstable - The Mark X of John Stonnell Caddington.
   
   Proved at London 10th January 1838 before the Judge by the Oath of John Bradshaw the surviving Ex[ecut]or to whom adm[inistrati]on was granted having been first sworn by Com[missi]on duly to administer

4.   Felden Bottom (also known as Fall Down Bottom, Fellindon Bottom and Feldon Bottom) was an old name for the area between the hamlet of Aley Green and Lower Woodside. The 1800 Enclosure of Caddington identified gravel pits at Felden Bottom, which were located at the junction of the lanes now called Woodside Road and Mancroft Road. Feldon Bottom also appears to have been used as a street name for the main road through Aley Green (now Mancroft Road). This road was also sometimes called Pipers Bottom - which is how it appears to have been described on John's burial record.