Person:Ann Dyer (8)

Ann Dyer’s origins have yet to be established. Her first confirmed sighting is on 25th May 1708, when she married Thomas Spire, a weaver, at Wormington in Gloucestershire. Although they married in Wormington they were both said to be residents of Ashton under Hill, about four miles to the west. Thomas was a widower, whose first wife had died just over two years earlier.

After their marriage Ann and Thomas returned to Ashton under Hill, where they had three children between 1709 and 1712, although their eldest son, another Thomas, died when he was two years old and their youngest daughter, Ann, died as a baby. Only their second child, Robert, survived to adulthood.

Robert married in 1731, and Ann’s first grandchild was born the following year, although she died as a baby. Another three grandsons, Thomas, William and Charles, followed between 1733 and 1738.

In 1746 Thomas wrote his will, in which he described himself as a weaver of Ashton under Hill. He left all his property to Ann for her lifetime, but stipulated that some parts of the estate were to be passed to others after her death. These included a house in Ashton under Hill which was let to a Richard Print and Benjamin Dyer (possibly a relative of Ann’s), which was to be given to his grandson Charles, and a piece of land called Ganderton’s Close at Elmley Castle in Worcestershire, which was to be given to his grandson Thomas.

Thomas also owned four looms, being a weaver. After Ann’s death the woollen loom and the new loom were to be given to their grandson Thomas, and the other two looms to their son Robert. The gears and slays used with the looms were to be split equally between Robert and Thomas, with the will stipulating that Robert should choose first.

Thomas’s will also mentions various household goods, including his bed, bestead curtains, bolster, pillows, coverlids, sheets, a great chest in his bedroom and his “biggest brass kettle”. Thomas appointed Ann to be executrix of the will, and advised her to consult his good friends Thomas Harris of Evesham and John Baldwyn of Ashton under Hill.

Thomas died in 1748, being buried at Ashton under Hill on 20th October 1748. His burial record does not say how old he was, although it was over 45 years since his first marriage, and he and Ann had been married for forty years.

Ann survived Thomas by just over four years. She was buried at Ashton under Hill on 20th January 1753.

1. ↑ Bishop's Transcripts, in Ashton under Hill, Gloucestershire: Parish Registers (Gloucestershire Archives, Gloucester).

   A Transcript of all the Christenings, Weddings & Burials in Ashton Underhill in the year 1753 / Buried / Anne Spire, widow, January 20th