Person:Ann Honibourn (1)

Ann Honibourn’s origins have yet to be established for certain. One possibility is that she was the Ann Honibourn baptised on 22nd July 1684 at Cropthorne in Worcestershire, daughter of Henry Honibourn.

Ann’s first confirmed sighting is on 23rd November 1705, when she married William Loxley at Cropthorne.

Ann and William appear to have had at least six children together, with five of them being baptised at Cropthorne between 1707 and 1718. It has yet to be established when or where their daughter Mary was born, but she is named in William’s will.

Their eldest son, Richard, died when he was only three years old in 1710. Their daughter Margaret died as a young woman of 21 in 1740, and their son Francis died aged 38 in 1752. Therefore only three of Ann and William’s children outlived them.

William wrote his will on 26th December 1755. He described himself as a yeoman, and refers to owning land in Cropthorne and two houses on Oat Street in the nearby town of Evesham, along with various pieces of farming equipment and financial investments.

William made provision in his will for an income of twelve pounds a year to be provided to Ann should she outlive him, but as it happened she did not. In fact, she died shortly after he wrote his will, being buried at Cropthorne just eleven days later, on 6th January 1756. The burial record does not say how old she was, but they had been married for fifty years. William survived her by nearly three years.

1. ↑ England. Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991. (FamilySearch, Ancestry.com).

   bur. 6 Jan 1755, Cropthorne: Ann wife of William Loxley

2. ↑ England. National Burial Index.

   bur. 6 Jan 1756, Cropthorne: Ann Loxley

   It is assumed that these slightly conflicting burial transcripts relate to the same burial. As William’s will, written on 26th December 1755, refers to “my wife” (albeit not by name) it is presumed that the National Burial Index is correct on the year.