Person:William Bryant (50)

William Bryant was baptised on 5th July 1747 at Ashwell in Hertfordshire, son of Ann Bryant, formerly Green, and her husband William Bryant, a labourer. He was the second of their four children, although his youngest brother died when only three years old in 1757.

By 1771, William had moved to the neighbouring parish of Hinxworth. On 1st July 1771, aged about 24, he married Ann Stanton at Hinxworth. Co-incidentally, she had been baptised at Hinxworth on the same day that William was being baptised in Ashwell. Ann’s father owned a number of properties in the area, including the Three Horseshoes public house in Hinxworth.

William and Ann stayed in Hinxworth after their marriage, having seven children baptised between 1772 and 1790, although one died as a baby.

In 1779, William’s father wrote a will. In it he refers to the fact that he lived at the hamlet of Ashwell End, being in the western part of Ashwell parish, close to the border with Hinxworth. It seems reasonably likely therefore that William had grown up in that area. His father’s will also describes William as being a blacksmith of Hinxworth.

Ann’s father died in 1781 and she inherited some of her father’s properties under his will, including a house in Hinxworth, apparently adjoining the Three Horseshoes.

Back in Ashwell, William’s mother died in 1782 and his father died in 1784.

In 1790 William is recorded as having voted in the general election, being qualified on the basis of owning freehold property at Hinxworth.

Ann died in January 1793, aged 46. Their six surviving children were aged between twenty and two when she died. William survived Ann by nearly ten years.

In 1798 William was listed in land tax records for Hinxworth as the tenant of some land owned by a Richard Sale. William does not appear to have owned freehold land in Hinxworth by the time of this tax survey. Eight years later the enclosure map of Hinxworth shows that the only land then owned by Richard Sale in Hinxworth was the house immediately north-west of the Three Horseshoes, on the site now occupied by 8 High Street and Gate Cottage. This site next to the Three Horseshoes would be a reasonable match for the description of the property that Ann had inherited from her father – perhaps the Bryants had sold it to Richard Sale but continued to live there as his tenants.

William died at the age of 55, being buried at Hinxworth on 27th October 1802.

1. ↑ Church of England. Parish Registers of Ashwell, Hertfordshire. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   William the son of William & Ann Briant baptiz[e]d July 5th 1747

   This baptism has been linked to the William Bryant who married Ann Stanton at Hinxworth in 1771 on the basis that William and Ann gave one of their sons the unusual first name 'Green', which was the maiden name of the William baptised in 1747's mother. Moreover the father of the William baptised in 1747 left a will in 1779 which referred to his son William has being a blacksmith of Hinxworth, confirming that the William baptised in 1747 at Ashwell had moved to Hinxworth.

2.   UK, Poll Books & Electoral Registers, 1538-1893 (London Metropolitan Archives).

   Taken at Hertford 23 June 1790
   Hinxworth
   William Briant, freeholder of House and Land / voted for William Plumer & William Hale (not William Baker)

3.   UK, Land Tax Redemption, 1798 (The National Archives, Kew).

   County of Hertford
   Parish of Hinxworth
   Names of Proprietors: Richard Sale
   Names of Occupiers: W[illia]m Briant
   Sums Assessed: 6 shillings

4. ↑ Church of England. Parish registers of Hinxworth, 1551-1985. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   1802: Buried William Briant Oct[ober] 27