Hibbitt & Barnes Family History Blog

My 7 x great-grandmother, Susanna, was the daughter of Edward Whorwood. She was born in Oldswinford in about 1652 which was during the time of the Commonwealth, before Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector. Researching this time period can be problematic as there are many missing entries in Parish Registers. This phenomenon has become known as the ‘Commonwealth Gap’ and the difficulty can often extend from the beginning of the English Civil Wars in 1642 through to the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. For this reason, I’ve been unsuccessful in discovering the name of Susanna’s mother as I’ve not yet found a marriage entry for her parents. Nevertheless, the baptism records seem fairly complete and so I’ve managed to ascertain that Susanna was the third child in a family of seven.

Susanna York, nee Whorwood, was living with her grand-daughter, Anne Blagg, when she wrote her will in Jan 1728. Susanna died in September that same year and it was her request that she be buried near her husband, Edward York, in the Churchyard at Oldswinford. An inventory taken of Susanna’s possessions mentions a brewhouse within her dwelling – the ale and beer were stored in the cellar. Her worldly goods were virtually the same as those listed in her husband’s inventory taken seven years earlier.

The Whorwoods were an old Staffordshire family and I’ve seen references to them going back to the 1400’s. They were well connected and influential, owning manors, marrying into the House of Grey, having links to the Dudleys, becoming Members of Parliament, High Sheriffs and Knights of the Realm. The Whorwood name appears in Staffordshire Parish Registers as far back as 1517 when we find a baptism of an Anne Whorwood, daughter of William, in Tipton. However, proving Edward Whorwood’s (Susanna’s father’s) parentage is decidedly difficult.

There were Whorwoods in Kinver, not far from Oldswinford, in the early 17th century but I have an inkling that a baptism in Bobbington, Staffordshire, in 1625 could possibly belong to ‘my’ Edward. This was the same year Charles I came to the throne. The father of this Edward was a Gerrard Whorwood. One of Edward’s sons, born in about 1654, carried this same name. However, this is not enough to go on to be sure I am on the right track.

There may be another clue but, again, this is by no means conclusive. Edward’s first daughter, Ann, was baptized in January 1648. A second daughter, also an Anne, was baptized in 1650. It was the custom for a child to bear the name of an elder sibling if their namesake had died but I couldn’t find a burial for the first child in Oldswinford. Nevertheless, I did find a burial of an Anne Whorwood in June 1648 in Bobbington, although there is no age listed. Could this be Edward’s eldest daughter? Did the family take her back to Edward’s original home for burial? We simply cannot be certain.

Finally, if Gerrard Whorwood was indeed Edward’s father then it looks as though Edward had a sister named Susan or Susanna. She was baptized in Bobbington in 1630 and married John Knocker there in 1667. Might Edward’s daughter, Susanna, have been named after her aunt? The evidence is circumstantial and these conclusions remain purely speculative at this stage.