4xgrt grandparents: James and Jane Humphreys
Frustratingly, there are few details of James and Jane’s life available - so few that I suspect that they,
and in particular James, were not Anglicans but Non-conformists, of which there were many in the
area around Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
Their known children were baptised at Kings Walden and James and Jane died in that parish.
As James and Jane’s first daughter, Sarah, was baptised at Kings Walden in 1750, it might be
inferred that the couple married in around 1748 and that they were therefore likely born in about
1720. There is no record of their marriage and therefore Jane’s parents, my ancestors, are unknown.
They first surface for the baptism of their three daughters at Kings Walden between 1750 and 1754,
from the record of which we glean that James was a labourer.
The Herts Militia List shows them as living in Kings Walden from 1758 (at the latest) until 1762, after
which time James would have been exempt from being called, being aged forty-five. So, we might
calculate from this that he was born in around 1717.
The last references to them is their burials: James had a Non-conformist burial on 5 July 1799 and
Jane was buried at St Marys Anglican Church at Kings Walden on 22 February 1801:
Their oldest daughter, Sarah Humphreys, married the labourer, John Crawley, at Kings Walden on
25 October 1770 (when James,who marked, was a witness):
The Militia Lists reveal that they were living at Preston between 1768 and 1778, at least, and that they
had three children - Daniel (baptised at Hitchin on 28 May 1780), John (14 May 1775) and Samuel
(1778).
James and Jane’s next daughter was Mary, who married William Ward and who was my grtx3
grandmother. Their youngest daughter was Deborah who married James Joyner at Hitchin on Boxing
Day, 1776:
James was Preston’s tailor and was living in the hamlet at Fig Tree
Cottage, Preston Green from 1773. He inherited the property from his
father, John Joyner. James died in 1804.
The couple had four children, each of whom were baptized at Hitchin:
Mary (2 August 1778), Joseph (20 October 1780), Samuel (10 March
1782) and Daniel (2 November 1783).
