Birmingham Westleys
‘As old Birmingham was not a corporate town it did not come within the provisions of The Five Mile Act (Charles II, 1665) and so became the natural resort of persecuted Nonconformists from the neighbouring boroughs’ (excerpt from ‘The British Association Handbook of Birmingham’, 1886). Boroughs about metropolitan Birmingham today include Wolverhampton City, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell, Birmingham City, Solihull and Coventry City, whereas Kenilworth and Warwick comprise districts in Warwickshire.
Nonconformism has origins in the Puritan Classical Movement (1580-1590) which was an administrative form of Presbyterianism, organised in secret within the Church of England in reaction to the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 (henceforth the Anglican Church) by dissatisfied Bible Christians or radical Protestants, with earlier European roots following the Saxon theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546).
A 12th century market town, Birmingham in 1538 had a population of 1,300 whereas its counterparts Warwick housed 1,000 and larger Coventry throughout the medieval period already was the 4th largest city in England with a population of around 10,000 - ranked after Norwich, Bristol and London. Coventry’s royal charter of 1345 was the first of its kind in England whereupon its dominant guilds of crafts, trades and wool merchants prospered until their dissolution by Henry VIII in 1546, which brought economic crisis and decline, however they once rivaled the great gilded livery companies of London.
Post-medieval Birmingham also developed chartered guilds and had by the 17th century surpassed Coventry’s population, specialising in metal founding and gun manufacture for Cromwell’s forces, as all three towns were fiercely allied Parliamentarian in the English Civil War (1642-1651) against the Royalist forces of King Charles. ‘It has been claimed Birmingham’s population increase and manufacturing growth in the latter 17th century owed much to the prominence of religious nonconformity in the town, where by 1697 most migrants came from within its immediate vicinity’ (British History Online). ‘In 1700 one person in six lived in a town, by 1800 this had doubled to one in three’.
Birmingham by the 18th century became a refuge for ‘relatively large numbers of educated and religious minded people, chafing under restrictions elsewhere imposed on their religious opinions’ whose immigrants ‘contributed to the furtherance of that particular type of individualism, to this day considered to characterise much of the industrial life of the city. The strongly Nonconformist character of Birmingham fostered its industrial progress (and) so denied entry to learned professions by the fact that the universities barred them, English nonconformists devoted themselves to business life’
The first contemporary map of Birmingham was made for the Warwickshire members of Parliament by surveyor William Westley in 1731, at which time ‘St. Philip’s church was on the edge of Birmingham, with farmland stretching to the north beyond’ as was also drawn by the same Westley in his 1732 perspective ‘East Prospect of Birmingham; the land immediately to the west of St. Philip’s had been sold at the end of the 17th century with the condition that it should only be used as agricultural land for the next 120 years.’
William Westley reported ‘In the year 1700 Birmingham contained 30 streets, 100 courts and alleys, 2504 houses, 15,032 inhabitants, one church dedicated to St. Martin, a chapel to St John, a school founded by Edward 6th, and 2 Dissenting meeting houses. The increase of this town from 1700 to ‘ye’ year 1731 is as follows: 25 streets, 50 courts and alleys, 1215 houses, 8254 inhabitants, together with a new church, charity School, market cross, and 2 Meeting Houses, for a further account ye prospects’. Surrounded by fields, it had grown around Digbeth and the markets at St Martin’s church, expanding uphill onto higher ground with New Street; there were more small workshops than large businesses in 1731.
‘Plate in the possession of Theophilus Richards in the year 1789 (nephew to Mr Westley) the road marked ‘To Wolverhampton and Walsall’ now Constitution Hill, and finally Westley’s Row (named after surveyor and property developer William Westley, who drew up this plan) is now Dalton Way. William Westley was a Birmingham surveyor who owned land between Dale End and Steelhouse Lane, and on the Plan there is a ‘Westley’s Row’ parallel with Dale End’ (Birmingham City Archives).
Birmingham from the 1750s also became known for the manufacture of jewellery, its silversmiths and goldsmiths being concentrated into one area of the city. However, the metal trade was the basis of the city’s rapid expansion during the Industrial Revolution, as Matthew Boulton and James Watt in partnership operated between 1775 and 1794 at the Soho Manufactory in Birmingham to produce steam engines.
St Martin’s Parish Church is shown in Westley’s map close to High Town marketplace (the ‘Bull Ring’) in the town centre. Nonconformists appeared preaching in Birmingham by about 1628 and are said to have ‘held the pulpit’ of St. Martin’s until about 1634. By the 1640s a new generation of preachers made the pulpit of St. Martin’s a stronghold of Presbyterianism, henceforth Parliamentarian upon the Civil War which begun in 1642.
The original (medieval) Aston parish of St Peter and St Paul, adjoining Birmingham at Aston Juxta, served the whole of Warwickshire and also turned Parliamentary therefore Nonconformist, whereas St Philip’s Cathedral completed in 1715 was more Episcopalian Anglican. Restoration of James II to the throne in 1685 led to a relaxation in severity of religious persecution; however his defeat by Prince William III of Orange in the 1688 Glorious Revolution heralded peaceful expansion, toleration and consolidation of Protestant dissent.
Genealogy indices for that period show most likely the above William Westley married Susanna Vinsent in St Martin’s Church on 3 December 1696, his brothers John, Samuel, Joseph, Isaac and Moses, all born at Yardley, inner Birmingham, sons of John Westley and Margret Simonds who married 14 July 1677 at Cotheridge in Worcestershire. Their son Isaac Westley christened 5 May 1688 at Yardley married Martha Wheler on 12 August 1711 in St Martins at Birmingham. Moses Westley of Yardley has a namesake Moses baptised at Kenilworth 31 December 1648 son of William, where Henry Westley married Johanna Baytes on 17 April 1574 having sons Abraham, John, William and Thomas at Kenilworth, evidently forefathers of Moses.
Kenilworth was home to Lord Robert Dudley (1532-1588) 1st Earl Leicester, renowned Elizabethan leader of the Puritan Movement embracing St Nicholas’ Church, formerly Kenilworth Abbey. Dudley’s childhood friend Queen Elizabeth gave him Kenilworth Castle in 1563 which jurisdiction included Coventry, Warwick and Birmingham, where families Westley appear to descend of Walter Westley at Warwick, who died in about 1537, and henceforth Walter and Thomas Westley of Kenilworth and Henry at Warwick.
The family of Moses Westley appear to have later settled at Walsall, immediately north of Birmingham, from about 1650, thence christenings at St Matthew’s Church and those of inner Birmingham at St Martin’s Church, also closely related and Nonconformist, while their biblical forenames imply 16th century Puritan ancestry.
In the International Genealogical Index (IGI) we find Isaac Westley baptised 28 May 1654 in St Olave’s Church, Southwark in London son of William Westley, and there is also a Moses Westley baptised 18 January 1662 son of Aaron at Mixbury in Oxfordshire, which because of such unusual forenames not apparent elsewhere, suggests their kinship has origins in Warwickshire, descendant of Henry Westley at Kenilworth.
The earliest christening at St Philip’s Cathedral church, which was completed in 1715, appears that of John Westley on 2 February 1750 but he married Dorothy Stubbs in St Matthew’s at Walsall on 25 March 1779 in a frequent alternation between parishes after 1775, while St Philip’s seems perhaps the broader, high or episcopal of the two churches.
Reverend Charles Wesley first visited Birmingham in May 1743 followed by his brother John in 1760 and the Wesleyan Society at Cradley in Birmingham goes back to 1766; John Wesley again visited Cradley on 19 March 1770 but he died in 1791 issuing plans for evangelistic Methodist chapels, while a preacher in the broader Church of England. However, many generations of Westley found in local genealogy since 1574, may be attributed to Tudor era Plantation landholdings promoted by Henry VIII (reign 1509-1547) among measures blocking clerical re-occupation of his dissolved monastic estates.
We note Walter Wesley who died in 1537 at Warwick, appears most likely to be great-grandfather of Henry, who was born circa 1550, presumably about Warwick or Kenilworth. He is quite possibly linear to Sir Herbert Westley born 1565 only son of Sir Walter Westley at Westleigh in Devon, perhaps also Walter of Warwick. The dynastic Throckmorton family connection with Westleys of Devon and Warwick, suggest Protestant, Puritan and Nonconformist alliance dating from Tudor times, as follows.
(a) Lord Robert Dudley 1st Earl Leicester, of Kenilworth and Warwick was closely aligned with the influential Throckmorton dynasty seated widespread between Coughton in Warwickshire, Luffield in Buckinghamshire and Tortworth in Gloucestershire. Job Throckmorton (1545-1601) son of Clement Throckmorton (1516-1573) of Haseley in Warwickshire is the ‘Martin Marprelate’ who authored the Puritan-sponsored Marprelate tracts, circulated illegally in the years 1588 and 1589 in a focused attack on episcopacy of the Anglican Church.
‘The (Puritan) Classical Movement had the support of magistrates and merchants of certain towns as well as the larger patronage offered by such aristocrats as Francis Russell Earl of Bedford and Lord Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Dudley in 1564 was told of 28 ‘godly preachers’ and others in Protestant chaplaincies or Lectureships which were supported by private individuals’ (Dr Peter Toon, ‘Puritans/Calvanism’ 1973).
(b) Sir Herbert Westley's mother Alice Tracy is a great-granddaughter to Sir Thomas Throckmorton (abt 1412-1472) High Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester. Sir Herbert, born ca 1565 (son of Sir Walter Westley) is 3rd cousin to Job Throckmorton (Snr) while Job (Jnr) is a grandnephew to Ambassador Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (1515-1570) of Paulerspury in Northamptonshire, who with his brother Clement (1517-1573) of Haseley in Warwickshire, were both Puritan MPs.
(c) Sir Nicholas Throckmorton’s sister Elizabeth married Sir Walter Raleigh (ca 1552-1618) Lord Warden of Cornwall and Oxford, born in Devon, also Puritan. Raleigh is closely related to Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) born in Devon, son of a Protestant preacher and godchild of Protestant Elizabethan statesman Sir Francis Russell 2nd Earl Bedford (1527-1585).
Lineages of those cousins reveal many with direct connections to royalty and prominent persons, including Drake’s fellow sailor, explorer and soldier Sir Richard Grenville (1542-1591) while the Throckmorton and Russell dynasties occasioned highly influential statesmen and Puritan supporters throughout the Reformation and Nonconformism.
(d) Sir Herbert Westley’s great-grandson Samuel Wesley married Susannah Annesley (1669-1742) whose father Dr Samuel Annesley was born in 1620 of John Anslye at Kenilworth near Haseley in Warwickshire. Dr Annesley in 1644 became chaplain of His Majesty’s ship ‘Globe’ under Robert Rich, Earl Warwick and Lord High Admiral, who procured him his diploma of LL.D. Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell made Dr Annesley lecturer of St Paul’s and in 1658 vicar at St Gile’s Cripplegate, two of London’s largest congregations. Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier at St Gile’s in 1620; a daughter Frances married Robert Rich and remarried Sir John Russell 4th baronet.
(e) Robert Rich (1587-1658) 2nd Earl Warwick was a member of the Virginia Company and Council of the New England Company, appointed by King Charles I in 1643 as Lord High Admiral and Governor-in-Chief for the colonies of Virginia, Plymouth, Connecticut and Rhode Island. His grandson (who married Oliver Cromwell’s sister Frances) is a grandnephew of Alice Rich, wife of Richard (Robert) White (1540-1600) of South Petherton in Somerset, a 3rd cousin to Reverend John White ‘Patriarch of Dorchester’ (1575-1648) father-in-law of Reverend John Westley of Westleigh in Devon.
(f) The Rich family descends from Richard Rich, a wealthy mercer who served as Sheriff of the City of London in 1441 with a son John, whose grandson and namesake Sir Richard Rich was a prominent lawyer and politician serving as Solicitor General and Speaker of the House of Commons, evidently with Coventry mercantile interests.
There are records of earlier Westley or Wesleys in London - Henry born circa 1322 and Thomas on 14 December 1470 with descendants (John, Henry, Robert, Matthew, George, Thomas, Samuel, Richard, Christopher and Gilbert) of medieval Inner London situated at Eastcheap, Newgate, Cornhill and Woolnoth, their forenames similar to those in counties adjacent to London, most likely carried down from medieval Westleys of Somerset.
‘The English Reformation which began in 1517 produced little bloodshed in London, as most of the higher classes co-operated to bring about a gradual shift to Protestantism. Hitherto, more than half of the area of London was occupied by monasteries, nunneries and other religious houses, and about a third of the inhabitants were monks, nuns and friars; King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries had a profound effect on the city as nearly all of this property changed hands. The process commenced in the mid 1530s and mostly by 1538 larger houses had been abolished.’
‘The monasteries became rich, and a lot of that wealth found its way to the royal treasury. Some of the monastery buildings were sold to wealthy gentry for use as country estates, while many others became sources of cheap building materials for local inhabitants. Henry sold the monastic lands for bargain basement prices, such was his need for ready cash, and the real beneficiary of the Dissolution was not the king, but the new class of gentry who bought the lands.’ - Tudor London by David Nash Ford.
‘There was a marked increase in prosperity after 1588 and the population of London grew accordingly ‘around the lands seized from the church as richer citizens moved out to country estates to the west of the city along the Thames, where many of the old bishops’ palaces were rebuilt for use by the nobility. Losses of the church presented opportunities too for the City Livery Companies (trades and professions) as they claimed many fine buildings from those left redundant.’
‘Much of the plunder of the church was used to the advantage of private citizens in this way, and conversions continued into the reign of Edward VI (1537-1553). In 1547, the Duke of Somerset (Edward Seymour) used stone from Clerkenwell Priory and St. Paul's Charnel House to build himself a magnificent Renaissance Palace on the Strand; houses of the Bishops of Chester and Worcester were torn down to make way for his new Somerset House’- David Nash Ford.
Populations for Inner London from years 1300 to 1550 remained static around 60,000 then grew rapidly by 1600 to about 140,000. Consequent to eventual over-crowding, many New Towns developed across central England, inherent with market places upon the appointment of Lords Lieutenant ordered by Henry in furthering his plantation of trusted landholders as a means of central government - ‘a new race of nobility under Tudor rule, families of businessmen, lawyers and courtiers derived power from their great wealth gained in the upheavals of the Reformation Period’ (World Book).
Lord Littleton Westley jointly held Cosgrove Manor in Northamptonshire from 1747 through Mary Gurney whom he married in 1740 at Dunchurch in Warwickshire - he descends from the justices Lord Littleton of Shropshire and Worcestershire.
Nonconformism has origins in the Puritan Classical Movement (1580-1590) which was an administrative form of Presbyterianism, organised in secret within the Church of England in reaction to the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 (henceforth the Anglican Church) by dissatisfied Bible Christians or radical Protestants, with earlier European roots following the Saxon theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546).
A 12th century market town, Birmingham in 1538 had a population of 1,300 whereas its counterparts Warwick housed 1,000 and larger Coventry throughout the medieval period already was the 4th largest city in England with a population of around 10,000 - ranked after Norwich, Bristol and London. Coventry’s royal charter of 1345 was the first of its kind in England whereupon its dominant guilds of crafts, trades and wool merchants prospered until their dissolution by Henry VIII in 1546, which brought economic crisis and decline, however they once rivaled the great gilded livery companies of London.
Post-medieval Birmingham also developed chartered guilds and had by the 17th century surpassed Coventry’s population, specialising in metal founding and gun manufacture for Cromwell’s forces, as all three towns were fiercely allied Parliamentarian in the English Civil War (1642-1651) against the Royalist forces of King Charles. ‘It has been claimed Birmingham’s population increase and manufacturing growth in the latter 17th century owed much to the prominence of religious nonconformity in the town, where by 1697 most migrants came from within its immediate vicinity’ (British History Online). ‘In 1700 one person in six lived in a town, by 1800 this had doubled to one in three’.
Birmingham by the 18th century became a refuge for ‘relatively large numbers of educated and religious minded people, chafing under restrictions elsewhere imposed on their religious opinions’ whose immigrants ‘contributed to the furtherance of that particular type of individualism, to this day considered to characterise much of the industrial life of the city. The strongly Nonconformist character of Birmingham fostered its industrial progress (and) so denied entry to learned professions by the fact that the universities barred them, English nonconformists devoted themselves to business life’
The first contemporary map of Birmingham was made for the Warwickshire members of Parliament by surveyor William Westley in 1731, at which time ‘St. Philip’s church was on the edge of Birmingham, with farmland stretching to the north beyond’ as was also drawn by the same Westley in his 1732 perspective ‘East Prospect of Birmingham; the land immediately to the west of St. Philip’s had been sold at the end of the 17th century with the condition that it should only be used as agricultural land for the next 120 years.’
William Westley reported ‘In the year 1700 Birmingham contained 30 streets, 100 courts and alleys, 2504 houses, 15,032 inhabitants, one church dedicated to St. Martin, a chapel to St John, a school founded by Edward 6th, and 2 Dissenting meeting houses. The increase of this town from 1700 to ‘ye’ year 1731 is as follows: 25 streets, 50 courts and alleys, 1215 houses, 8254 inhabitants, together with a new church, charity School, market cross, and 2 Meeting Houses, for a further account ye prospects’. Surrounded by fields, it had grown around Digbeth and the markets at St Martin’s church, expanding uphill onto higher ground with New Street; there were more small workshops than large businesses in 1731.
‘Plate in the possession of Theophilus Richards in the year 1789 (nephew to Mr Westley) the road marked ‘To Wolverhampton and Walsall’ now Constitution Hill, and finally Westley’s Row (named after surveyor and property developer William Westley, who drew up this plan) is now Dalton Way. William Westley was a Birmingham surveyor who owned land between Dale End and Steelhouse Lane, and on the Plan there is a ‘Westley’s Row’ parallel with Dale End’ (Birmingham City Archives).
Birmingham from the 1750s also became known for the manufacture of jewellery, its silversmiths and goldsmiths being concentrated into one area of the city. However, the metal trade was the basis of the city’s rapid expansion during the Industrial Revolution, as Matthew Boulton and James Watt in partnership operated between 1775 and 1794 at the Soho Manufactory in Birmingham to produce steam engines.
St Martin’s Parish Church is shown in Westley’s map close to High Town marketplace (the ‘Bull Ring’) in the town centre. Nonconformists appeared preaching in Birmingham by about 1628 and are said to have ‘held the pulpit’ of St. Martin’s until about 1634. By the 1640s a new generation of preachers made the pulpit of St. Martin’s a stronghold of Presbyterianism, henceforth Parliamentarian upon the Civil War which begun in 1642.
The original (medieval) Aston parish of St Peter and St Paul, adjoining Birmingham at Aston Juxta, served the whole of Warwickshire and also turned Parliamentary therefore Nonconformist, whereas St Philip’s Cathedral completed in 1715 was more Episcopalian Anglican. Restoration of James II to the throne in 1685 led to a relaxation in severity of religious persecution; however his defeat by Prince William III of Orange in the 1688 Glorious Revolution heralded peaceful expansion, toleration and consolidation of Protestant dissent.
Genealogy indices for that period show most likely the above William Westley married Susanna Vinsent in St Martin’s Church on 3 December 1696, his brothers John, Samuel, Joseph, Isaac and Moses, all born at Yardley, inner Birmingham, sons of John Westley and Margret Simonds who married 14 July 1677 at Cotheridge in Worcestershire. Their son Isaac Westley christened 5 May 1688 at Yardley married Martha Wheler on 12 August 1711 in St Martins at Birmingham. Moses Westley of Yardley has a namesake Moses baptised at Kenilworth 31 December 1648 son of William, where Henry Westley married Johanna Baytes on 17 April 1574 having sons Abraham, John, William and Thomas at Kenilworth, evidently forefathers of Moses.
Kenilworth was home to Lord Robert Dudley (1532-1588) 1st Earl Leicester, renowned Elizabethan leader of the Puritan Movement embracing St Nicholas’ Church, formerly Kenilworth Abbey. Dudley’s childhood friend Queen Elizabeth gave him Kenilworth Castle in 1563 which jurisdiction included Coventry, Warwick and Birmingham, where families Westley appear to descend of Walter Westley at Warwick, who died in about 1537, and henceforth Walter and Thomas Westley of Kenilworth and Henry at Warwick.
The family of Moses Westley appear to have later settled at Walsall, immediately north of Birmingham, from about 1650, thence christenings at St Matthew’s Church and those of inner Birmingham at St Martin’s Church, also closely related and Nonconformist, while their biblical forenames imply 16th century Puritan ancestry.
In the International Genealogical Index (IGI) we find Isaac Westley baptised 28 May 1654 in St Olave’s Church, Southwark in London son of William Westley, and there is also a Moses Westley baptised 18 January 1662 son of Aaron at Mixbury in Oxfordshire, which because of such unusual forenames not apparent elsewhere, suggests their kinship has origins in Warwickshire, descendant of Henry Westley at Kenilworth.
The earliest christening at St Philip’s Cathedral church, which was completed in 1715, appears that of John Westley on 2 February 1750 but he married Dorothy Stubbs in St Matthew’s at Walsall on 25 March 1779 in a frequent alternation between parishes after 1775, while St Philip’s seems perhaps the broader, high or episcopal of the two churches.
Reverend Charles Wesley first visited Birmingham in May 1743 followed by his brother John in 1760 and the Wesleyan Society at Cradley in Birmingham goes back to 1766; John Wesley again visited Cradley on 19 March 1770 but he died in 1791 issuing plans for evangelistic Methodist chapels, while a preacher in the broader Church of England. However, many generations of Westley found in local genealogy since 1574, may be attributed to Tudor era Plantation landholdings promoted by Henry VIII (reign 1509-1547) among measures blocking clerical re-occupation of his dissolved monastic estates.
We note Walter Wesley who died in 1537 at Warwick, appears most likely to be great-grandfather of Henry, who was born circa 1550, presumably about Warwick or Kenilworth. He is quite possibly linear to Sir Herbert Westley born 1565 only son of Sir Walter Westley at Westleigh in Devon, perhaps also Walter of Warwick. The dynastic Throckmorton family connection with Westleys of Devon and Warwick, suggest Protestant, Puritan and Nonconformist alliance dating from Tudor times, as follows.
(a) Lord Robert Dudley 1st Earl Leicester, of Kenilworth and Warwick was closely aligned with the influential Throckmorton dynasty seated widespread between Coughton in Warwickshire, Luffield in Buckinghamshire and Tortworth in Gloucestershire. Job Throckmorton (1545-1601) son of Clement Throckmorton (1516-1573) of Haseley in Warwickshire is the ‘Martin Marprelate’ who authored the Puritan-sponsored Marprelate tracts, circulated illegally in the years 1588 and 1589 in a focused attack on episcopacy of the Anglican Church.
‘The (Puritan) Classical Movement had the support of magistrates and merchants of certain towns as well as the larger patronage offered by such aristocrats as Francis Russell Earl of Bedford and Lord Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Dudley in 1564 was told of 28 ‘godly preachers’ and others in Protestant chaplaincies or Lectureships which were supported by private individuals’ (Dr Peter Toon, ‘Puritans/Calvanism’ 1973).
(b) Sir Herbert Westley's mother Alice Tracy is a great-granddaughter to Sir Thomas Throckmorton (abt 1412-1472) High Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester. Sir Herbert, born ca 1565 (son of Sir Walter Westley) is 3rd cousin to Job Throckmorton (Snr) while Job (Jnr) is a grandnephew to Ambassador Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (1515-1570) of Paulerspury in Northamptonshire, who with his brother Clement (1517-1573) of Haseley in Warwickshire, were both Puritan MPs.
(c) Sir Nicholas Throckmorton’s sister Elizabeth married Sir Walter Raleigh (ca 1552-1618) Lord Warden of Cornwall and Oxford, born in Devon, also Puritan. Raleigh is closely related to Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) born in Devon, son of a Protestant preacher and godchild of Protestant Elizabethan statesman Sir Francis Russell 2nd Earl Bedford (1527-1585).
Lineages of those cousins reveal many with direct connections to royalty and prominent persons, including Drake’s fellow sailor, explorer and soldier Sir Richard Grenville (1542-1591) while the Throckmorton and Russell dynasties occasioned highly influential statesmen and Puritan supporters throughout the Reformation and Nonconformism.
(d) Sir Herbert Westley’s great-grandson Samuel Wesley married Susannah Annesley (1669-1742) whose father Dr Samuel Annesley was born in 1620 of John Anslye at Kenilworth near Haseley in Warwickshire. Dr Annesley in 1644 became chaplain of His Majesty’s ship ‘Globe’ under Robert Rich, Earl Warwick and Lord High Admiral, who procured him his diploma of LL.D. Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell made Dr Annesley lecturer of St Paul’s and in 1658 vicar at St Gile’s Cripplegate, two of London’s largest congregations. Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier at St Gile’s in 1620; a daughter Frances married Robert Rich and remarried Sir John Russell 4th baronet.
(e) Robert Rich (1587-1658) 2nd Earl Warwick was a member of the Virginia Company and Council of the New England Company, appointed by King Charles I in 1643 as Lord High Admiral and Governor-in-Chief for the colonies of Virginia, Plymouth, Connecticut and Rhode Island. His grandson (who married Oliver Cromwell’s sister Frances) is a grandnephew of Alice Rich, wife of Richard (Robert) White (1540-1600) of South Petherton in Somerset, a 3rd cousin to Reverend John White ‘Patriarch of Dorchester’ (1575-1648) father-in-law of Reverend John Westley of Westleigh in Devon.
(f) The Rich family descends from Richard Rich, a wealthy mercer who served as Sheriff of the City of London in 1441 with a son John, whose grandson and namesake Sir Richard Rich was a prominent lawyer and politician serving as Solicitor General and Speaker of the House of Commons, evidently with Coventry mercantile interests.
There are records of earlier Westley or Wesleys in London - Henry born circa 1322 and Thomas on 14 December 1470 with descendants (John, Henry, Robert, Matthew, George, Thomas, Samuel, Richard, Christopher and Gilbert) of medieval Inner London situated at Eastcheap, Newgate, Cornhill and Woolnoth, their forenames similar to those in counties adjacent to London, most likely carried down from medieval Westleys of Somerset.
‘The English Reformation which began in 1517 produced little bloodshed in London, as most of the higher classes co-operated to bring about a gradual shift to Protestantism. Hitherto, more than half of the area of London was occupied by monasteries, nunneries and other religious houses, and about a third of the inhabitants were monks, nuns and friars; King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries had a profound effect on the city as nearly all of this property changed hands. The process commenced in the mid 1530s and mostly by 1538 larger houses had been abolished.’
‘The monasteries became rich, and a lot of that wealth found its way to the royal treasury. Some of the monastery buildings were sold to wealthy gentry for use as country estates, while many others became sources of cheap building materials for local inhabitants. Henry sold the monastic lands for bargain basement prices, such was his need for ready cash, and the real beneficiary of the Dissolution was not the king, but the new class of gentry who bought the lands.’ - Tudor London by David Nash Ford.
‘There was a marked increase in prosperity after 1588 and the population of London grew accordingly ‘around the lands seized from the church as richer citizens moved out to country estates to the west of the city along the Thames, where many of the old bishops’ palaces were rebuilt for use by the nobility. Losses of the church presented opportunities too for the City Livery Companies (trades and professions) as they claimed many fine buildings from those left redundant.’
‘Much of the plunder of the church was used to the advantage of private citizens in this way, and conversions continued into the reign of Edward VI (1537-1553). In 1547, the Duke of Somerset (Edward Seymour) used stone from Clerkenwell Priory and St. Paul's Charnel House to build himself a magnificent Renaissance Palace on the Strand; houses of the Bishops of Chester and Worcester were torn down to make way for his new Somerset House’- David Nash Ford.
Populations for Inner London from years 1300 to 1550 remained static around 60,000 then grew rapidly by 1600 to about 140,000. Consequent to eventual over-crowding, many New Towns developed across central England, inherent with market places upon the appointment of Lords Lieutenant ordered by Henry in furthering his plantation of trusted landholders as a means of central government - ‘a new race of nobility under Tudor rule, families of businessmen, lawyers and courtiers derived power from their great wealth gained in the upheavals of the Reformation Period’ (World Book).
Lord Littleton Westley jointly held Cosgrove Manor in Northamptonshire from 1747 through Mary Gurney whom he married in 1740 at Dunchurch in Warwickshire - he descends from the justices Lord Littleton of Shropshire and Worcestershire.