Westley Hall
Dear Robert
It’s been two years since I contacted you and in reply received your Warminster Westleys image, which I transcribed onto my database for Wiltshire. As happened, there was no connection to report, but meanwhile this week had an extraordinary discovery leading back to your namesake Sir Robert Westley, Lord Mayor of London in 1743, who appears 2nd great-granduncle of James Wesley Hall (see below) whose common ancestry derives of Sir Robert’s parents Reverend Thomas Westley rector at Imber near Warminster and Elizabeth Daniel who married 11 February 1659 at Warminster.
Sir Robert’s sister Margaret married Thomas Hall clothier of Homington south of Salisbury (who could descend of Thomas Hall miller at Trowbridge 1485-1486) which may help clear the mystery of ‘Westley Hall’ the said birthplace of Hubert Wesley father-in-law to Sir Arthur Westley 4th baron Norragh, the first Westley in the de Wellesley lineage holding Wesley Manor at Wells in Somerset, who is contemporary with your ancestor John Westley born 1425 at Warminster.
I am still unable to identify your ancestor John Westley’s parents midst the confusion of Wellesley descendants but note Walrond de Wellesley, who died in 1375, is said to have inherited Wesley Manor in 1347, holding lands in ‘hamlets of Welleslegh and Dulcot’ about Wells in Somerset. Walrond is 7th great-grandson of Walrond of Welswey Manor in Somerset who died 1070-1080, so your John Westley of 1425 could be a brother to Arthur Westley 4th baron Norragh born 1416-1426 at Wesley Manor, and Arthur’s son Humphrey married a daughter of Hubert Wesley ‘of Westley Hall’ apparently within Shropshire.
Wesley surname derives of the French pronunciation of Wellesley so that Wesley Manor dates from Welswey times before Wellesley at Somerset. When the Colley lineage from Carbury Castle in Ireland inherited the Irish title and estates of Wellesley in about 1700, Richard Colley Wesley became Baron Mornington and his grandson Richard by Garret Colley Wesley 1st Earl Mornington (1735-1781) changed names in 1789 to Wellesley and Wesley said ‘to emphasise his descent from 14th century ancestors and to distance themselves from Dissident (later Nonconformist) Wesley (i.e., Westley) relations who were undermining Church and State.’
Gradually many families Westley followed the change to Wesley during the 18th and 19th centuries, whereas their genealogic roots are Somerset and the ‘Dissident’ Westleys of Dorset became Wesley, hence the Wesleyan and Epworth religious movements, whilst including Westleys with continuity back to early times Welswey, which thanks to your family data, enabled the interconnection of a leading ‘Dissident’ Westley Hall, as follows.
Thomas Hall of Homington and Margaret Westley of Brixton Deverill near Warminster in Wiltshire are parents of the Reverend Westley Hall (17 Mar 1711 - 3 Jan 1776) curate 1735-1736 at Wootton Rivers and Fisherton Anger in Wiltshire, who on 17 December 1735 married Martha ‘Patty’ Wesley, the 2nd youngest daughter of the Nonconformist minister Samuel Westley (1662-1735) and Susannah Annesley, parents of the Epworth Wesley founding brothers of Methodism, of whom Westley Hall became pupil, while Samuel’s grandmother is Ann Colley of Carbury Castle, who married 1619 Bartholomew Westley (1596-1670) the Puritan minister.
I have a note that Bartholomew Westley is uncle to Millicent Westley who married William de Wellesley of Dangan in Ireland and is indicated as ancestral to Sir Robert Westley Lord Mayor of London (born 1670) but this does not as yet fit in with the succession from your Warminster ancestry back to 1425 though could originate in Dangan through de Wellesley ancestry of Millicent’s husband William. Millicent’s brother is Sir Herbert Westley born 1565 at Westleigh in Devon who wed Elizabeth de Wellesley of Dangan Castle, William’s aunt, which may later prove conclusive.
Reverend Westley Hall was accepted into the Epworth family, excepting his radical views advancing polygamy. Martha had 12 children of who 3 survived infancy: Thomas Westley Hall, Westley Hall and James Hall born in 1765 at Kington, Herefordshire, the father of Walter whose first three sons, Walter Russell Hall, Thomas Skarratt Hall and James Wesley Hall together emigrated in 1852 to Sydney and eventually became very wealthy through their participation from the 1890s in what was then the world’s largest gold mine at Mount Morgan near Rockhampton in Queensland.
These brothers Hall in the same period had a 3rd cousin, Samuel Annesley Wesley, owner of the Cosmopolitan Hotel at Rockhampton, a 2nd great-grandson to Susannah Annesley and Samuel Westley, whose descendants are difficult to trace but were residing about Sydney. On the other hand, the Hall brothers moved between Sydney, Melbourne and London; Walter Russell Hall’s widow established the Walter and Eliza Hall Medical Research Foundation in Melbourne.
Thomas Skarratt Hall (1836-1909) is the father of WWI hero Lieutenant-colonel Walter D’Arcy Hall born at Rockhampton in 1891, whose son is renowned British scientist Professor Edward Thomas ‘Teddy’ Hall (1924-2001). I note Hall is your middle name, so you may have a family connection already known.
Guy Wesley
Email to Robert Hall Westley
15 June 2010
It’s been two years since I contacted you and in reply received your Warminster Westleys image, which I transcribed onto my database for Wiltshire. As happened, there was no connection to report, but meanwhile this week had an extraordinary discovery leading back to your namesake Sir Robert Westley, Lord Mayor of London in 1743, who appears 2nd great-granduncle of James Wesley Hall (see below) whose common ancestry derives of Sir Robert’s parents Reverend Thomas Westley rector at Imber near Warminster and Elizabeth Daniel who married 11 February 1659 at Warminster.
Sir Robert’s sister Margaret married Thomas Hall clothier of Homington south of Salisbury (who could descend of Thomas Hall miller at Trowbridge 1485-1486) which may help clear the mystery of ‘Westley Hall’ the said birthplace of Hubert Wesley father-in-law to Sir Arthur Westley 4th baron Norragh, the first Westley in the de Wellesley lineage holding Wesley Manor at Wells in Somerset, who is contemporary with your ancestor John Westley born 1425 at Warminster.
I am still unable to identify your ancestor John Westley’s parents midst the confusion of Wellesley descendants but note Walrond de Wellesley, who died in 1375, is said to have inherited Wesley Manor in 1347, holding lands in ‘hamlets of Welleslegh and Dulcot’ about Wells in Somerset. Walrond is 7th great-grandson of Walrond of Welswey Manor in Somerset who died 1070-1080, so your John Westley of 1425 could be a brother to Arthur Westley 4th baron Norragh born 1416-1426 at Wesley Manor, and Arthur’s son Humphrey married a daughter of Hubert Wesley ‘of Westley Hall’ apparently within Shropshire.
Wesley surname derives of the French pronunciation of Wellesley so that Wesley Manor dates from Welswey times before Wellesley at Somerset. When the Colley lineage from Carbury Castle in Ireland inherited the Irish title and estates of Wellesley in about 1700, Richard Colley Wesley became Baron Mornington and his grandson Richard by Garret Colley Wesley 1st Earl Mornington (1735-1781) changed names in 1789 to Wellesley and Wesley said ‘to emphasise his descent from 14th century ancestors and to distance themselves from Dissident (later Nonconformist) Wesley (i.e., Westley) relations who were undermining Church and State.’
Gradually many families Westley followed the change to Wesley during the 18th and 19th centuries, whereas their genealogic roots are Somerset and the ‘Dissident’ Westleys of Dorset became Wesley, hence the Wesleyan and Epworth religious movements, whilst including Westleys with continuity back to early times Welswey, which thanks to your family data, enabled the interconnection of a leading ‘Dissident’ Westley Hall, as follows.
Thomas Hall of Homington and Margaret Westley of Brixton Deverill near Warminster in Wiltshire are parents of the Reverend Westley Hall (17 Mar 1711 - 3 Jan 1776) curate 1735-1736 at Wootton Rivers and Fisherton Anger in Wiltshire, who on 17 December 1735 married Martha ‘Patty’ Wesley, the 2nd youngest daughter of the Nonconformist minister Samuel Westley (1662-1735) and Susannah Annesley, parents of the Epworth Wesley founding brothers of Methodism, of whom Westley Hall became pupil, while Samuel’s grandmother is Ann Colley of Carbury Castle, who married 1619 Bartholomew Westley (1596-1670) the Puritan minister.
I have a note that Bartholomew Westley is uncle to Millicent Westley who married William de Wellesley of Dangan in Ireland and is indicated as ancestral to Sir Robert Westley Lord Mayor of London (born 1670) but this does not as yet fit in with the succession from your Warminster ancestry back to 1425 though could originate in Dangan through de Wellesley ancestry of Millicent’s husband William. Millicent’s brother is Sir Herbert Westley born 1565 at Westleigh in Devon who wed Elizabeth de Wellesley of Dangan Castle, William’s aunt, which may later prove conclusive.
Reverend Westley Hall was accepted into the Epworth family, excepting his radical views advancing polygamy. Martha had 12 children of who 3 survived infancy: Thomas Westley Hall, Westley Hall and James Hall born in 1765 at Kington, Herefordshire, the father of Walter whose first three sons, Walter Russell Hall, Thomas Skarratt Hall and James Wesley Hall together emigrated in 1852 to Sydney and eventually became very wealthy through their participation from the 1890s in what was then the world’s largest gold mine at Mount Morgan near Rockhampton in Queensland.
These brothers Hall in the same period had a 3rd cousin, Samuel Annesley Wesley, owner of the Cosmopolitan Hotel at Rockhampton, a 2nd great-grandson to Susannah Annesley and Samuel Westley, whose descendants are difficult to trace but were residing about Sydney. On the other hand, the Hall brothers moved between Sydney, Melbourne and London; Walter Russell Hall’s widow established the Walter and Eliza Hall Medical Research Foundation in Melbourne.
Thomas Skarratt Hall (1836-1909) is the father of WWI hero Lieutenant-colonel Walter D’Arcy Hall born at Rockhampton in 1891, whose son is renowned British scientist Professor Edward Thomas ‘Teddy’ Hall (1924-2001). I note Hall is your middle name, so you may have a family connection already known.
Guy Wesley
Email to Robert Hall Westley
15 June 2010