Sarah (Juxon) Byfield (abt. 1616 - 1678)

Ancestors

Wife of Richard Byfield — married about 1646 in Mortlake, Surrey, England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 1678 at about age 62 in Mortlake, Surrey, England [uncertain]

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Biography

Family

According to her 1677 Will, proved 4 April 1678, ^[1], Sarah Byfield, widow of Rev. Richard Byfield of Long Ditton Surrey, was born Sarah Juxon, the second daughter of John Juxon, Citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, and his first wife Elizabeth Kirrell. ^[2] This would place her birth about 1616, either in London or in Mortlake Surrey, where her mother's family had property that passed to the Juxons, where Rev Byfield was buried, and where it is likely that Sara Byfield died.

Sarah Juxon married at least twice: probably first, by 1633, to William Wagstaffe, who was named as the the brother-in-law of John Juxon, husband of his sister Sara, in his 1643 Will. ^[3] William Wagstaffe was buried at All Hallows Bread Street on 10 January 1643/4. ^[4] This was the church of Sara Juxon's sister, Elizabeth Gethin. Thus Sara Wagstaffe could not have remarried until after that date. Records show that the eldest daughter Elizabeth Davis, named in Sarah Byfield's 1677 Will, was a child of William Wagstaffe and not Richard Byfield, particularly as Elizabeth's birth does not appear in the Long Ditton parish registers. It does, however, appear in the Mortlake register ^[5] as 20 November 1636 baptism of Elizabeth Wagstaffe, daughter of William and Sara. Also: Baptism of Elizabeth, daughter of William and Sara Wagstaffe 1 December 1633. ^[6] (It seems likely that these were two daughters - the first dying young.) Sara's Will also listed grandchildren Tristram and Mary Davis. This Elizabeth was the Elizabeth Bowers named in the 1664 Will of Richard Byfield ^[1] and also in the 1659 Will ^[7] of her nephew John Juxon, who must have been widowed and remarried as Elizabeth Davis.

Sarah listed five surviving daughters in her Will, as well as Elizabeth: daughters of Richard Byfield - Rebecca (Jackson), Dorcas (Patton) , Priscilla Wardron), Mary, and Deborah. Another daughter, Sarah, born in 1646, died unmarried in 1672, leaving her mother as executrix of her Will. She also listed two sons: Timothy and Nathaniel. As Rev Richard Byfield died in 1664, this appears to be a large number of children in a relatively short union, but the births, with others, are attested in the Long Ditton parish registers ^[8] following children born to Richard Byfield from his previous marriage to Mary Lancashire. Children baptised after 1645 and thus attributed to Sara were:

(2) Sarah - 4 October 1646 - named in Will as deceased (Will 1672)

John - 10 October 1647

(2) Rebecca -25 February 1648/9 - named in Will

Dorcas - 27 January 1649/50 - named in Will

(3) Timothy - 12 January 1650/1 - named in Will

Priscilla - 28 March 1652 - named in Will

Nathaniel - 4 July 1653 - named in Will

Nicholas 29 October 1654

(2) Mary - 1655 - Named in Will

The Long Ditton parish register does not list the baptism of daughter Deborah, named in Sara's Will, but other sources show her born in 1659, perhaps at Mortlake, and married in 1680. Richard Byfield's Will also names a son Thomas, his youngest son, not shown in the register, who died in 1644.

Her daughter, Sarah Byfield wrote, "I give and bequeath unto my Deare and Honoured Mother Mrs Sarah Byfeild the sume of Twenty pounds of Currant money of England." Also, she listed her sisters and brothers in her will, and it proved that Timothy, Nathaniel, Rebecka, Dorcas, Priscilla, Mary and Deborah were the children of Richard and Sarah Byfield.^[9] Also, Sarah Byfield's will proved that her mother, Sarah married her father, Richard Byfield.

The 1672 Will ^[10] of Sarah's brother Thomas Juxton left bequests to his sister Sarah Byfield and to her children, naming her sons Timothy and Nathaniel, and naming "Niece Elizabeth Davis", "Niece Rebecca Jackson", "Niece Sarah Byfield", and "the three youngest daughters of my sister Byfield that are unmarried."

Her daughter Mary Byfield's marriage record to physician Richard Browne ^[11] shows that she was about 22 years old when she was married in 1677. If Mrs. Sarah Byfield stopped at the childbearing age of 40 to 45 when her daughter, Mary Byfield was born in 1655, she could not be born before 1610 or 1615.

Deaths at Mortlake

Richard Byfield had been rector of Long Ditton since 1628, based on the register, and was supported by the government of the Commonwealth as "a godly and learned preacher", ^[12] but following the restoration of the monarchy, he was ejected by the provisions of the Act of Uniformity of 1622, to which he would not conform. The family then removed to Sarah's birthplace at Mortlake Surrey, where Richard was buried in 1664.

The parish register of St Mary the Virgin, Mortlake records "Richard Bifield, minister, was buried the 30th of Decr 1664." He was rector of Long-Ditton, had been one of the assembly of divines, and published several sermons and religious tracts. ^[13] On 22 March 1677/8 was recorded "Mrs Sarah Byfield Widdow was buried." ^[14]

Research Notes

Correction of dates has been made following parish registers and other family Wills.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Waters, Henry F. "Genealogical Gleanings in England" NEHGS Ancestry UK
2. ↑ Boyd's Inhabitants of London: Juxon, John - 1610 FindMyPast
3. ↑ J. S. Burn, Registrum ecclesiae parochialis (1862), p. 107; Lambeth Palace Library, VH 96/1508, the will of John Juxon of Mortlake, Surrey [DGS8050660_FamilySearch]
4. ↑ Parish Register/ City of London/ All Hallows Bread Street 1619-1664 Ancestry UK
5. ↑ transcript image FIndMyPast
6. ↑ City of London St Martin Orgar 1624-1812 Ancestry UK
7. ↑ "Will of John Juxon, Merchant of Saint Mary Aldermansbury, City of London", proved 6 December 1659, PROB 11/296/240
8. ↑ Registers of Long Ditton, St Mary 1564 May-1654 Dec Image 28/34
9. ↑ Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers. Digitized images. Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Series PROB 11. The National Archives, Kew, England; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 343: Pye, Quire Numbers 119-167 (1673). Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5111/images/40611_310560-00364?pId=756842.
10. ↑ "Will of Thomas Juxon of Mortlake, Surrey", proved 21 December 1672 PROB 11/340/522
11. ↑ Foster, Joseph, London marriage licences, 1521-1869, p. 201. London: B Quaritch, 1887. p. 201
12. ↑ "Volume 157: November 1657." Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Interregnum, 1657-8. Ed. Mary Anne Everett Green. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1884. 146-196. British History Online. Web. 29 November 2023. November 10
13. ↑ Lysons, Daniel. "Mortlake." The Environs of London: Volume 1, County of Surrey. London: T Cadell and W Davies, 1792. 364-388. British History Online. Web. 29 November 2023. Bifield
14. ↑ Parish Register Mortlake, St Mary 1677-1754 Ancestry UK

See Also: Waters, "Genealogical Gleanings in England", (1898) Vol. II, pp. 105 ff. The New England historical and genealogical register Vol LII, 1874. Juxon Wills

• Byfield family history
• Surrey England birth registry
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel. Genealogical Notice of the Family of Elder Thomas Leverett, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, 1850) Vol. 4, Page 134