- Coldwalthamand Warnham
A branch of the Braby family may have moved towards Horsham area from the South Downs. There were numerous Brabys in Amberley. There were also Brabys in Coldwaltham.
John Braby (date of birth unknown, but a John Braby, husbandman of Coldwaltham was 40 in 1590s), died in Coldwaltham in 1632. His Will (Jane Masri’s transcription) mentions his son, Owen. Owen Braby, yeoman, was a witness to a tithes dispute in Warnham in 1637, (WSRO, Deposition Book, Ep/I/11/16, Aug 1637-May 1663) in which he states he was born in Coldwaltham but had lived in Warnham for some 30 years, and was about 65 years old, so that gives his date of birthc1572 (not found). He married Eleanor Nye there in 1600. They had four children in Warnham, including John, 1602, Henry (Will), Mary (Will) who married Samuel Parson at Warnham, 1624, and Dorothy, 1608, who married James Jenkin at Horsham in 1645orsham . Their mother died at Warnham in 1632. Their Coldwaltham grandfather, John, was married to Phillipa, according to his Will, already referred to. His first wife, and Owen’s mother, may have been Agnes Gadd who married John Braby at Coldwaltham in 1570. Joanne Braby, buried at Coldwaltham in 1593, “wife of John”, may have been a second wife, before Phillipa.
- John Braby [1602-1661] and Jane Booker
John Braby (whose father Owen was originally from Coldwaltham) married Jane Booker on 9 Apr 1638 at Horsham. It is likely to have been this John Braby to whom the following documents refer:
Certified Copy of Bargain and Sale,20 Dec 1647 (WSRO, SAS-B/227).By John Caryll of Warnham, esq., to John Rowland of Horsham, yeoman, - for £900 - of All that messuage or tenement, barn, buildings, lands &c. in Warnham called Graylands, Tanners, the Broadfield and Willetts Meads, in the tenure of John Braby containing 120 acres.
Certified by Nic. Sheppard, Tho. Sheppard
Bargain and Sale,4 May 1648 (WSRO, SAS-B/228). By John Rowland of Horsham, yeoman, to John Rapley of Warnham, yeoman, - for £205 - of 4 crofts of land in Warnham containing 30 ac. called Kennynge, Mershe, parcel of land called Brabyes farm, in the occupation of John Braby, bounding to lands called Willetts Meads, of the said Brabyes farm, N., the king's highway from Horsham to Warnham, E., lands of John Nye, S. and lands of the said John Rapley, called Maplefield, and Jefferayes, W. Signature, John Rowland, seal gone
Witnesses:- John Bartlott, Tho. Sheppard
Enrolled in Common Bench.
In 1647, John Caryll of Warnham, Esq., sold to John Rowland of Horsham, yeoman, - for £900 - all “that messuage or tenement, barn, buildings, lands &c. in Warnham called Graylands, Tanners, the Broadfield and Willetts Meads, in the tenure of John Brabycontaining 120ac”. The next year, Rowland, a yeoman, sold to John Rapley of Warnham, yeoman, - for £205 - 4 crofts of land in Warnham containing 30ac. called Kennynge, Mershe, [and a] parcel of land called Brabyes farm, in the occupation of John Braby”.
John Braby was a farmer. If “Brabyes Farm” is the lands listed, then he was tenant of Graylands (also called Sharp’s) which is adjacent to the north of Horsham parish, and Tanners which is on Mayes Lane north of the village. The other names are I think of individual fields (crofts), part of one of the larger holdings. John Caryll was a major owner of iron foundries in The Weald, and an important resident and major landowner in Warnham at the time, but who was imminently to leave the parish. His mansion was at Warnham Place, very near Graylands, where its foundations may still be seen.
John (wife not named, but probably Jane Booker) had a son John born 28 Nov 1641 in Warnham. John, the father, probably died there in 1661. There are no other births in his lifetime with John Braby named as father, but he may have had a brother Henry in Warnham, whose first child was born in 1655. Jane may have been born in 1609 at Horsham daughter of John and Agnis Booker.
John 1602-1661, cites in his Will(source Jane Masri) that his wife is Dorothy. Jane Masri speculates that Jane Booker was his first wife, and Dorothy his second. She has found a burial for a Dorothy Braby in Warnham the same year that John died, 1661, but no marriage found.
- Alternative 1:John Braby [1641-1702] and Ann Michell
John and Ann were married on 1 Nov 1663 at Warnham. They had children baptised, Ann 1664, Jane 1665, then with mother Ann named, Thomas 1669 (?died), John 1670 (died 1672), Thomas 1672, Harry 1676 (surname Brabary in BT), James also 1676, William 1678 and Jacob 1682. Ann, “wife of John”, died in 1687, and John died in 1702. Harry is frequently a diminutive for Henry, and there was an adult Henry, married to Agnis who may have been an uncle – they had a son Henry in 1663. Anne Michell was born in Warnham in 1638, daughter of Richard and Anne. The Michell family were a significant family in Horsham, and at Mayes Farm in Warnham. There is clearly room for doubt regarding the two names, Harry and Henry, but why would the Brabys have left Warnham for Pulborough, then returned there?
Alternative 2:John Braby [1641-1702]and Elizabeth Chalkcroft
Jane Masri, a descendent of the Brabys in question, agrees that Owen’s grandson, Henry Braby (below, who died in 1734), was the son of John Braby,1641-1702, but considers it possible that he married Elizabeth Chalkcroft at Pulborough in 1672, where they had children, all baptised there: Susan 1673, Thomas, 1675, John, 1678, Henry, 1681.
Henry’s brother, Thomas, married Elizabeth Smith at nearby Stopham in 1700. Their son, John, was a blacksmith: “LEAKER, Edward, son of Robert L., to John BRABY pfPulborough, Suss., smith; C.I. 7 yrs; £5; d(ated) 11 Jun. last (1741); d(uty) p(aid) 15 July 1741”.(SRS Vol. 28, Sussex Apprentices and Their Masters). The occupational link to blacksmithing is interesting because of the later Braby wheelwright’s business. There were births of John Brabys in Billingshurst and Slinfold, as well as in Warnham in the 17th century. It seems more likely that a branch of the Braby family moved down towards Pulborough than the other way round. For Henry, born at Pulborough in 1681, to be the Henry who married Ruth Fuller, the occupational link has to be important (no certainty of a Braby wheelwright until 1772 in Ockley), and the link back to the Coldwaltham family strong.
- Henry Braby [1676(or 1681) -1734] and Ruth Fuller.
Either, Henry, or Harry, as he was known as a child,son of John and Ann Braby,
baptised 1676 in Warnham, or Henry, son of John and Elizabeth Braby baptised 1681 in Pulborough, was the Henry who married Ruth Fuller in 1704. Henry/Harry of Warnham would have been 28; Henry of Pulborough would have been 23.
Ruth was in between them in age. She was probably born in Horsham in 1679, daughter of William and Mary Fuller. Henry Braby and Ruth married on 9 May 1704 at Warnham. Henry and Ruth had six children baptised in Warnham, the first in 1705. The youngest was James (1). He had an elder brother, Henry, born in 1707. Their father was buried at Warnham in 1734, named Henry Bravey as were all the family in the early 18th century registers.
- James Braby (1) [1713-1770] and Ruth Compton
James was “ye son of Henry Braby and Ruth his wife”, baptised 30 Aug 1713. James ‘Bravey’ married Ruth Compton in 1735 at Warnham, when he was 22, and she only 19. She is under age, which throws some doubt on this marriage, but does not rule it out entirely. Ruth Compton may have been the daughter of John Compton of Rudgwick, born in 1715 – the earliest connection with Rudgwick so far found. Several other Braby marriages around this time occurred in Horsham, including Henry Braby and Ruth Holland, perhaps James’s brother born in 1707, and Elizabeth Braby to James Potter in 1738, perhaps his sister born in 1710.
Ruth, married to James Braby, was buried at Warnham: a grave outside the east end of the church gives,“In memory of Ruth, wife of James Bravery died February 18 1755 aged 39 yrs”. However, the burial register has not only Ruth Bravery in 1755, but also “Ruth Bravey, a woman” in 1761 (still before James’s second marriage).
Ruth, their eldest child had been born in 1736, “daughter of James Braby by Ruth”. Names were fluid at the time, and the birth was in Horsham, as were those of John, 1744, James (2) in 1749, and Benjamin, 1753. Several died as infants and some are commemorated on their mother’s grave in Warnham (with some confusion of names and events, though the dates given for the four above are more certain). Two possible reasons for the births in Horsham are a) that they were farming on or just over the border in Horsham parish (as in 1647 above), or b) that James was apprenticed to a Horsham wheelwright. The Warnham wheelwright’s shop – at least later on – was on the corner of Church Street and Bell Road.