In the previous article in this blog series I described the life of Robert Nurse (my great-great-grandfather).  Robert was the youngest child and his older brother Samuel, was also my great-great-grandfather, as Robert’s son Robert Francis Nurse married Samuel’s daughter Sarah Elizabeth Nurse.

Samuel married Dinah Willis on Christmas Day 1848.

Figure 1 – Samuel Nurse (c 1860)		Figure 2 – Dinah Nurse

Dinah was the eldest of six children (5 daughters and one son) of Robert Willis and Dinah Leonard.[1],[2]

Willis [3] is quite a popular name in Hanham, most of the Willises being labourers or quarrymen. [5] Robert however, was quite well off, being classified, as a Yeoman in both the 1851 and 1861 [5], [6], [7] censuses and his will,[8] where he leaves most of his estate to his daughter Dinah Willis, Samuel Nurse’s wife.

Figure 3 – The Family of Samuel and Dinah Nurse

While both Samuel and his brother Robert had inherited the family malting business, it was Samuel who operated the business. Samuel and Dinah had three children a boy Robert Willis and two daughters Sarah Elizabeth and Frances Willis.

Bibliography and Notes

[1] Personal Notes of William Richmond Nurse, 1882-1937.

[2] Parish Register of St. Nicholas Church, City of Bristol, 1754-1812. Microfiched by the Bristol Record Office, Bristol.

[3] Due to the number of Willis families in the Hanham/Bitton area it has proven quite difficult to trace the Willis line back very far. Robert Willis and Dinah Leonard were married 24 Jun 1810 at St. Nicholas Church in the city of Bristol.

Robert, born 28 Feb 1777, was the one of eleven children (6 boys and 5 girls) of Samuel Willis and Sarah Rawbone, who were married on 1 May 1774 at St. Mary, Bitton. [4]

Samuel Willis was the son of Thomas Willis and Elizabeth Hicks and Sarah Rawbone was the daughter of John and Jane Rawbone (and the sister of Betty Rawbone who married John Couch and was the mother of Salley Couch).

[4] Parish Register for the Parish of St. Mary, Bitton, including the chapelries of Hanham and Oldland, 1571 - 1934. Microfiched by the Bristol Record Office, Bristol.

[5] 1851 National Census. Microfiche copy held at the Bristol Reference Library.

[6] 1841 National Census. Microfiche copy held at the Bristol Reference Library.

[7] 1861 National Census. Microfiche copy held at the Bristol Reference Library.

[8] The Will of Robert Willis, dated 19 Jun 1863; Bristol Wills, vol. 26, Bristol Record Office.

In the previous article in this blog series I described the life of Robert and Salley Nurse.  They had a number of children - Robert Nurse was the youngest son and he was my great-great-grandfather.

He married Ann Jane Taylor at St. Michael, Two Mile Hill on 30^th May 1854, two months after his father Robert Nurse died. [1]

Ann Jane Taylor, Robert Nurse’s wife, was a descendent of John Taylor, the Landscape Painter. John Taylor's father, Abraham Taylor was a prosperous Philadelphia merchant and friend of Benjamin Franklin, before the American Revolution.

It is through the Taylors that the Nurse family is linked to the Gordons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- a junior branch of the Scottish Gordon clan, and the Luther family of Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, an important family of that county.[2]

Robert and Ann were Innkeepers at the Rose and Crown, a public house in a fairly good area of St George, on the eastern outskirts of Bristol. [3] As discussed above, the licensed trade had long been a family tradition, and several members of the family ran public houses in the locality.

Robert's elder brother, Samuel also operated the malting and brewing business, which the two brothers had inherited from their father.

Over the next ten or eleven years, Robert and Ann Jane had six children, four of these children surviving infancy.

Figure 1 - Robert Nurse and his sons, William Richmond and Robert Francis (c 1870)		Figure 2 - Ann Jane Nurse and her daughters, Alice Mary Couche and Salley Jane (c 1870)

The family, although not rich, was fairly well off, running their own businesses and owning a moderate amount of land around the eastern outskirts of Bristol.

The boys, at least, were well educated, Robert Francis initially attended the local Church School, Two Mile Hill but both boys finished their education at Dr. Nunn's School, a private boarding school in Portland Square, near the centre of Bristol.

Figure 3  - The Family of Robert and Ann Jane Nurse

In 1871 Robert Nurse died. Ann took over as licensee of the Rose and Crown Inn [4] and also acted as co-trustee with Robert Willis Nurse (son of Silas Nurse and Robert’s nephew), in the running of her late husband's share of the malting business.

Figure 4 - Two Mile Hill, St. George (c. 1926) and the Rose and Crown Inn (rebuilt in 1905)

Robert had directed in his will that they should run the business until his eldest son, Robert Francis (my great grandfather), had reached the age of 21. [5] At that time he would be offered the opportunity to purchase the concern at a price to be ascertained by a fair evaluation by "some competent parties to be appointed by the trustees".

Ann eventually moved to Bedminster where she lived with her surviving daughters, until she died in 1912.

Bibliography and Notes

[1] I have a copy of the Marriage Certificate for Robert and Ann.

[2] I will go into more detail on the Luther, Taylor and Gordon history in future blog articles.

[3] Bristol City Pubs, 1856, www.gloucestershire-pubs.co.uk.

[4] 1871 National Census. Microfiche copy held at the Bristol Reference Library.

[5] The Will of Robert Nurse, dated 3 Jun 1871; Bristol Wills, vol. 38, Bristol Record Office. (see Appendix A on Page 76)

In researching my Nurse ancestors in the Chew Magna area of North Somerset, I came across the following entry in the Chew Stoke parish register.

“5 Jan 1695 – Robert Nurse was buried
Rebecca Nurse of Chew Stoke hath made affidavit before Robert Payne ___, of Norton Malreward in the presence of Mary Lassey and Jone Walker for burying in woolen. – January 12 1695”

Although the first Burial in Woollen Act was passed in 1666, the 1678 Act provided much useful documentary evidence.

The Act generated a great deal of paperwork, which was required to prove that the Act’s conditions had been met, and was a classic piece of protectionist legislation. It stated that no corpse (other than those who died of plague) ”… shall be buried in any shirt, shift, sheet or shroud or anything whatsoever made or mingled with flax, hemp, silk, hair, gold or silver, or any stuff or thing other than what is made of sheep’s wool only …”

Within eight days of a funeral, an affidavit had to be made before a Justice of the Peace or a clergyman to confirm that the body had been buried in wool only. A close relative of the deceased usually swore the oath. Non-compliance carried the heavy penalty of five pounds, which was chargeable on the estate of the deceased.