Introduction
Last week we introduced Elinor Bird and her family. Starting out in St Alban’s parish they had moved to St Helen’s, and probably Friar Street, by 1697.
It would probably be optimistic to expect to find any other record of Elinor’s upbringing. Girls did not go to school at that time. They were expected to stay at home and help out. The first definite event for Elinor after her baptism does not show up until 1723 with her marriage to Nicholas Ley.
Marriage
The marriage took place on the 14th of May at St Helen’s church. Friar Street was (and still is) within the parish of St Helen’s indicated that they might have been resident there. Elinor was 28 years old and Nicholas about 38 years old.
We know very little about Nicholas, and have been unable to track down his exact birth date. It is believed he as born around the year 1684, working back from his burial. Exact details on his baptism or anything concrete about his parents is lacking. The name Nicholas Ley has yet to be found anywhere within the Worcestershire baptism registers. Yet it is very common in Devon, particularly around Exeter. That area had, at this time, a heavy Dutch influence and it could be that Ley derives from that. We certainly see a number of Nicolaus Ley baptisms in that area – suggesting non-English descent.
A Rector’s Son?
One possible lead we have on Nicholas is that the rector of St Helens from 1678 to 1686 was a William Ley. This clearly spans the presumed year of Nicholas’s birth, so William could be Nicholas’s father. This William himself appears to have been a rector’s son – rector William Ley of St Nicholas’s church Worcester. However, if this is the case then why was Nicholas not baptised by his father in his church? In 1686 William Ley of St Helens moves to Knightwick to take over as the rector there. Over the course of nine years he and his wife Susanna have four children,. All of four show up in the Knightwick parish records. It is hard to believe that William Ley would have allowed his son, a rector’s son no less, to take up the profession that he did. William Ley of St Nicholas parish died in 1678 and in his will he leaves his son the book “Mr Pools’ Synopsis Criticorum upon the whole Bible”. Unfortunately, no will has been located for William Ley junior, rector of St Helen’s.
So we cannot honestly claim that Nicholas was the son of the rector of St Helen’s church but maybe they were related in some way?
Other Worcester Leys
There are very few Ley’s (spelt exactly that way) in the Worcestershire parish records. The city pourpresture records do show that a Joseph Ley and his wife Joan lived in St Peter’s ward from between 1698 and 1715. No record of this couple having children has been found. Neither do either of them appear to have left a will.
We find no trace of Nicholas even when look for alternative spellings of his surname – Lee, Lea, Lay or Lye.
Victualler Ley
What we do know for sure about Nicholas comes from his own will . He states his occupation as being “victualler”. That is he was the licensee of a pub of some sort. We appear to have a common theme starting in this story! Unfortunately, documents relating to grants of licenses to sell ale between the years 1721 and 1766 are missing, so we cannot elaborate on this.
Historical Note: Originally beer-houses and ale-houses only sold ale or beer whilst taverns sold additional beverages such as wine and spirits. Inns and especially coaching inns were bigger establishments offering larger more comfortable rooms and accommodation. Describing number 40 as a tavern is appropriate then, there being no evidence to suggest that it ever (officially) offered accommodation.
Nicholas To The Rescue?
In the absence of hard facts regarding where Nicholas plied his trade one scenario might be that following the death of Georg Bird his widow was not able to continue running the tavern. Nicholas may have stepped in. Presumably he was already known to the family and had prior experience. Romance blossomed between the new landlord and young Elinor. So the family connection with the tavern continued. At the very least the dates fit this theory.
Read Part One: Baptism, Family & Friar StreetRead Part Three: Joy and Pain