Draft 7/16/2002 (File: brockstoys.html)
The Stoys
from Brockenhurst(1641-1688)
I visited the House of Lords in London
on June 27th 2002 and spent the day looking up our Stay (Stoy)
Popish Recusants.We have a list provided by Betty Peters who is a friend
of Joan Stay (Harry’s Wife).It was my intention to determine under what circumstances
they were on the list.With help of the staff I only located one reference,
i.e. Dec 3, 1680, Katherine, Wife of John Stoy of Brockenhurst.The four others
on the list were not located.However, the reference was a clear listing of
true Popish Recusants.Thus Katherine was in fact a Catholic and included
on a large listing of Catholic families and individuals.I have communicated
with Betty Peters to determine where the other names came from.We should
note that the other Stoys have been located in the Brockenhurst parish registers
in the same format provided by Betty Peters.
From the House of Lords listing a number
of Catholic peasants and land-owners were involved from the Hampshire/Dorset
area.
Richard
Stoy of Brockenhurst
In the Hampshire Record Series Volume V
“A Calendar of New Forest Documents” The fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries,
a Richard Stoy has been located.He is referenced in the Calendar of
New Forest dated 14 September being fifteen days before Michaelmas, in the
year 1659 and other dates as follows: (note Michaelmas was new years day
on the old calendar)
This is known as the Roll of Swainmote
Court
Before the foresters, verderers, regarders,
agisters, and all other ministers of the forest, just as is written below:
Names of the villages and the reeve and
four men of each vill. (Vill. Is short for village).
A “reeve” is defined as “any various minor officers
of parishes or other local authorities.”
Vill. of Brockenhurst and Brookley.William
Smith reeve.John Merrifield, William Farver, Richard Stoy, John Smith, sworn
and have appeared.
Another date. Vill of Brockenhurst and Brookley.William
Ames reeve, William Farver, Richard Stoy, Edward Rowland, and John Pilliean
are sworn.
Then we find “Richard Stoy Yoeman,
recently of Brockenhurst, on the 17th August 1663 at Setley
had placed and permitted his ten sheep to wander and depasture in and upon
the herbage growing in the forest, depasturing and laying waste to the surcharge
of the forest.(6s 8d).”
A “Yoeman” note spelling for yeoman,(dictionary definition)
“an independent farmer especially, a member of a former class of small freeholding
farmers in England.”
Setley is about ¾ mile south of
Brockenhurst. While visiting Brockenhurst
we looked for the village of Setley.Today, it consists of only a few houses,
but is listed on current Ordinance Survey Maps.
November 9th 1666 at Lyndhurst,
before the foresters, verderers, regarders, agisters, and all other ministers
of the forest as here appear underwritten.The list appears of each position
then for each village.
Vill. (Village) of Brockenhurst and Brookley.William
Smith, Richard Stoy, John Hall, John Moore, and Thomas Ames.Note:
Today, Brookley is a road running through Brockenhurst and the village no
longer is there.
He is again listed under names of Villages
and the reeve and four men of each village:
Vill. Of Brockenhurst, Thomas Goodall
reeve.Richard Knapton, William Furner, Richard Stoy, and John
Forde.
The last entry “Richard Slye, 17th
August 1663, for keeping ten sheep to the surcharging and nuisance of the
forest.Fined 6s 8d (paid Reinild)” (Slye = Stoy) This is the same reference
as above but the name is spelled differently.
In checking the parish registers of Brockenhurst,
there are several entries under the name Richard Stoy.It would appear that
the spelling Stoy and Stay is very much the same in old English script.We
must assume that our 1679/80 recusant Richard Stoy is the Richard Stoy listed
in the1659, 1660, 1663 and 1666 Swainmote court records.He is listed
two ways, first as one of four men of Brockenhurst who appeared and were sworn
in as a forest administrator of some kind.He is also listed as being fined
for allowing ten sheep to graze upon the forest landalong with a number of
others individuals at that time.The location of the first occurance was at
Setley.Setley is just south of Brochenhurst about ¾ of a mile.Setley
is about 2 miles north from Vaggs Lane near Boldre.
The records show that Richard Stoy was
a “husbandman” as well as listed as a “Yoeman”. had ten sheep while living
in the Brockenhurst parish.This would further support the premise that this
Richard Stoy is more than likely the “Ri. Stoy elder deceased” father
of Richard Stoy listed in the 1702 Vaggs Lane lease.
In the list of Freeholders of the New Forest
list under Brockenhurst, we were not able to locate Richard Stoy, and he
is not listed as a Freeholder on that source.
Memo about Recusant Stoys in Brockenhurst
RECUSANT - a person (especially a Roman
Catholic) who refuses to attend the Church of England when it was legally
compulsory
“August 1999 (Note from Harry Stay)
Phone call from Petty Peters saying she
had found ASTAYS@ amongst lists of
recusants living in Brockenhurst in the 1680s.Visited her with Joan and made
a note of these names and the dates of burials (or deaths).There was no mention
of marriages or births in the information (as follows).
Dec 3, 1680 Katherine, wife of John Stoy
of Brockenhurst (marriage not recorded in Brockenhurst registers)
(From the House of Lords
lists of Popish Recusants) this is the reference I found in a large list
of Popish Recusants.
1679/1680 Katherine, wife of Richard Stoy
1682/83 John Stoy (difficulties with the
calendar change made problems!)
I did not find these last four references
in the House of Lords lists.Betty Peters is going to let us know the source
and if they spelled their name as Stoy on those records.
“Visited Hampshire record office 2/9/99
to check Brockenhurst Parish records re AStays@ living there in those
days(note from Harry):
1641 Richard
Stoy married Catherine Butler August 4th
1641 William Stoy was married
to Margaret Hawkins, May 9th
1645 William Stoy was buried
April 4th
1645 William son ofWilliam
Stoy buried May 13
1670 Mary, daughter of John
Stoy was buried
1672 Catherine daughter
of John Stoy was buried
1674 Death of Jane Stoy
d of John Stoy Sept 27
1679 Katherine, wife of
Richard Stoy was buried Jan 5th*
1682 John Stoy buriedJan.
1683 Catherine Daughter
of John Stoy buried
1688 Elizabeth wife of Richard
Stoy buried
The above list
was confirmed by reviewing Brockenhurst parish register Fisch # 6343382
SLC Gen. Library.
From the parish register it is noted that
the Stoys were active in Brockenhurst from 1641 through 1688.A number of
pages were missing, torn or illegible, which would increase the number of
family members.At least half the register was not available for review.It
is interesting to note that we did not find reference to the Stoys before
1641 or after 1688.It appears that Richard was married twice first to Catherine
Butler and then to Elizabeth.Also of this listed group of husbands, it appears
that only Richard survived.We must assume that Richard from the parish registers
is Richard the elder deceased of the Vaggs lease.
I couldn’t=t find any more Stoys
as I carried on looking up to 1865.There was some inter-marrying between
the villages of Brockenhurst and Hordle but not involving Stays - they are
about 5 miles apart.”
Note from Harry Stay 2/4/2000
-
- - I went up to the County record office again last
month to see if I could advance the ABrockenhurstA Stay project, but
information was hard to come by and many records unreadable, however I did
find the Baptism of Catherine, daughter of John Stay in Boldre on 19 May
1672 (John Stay of Brockenhurst).Presumably, she is the same Catherine as
is listed in the original information September 1683 Catherine, daughter
of John Stay@
i.e. she was 11 years old when she died.
-
The name Stay occurs occasionally in the records but
I don=t think
it is more than a misreading of poor writing!E.g. I found a Thomas Stay living
in Fawley in 1665.
I thought you might appreciate the main
subject of the Family History Magazine - Virtually anyone who failed to attend
the Church of England was a recusant@. (Harry’s note)
Boldre is halfway between Brockenhurst
and Lymington.
Fawley is on the West side of Southampton
waters.
The notation from Betty Peters that one
– John Stoy was listed in 1682/1683 as having “difficulties with the calendar
change made problems”.
In reference to the calendar change we
note the following reference from Will Durants “A history of Civilization
Volume 9” p 540.“During Bradley’s tenure as astronomer royal, Britain
submitted to a painful operation after 170 years of resistance it accepted
the Gregorian calendar, but obstinately named it the Reformed calendar.An
act of Parliament (1750) ordered that the eleven days following the second
of September 1752 were to be omitted from the “New Style”; that begin not
on March 25 but on January 1.This involved complications in business dealings
and ecclesiastical holydays: it stirred many protests, and angry Britons
demanded, “Give us back our eleven days” - - but in the end science triumphed
over bookkeeping and theology.”From this account, arguments over the
calendar must have been a major issue during the 1680s some70 years prior
to the act of Parliament.
“The English Calendar.The English do not
use the new Gregorian Calendar, because their secession from the Apostolic
See took place before the reform of the Calendar, and those who brought about
the schism would disdain to accept even good things coming from the Sovereign
Pontiff.They begin their new year on the 25th of March and the
first day of each month is ten days later than the first day of the month
in the new Calendar.Hence 11th April at Rome and the 1st
April in England coincide.Only the historians, at Camden bears witness, Begin
the year with the first of January, and we shall do the same.In other respects
we shall follow the ancient Calendar when we describe events which occurred
in England - - and these will take us all our time.”English Persecutions
of Catholics -Vol 47 Catholic History Society page 172
It is important to note that the name of
Stoy had a spelling change to Stay sometime before 1778.This is a significant
finding to tie the Brockenhurst Stoys to the Hordle Stays.See Vaggs Lane
Lease document for details.
Pictures of Brockenhurst
St. Nicholas Church Sign Brockenhurst