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Archiver > MIDMARCH > 2004-06 > 1086697023


From: "Robert New" <>
Subject: SAYCE Family of Abbey Dore
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:19:20 +0100


SAYCE Family of Abbey Dore - this is the second of a pair of postings about
the SAYCE family in Kilpeck and Abbey Dore. Kilpeck and Abbey Dore, 4 miles
apart, are 10 and 7 miles SW of Hereford.

Does anyone know anything of this family? Have memorial inscriptions in
churches and churchyards ever been collected and catalogued? Is anything
like this available?

I've asked questions first so that readers don't have to go through the rest
of this, perhaps boring, message. Another reason for this message is to
place on record what I've stumbled across.

Recently my wife and I visited west Herefordshire, namely Kilpeck and Abbey
Dore, from which my grandmother's SAYCE family came, although I wasn't
expecting to do any family research. In Kilpeck Church - a wonderful early
Norman survival (850 years old) with amazing stone carvings - I was
surprised to find a memorial slab set in prime position in the floor before
the Altar, whose inscriptions I've made the subject of the first posting.
We then went to Dore Abbey - another wonderful building. Whilst in the
space in the Crossing, and having been lucky in Kilpeck Church, I looked at
the tombstones set in the floor. I was astonished to find one for what
seems to be my own ancestors:

-----------------------------------

HERE
Lieth the Body of
Margery the Wife of
ROWLAND SAYCE
Snr. She died ye 29th April
1713 Aged 80 Years
ALSO
Here Lieth the Body of
ROWLAND SAYCE
He died ye 7th June
1737 Aged 81 Years
Also Here Lieth the Body of
ROWLAND SAYCE
Son of the above he
died ye 28th February 1778
Aged 75 Years

-----------------------------------

The dates could be 1715 and 1757, and the age 73; the downstrokes were
missing from the 3s or 5s even when trying to find them with a fingertip.
However the positions of the horizontal and arc for the 5 in 75 seemed
definite for 5 and different for the 3s in the dates.

My interpretation of the above inscription is that 3 different ROWLAND
SAYCEs are recorded. ROWLAND SAYCE Snr. (I'll call him "I"), Margery's
husband, who is not buried here. A second ROWLAND SAYCE (II), presumably
their son, who died in 1737 and is buried here. And thirdly his son ROWLAND
SAYCE (III) who died in 1778, and is also buried here.

The ROWLAND SAYCE (II) seems to me to belong to a generation later than
Margery's.

I trace my grandmother's line back to ROWLAND SAYCE of Abbey Dore who
married Elizabeth HORSEMAN 24 June 1742 at Abbey Dore (ref. IGI, "submitted
by member of LDS Church"). Their children were ROLAND (IV) 1743, John 1745
who married 1766 Jane LEWIS at Abbey Dore, Mary 1748, Elizabeth 1750, Thomas
1753, and William 1758 who married Mary GORMAN; their eldest child was
ROWLAND (V) 1794.

Unless I'm very unlucky and there was more than one ROWLAND SAYCE living in
Abbey Dore at that time, my grandmother's ROWLAND SAYCE, who married
Elizabeth Horseman in 1742, was ROWLAND SAYCE (III) who died in 1778 aged 75
and was therefore 39 when he married. A little late in life, perhaps, but
possibly correct.

I have more difficulty with another IGI Reference. This is a ROWLAND SAYCE
of Abbey Dore who married Jane JONES 11 Dec 1715 at Abbey Dore (ref.
"extracted marriage record for locality listed"). Can this be ROWLAND SAYCE
(II) who died in 1737 aged 81, and therefore born c.1656 and who would have
been 59 at the time of the marriage? Unless it was a second (or more)
marriage, as his son ROWLAND (III) was born c.1703 and only about 12 at the
time of the marriage.

It surely can't have been a subsequent marriage of ROWLAND SAYCE Snr. (I) !?

Other IGI references for Abbey Dore were:

Margaret SAYSE married Thomas CHILD 24 Oct 1641.

Thomas SAYSE and Fortune .. had children:
Thomas ch 13 June 1647,
Mary ch 23 July 1660.

John (Johannes) SAYSE married Elizabeth SCUDAMORE 02 Nov 1671 and had
children:
Elizabetha ch 03 Sept 1672,
John (Johannes) ch 17 Apr 1676
Jane ch 17 Mar 1678
William ch 09 Nov 1681
Thomas ch 30 Aug 1685

The marriage of John SAYSE and Elizabeth SCUDAMORE in 1671 may indicate the
status of this SAYCE family. Elizabeth was a contemporary of John, 1st
Viscount SCUDAMORE. The SCUDAMOREs were an important family in
Herefordshire, and are still seated at Ewyas Harold and Kentchurch Court,
close to Abbey Dore and Kilpeck.


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