THE MOUSLEYS

some notes by P John Partington

ORIGIN OF THE NAME

Mowsley is a village in Leicestershire, favoured with its own heritage society, the chairman of which writes:  “The name, which is derived from the Early English Mus Lai (Muselai in Domesday) meaning ‘mouse-infested clearing’, was in fact at one point (in the fifteenth century) spelt ‘Mouseley’, but this subsequently became ‘Mousley’.  The first known use of the name as a surname is by the ‘de Musele’ family who were lords of the manor in the twelfth century.  A couple of hundred years later the family name had changed to ‘de Mouseley’, and subsequently the middle ‘e’ appears to have been dropped.”

ENOCH MOUSLEY  (bef. 1677 - aft. 1699)

On 4 March 1692 Enoch Mousley married Elizabeth Blood at Tamworth.  They had at least four children:  Thomas, born in 1695, John in 1696, Benjamin in 1698 and Samuel in 1701 (mentioned by name, as “children of my cousin Elizabeth Shepard, deceased”, and bequeathed £1000 each by Thomas Guy, in his will dated 4 September 1724).  Elizabeth was widowed at some point and subsequently married a Mr Shepard;  she herself was dead by 1724.

THE CHILDREN OF ENOCH  (bef. 1677 - aft. 1699)

Enoch’s first child, Thomas, was born in 1695.  Nothing else is known of him at present.

Enoch’s second child, John, was born in 1696.  He married Elizabeth, and they had three children:  Elisabeth baptized in 1714, John in 1716 and Samuel in 1718.  John died in 1726.

Enoch’s third child, Benjamin, was born in 1698.  He was probably the Benjamin recorded as marrying a Sarah Batman at Lichfield Cathedral on 7 May 1725 and as father of Joseph, baptized in Tamworth on 28 Jan 1728/9.

Enoch’s fourth child, Samuel, was baptized in Tamworth on 17 August 1701.  He married Elizabeth Simmonds on 20 January 1725 at Lichfield Cathedral, and they had a son, Joseph, born in 1728.  A Samuel Mousley was buried at Sheepy Magna on 15 February 1757, but whether it was the same Samuel is not clear.

THE CHILDREN OF SAMUEL  (c. 1701 - 1757?)

Samuel’s son Joseph was born on 14 December 1728 in Merevale, Warwickshire.  On 24 July 1754 he married Sarah Clark, still at Merevale.  Family memory, and the Monumental Inscription cited below, records that they had a daughter, Sarah, born at Sheepy Magna in Leicestershire in 1757/8, and it seems very probable from the parish records that there were several other children, including Elizabeth baptized in 1755, Mary in 1760, John in 1766, Samuel in 1768, another John in 1771 and Ann in 1775, and finally a Joseph – see below.  Joseph died in 1804, and was buried at Sheepy on 20 December:  his will, referring to him as a “yeoman of Sheepy Parva”, was proved in the PCC on 2 November the following year.

THE CHILDREN OF JOSEPH  (1728 - 1804)

It’s proving very hard to determine Joseph & Sarah’s children with certainty, but the following looks to be a likely family for them.

Joseph’s first child, Elizabeth, was baptized in Austrey on 22 February 1755.  It seems quite likely, from a burial record, that she died almost exactly four years later;  but if so it must be a younger, synonymous sister, who is recorded in Joseph’s will of 1804 as “Elizabeth Horton” (surname presumed from an almost illegible part of the transcript – and perhaps in any case a mistranscription of the James Alton who married an Elizabeth Mousley at Mancetter on 9 April 1787).

Joseph’s daughter Sarah was baptized on 30 March 1758 at Sheepy Magna.  On 16 October 1780 she married Thomas Kimberlin at Mancetter in Warwickshire (though the transcription of her father’s will has her as “Elizabeth Timbrell” – surely a misspelling?).  The couple had seven children – Richard born in about 1783, Thomas in about 1786, Joseph in about 1788, Susannah in about 1791, Charles in about 1794, Sarah (date unknown) and John in about 1800. Sarah was a widow by 1824, and spent the last twenty-two years of her life in the almshouses at Tamworth, where she died on 30 April 1846, aged eighty-nine.  An inscription in St Editha’s Church, Tamworth records much family detail:  “Sacred to the memory of Sarah wife of Thomas Kimberlin formerly of Atherstone. She died April 30th 1846 aged 89 years leaving 5 sons and 2 daughters, viz. Richard Thomas Joseph Susannah Charles Sarah and John, after living a widow in the almshouses at Tamworth for 22 years.  She was the daughter of Joseph Mousley, son of Samuel Mousley who was a legatee of Thomas Guy Esq.”

Joseph’s third child, Mary, was baptized at Sheepy on 13 April 1760.  She was a witness at her sister Sarah’s wedding in 1780, and is recorded as “Mary Smith” in her father’s will of 1804:  so she is quite likely the Mary who married John Smith at Mancetter on 24 March 1785, and may well also be the Mary who had an illegitimate daughter, also called Mary, baptized at Mancetter in 1782/3 – the father being surnamed ‘Smith’.

Joseph’s fourth child, John, was baptized at Mancetter on 27 January 1766.  Nothing further is known of him, but it seems likely that he died in infancy, since another son of the same name was baptized five years later.

Joseph’s seventh child, Ann, was baptized at Sheepy on 16 April 1775.  She probably married a Joseph Aldridge at Tamworth on 25 October 1802 – at any rate she is mentioned as “Ann Aldridge” in her father’s will of 1804.

Joseph’s will refers to an eighth child, also Joseph, of whom no other record has yet been found.

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