Johnson / Bryans Families

Tracing the ancestry of Pamela Murdoch Bryans and Maurice Alan Johnson

First Name Last Name
Print

Henry Fleming, of Westhope Manor

Lawyer (attorney)
Male Abt 1624 - 1658  (~ 34 years)

Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

  • Name Henry Fleming 
    Relationshipwith Marion Murdoch Johnson
    Gender Male 
    Birth Abt 1624  [1] 
    Occupation Lawyer (attorney) 
    Death 1658  [1] 
    Last Modified 28 Mar 2021 

    Wife Helen Povey
              b. Abt 1625  
              d. 22 Nov 1662 (Age ~ 37 years) 
    Children 
     1. John Fleming
              b. 1652  
              d. Abt 1715 (Age 63 years)
    Last Modified 28 Mar 2021 

  • Notes 
    • Early Life
      Henry Fleming was born c. 1624; his parents are not known, though Verasanso1 notes a possibility that he came from a medieval landed family of South Wales, based on identical coats of arms (though it is noted that appropriation of arms was not an uncommon occurrence when a newly-landed family was trying to establish its credentials).

      Career & Family Life
      Henry was a lawyer working in the Chancery office in London. He apparently bought Westhope Manor in 1654/51, and had other estates in Ludlow and Culmington, apparently rising out of relative obscurity to a comfortable position with a landed estate.

      Henry married Helen Povey who was, according to Verasanso, the sister of John Povey, a future Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. The marriage must have taken place around 1650-1651 as their eldest son John was born in 1652. According to Verasanso they had at least four sons; we can find evidence for at least two:

      1. John, b.1652 and who married Elizabeth Edwards, daughter of Sir John Edwards of Heath House
      2. William, b. 1657

      William is noted as having been baptised in Holborn, suggesting that whilst Henry owned Westhope Manor in Shropshire, the family was mostly based in London near to his work.

      Death
      Henry died around 1658 and his will was proved on the 25th of September 1658 in London. Note that the History of Westhope2 incorrectly gives the year as 1656 (which date is also given in Antigua3). At the time, Henry's eldest son John was only six and so did not receive the estate until 1677 when he reached the age of maturity.

      Footnotes
      [1] Much of the information in this profile is derived from a paper by Janet Verasanso in Shropshire Transactions (Vol 79 (2004), pages 128-133) and the History of the Manor of Westhope (see footnote [2]), the latter of which has a pedigree for the Fleming family which is at least partially based on a Fleming Pedigree in Vere Langford Oliver's History of the Island of Antigua (see footnote [3])
      [2] History of the Manor of Westhope, by Evelyn Martin; 1909, see here
      [3] History of the Island of Antigua, by Vere Langford Oliver, Volume 1, London (1894); Fleming Pedigree (p252)
      [4] https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/povey-john-1649-1715; which echoes some of the information in The House of Commons, 1690-1715, Vol. 5

  • Sources 
    1. [S0289] Vere Langford Oliver, History of the Island of Antigua, The, (1894, London), 1894, Fleming; Volume 1, pages 252-256.