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West Ham, a parish in the hundred of Becontree , county of Essex, 4 miles northeast of London, comprising the wards of All Saints, Church-street, Plaistow, and Stratford-Langthorne… The living a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of London, rated in the king's books… and in the patronage of the Crown.


East Ham and West Ham were only a short distance apart as were Dagenham and Hornchurch.

West Ham and East Ham are less than seven mi. from Tottenham and Edmonton, Middlesex

27 Apr - 06 May 1589 (Essex Wills, [33/44]) Lawrence MIDLETON of Stratford Langthorne [in West Ham ] gentleman, 27 April 1589. To my loving mother [Dorothy] £400 in the hands of John CHAMBERS her brother. She shall be paid such money as is limited to her by indenture between Sir Henry CUNINGSBYE and me. All legacies given by my late father to my kinsmen by his will to be well paid by my executor. To the poor of St. Gregory in Paul's Churchyard in London 26s.8d. and so much to St. Faith. To either of my men £4 apiece and to COMBER my black cloak. I ordain my mother and my uncle John CHAMBERS my executors and my overseers William SHATSWELL and Richard BENNETE, and for their pains each a mourning colak and their wives a mourning gown. To Margaret DEVENISHE £50 at marriage or 20. To Sir Henry CUNINGSBYE and his wife each a mourning gown, their menservants a mourning cloak, and his daughters a mourning gown. A cloak or two and some other of my meaner sort of apparel to my two men. To my four uncles, Arthur, Richard, Stephen and William MIDLETON, and my cousins, John ALEXANDER and Arthur MIDLETON, each a mourning cloak. Witnesses: William STATSWELL, John HUGHES, Richard BENNETT draper , John COMBER, Robert ANDROWES scribe. Renunciation, 6 May 1589, by John CHAMBERS; proved by Dorothy MIDLETON, mother of the deceased. (Elizabethan Life: Wills of Essex Gentry & Merchants, Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, F.G. Emmison, Chelmsford: Essex County Council, 1978, E.G. Ellis & Sons, Willow Street, Chingford, E4 7EQ)

See COMBS-ERLINGTON-MIDDLETON Essex Visitation of 1558, and note ANDROWES (ANDREWS ANDROS?) in reference to ARCHDALE Family. See Also Archdales, Combs, Lovetts, &c. of the Drapers Company and the 1663 will of Katherine CHEYNEY w/mention of West Ham (below).


28 May 1663 - 4 Oct 1667 Anne CHEYNEY, widdow of parish of Katherine Cree church, London, dated 28 May 1663, proved 4 Oct 1667, which includes a bequest to the "poor West Ham in Essex" [implying a connection to that location] and to her "couzen Anna ROE £5 to be sent out in suitable things to Virginia.".


East Ham, a parish in the hundred of Becontree, 6 miles (E.) from London… "The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Essex, and diocese of London… and in the patronage of the Bishop of London." (Lewis…, 1831)

1597 CP25(2)/138/1746 MICHAELMAS, 39-40 Elizabeth (2 files)
48. Edw. BRADSHAWE, gent., plaintiff. 'Bevellus' MOWLSWORTH & w. Anne, deforciants. 9 acres pasture in east Ham . £40. (Feet of Fines for Essex, Volume VI 1581-1603, F.G. Emmison, Leopard's Head Press, 1993 {{Transfer of property}})

23 Oct 1661 Samuel LOVETT son of Nathaniel of Eastham Essex > gen dec was apprenticed to Robert COOPER (Draper) for 7 years (Correspondence #2 from Penelope Fussell, Archivist, Drapers Company to Combs Researcher Denise Mortorff, dated 16 Apr 1998)

See Christopher LOVETT, brother-in-law of John COMBE, apprenticed to Drapers Company re MOULSWORTH (and LOVETT)

15 May. 1696 . Recognizance of Thomas COMBE of East Ham butcher ; to prosecute Robert COULLSON for assaulting and beating him in his own yard. (Recognizance taken in the City of London.) (SEAX, Essex Records On-Line, Essex Record Office, Quarter Sessions Records, Sessions Roll Midsummer 1696, Q/SR 489/6) Note: See this site for ordering information. (See 23.) [Search Words: COLSON, COULSON]


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