and his sons : -
Robert Jecks of Wymondham
and Charles Jecks of London, with their Jecks Descendants

SARAH (7/29) Jecks’s husband, Henry Bidewell, must have been a close friend of the family – two members of subsequent Jecks generations were given the name Bidewell.  Both Sarah and Henry were buried in Colton parish (NW of Brandon Parva and Runhall) in, respectively, 1777 and 1778.  Both were described as from Wymondham, consistent with the Genealogy.

​

MARY (7/30) Jecks … in only the second mistake made by Isaac when writing the Genealogy in 1795, he named Sarah’s husband as Robert Kemp, rather than John Kemp.  However, his error was perhaps understandable, since Mary’s father was of course, Robert, and Mary’s first child and eldest son were also named Robert.

​

Mary married John Kemp in a Norwich church in December 1727, after first obtaining a license.  John disclosed that he was a farmer of Carleton Rode, 27 years old, and his bride-to-be was 25, from Wymondham.

​

The surviving Kemp children were Robert, Margaret, Mary, and Richard.  In an unusually detailed register entry, when Robert Kemp died in 1783, the Rector noted that Robert was the “son of John and Mary Kemp (late Mary Jecks)”.

​

HENRY (7/31) and his son, BIDEWELL (8/9)

The Genealogy is brief in its notes concerning Henry, the second son of Robert & Sarah:

​

"Henry also a farmer had one son, now living at Windham named Robert who has a son named Henry also a farmer."

​

Henry (7/31) was another of the Jecks family who prior to his marriage in 1737 obtained a license.  This document stated Henry was a husbandman, the old term for a farmer, and declared he and his bride would marry at one of three churches, of which they chose Great Melton.  As it happened, this was the same church chosen by Henry’s future daughter-in-law for her first marriage a generation later.

  

Although the Genealogy is not specific, Henry (7/31) Jecks and his wife Alice Dring lived at Wymondham, his birthplace, and where both his father and, later, his two sons.  As noted by the Genealogy, they had only one surviving son, which was an unusually small family.  However, the reason for this can be deduced from a gravestone still readable at Wymondham Churchyard:

 

"Here lieth the body of Alice the wife of Henry Jecks who departed this life the 11th of March 1739 aged 31 years Also her Mother Margaret Dring who died April 16 1729 aged 55 years."

 

Alice herself must have passed away after complications from childbirth on March 14, 1739/40.  She died less than a month after her second child was born.  The two children were Robert (8/8), christened at Wymondham, 3 July 1738, and Bidwell (8/9), also christened there, on the 25 February, 1739 or 1740 per the new calendar.

 

Bidewell (8/9) Jecks, in all likelihood, was not very healthy in his childhood, for he died and was buried at Wymondham, aged only 11 years, in 1750/51.  The burial register notation “son of” is a good indication that Bidewell was a minor at the time of his decease.

 

ROBERT (8/8)

Robert (8/8) Jecks, surviving son of Henry (7/31), was one of the many Jecks who, like so many of his ancestors, was a farmer.  Evidently, this brought the family some prosperity.  Just before he was married in 1761 at Great Melton church, north of Wymondham, Robert took out a marriage license.  He declared himself a husbandman, or farmer, like his father, and that his intended bride, Elizabeth Tuttle, was a widow.  Originally Elizabeth Mayes, she had first married Benjamin Tuttle five years previously at Great Melton. When Robert married at Great Melton church, he was 23 years old. and she was about five years older.

​

The pair had only one child, a son named Henry Bidewell (9/10) Jecks, in 1772.

 

Although Robert and his family must have become well-established at Great Melton, he also owned or occupied properties in Wymondham.  In 1798, Robert occupied property owned for the most part by a Revd Drake, which was assessed at a total value of £26 10s.   In the 1817 Land Tax assessment, Robert qualified as a voter by virtue of property he owned in Wymondham, formerly occupied by the Tuthills (his wife’s family).

 

There are three identical burial tombs standing side by side in Great Melton churchyard – for Robert (8/9), his wife, and the next two generations after him.  The first two read:

 

"In Memory of ELIZABETH the wife of ROBERT JECKS who died 16th Septr l8l4 Aged 82 years"

 

and

         

"In Memory of ROBERT JECKS who died Feb l8th 1821 Aged 83 years"

​

Robert's (8/8) will was proved in 1821.  The will was dated 21 January 1820, and he described himself as Robert Jecks, Gentleman, of Wymondham. He left his tenement on Market Street Wymondham to his only son Henry (9/10) Jecks of Wymondham. 

 

All of his remaining personal effects were also left to his son Henry (9/10), who was appointed executor.  The probate court noted that one of the witnesses to the will was called to the court to say that he knew Robert Jecks and also Henry Bidewell Jecks of Wymondham, farmer, the only son of Robert Jecks.  Evidently the Court deemed it necessary to ensure there was no doubt as to Robert's (8/9) intention when identifying a "Henry Jecks" as beneficiary.

​

HENRY BIDEWELL (9/10) and his son, HENRY  BIDEWELL

Henry Bidewell (9/10) Jecks did not marry until he was 48 years old, though still a bachelor.   On the 4th of September 1820 he married Sarah Reeve at Norwich.  Their only son, also named Henry Bidewell Jecks was born in December 1820. 

 

Henry Jecks, the elder, died 17 years later in 1838. The will of Henry (9/10) the elder, resident of Oulton, was dated 5 February 1831.  He have his house and lands at Wymondham and Wheatacre Burgh on Trust for his son, Henry Bidewell Jecks, when 21 years old.

 

However, that said son, Henry B. Jecks, himself died without issue aged only 22.  This Henry Bidewell Jecks was the last of this particular line of the Jecks name.  His will was dated two days before his death, 11 May 1843, and one of the witnesses was a Doctor of Medicine.  Henry's Will was simple enough, leaving his entire estate of £12,000 to his mother Sarah Jecks and her heirs.  The will was proved 3 November 1843.

 

Thus it was left to Sarah Jecks nee Reeve, by her will dated in the year she died, 1862, to distribute her estate of £16,000 to members of her own family.  One of the executors was her nephew George Reeve.  The estate was left to Sarah’s God-daughters, the daughters of George Reeve — Elizabeth Jecks Reeve and Harriet Jecks Reeve, born 1855 and 1858 respectively.  Sarah expressed the wish to be buried at Great Melton beside her deceased husband Henry Bidewell Jecks.  She was indeed buried there – the third burial tomb at Great Melton bears two inscriptions:

 

"In Memory of HENRY BIDEWELL JECKS who died Feby 20 1838 aged 66 years  Also HENRY BIDEWELL JECKS son of the above who died May 13 1843 aged 22 years"

 

and a plaque which reads:

 

"Sacred to the Memory of SARAH JECKS wife of Henry Bidewell JECKS who died May 28 1862 Aged 77 years"

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ISAAC (7/32)

 As regards Isaac, the youngest son of Robert (6/15), The Genealogy states:

 

"Isaac, a farmer lived & died at Bunwell & had one son & 1 daughter Sarah.  This son another Isaac now lives at Hales Hall, Norfolk; he is a farmer, & has 2 sons Thomas & Charles & two daughters.    ......    Another Sarah the daughter of Isaac married Peter Austin; a farmer at Bunwell, Norfolk.  Is now living (1795) & has 1 son & 3 daughters."

 

Evidently, Isaac (7/32), the youngest son of Robert (6/15), moved from Wymondham to the old family parish of Bunwell.  However, he married at Starston Church further to the south-east near the Suffolk border:

​

1732    Isaac Jecks & Elizabeth Edwards both of Wymondham were married by licence April 9th

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The Registers of Bunwell include a christening for their daughter Sarah in 1733 and the burial of Elizabeth in 1757, which indicated Isaac was alive in that year.  Entries in Churchwarden accounts indicate that Isaac (7/32) indeed spent many years at the old family parish.  The baptism of their son, Isaac (8/11), probably about 1735, has not yet been found.

​

In 1742, Isaac (7/32) leased a farm consisting of a messuage with attached houses, arable land, meadows and pastures in Bunwell for three years at a rent of £70 p.a.

​

However, he had already lived there for many years and continued to do so afterwards.  His two sisters and his daughter, Sarah (8/10), all remained in the immediate area.  The accounts of Bunwell’s Churchwarden contain a three-quarter page of entries summarising the tithes Isaac paid to the church each year between 1733 and 1740.  One such entry reads:  “Jan 23 1733/4 he paid me £5-10 in full to Michaelmas 1733 we made no agreement but talked of 2s in the pound.”  The next of many entries was dated Jany 1734/5.  Isaac’s income can be estimated at about £55 per year.

 

After his father died, Isaac (7/32) may have followed in his father’s footsteps by taking on Windham Great Park or another farm in Wymondham.   The Manorial Court Rolls 1758-1767 of Wymondham Gryshaurghe, on 19 June 1767 state:

 

“On the Part of the Leet… For Downham.  Also that they choose Isaac Jecks to be Constable for the Division of Downham Brathwayte and Stanfield for the year Ensuing.” 

 

Downham, Stanfield and Grishaugh were all manors in Wymondham, and specifically “Grishaw great park” belonged to Grishaugh manor.

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SARAH (8/10)

 Sarah (8/10) Jecks, Isaac’s (7/32) elder daughter, married Peter Austin who, as noted by Isaac’s (9/7) Genealogy, was a farmer in Bunwell.  They had five children, all born at Bunwell, between 1759 and 1768.  The last child, Peter, died aged only a year.  So by 1795 when Isaac (9/7) wrote the Genealogy, he correctly stated that Sarah was survived by four children.  Her husband, Peter Austin, had died in 1783.

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ISAAC (8/11)

Isaac (8/11), the aforementioned Isaac’s (7/32) only son, initially lived in Wymondham but eventually moved east to Hales Hall, in the parish of Hales, about 1774.  Like others in the Jecks family of Norfolk, Isaac’s (7/32) son, Isaac (8/11), became a nonconformist.  Isaac (8/11) was a member of the Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quaker).  Two entries appear in the Registers of the Quaker Meetings at Tivetshall (near Bunwell) - for his marriage to Hannah Holmes in 1761 and the birth of their first child, Sarah in 1762.  Entries appear in the Quaker records of Norwich for the births of the next five children between 1764 and 1779.

​

It is hardly surprising to see that Isaac named his first son, Robert (9/12).  Isaac’s grandfather was Robert and two of Isaac’s first cousins were also Robert.  Sadly, however, his eldest son Robert (9/12) died as a young adult, with the burial carefully recorded in Quaker records of 1783 in Beccles, Suffolk. 

​

Like many of his family in the 18th century, and for centuries beforehand, Isaac (8/11) was a farmer.  He possessed two farms, one known as Hales Hall (as referred to in the Genealogy) in Loddon consisting of some 300 acres, and another of 40 acres within the parish of Hales.  Apparently, Isaac owned rather than leased both of these.  In 1796 and 1797, by then aged over 60, he decided to sell both farms.  When advertising the larger farm, Isaac noted the landholding would “suit either a farmer or gentleman farmer, or might be made the residence of a gentleman during the sporting season”.  Furthermore, Isaac “begged that none will apply who have other farms, or who do not mean to reside, or cannot easily shew themselves worth from £1000 to £1500”.

 

Isaac (8/11) eventually died in 1826, aged over 90 and was buried in Wymondham. He left no male heirs, since all three of his sons had pre-deceased him. His youngest son, Charles (9/16), died in 1807, a seaman.  He died outside Great Britain and therefore the administration of his estate was granted at the national probate court, PCC:

 

"Charles Jecks on the 25th day of May admon of all singular the Goods Chattels & credits of Charles Jecks late a seaman belonging to the East India Merchant Ship Walthamstow bachelor decd was granted to Isaac Jecks the natural & lawful father of the said decd having been first sworn ... the adm."

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The second son, Thomas (9/14), died leaving one surviving child, a daughter, as evidenced by Isaac's (8/11) will, which was also proved at PCC.   The will begins by declaring Isaac (8/11) to be a resident of Wortlefield (Wattlefield, between Bunwell and Wymondham) in Norfolk, a Gentleman. The will is dated 10th February 1826 and was proved in November of the same year. Isaac makes no mention of his wife in his will, so she must have pre-deceased him.  Apparently she died about 1781, between the birth of her last child and the death of her son, Robert.

 

Isaac's (8/11) personal effects were given in three equal parts to: Sarah (9/11) Scott, his widowed daughter, Elizabeth (9/15), another daughter and the wife of John Dixon, and lastly to his grand-daughter Mary Ann Jecks, daughter of his late son Thomas (9/14) Jecks.  The aforesaid Sarah (9/11) also received in trust £1,000 for her children.  Additionally, Elizabeth (9/15) was left £740 and £260 in trust. To his daughter-in-law Mary, Isaac (8/11) left £100.  Another £1,000 went to his grand-daughter Mary Ann, which was to be kept for her in trust.  Isaac's (8/11) third daughter Mary (9/13) Hood also died before him leaving five surviving children, each of whom received £5; William Chamberlain Hood, Robert Hood, Thomas Hood, Isaac Jecks Hood, and Elizabeth Hood.

 

In 1847 Mary Ann Jecks, nee Bowles, widow of Thomas (9/14), of 4 Castle Street, Leicester Square, Middlesex, died.  She left a will proved at Norwich Consistory Court in 1848 by Charles Barnard.  All of her estate was left to the children of her deceased daughter Mary Ann, wife of John Bateman.  The younger Mary Ann, daughter of Thomas and the elder Mary Ann, had died in 1844.

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ROBERT (7/28)

 The eldest son of Robert (6/15), also Robert (7/28), was born about 1699 probably in Crownthorpe.  He was the only son of Robert (6/15) who eventually left any male heirs in Norfolk.  Isaac (9/7) Jecks’ Genealogy comments:

 

"Robert was my grandfather....  Robert my grandfather lived a farmer & died at Hobbys near Coltishall leaving 2 sons and 1 daughter. "

 

"Hobbys" is the alternate name and pronunciation of the Parish of Hautbois, which is next to the village of Coltishall, north of the eastern side of Norwich.  Today, parts of the old church of Hautbois are still standing, but there is no roof.  A newer church has been built half a mile nearer the village.  Robert (7/28) was about 23 when he married Mary Colman at Norwich St Stephens Church on the 1st January 1722/23.

  

Mary Colman, born 26 August 1702, was the sister of Jeremiah Colman born 1690 of Wymondham.  Robert's (7/28) two sons were given the favourite family names of Robert and Isaac and one of his daughters was named after her mother, Mary.  Although Robert (7/28) married at Norwich, he christened his first child, Robert, at Wymondham in April 1723, barely four months later.

                                                                           

Fortunately, the surviving Great Hautbois registers commence in 1723.  Robert, his wife and baby son relocated to the parish in that year and Robert's (7/28) next three children were christened at Great Hautbois: Anne in March 1723/4, Mary in November 1725, and Isaac in October of 1726.  Sadly, the burials Register includes the burial of Anne in October, 1727.

 

The Genealogy refers to each of the two sons, Robert (8/4) and Isaac (8/7), as noted in the following pages.

 

Robert (7/28) died in 1728, like his Uncle Isaac (6/16), only a relatively short time after his marriage.  The burials register at Wymondham uses a description of Robert consistent with that used in the register of Christenings five years before – Mr Robert Jecks "Junr" Aug 18.

                    

He was survived by three young children, the youngest less than one year old.  Robert (7/28) left no will, but an administration of his estate and authority to take an inventory was granted to his widow in September 1728.  The guarantors were;

 

"Mary Jecks of Great Hautboys in County Norfolk widow and John Colman of Wicklewood in County Norfolk Gentleman"

 

John Colman of Wicklewood was a brother of the widow Mary Jecks, nee Colman and Jeremiah, all children of the Jeremiah Colman born 1651 and died 1749. Certain descendants of the Colman family are well known in Norfolk for its business enterprise, and subsequent generations of Jecks were also associated with the Colmans. The person granted authority to administer all of the estate was "Mary Jecks widow relict ... of Robert Jecks late of Hautboys abovesaid deceased intestate ...". Both Mary Jecks and John Colman signed the deed of administration.

 

When Jeremiah Colman died in 1749, his son-in-law Robert Jecks (7/28) had long since predeceased him, so Jeremiah saw fit to make a provision in his will: “Also I give and bequeath unto Robert Jecks my grandson the Sume of Twenty Pounds And to Isaac Jecks my Grandson And to John Colman my Grandson by Marriage of my Granddaughter the Sume of Forty Pounds a piece of lawful Money”.  The aforementioned John Colman (b 1718) was the husband of Mary (8/6) Jecks (b 1725).  That John Colman should not be confused with John Colman (b 1697) of Wicklewood, the brother of Mary Colman (b 1702) who married Robert Jecks (7/28). The widow Mary Jecks, nee Colman (b 1702), remarried and as Mary Foulsham died in1778.

​

As noted, Robert (7/28) and Mary’s second child was Anne (8/5), born in 1723.  But she died aged only four. Thus, Robert was survived by two sons and one daughter, as reported by the Genealogy.

 

Robert must indeed have died suddenly, without enough time to make a will.  However, a full inventory of his estate was completed on the 17th September 1728, a month after he died.  The extent and content of the inventory, valued at a total of £385, suggests Robert possessed a fully working farm.  Some of the items on the farm and their value were:

 

9 horses                                                 £28

2 carts and a wagon                              £18

16 acres of turnips                                 £10

Peas in the barn                                   £12 10s

Barley in the barn & stack                      £96

Wheat in the barn                                   £54

25 hogs                                                 £8 10s

 

And in or around his house:

 

Wearing apparel                                    £10

In the parlour, furniture                            £9

In the chamber, beds & furniture        £12 10s

In the kitchen, pots, chairs, crockery,      £4

In the dairy, cheese & equipment         £9 10s

​

MARY (8/6), younger daughter of Robert (7/28)

Mary Jecks had moved to the parish of Norwich All Saints, like her brother, Robert and his wife Ann.  When Mary advised her family that she was about to marry John Colman, with her father no longer alive, her brother Robert (8/4) sponsored her. 

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In 1759, John Colman took out a marriage license countersigned by Robert (8/4).  John declared the occupation of both himself and Robert to be “worsted weaver” and added “his mark” to the document above Robert’s signature.  John understated his age by two years and Mary’s by one.  John Colman was a son of Jeremiah Colman (d 1763) and the brother of Ann Colman, who in 1743 had married Robert Jecks (8/4).

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ISAAC (8/7)

Where Isaac (8/7), the youngest son of Robert (7/28), grew up or in whose care he spent his youngest years remains uncertain, although the most likely place of his childhood was Wymondham.  He would never have known his father.  However, he seems to have survived and been able to take up the typical occupation of the Jecks family, that is, farming.  The Genealogy makes brief mention of Isaac (8/7) and his brother Robert (8/4), the sons of Robert (7/28):

 

"His 1st son Robert was my father, he was a weaver.  His 2nd son Isaac was a farmer & died at Colny leaving 1 daughter and no sons"

 

Isaac’s mother was Mary Colman and his sister-in-law was Ann Colman; they were aunt and niece.  Isaac was left £40 by his grandfather Colman in 1749, when he was 23 years old.  By 1787, Isaac had declared himself a resident of Colney parish, which is east of Great Melton and Bawburgh, near the west side of Norwich.  In that year, he signed up for the lease of a farm in Colney containing nearly 170 acres, with a messuage, houses, barns, stables, gardens and arable land, meadows and pastures.  Isaac also took on the separate lease of an old pub originally called the Mermaid that had been converted into a number of cottages with yards, gardens, orchards, and other accoutrements. For the first lease, he was to pay £120 per year, and for the second, another £20 per year, although the landowner retained the right to terminate the second lease with six months’ notice.  The landlord, however, was determined to preserve his and/or his friends’ right to “hunt hawk course shoot set fish or otherwise sport” upon any part of the farm premises “at their free will or pleasure”.  Isaac, on the other hand, was strictly prohibited from such activity.

 

Isaac married Mary Sherwood in 1780, first obtaining a marriage license dated 13 May.  That document declared nearby Costessey as their home parish, presumably a convenience for their license enabling the marriage ceremony at that parish.  Isaac and Mary both declared they were “single” at the time, clarifying that this was their first marriage.  Although Isaac declared they were both aged “30 years and upwards”, he was in fact 53 and she was 32.  The couple seem to have had an association with yet another parish, Bawburgh, where their two daughters were baptized.  One daughter was named after her mother, and the other, after his mother. 

 

Isaac must have been well known in Colney, for he served as witness to the marriage at Colney church of Charles Green and Elizabeth Ward on the 31st of October 1794.

 

Isaac (8/7) died in February 1797, only months before the termination of his farm lease (assuming he had not renewed).  His will declares Colney as his home.  The will usefully confirms that both his brother Robert (8/4) and sister Mary (8/6) had pre-deceased him.  

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In a very long-winded will, dated 17 January 1797, Isaac (8/7) made provision for most of his estate to be kept in trust for his daughter Mary (9/8) until she reached the age of 24.  If she died the estate was to be kept for her children and if she had no children, then the estate was to be shared equally among "the children of my late brother Robert Jecks and of my late sister Mary Colman".  Isaac’s wife Mary survived him.  She was appointed executor and given his personal estate.  The will was proved in March 1797.

 

Just outside the door of Colney Church there is a burial tomb and a separate gravestone.  The stone is for their daughter Sarah (9/9), who died before Isaac.  This daughter is also remembered on the tomb:

 

"In Memory of ISAAC JECKS who departed this life Feb ... 1797 Aged 70 years  Also Sarah his daughter who died April 12 1792 Aged 8 years"

 

Sarah (9/9) had been christened at Bawburgh Church, east of Great Melton, on the 28 September 1783.  The Colney Church Burials register includes two burials: one in April 1792 of Sarah the daughter of Isaac Jex (sic) and Mary aged 8, and the other of Isaac Jecks himself aged 71 in February of 1797.

  

The Norfolk Chronical published a short obituary for Isaac on February 25, 1797:  "Wednesday last died, Mr. Isaac Jecks, farmer, of Colney; a man of strict integrity."

  

The surviving daughter, Mary, was nearly 16 when her father died. If she survived another eight or nine years, she would inherit her father’s estate.  At the present time, no certain further information concerning Mary is available.

​

ROBERT (8/4), and sons ROBERT (9/6) & ISAAC (9/7)

Some of our knowledge of Robert (8/4), eldest son of Robert (7/28), comes from the Genealogy, which simply states he was a weaver, and that is exactly what Robert declared for his sister’s marriage license.  Apparently he spent his youth and early adult life in Hautbois.  Other than that, we know he lived in Wymondham for about ten years after his marriage before permanently relocating to Norwich. 

 

However, some years before that move, Robert and his bride travelled to the church at Saint Peter Mancroft in Norwich where, at the young age of 20, he married Anne Colman of Wymondham on the 23rd July 1843.

​

Robert had obtained a marriage license earlier the same day.  He declared he was a “yeoman” from Little Hautboys.  His intended bride came from Wymondham and was, he said, 21 years old.  Unless Anne had been baptized a good six months after she was born, she was in fact 20 years old, and several months older than Robert.

​

Like his father, Robert (8/4) had married a girl from one of the Colman families.  Anne Colman was from Wymondham, like her mother-in-law Mary Colman.  Born in 1723, she was a daughter of Deborah Weaver and Jeremiah Colman (born 1690 and died 1763). He, Jeremiah Colman, was a brother of John and Mary, all children of the elder Jeremiah born 1651. 

 

Again like his father, Robert (8/4) had two surviving sons, the elder named Robert and the younger, Isaac, and he had one daughter named after his wife.  Ann’s father, Jeremiah Colman, in 1763 also saw fit to leave a small bequest to his married Jecks daughter: “Item I give and bequeath unto Ann Jecks my Daughter the Sum of Two Shillings and Sixpence.”

 

The christenings of all but one of Robert's (8/4) children have been traced. When first married, Robert lived in Wymondham, where all but two of his children were christened and two were buried. In all, Robert and Ann had one child named Ann, two named Susan (both died), two Roberts (one died) and two of the name Isaac (one died).

​

Upon the death of his grandfather Jeremiah Colman in 1749, Robert was given the sum of £20.  This gift may have facilitated or prompted the family to move from Wymondham to Norwich about 1752. 

​

One more son, Robert (9/6), was born to Robert (8/4) and Ann in Norwich in or near 1753.  His baptism so far is not found in Norwich registers.  This Robert survived and was described by Isaac (9/7) himself as the “elder” brother of Isaac (9/7) living in Norwich.  The other four children of Robert and Ann including twins, born between 1745 and 1750, had all died by 1753.

 

The Registers of Norwich All Saints Church record that Isaac (9/7), the son of Robert and Ann Jecks, was christened on the 4th of June 1756.  This was the Isaac who, some 40 years later, wrote the Jecks Genealogy that has been so extensively quoted in this new genealogy.  His evident interest in genealogy, as witnessed by his written account, has been of inestimable value to later generations of the Jecks family.

 

Isaac (9/7) the Genealogist did not make a record of the passing of his father, Robert (8/4) Jecks, although he did use the past tense “was” when commenting in 1795 about his father’s occupation.  The burial on 22nd May 1774 at Norwich All Saints church of a “Robert Jex” is almost certainly that of Isaac’s father.  Key to the validity of this conclusion was the note added to the register that Robert was 51 when he died, which conforms precisely with his birth in March or April of 1723.  Also consistent with this conclusion is that the last baptism of Robert and Ann’s family, that of Isaac (9/7) himself, took place at the same church of All Saints.  As to Isaac’s (9/7) mother, ten years before Robert (8/4) was buried, an “Ann Jex” was buried at Norwich St Etheldreda – the record most likely that of Ann Jecks, nee Colman, Robert’s wife.

​

ANN (9/1) and ROBERT (9/6)

 

Isaac (9/7) made the following note in the Genealogy about his brother, Robert (9/6):

 

"My elder brother Robert is very infirm & not likely to leave issue.  Now living at Norwich".

 

Later in the Genealogy someone else added notes about Isaac’s brother and sister, Robert (9/6) and Ann (9/1) [author’s notes included in brackets]:

 

"Robert died at Norwich l8l0 [8 September] leaving no issue.  Buried in All Saints Church Yard.  Ann Liversidge his only sister died in London Nov 18 l810 [actually buried: Sept 13, 1807] & left one son [named George].  Supposed to be buried in St Georges Borough [of Southwark]."

 

Ann Jecks (9/1) was married in 1774 to Richard Liversidge at Saint Marylebone in London.  Their only child, a son, George, married Elizabeth Collins in 1808 and they had a family of five children in Southwark, London.  George was buried in Brompton Cemetery, in the fashionable Kensington area, and his wife, in St George the Martyr, Southwark.

 

Although Isaac (9/7) did not specifically say that his elder brother Robert (9/6) had married, the implication of his comment about Robert being unlikely to leave issue is that he was in fact married.  Furthermore, this is verified by the church register burial entry for Robert which clearly stated he was a “married man”. 

 

Robert’s bride is believed to have been the widow Ann Cushen, nee Woodrow, whom Robert Jex (sic) married after Banns in October 1781 at Norwich St Simon & St Jude.  Ann had first married Robert Cushen in 1776 in Norwich, and was widowed in June 1781 in the parish of Hardingham, near Runhall and Kimberley.  According to Robert’s burial entry, Ann was alive at the time he died in Norwich.

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ISAAC (9/7) Jecks himself (the Genealogist) led a long and fruitful life.  He spent his early years in his native Norwich with his parents.  He later moved to Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, which straddles the border with west Norfolk.  From there, he married Mary Bloomar (not "Bloomer" as often misspelt) in her hometown of Newark Nottinghamshire.  All of their children were born in Wisbech.  There, Isaac and his partner a Mr Dawbarn ran a drapery business, and perhaps initially a timber business eventually taken over by two of his sons and expanded in Norfolk and even Suffolk. Isaac eventually returned to Norwich where he died.  So much is known about him, his family and descendants that a separate volume, Book 2 of this new Jecks Genealogy, was assembled to contain all the details.  See subsequent tab on this website "Book 2" for a summary of Isaac and his descendants.

 

Isaac (9/7) wrote details of the births of each of his eleven children into a family Bible.  This Bible is still in the possession of his direct descendants in New Zealand.  While the pages in the Bible containing the birth details remain intact, one may see by examining the Bible that a few pages have been torn out and are now missing.  It is the opinion of the author that these missing pages are in fact the pages containing Isaac's genealogical notes, “The Genealogy”.