Life of Anthony Wayte of Wimborne Minster and Poole, Dorset
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I have put together this brief narrative for Anthony Wayte, not for any particular interest in the man himself, but because William Gould, in whom I am interested, named him as an Overseer in his will. Anthony also witnessed William's will, and there are various other connections which will be detailed below.
First, I must make it clear that although I have used various sources to produce this narrative, I am indebted to Charles Cornish-Dale(1) for the fine detail of Anthony's life in Wimborne, and his possible business connection to William Gould. Charles has put many years of work into transcribing, amongst other documents, the Churchwardens' Accounts for Wimborne Minster 1581 - 1654, and it is these transcripts(2), generously shared with me, that have made this work possible.
~ ~ ~
Anthony Wayte stated in 1649 that his father had been Thomas Wayte of Waytes Court in the Isle of Wight, Gentleman(3). This is confirmed by the 1634 Visitation of Hampshire, as published by William Berry, which shows Anthony as the youngest son of Thomas Wayte of "Brixon" (now known as Brighstone) and his wife Jane, a daughter of Thomas Green of Buckinghamshire(4).
Waytes Court - or at least Waytes Court Farmhouse - still exists in Brighstone(5), and dates back to "the early 17th century"(6) so is possibly not the building Anthony grew up in.
Anthony's oldest brother, Alexander Wayte, married Ellinor Pytt, daughter of William Pytt of Poole and Weymouth, in 1597(7). He was therefore presumably born around 1570 - 1575. Anthony was the ninth and youngest child and was thus presumably born between 10 and 20 years after Alexander; given that he was married by 1608(2), I'm guessing for now that he was born 1580 - 1585. I haven't as yet seen any parish records for the period.
In 1607 Anthony was witness to "a Bond concerning the base of a messuage and stable in Poole involving the Cox family". (This document was apparently found amongst the papers of Sir Kaye le Fleming after he died in 1946.(8)) So it would appear that Anthony was in Poole in 1607, but during the church year 1608-09 (ie approximately Easter 1608 to Easter 1609), he purchased the use of seats in Wimborne Minster for himself and his wife(2).
The 1634 Visitation of Hampshire tells us that Anthony's wife Jane was the daughter of a man named Comedge(4). Only one man named Comedge appears (under various spellings) in the Wimborne Churchwardens Accounts - and he was a Churchwarden during 1608-09, the year Anthony seems to have arrived in Wimborne.
John Comedge had paid rent for a "standing" in the market from at least 1585-86 up to 1589-90. After that year he never again appeared in the market standing rents, nor any other rental list, but he bought himself a seat in the Minster in 1591-92, with his (unnamed) wife following suit in 1595-96.(2) There is no record of his daughter Jane having a seat of her own before she married Anthony.
John Comedge and Nicholas Clark were elected Churchwardens for the year 1608-09, and they collected the monies from the outgoing churchwardens "at Barwicke's Tomb" on 10th April 1608. (2) At some point during their year, we may perhaps imagine Anthony Wayte, youngest son of a landed family, arriving in Wimborne for whatever reason and approaching the Churchwardens to get himself a seat in the Minster where he might see and be seen, in a suitable manner for a man of his status. And then the Churchwarden's daughter was presented and hey presto, a marriage is announced... Of course it could have happened the other way round; Anthony and Jane might have met at some occasion in Poole and agreed to marry, and this was the reason for Anthony moving to Wimborne. Or, Anthony being from landed gentry gave his father-in-law that little extra social position that allowed him to be considered for Churchwarden.
We will almost certainly never know how matters worked out, but it does seem quite a coincidence that Anthony's father-in-law was a churchwarden in - and only in - the year Anthony arrived in the town.
Whichever way round things happened, the Churchwardens noted that they received 3s 4d "of Anthoney Wayt for a fine for a seat wch was Robartes Pittmanes". Robert Pitman died in April or May of 1608, and he had been a Clothier, which as noted below may be significant. The next line in the Accounts shows a receipt "of Jane wayt For her Rombe in the seat wher her mother settes in".(2) (So far as I can tell from the Accounts, it was normal practice for husbands and wives to sit separately and to conduct separate transactions for their seats).
John Comedge's year as a Churchwarden ended on 1st May 1609. He and Nicholas Clark handed over the money resulting from the year to the new churchwardens on 7th May 1609, and after that, with the exception of one small mention (a fee received for a grave sold "in John Comege yere") he is never heard of in Wimborne again.(2)
Anthony and Jane, however, did remain visible in the Churchwardens' Accounts: in the church year 1611-12, Anthony supplied the Churchwardens with 9 ells of Holland cloth at 3s the ell to make a surplice for a Mr Payne. This is the first connection with William Gould: Gould was a Linen Draper and in 1615-16 he supplied the churchwardens with "hollen to mend the surplesses".(2)
In 1612-13 and 1613-14, Anthony Wayte is shown in the Accounts as paying rent "for his Chimney".(2) I am not a historian of the period, but a chimney all by itself seems an odd thing to be renting, so I wonder whether this means a house or shop that had been fitted with a relatively recent invention - an enclosed chimney as opposed to an open fireplace.
In 1613-1614, Anthony supplied fabric and lining for a new Communion Table cloth, together with "selke for the freng". The cloth was made up by Henry Sweetman and the fringe by James Coxe.(2)
In 1614-15 Anthony again paid rent for his chimney, but this was the last time he appeared in the rent lists. In 1615-16 William Gould paid the rent for this chimney, and he also took over Anthony's seat in the Minster, at the same time as his sister Luce Gould took over Jane Wayte's seat.(2) This is the second connection between Anthony Wayte and William Gould. As noted above, Gould also supplied holland cloth during this year, so it would seem that perhaps William Gould took over Anthony Wayte's business at this time.
Whereabouts one sat in the Minster seems to have been a measure or expression of one's social standing, and perhaps Anthony and Jane were about to leave "trade" behind them and thus required better seats to demonstrate their elevation to Anthony's natal status. (Oddly, William Gould moved seats again almost immediately, to sit with one Steven Russell, leaving Anthony's old seat to be taken over by Avis, wife of William Russell.(2)) It is not clear where Anthony and Jane sat for service over the next four years, because there is no mention of their new seats until 1619-20, Anthony's first year as a Churchwarden, when Anthony paid for "two roomes for his mother in lawe and his wife in the seate that was mistris humfreys under the pulpett". There is no information as to where Anthony himself was sitting, so I don't know whether his purchase of John Mackrell's seat in 1622-23 (John Mackrell having died that year)(2) represents a move within the Minster or whether Anthony didn't have a seat at that point.
In 1623 Anthony Wayte gave to the Minster Church a brass lectern in the shape of an eagle, engraved with the Wayte arms, the initials AW and the date 1623.(8) As far as I can see, the Churchwardens' Accounts make no mention of the matter until 1646-47 when the churchwardens paid "for scouring of ye Egle". The same entry appears for 1646-47, 1649-50, 1651-52 and 1653-54.(2) (I have not yet seen the Churchwardens' Accounts for later years.)
Over the next ten years Anthony appears in the Churchwardens' Accounts occasionally - supplying a piece of timber; supplying a surplice (or presumably the fabric for it) together with lace and thread; providing "a prayer booke for the wendesdaies"; supplying "weyer (wire?) to mend the chimes.(2)
In 1628-29 Jane Wayte was joined in her seat by William Holderby's wife(2), but at some point over the next two years the couple seem to have left the town: in 1631-32 Thomas de France took over Anthony's seat and in 1632-33 Christopher Ansell paid for his wife Elizabeth to sit with William Holderby's wife "in a seat neare the pulpit wch was mris Waytes Roome".(2)
The 1630 Swainston Manor Survey excludes Waytes Court but various parts of the survey mention lands "next to the land of Mr Alexander Wayte". (5) We may therefore reasonably assume that Anthony's father Thomas Wayte was dead by 1630. In 1633 Anthony's brother Alexander sold Waytes Court(10), and this may be relevant to the fact that at around this time Anthony and Jane appear to have moved to Poole and stayed there for almost twenty years.
~ ~ ~
In 1634, Anthony Wayte "of Poole, merchant" purchased a couple of properties in the town from one Arthur Radford of Dewlish - a messuage or dwellinghouse in the High Street, and a messuage or tenement and stable with curtilage and garden in Strand Street.(11)
In 1636 Anthony was elected Mayor of Poole.(12)
Anthony does not appear on the Protestation Return of 1642 for Wimborne(13); the Return for Poole has not survived.
In 1647 Anthony Wayte, merchant of Poole, sold the two properties listed above to Henry Harding, also a merchant of the town, with "final concord" signed in 1649.(14) Harding had been Mayor of the town in 1642 and would be again in 1648(12).
~ ~ ~
Presumably, having sold their properties in Poole, Anthony and Jane now moved back to Wimborne. In 1648-49 Anthony bought "a roome in the seate with mris Lewen for his wife Jane to sitt in". We can't be certain Mrs Lewin is still in the same seat, but in 1632-33 Robert Lewin bought a seat for his wife Dorothy "under the organ loft by the Clarks dexe".
Jane Wayte died not long after she and Anthony returned to Wimborne; perhaps this was the reason for returning. Jane died on the 12th of October 1649(3); the Great Bell was rung for her and she was buried inside the Minster church, where her stone can apparently still be seen. (A few sources have misread her presumably well-worn stone as saying she died in 1619). In 1650-51 "the Rome that was mris Jane waitts in the seat wth mris Lewen ye Elder" was sold to a Mr Bonnd for his wife Anne to sit in.
In 1652-53 an Alexander Wayte was buried inside the church, the Great Bell having been rung(2). There is no surviving Memorial Inscription to go with this burial, which would seem to make it unlikely that this is Anthony's oldest brother, the Gentleman of Waytes Court. So my best guess at the moment is that Alexander was the fourth son of Anthony and Jane, named for the older brother after hypothetical sons named Thomas (father's father), John (mother's father) and Anthony (father), but possibly the landed gentry used different naming patterns. A Thomas Wayte married Agnes Gould in Wimborne in July 1640.(15)
On 7th July 1653, Anthony Wayte "of Wimborne Minster" (no occupation stated) and Mr William Williams Of Poole, merchant, were named as Overseers in the will of John Cartridge the Elder of Poole, Mariner, with Cartridge "beseeching them to see this my last Will and Testament to be duely perfourmed by theire care and circumspection and by the care and circumspection of the survivor of eyther of them accordinge to my true intent and meaneinge herein expressed."(16) William Williams was also appointed Executor of the will, along with Cartridge's son Richard, and Cartridge requested that they submit any "controversie that may arise betweene them concerneinge the same to the Censure and determinacon of the Overseers and Survivors of them".
Sadly William Williams died before the Testator, being buried in February 1653/4, almost 7 weeks before John Cartridge(17). Thus when the will was finally proved by Richard Cartridge on 16th February 1654/55 Anthony was spared the ordeal of ruling on differences between the Executors, but he had to take sole responsibility for ensuring Richard Cartridge fulfilled his father's wishes.
Also in 1654, Anthony Wayte, Gent, witnessed an indenture between Elizabeth Smalwell widdow (late wife of Edward Smalwell late of Walford Mill, Wimborne Minster miller deceased and executrix of the last will and testament of the said Edward) and Georg Lovell of Langton. Other witnesses included Joseph Collett, Robert Pittman the elder and John Comadge.(18)
Something seems to have happened early in 1657 to make Anthony start thinking about his own mortality: in March of 1657 he apparently erected a tomb for his late wife Jane, "purposing if God parmit, to be buryed in the same tombe."(3), while in April the same year he wrote his will.(19) In it he left an extremely detailed list of household goods to an unspecified "kinswoman" whose name probably isn't Rebecca Wihes but that's the best I can do with the handwriting at present. Rebecca is also to have a quarter of the linen and the contents of a particular chest, but she is not to meddle with anything else in the house, which is to go to the three daughters of "my cosin Defrance”. It may be worth remembering at this point that when Anthony and Jane left Wimborne to go to Poole, Anthony's seat in the Minster was taken over by one Thomas deFrance.
It seems to be commonly held that Anthony actually died in 1657, but I have not found a burial in that year, nor is there any evidence in the Churchwardens' Accounts20 of funeral bells, or of the burial inside the church we would expect for a man of his status.
An Anthony Wayte appears on a list of contributors to the rate taken on 28th July 1663 "for the repayring of the parrish church of Wimborne Minster and buying of a new Organ" 20. This list appears to be virtually a census of the adult male population, and a fair few widows, of the town. Although I don't know exactly how the rate was assessed, William Hanham - the major landowner who appears first on the list - paid £12, while many men, including James Tilsed at 4s, paid between 2s and 10s.
Anthony Wayte of Leigh Tything is accorded the gentlemanly "Mr" not given to several who paid more but it seems to me that his contribution of 10s 6d puts him rather below "the better sort" and definitely not amongst the gentry and ruling classes of the town. Possibly he had other assets outside the parish, or perhaps, as a younger son, very little of the family wealth had come his way.
The will I believe to belong to this Anthony was not proved until 20th March 1666/67, by Elizabeth Deffrance, "neptis" and next of kin. Unfortunately the Wimborne burials register is almost unreadable at this point, but I now have access to images of the Churchwardens' Accounts for the years 1654 - 1698 and am working on transcribing them(20). In the church year 1664-65 we discover that the penultimate record in the list for the Great Bell is "Anthony Wayt gent"; the last in the list for graves inside the church is "Mr Anthony Wayt", and the last record in the list of seat transactions shows that a Mr Lane paid 10s "for the seat which was Mr Anthony Wayts" (20).
It therefore seems likely that Anthony Wayte died, in or close to Wimborne, very near to the end of the church year 1664-65, ie in the first few months of what we would call 1665.
Sources:
(1) https://oxford.academia.edu/CharlesCornishDale
(2) Wimborne Churchwardens' Accounts 1581-1636 PE/WM/CW/1/41, 1636-1654 PE/WM/CW/1/42, Dorset History Centre, as transcribed by Charles Cornish-Dale.
(3) Memorial for Jane, quoted in Fragmenta Genealogica Volume 2 (2013) by Frederick Arthur Crisp. Viewed at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fragmenta-Genealogica-Frederick-Arthur-Crisp/dp/1236993926
(4) The Wayte entry in Berry's Hampshire Genealogies can be viewed at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002002213875;view=1up;seq=98
(5) http://www.wildonwight.co.uk/publications/awi/iwawi_appendix_Walter's_Copse_revised.pdf
(6) https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101209292-waytes-court-brighstone
(7) Marriage settlement 9 April 1597, D/DMy 15M50/566, Essex Record Office.
(8) Bond, PE/WM/MI/2, Dorset History Centre.
(9) The Archaeological Journal, Volume 88, Royal Archaeological Institute, 1932, accessed via Google Books.
(10) Victoria County History, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol5/pp211-215
(11) Purchase documents, D-967/1/21, D-967/1/22, D-967/1/23 at Dorset History Centre
(12) The History of the Town and County of Poole: compiled from Hutchins's History of the County of Dorset. London, 1788. Accessed via Google Books.
(13) Protestation Returns for Dorset, edited by Edward Alexander Fry, https://archive.org/stream/dorsetrecords12frye/dorsetrecords12frye_djvu.txt
(14) Sale documents, D-967/1/24, D-967/1/25
(15) Wimborne marriages, PE/WM:RE 1/2, Dorset History Centre. Viewed at Ancestry.co.uk
(16) National Archives PROB 11/247, transcript viewed at https://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/Wills/CartridgeJohn-Poole-1653.shtml
(17) Burials at Poole St James 1653/4 and 1654, PE/PL/RE 1/2 at Dorset History Centre. Viewed at Ancestry.co.uk
(18) Unidentified deed, transcript viewed at http://www.durtnall.org.uk/DEEDS/Dorset%20101-200.htm
(19) PROB 11/323/418, National Archives. Viewed at Ancestry.co.uk
(20) Wimborne Churchwardens' Accounts 1636-1696 PE/WM/CW/1/42, Dorset History Centre, transcribed by me.
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I have put together this brief narrative for Anthony Wayte, not for any particular interest in the man himself, but because William Gould, in whom I am interested, named him as an Overseer in his will. Anthony also witnessed William's will, and there are various other connections which will be detailed below.
First, I must make it clear that although I have used various sources to produce this narrative, I am indebted to Charles Cornish-Dale(1) for the fine detail of Anthony's life in Wimborne, and his possible business connection to William Gould. Charles has put many years of work into transcribing, amongst other documents, the Churchwardens' Accounts for Wimborne Minster 1581 - 1654, and it is these transcripts(2), generously shared with me, that have made this work possible.
~ ~ ~
Anthony Wayte stated in 1649 that his father had been Thomas Wayte of Waytes Court in the Isle of Wight, Gentleman(3). This is confirmed by the 1634 Visitation of Hampshire, as published by William Berry, which shows Anthony as the youngest son of Thomas Wayte of "Brixon" (now known as Brighstone) and his wife Jane, a daughter of Thomas Green of Buckinghamshire(4).
Waytes Court - or at least Waytes Court Farmhouse - still exists in Brighstone(5), and dates back to "the early 17th century"(6) so is possibly not the building Anthony grew up in.
Anthony's oldest brother, Alexander Wayte, married Ellinor Pytt, daughter of William Pytt of Poole and Weymouth, in 1597(7). He was therefore presumably born around 1570 - 1575. Anthony was the ninth and youngest child and was thus presumably born between 10 and 20 years after Alexander; given that he was married by 1608(2), I'm guessing for now that he was born 1580 - 1585. I haven't as yet seen any parish records for the period.
In 1607 Anthony was witness to "a Bond concerning the base of a messuage and stable in Poole involving the Cox family". (This document was apparently found amongst the papers of Sir Kaye le Fleming after he died in 1946.(8)) So it would appear that Anthony was in Poole in 1607, but during the church year 1608-09 (ie approximately Easter 1608 to Easter 1609), he purchased the use of seats in Wimborne Minster for himself and his wife(2).
The 1634 Visitation of Hampshire tells us that Anthony's wife Jane was the daughter of a man named Comedge(4). Only one man named Comedge appears (under various spellings) in the Wimborne Churchwardens Accounts - and he was a Churchwarden during 1608-09, the year Anthony seems to have arrived in Wimborne.
John Comedge had paid rent for a "standing" in the market from at least 1585-86 up to 1589-90. After that year he never again appeared in the market standing rents, nor any other rental list, but he bought himself a seat in the Minster in 1591-92, with his (unnamed) wife following suit in 1595-96.(2) There is no record of his daughter Jane having a seat of her own before she married Anthony.
John Comedge and Nicholas Clark were elected Churchwardens for the year 1608-09, and they collected the monies from the outgoing churchwardens "at Barwicke's Tomb" on 10th April 1608. (2) At some point during their year, we may perhaps imagine Anthony Wayte, youngest son of a landed family, arriving in Wimborne for whatever reason and approaching the Churchwardens to get himself a seat in the Minster where he might see and be seen, in a suitable manner for a man of his status. And then the Churchwarden's daughter was presented and hey presto, a marriage is announced... Of course it could have happened the other way round; Anthony and Jane might have met at some occasion in Poole and agreed to marry, and this was the reason for Anthony moving to Wimborne. Or, Anthony being from landed gentry gave his father-in-law that little extra social position that allowed him to be considered for Churchwarden.
We will almost certainly never know how matters worked out, but it does seem quite a coincidence that Anthony's father-in-law was a churchwarden in - and only in - the year Anthony arrived in the town.
Whichever way round things happened, the Churchwardens noted that they received 3s 4d "of Anthoney Wayt for a fine for a seat wch was Robartes Pittmanes". Robert Pitman died in April or May of 1608, and he had been a Clothier, which as noted below may be significant. The next line in the Accounts shows a receipt "of Jane wayt For her Rombe in the seat wher her mother settes in".(2) (So far as I can tell from the Accounts, it was normal practice for husbands and wives to sit separately and to conduct separate transactions for their seats).
John Comedge's year as a Churchwarden ended on 1st May 1609. He and Nicholas Clark handed over the money resulting from the year to the new churchwardens on 7th May 1609, and after that, with the exception of one small mention (a fee received for a grave sold "in John Comege yere") he is never heard of in Wimborne again.(2)
Anthony and Jane, however, did remain visible in the Churchwardens' Accounts: in the church year 1611-12, Anthony supplied the Churchwardens with 9 ells of Holland cloth at 3s the ell to make a surplice for a Mr Payne. This is the first connection with William Gould: Gould was a Linen Draper and in 1615-16 he supplied the churchwardens with "hollen to mend the surplesses".(2)
In 1612-13 and 1613-14, Anthony Wayte is shown in the Accounts as paying rent "for his Chimney".(2) I am not a historian of the period, but a chimney all by itself seems an odd thing to be renting, so I wonder whether this means a house or shop that had been fitted with a relatively recent invention - an enclosed chimney as opposed to an open fireplace.
In 1613-1614, Anthony supplied fabric and lining for a new Communion Table cloth, together with "selke for the freng". The cloth was made up by Henry Sweetman and the fringe by James Coxe.(2)
In 1614-15 Anthony again paid rent for his chimney, but this was the last time he appeared in the rent lists. In 1615-16 William Gould paid the rent for this chimney, and he also took over Anthony's seat in the Minster, at the same time as his sister Luce Gould took over Jane Wayte's seat.(2) This is the second connection between Anthony Wayte and William Gould. As noted above, Gould also supplied holland cloth during this year, so it would seem that perhaps William Gould took over Anthony Wayte's business at this time.
Whereabouts one sat in the Minster seems to have been a measure or expression of one's social standing, and perhaps Anthony and Jane were about to leave "trade" behind them and thus required better seats to demonstrate their elevation to Anthony's natal status. (Oddly, William Gould moved seats again almost immediately, to sit with one Steven Russell, leaving Anthony's old seat to be taken over by Avis, wife of William Russell.(2)) It is not clear where Anthony and Jane sat for service over the next four years, because there is no mention of their new seats until 1619-20, Anthony's first year as a Churchwarden, when Anthony paid for "two roomes for his mother in lawe and his wife in the seate that was mistris humfreys under the pulpett". There is no information as to where Anthony himself was sitting, so I don't know whether his purchase of John Mackrell's seat in 1622-23 (John Mackrell having died that year)(2) represents a move within the Minster or whether Anthony didn't have a seat at that point.
In 1623 Anthony Wayte gave to the Minster Church a brass lectern in the shape of an eagle, engraved with the Wayte arms, the initials AW and the date 1623.(8) As far as I can see, the Churchwardens' Accounts make no mention of the matter until 1646-47 when the churchwardens paid "for scouring of ye Egle". The same entry appears for 1646-47, 1649-50, 1651-52 and 1653-54.(2) (I have not yet seen the Churchwardens' Accounts for later years.)
Over the next ten years Anthony appears in the Churchwardens' Accounts occasionally - supplying a piece of timber; supplying a surplice (or presumably the fabric for it) together with lace and thread; providing "a prayer booke for the wendesdaies"; supplying "weyer (wire?) to mend the chimes.(2)
In 1628-29 Jane Wayte was joined in her seat by William Holderby's wife(2), but at some point over the next two years the couple seem to have left the town: in 1631-32 Thomas de France took over Anthony's seat and in 1632-33 Christopher Ansell paid for his wife Elizabeth to sit with William Holderby's wife "in a seat neare the pulpit wch was mris Waytes Roome".(2)
The 1630 Swainston Manor Survey excludes Waytes Court but various parts of the survey mention lands "next to the land of Mr Alexander Wayte". (5) We may therefore reasonably assume that Anthony's father Thomas Wayte was dead by 1630. In 1633 Anthony's brother Alexander sold Waytes Court(10), and this may be relevant to the fact that at around this time Anthony and Jane appear to have moved to Poole and stayed there for almost twenty years.
~ ~ ~
In 1634, Anthony Wayte "of Poole, merchant" purchased a couple of properties in the town from one Arthur Radford of Dewlish - a messuage or dwellinghouse in the High Street, and a messuage or tenement and stable with curtilage and garden in Strand Street.(11)
In 1636 Anthony was elected Mayor of Poole.(12)
Anthony does not appear on the Protestation Return of 1642 for Wimborne(13); the Return for Poole has not survived.
In 1647 Anthony Wayte, merchant of Poole, sold the two properties listed above to Henry Harding, also a merchant of the town, with "final concord" signed in 1649.(14) Harding had been Mayor of the town in 1642 and would be again in 1648(12).
~ ~ ~
Presumably, having sold their properties in Poole, Anthony and Jane now moved back to Wimborne. In 1648-49 Anthony bought "a roome in the seate with mris Lewen for his wife Jane to sitt in". We can't be certain Mrs Lewin is still in the same seat, but in 1632-33 Robert Lewin bought a seat for his wife Dorothy "under the organ loft by the Clarks dexe".
Jane Wayte died not long after she and Anthony returned to Wimborne; perhaps this was the reason for returning. Jane died on the 12th of October 1649(3); the Great Bell was rung for her and she was buried inside the Minster church, where her stone can apparently still be seen. (A few sources have misread her presumably well-worn stone as saying she died in 1619). In 1650-51 "the Rome that was mris Jane waitts in the seat wth mris Lewen ye Elder" was sold to a Mr Bonnd for his wife Anne to sit in.
In 1652-53 an Alexander Wayte was buried inside the church, the Great Bell having been rung(2). There is no surviving Memorial Inscription to go with this burial, which would seem to make it unlikely that this is Anthony's oldest brother, the Gentleman of Waytes Court. So my best guess at the moment is that Alexander was the fourth son of Anthony and Jane, named for the older brother after hypothetical sons named Thomas (father's father), John (mother's father) and Anthony (father), but possibly the landed gentry used different naming patterns. A Thomas Wayte married Agnes Gould in Wimborne in July 1640.(15)
On 7th July 1653, Anthony Wayte "of Wimborne Minster" (no occupation stated) and Mr William Williams Of Poole, merchant, were named as Overseers in the will of John Cartridge the Elder of Poole, Mariner, with Cartridge "beseeching them to see this my last Will and Testament to be duely perfourmed by theire care and circumspection and by the care and circumspection of the survivor of eyther of them accordinge to my true intent and meaneinge herein expressed."(16) William Williams was also appointed Executor of the will, along with Cartridge's son Richard, and Cartridge requested that they submit any "controversie that may arise betweene them concerneinge the same to the Censure and determinacon of the Overseers and Survivors of them".
Sadly William Williams died before the Testator, being buried in February 1653/4, almost 7 weeks before John Cartridge(17). Thus when the will was finally proved by Richard Cartridge on 16th February 1654/55 Anthony was spared the ordeal of ruling on differences between the Executors, but he had to take sole responsibility for ensuring Richard Cartridge fulfilled his father's wishes.
Also in 1654, Anthony Wayte, Gent, witnessed an indenture between Elizabeth Smalwell widdow (late wife of Edward Smalwell late of Walford Mill, Wimborne Minster miller deceased and executrix of the last will and testament of the said Edward) and Georg Lovell of Langton. Other witnesses included Joseph Collett, Robert Pittman the elder and John Comadge.(18)
Something seems to have happened early in 1657 to make Anthony start thinking about his own mortality: in March of 1657 he apparently erected a tomb for his late wife Jane, "purposing if God parmit, to be buryed in the same tombe."(3), while in April the same year he wrote his will.(19) In it he left an extremely detailed list of household goods to an unspecified "kinswoman" whose name probably isn't Rebecca Wihes but that's the best I can do with the handwriting at present. Rebecca is also to have a quarter of the linen and the contents of a particular chest, but she is not to meddle with anything else in the house, which is to go to the three daughters of "my cosin Defrance”. It may be worth remembering at this point that when Anthony and Jane left Wimborne to go to Poole, Anthony's seat in the Minster was taken over by one Thomas deFrance.
It seems to be commonly held that Anthony actually died in 1657, but I have not found a burial in that year, nor is there any evidence in the Churchwardens' Accounts20 of funeral bells, or of the burial inside the church we would expect for a man of his status.
An Anthony Wayte appears on a list of contributors to the rate taken on 28th July 1663 "for the repayring of the parrish church of Wimborne Minster and buying of a new Organ" 20. This list appears to be virtually a census of the adult male population, and a fair few widows, of the town. Although I don't know exactly how the rate was assessed, William Hanham - the major landowner who appears first on the list - paid £12, while many men, including James Tilsed at 4s, paid between 2s and 10s.
Anthony Wayte of Leigh Tything is accorded the gentlemanly "Mr" not given to several who paid more but it seems to me that his contribution of 10s 6d puts him rather below "the better sort" and definitely not amongst the gentry and ruling classes of the town. Possibly he had other assets outside the parish, or perhaps, as a younger son, very little of the family wealth had come his way.
The will I believe to belong to this Anthony was not proved until 20th March 1666/67, by Elizabeth Deffrance, "neptis" and next of kin. Unfortunately the Wimborne burials register is almost unreadable at this point, but I now have access to images of the Churchwardens' Accounts for the years 1654 - 1698 and am working on transcribing them(20). In the church year 1664-65 we discover that the penultimate record in the list for the Great Bell is "Anthony Wayt gent"; the last in the list for graves inside the church is "Mr Anthony Wayt", and the last record in the list of seat transactions shows that a Mr Lane paid 10s "for the seat which was Mr Anthony Wayts" (20).
It therefore seems likely that Anthony Wayte died, in or close to Wimborne, very near to the end of the church year 1664-65, ie in the first few months of what we would call 1665.
Sources:
(1) https://oxford.academia.edu/CharlesCornishDale
(2) Wimborne Churchwardens' Accounts 1581-1636 PE/WM/CW/1/41, 1636-1654 PE/WM/CW/1/42, Dorset History Centre, as transcribed by Charles Cornish-Dale.
(3) Memorial for Jane, quoted in Fragmenta Genealogica Volume 2 (2013) by Frederick Arthur Crisp. Viewed at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fragmenta-Genealogica-Frederick-Arthur-Crisp/dp/1236993926
(4) The Wayte entry in Berry's Hampshire Genealogies can be viewed at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002002213875;view=1up;seq=98
(5) http://www.wildonwight.co.uk/publications/awi/iwawi_appendix_Walter's_Copse_revised.pdf
(6) https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101209292-waytes-court-brighstone
(7) Marriage settlement 9 April 1597, D/DMy 15M50/566, Essex Record Office.
(8) Bond, PE/WM/MI/2, Dorset History Centre.
(9) The Archaeological Journal, Volume 88, Royal Archaeological Institute, 1932, accessed via Google Books.
(10) Victoria County History, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol5/pp211-215
(11) Purchase documents, D-967/1/21, D-967/1/22, D-967/1/23 at Dorset History Centre
(12) The History of the Town and County of Poole: compiled from Hutchins's History of the County of Dorset. London, 1788. Accessed via Google Books.
(13) Protestation Returns for Dorset, edited by Edward Alexander Fry, https://archive.org/stream/dorsetrecords12frye/dorsetrecords12frye_djvu.txt
(14) Sale documents, D-967/1/24, D-967/1/25
(15) Wimborne marriages, PE/WM:RE 1/2, Dorset History Centre. Viewed at Ancestry.co.uk
(16) National Archives PROB 11/247, transcript viewed at https://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/Wills/CartridgeJohn-Poole-1653.shtml
(17) Burials at Poole St James 1653/4 and 1654, PE/PL/RE 1/2 at Dorset History Centre. Viewed at Ancestry.co.uk
(18) Unidentified deed, transcript viewed at http://www.durtnall.org.uk/DEEDS/Dorset%20101-200.htm
(19) PROB 11/323/418, National Archives. Viewed at Ancestry.co.uk
(20) Wimborne Churchwardens' Accounts 1636-1696 PE/WM/CW/1/42, Dorset History Centre, transcribed by me.
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