James Caffyn (1772-1835) - part one

Fortunately for us James Caffyn lived in Rusper in Sussex.  Fortunate because Rusper is one of the few places which recorded its residents in more detail at the time of the 1821 census.  James Caffyn is recorded as a miller living with his wife Elizabeth and his children Thomas, Harriet, Jacob, Eliza, Peter, Charlotte, Matthew and John.  The priest who recorded this information noted other details including dates of birth of the older children and that the older children were baptised sometime after their birth. It was also recorded that James wife Elizabeth died on the 19th January 1825 (confirmed in the burial register of St Marys Rusper).

Elizabeth and James married in 1794 in West Grinstead: 

James Caffyn of this Parish of West Grinstead Batchelor and Eliz:th March of the same Parish Spinster were married in this Church by Licence this Tenth Day of December in the Year One Thousand seven hundred and ninety four

As James and Elizabeth's children were baptised some years after they were born it  suggests that James Caffyn was nonconformist but converted back to the mainstream church around 1811.  This is fairly typical of the period - many Caffyns returned to the Church of England in the early 19th century.  His eldest son Thomas may not have been so keen to convert, he was about 15 years old in 1811 and wasn't baptised with his siblings but was baptised with his younger brother Matthew on the 28th March 1813.

James Caffyn died in 1835 and was buried on the 3rd August 1835 in Rusper but he had been living in Withyham; possibly with his son Thomas who was working as a miller in Withyham.  James's age was given as 63 years which puts his birth around 1772.  I have searched for his baptism without success but that is not surprising if he comes from a nonconformist - probably Baptist - family.  

There is a clue to James's ancestry as he is mentioned in the 1810 will of Richard Caffyn:

to my cousin James Caffyn of Rusper in the said county of Sussex the like sum of one hundred and fifty pounds

This is an informative will which gives lots of family connections including naming another cousin, Thomas Caffyn of Newhouse in West Grinstead.  Thomas Caffyn died around 1836 and his wife Ann can be found in the 1851 census with her daughters Ann and Elizabeth as well as her niece Eliza Caffyn.  The 1821 Rusper census noted that James and Elizabeth's daughter Eliza was living in West Grinstead with an uncle - this must have been her uncle Thomas which makes Thomas a brother to James.

More to come on James Caffyn 

Sources

West Sussex Record Office: West Grinstead PAR95 1/1/5 Marriage Register 1754-1812

1821 Rusper Census fiche (Sussex Family History Group)

Will of Richard Caffyn of Goudhurst, Kent - written 1810, proved 1820

Will of Thomas Caffyn of New House in West Grinstead - written 1829, proved 1836

1851 Census - HO107 73 3 1648