Other Leonard Lines for Follow Up
“A prominent gentleman, the acknowledged head of the family of Leonard, living in Buckingham Villas, Clifton—the beautiful environ of Bristol—and his family, took much interest in the matter. He bore the Christian name of Solomon as did his father and grandfather before him. I was assured that not only this name, but also John, Jacob, and Isaac, had been common in the family there for many generations: that they were dissenters and some of the family went to Leyden, and it was believed from there to America. In a correspondence with members of the family, continued for several years, this belief was confirmed.”
This is a quote from Manning Leonard, “Memorial: Genealogical, Historical, and Biographical of Solomon Leonard, 1637,” page 19. (published 1894)
I think this line of Leonards is that of Robert B. Leonard, the genealogy of Bristol Leonards, to be posted later.
“In South Wales, James Leonard, whose three children, William, Thomas, and Anne were baptized at Trevethin between 1696 and 1703, was perhaps the first member of the ironworking line to reappear there. In the 1700s a Leonard and his two sons were working at the Melingriffith tin-plate works near Pentyrch in Glamorgan… John Leonard whose son Simon was baptized at Bedwelltry in March 1824 had himself become a roller in the Tredegar iron works.” From manuscript from Brian K. Awty.
Levy Leonard, baptized at Dudleston in (May 28,) 1704, had four children baptized at Shifnal between 1729 an 1744 (Emanuel, July 6, 1729; Eleanor, February 22, 1744; and two others), whilst his brother Richard, baptized at Dudleston in 1712, was perhaps the Richard who had children baptized at Bilston from 1743 to 1746…
(John and Jane Leonard had a daughter, Elizabeth, baptized in Dudleston September 11, 1727; a son, John, baptized there October 10, 1725.)
Early in the 19th Century there was correspondence between James Leonard, a workman in the ironworks at Bilston, and the Leonard family of Taunton, MA, concerning ironworks at Bilston in which the family formerly had a proprietorial interest. The works, formerly unprofitable and heavily mortgaged, had since greatly expanded, but the prospect of the lengthy lawsuit needed to recover it discouraged any attempt to regain possession. (Mentioned in Elisha Clark Leonard’s notes.)
At Kinver, James Leonard senior’s children Samuel, Ruth, and William, were buried in 1710, 1711, and 1715 respectively. A second Ruth was baptized only three weeks after the first Ruth’s burial was presumably a child of the same man. James Leonard junior was certainly the father of John, baptized at Kinver in 1717, and presumbably of Thomas, William, Mary, James, Samuel, Elizabeth, Sampson, and Sarah, who were baptized between 1720 and 1738, all of them children of James and Elizabeth Leonard; of these children Thomas, Mary, Samuel, and Sampson failed to survive. The failure of further children to appear suggests that the James Leonard who was buried in February 1738 was the younger of the two Jameses and father of all these children, of whom Sarah, the last, was baptized in March 1738.
The Thomas Leonard who married Mary Ward at Cheswardine in 1727 had one child, Thomas, baptized at Cheswardine before moving on to Mucklestone, where he worked at Norton Forge and had four more children baptized between 1730 and 1741. Although the Norton Parish Register does not confirm this, it seems probable that Ralph Leonard, whose children Elizabeth, Samuel, Mary, Ralph, and another Samuel were baptized there from 1735 to 1754, also worked at the same forge. Ralph, who had married Maria Hussey at Adderley early in 1735, was a son of Leonard Leonard, whose children Mary, Ralph, and Hannah were baptized from 1706 to 1712 at Cheadle, the parish where entries concerning workers from Oakamoor Forge were recorded…
Back in the area north of Stourbridge, where the Wombourne Parish register included the names of workers at Heath Forge on the Smestowe Brook, Samuel and John, the sons of John and Barbara Leonard, were baptized in 1657 and 1662, whilst Anne and Elizabeth Leonard, baptized at Kinver in 1667 and 1675, could be daughters of the same John Leonard or another, because by 1675 the mother’s name was Bridget. John and Bridget Leonard moved downstream to Hartlebury on the Stour shortly after 1675…
John and Bridget Leonard, who left Kinver, established themselves at Hartlebury before 1685, between when and John’s death in 1690, three daughters, Mary, Bridget who did not survive, and a second Bridget were born to them. In 1694, William and Sarah’s son William was baptized at Hartlebury…
It is with the family of a second William Leonard, who married Sarah Hall at Hartlebury in 1763, that involvement with iron can again be clearly demonstrated. Their first child, James Leonard (1764-1804) was baptized at Hartlebury, but their later children, Sarah, William, Anne, and John, were all baptized at Lower Mitton or Stourport from 1765 to 1770...
The tenacity of the Leonard family’s continuance in the fining of iron is illustrated in 1838, when Thomas Leonard, finer, married Ellen Jones at Lower Mitton; John Leonard, the finer, who witnessed the marriage, was presumably his father. Thomas, 25 (b. 1816) and Ellen Jones, 20, are listed in the 1841 Census for Lower Mitton. In the 1851 Census they were living with Ellen's brother and his wife in Lower Mitton. Benjamin was an iron moulder and was born in Denbighshire, Wales, as was Ellen. In the 1861 Census, Thomas and Ellen were visiting Ellen's brother Isaac in Lower Mitton, Kidderminster. Thomas is listed as a forgeman and finer, having been born in Wolverly, Worcestershire. The father was the son of William and Sarah Leonard, who had been baptized at Little Mitton in 1770. John certainly remained at Little Mitton up to 1808, when his daughter, Harriet, was baptized… Manuscript, date and author unlisted (but suspect Brian Awty)
(For those not familiar with the local geography, the towns mentioned are generally west of Birmingham a few miles. Cheswardine and Mucklestone are northwest of Birmingham perhaps 30 to 40 miles in Shropshire. Wombourne, Kinver, Stourbridge, Kidderminster, and Stourport on Severn are directly west of Birmingham perhaps 20 miles along the Stour River in Staffordshire. Bilston is about 8 miles northeast of Wombourne, closer to Birmingham. Cleobury Mortimer is another 10 miles west of Kidderminster.)
Thomas Leonard, son of Nicolas Leonard, born 31 Dec 1660, Hanzinne, Namur, Belgium