The Evington Cufflins

        So far we have only found one family of Cufflin's in Evington although the head, Robert, did marry three times, but as the following extract, from the book 'Old Evington', written by Jonathan Wilshere shows, on page 24 in the chapter, 'Evington in the Eighteenth Century', the Cufflin's were a well established family in the village. In it he writes:

        It is said that the Cavendishes are supposed to have lost Evington Manor at the card table, and in the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth there is an assignment of the [Evington] Manor (and Buckminster Vicarage) from Lord William Manners by direction of his grace the Duke of Devonshire, dated 16th July 1735. The purchaser was the famous wealthy botanist Dr. James Sherard of Eltham in Middlesex, who had been born at Bushby in 1665. When Sherard died in 1737 leaving £150,000 there was provision in his will that the Manor was to be divided between his five nieces ....and the estate was divided up into five equal plots... One effect of the land-owenership upheaval was the decline of the small freeholder, although even as early as 1719, George Plummer had been the only resident freeholder out of a total of seven... and this remained the case in 1741....., by 1775 the only Evington freeholder was Thomas Plummer. Many of the earlier non-residents had, through their families, connections with the village: names such as Cartwright, Cuffling, Devonport, Jelly, Spencer, Vann and Worth occur.

Robert Cufflin.
        Robert Cufflin and Elizabeth Harrison were married by Banns on the 24th of April 1720 at the parish church Evington. They were both described as being 'of this parish' so it seems unlikely that he was one of the non resident Cuffling freeholders mentioned above and it would perhaps be reasonable to assume that this refers to an earlier Cufflin. However on pp 68-69 of his book Jonathan Wilshere records Two Suit of Court lists, essentially the names of Manorial tenants attending court, which survive for 1746 and 1759 in the Leicestershire Records Office ref. (ID32/20,21). Among the twenty-six names for 1746 is Robert Cuffling suggesting that he is a tenant although there is no further mention of him in the 1759 list
        The Evington records on microfiche are not too clear prior to the marriage of Robert in 1720 and indeed show a number of 'blanks' between 1744 and 1773 which we suggest may be due to fading rather than a laxity on the part of the incumbent clergyman. The result is that we have been unable to establish by these means certain events which may have occurred during these times.
        Robert's second marriage was to Ann, although the earliest knowledge we have of this is from the record of the baptism of their daughter Elizabeth in 1738. Would it be safe to assume that she is named after his first wife who had died some ten years earlier? Alas this second marriage was also to be relatively short lived as Ann was buried on March 4th 1743/4. Shortly after Ann's death Robert was to marry for a third time when he married Mary Baker at the parish church in Evington on November 8th 1744. It is after this that the church records appear to be indecipherable or non existent until 1773.
        Robert must have been the most unfortunate of men, when we see that within seven years of his marriage to his first wife, Elizabeth, both she and their four children had all died.
        In the case of his second marriage he seemed to be in similar circumstances when we see that his wife Ann and at least one of their children had died in 1744.
        It is to be hoped that his third marriage to Mary Baker may have been more fruitful.


The Family of Robert Cufflin and Elizabeth Harrison
Robert Cufflin =

Elizabeth Harrison

Of Evington

of Evington

-1727
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Mary Theothana Wm. Squire William

1721-1725

1723-1724

1725-1725

1727-1727

Mary Cufflin 1721-1724
        Mary is the eldest child of Robert and Elizabeth and was born on 27th August 1721, she was buried on March 21st 1724/5.

Theothana Cufflin 1723-1724
        Theothana was baptised at Evington on October 13th 1723 and was buried on February 9th 1723/4

William Squire Cufflin 1725-1725
        William was baptised on February 10th 1724/5 and was buried on December 20th 1725.

William Cufflin 1727-1727
        The second William was baptised on March 23rd 1726/7 and was buried on July 4th 1727.


The Family of Robert Cufflin and Ann
Robert Cufflin =

Ann

of Evington

of Evington

-1744

______________|______________
| |

| |
Elizabeth Ann William ?
1738- 1740- 1741- -1744

Elizabeth Cufflin 1738-
        Elizabeth was baptised at Evington Parish Church on April 8th 1738.

Ann Cufflin 1740-
        Ann was baptised on April 6th 1740

William Cufflin 1741-
        William was baptised on October 25th 1741. This was the third child to be named William which would appear to have some significance for Robert, probably his father or grandfather?
        In the Will of William Cufflin of Whetstone dated the 18th April 1720 there is mention of two sons, Thomas and Robert Cufflin so it may well be that Robert is the son of William Cufflin of Whetstone.
        The burial of an unnamed daughter of Robert and Ann is recorded on February 4th 1743 [1744] but it is not known if this is Elizabeth or Ann, or indeed if it is that of a third daughter, possibly a stillbirth and as Ann, the wife of Robert, was buried on March 4th 1743/4 this may have been associated with childbirth.

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