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 | ||||||||
_______________|______________ | ||||||||
| | | | | | | | |||||
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.