One of Ari’s 9x great-grandfathers was Joshua Eyre, born in 1706 in Hazelwood, Derbyshire. He was baptised at the church in Duffield on 25 March 1706, the fifth son of Samuel Eyre and Hannah Tomlinson.
On 11 June 1730, Joshua married Elizabeth Alsop, and the couple had seven children between 1731 and 1743.
I think they actually lived in Hazelwood, which is a village just north of Duffield. Their marriage record says ‘of Hazelwood’, and this is also recorded on the baptism of one of their sons, and in Joshua’s will. The church in Hazelwood was not built until 1846, so they would have had to walk to Duffield to use the church of St Alkmund. Joshua’s father Samuel had left him three pieces of land in the liberty of Hazelwood: Calfe Close, Cawver Close and Bradley Close.
Joshua’s wife Elizabeth died some time before 1747, when he married again at the age of forty. His second wife was Ann Frost, described as ‘of Ashbourn, spinster, aged thirty’. Joshua is described in the marriage licence as a husbandman (tenant farmer or small landowner).
They would go on to have seven children.
Joshua died in 1783, and his will is available to read on Findmypast.
In the will, he lists all of the children of his ‘late son Joshua’ (who predeceased him by three years). He asks that his wife Ann ‘shall keep possession of the said closes or parcels of land for one year after my decease’. He helpfully gives us the names of his married daughters. Although he had signed his marriage licence, here he just puts his mark.
The will was proved on 12 February 1783 at the Court in Lichfield.
Ari, this is how you are related to Joshua:
