Click here for an explanation of the Branches of the Hartwright Family

The preceding pages give an outline of the various Hartwright branches who are descended from Thomas I of Claines. If you click here you can read a transcription of Thomas I of Claines will. We know from his gravestone that he was born about 1698, but I have not been able to find out  which parish he was born in. An Edward Hartwright was baptised at Ombersley on 28 October 1700. He may be Thomas’ younger brother.

Two Thomas Hartwrights were baptised in the 1720’s, one in 1726 and one in 1727. One was the son of the above mentioned Edward Hartwright and his first wife Elizabeth Wesson. Thomas was baptised on 7^th December 1726 at Martley, Worcs as Thomas Hartrit. Edward later married Ursula Small and went to live in Claines parish, where subsequent family events are generally recorded by the parish clerk or vicar in the name of Altrich and latterly Hartwright.

St Peter’s, Martley  

taken from St Peter’s Millenium field

Meanwhile in the parish of Salwarpe, Worcs, there are records of a family whose name was written as either Hottredge or Hottridge. Thomas Hottredge and his wife Mary Penrice had three children, Thomas, Mary and William. The son, Thomas Hottridge (stet) was baptised on 10^th September 1727. I think that this family is actually Hartwright and that the baptism of Thomas in 1727 is of Thomas Hartwright I of Claines son, Thomas, who is mentioned in his will. A son William is also mentioned in the will, but as  Mary died young and is buried at St Michael’s, she is not.  The first definite record of Thomas Hartwright I in the nearby parish of Claines is in the 1730’s.

St Michael’s, Salwarpe

So there is a conundrum who was the father of Thomas Hartwright II, Thomas or Edward? It appears that Thomas Hartwright II who was baptised in either 1726 of 1727 had a son and grandson both named Thomas. His son Thomas III (b.1755) married Elizabeth Bate who came from Kinver in Staffordshire. Their children were baptised at Oddingley and Thomas was churchwarden there.

St James’, Oddingley

 In 1780 they were tenant farmers at Netherwood Farm in Oddingley, Worcs. After they left the farm the tenant was Thomas Clewes. He was involved in the Oddingley Murders and the farm gained notoriety as the site of  the murder and burial place of Richard Hemming. See home.freeuk.com/whe/WorcestershirePast/articles.html . Thomas III and Elizabeth  appear to have been living in Kinver in 1810 at The White Hart Inn. See Hartwrights behind bars and later went to  Birmingham where they are buried. Two of their daughters married at Kinver.

I have not yet established who were the parents of William Henry Hartwright a Birmngham silk dyer, who, according to census returns, was born in Kinver in 1810. William and his wife Esther Wilkes had eight children. Only their daughters survived childhood and five married.

Names connected with this branch include Morris, Skeats, Jenkins, Woolley, Taylor and Bracey.

Thomas Hartwright and Elizabeth Bate’s daughter Elizabeth emigrated with her husband, Thomas Prosser to the USA and she died in Brooklyn, Kings Co. NY in 1871.  A Thomas Prosser was working at Netherwood Farm at the time of the Oddingley Murders in 1806, so perhaps it was he who married Elizabeth Hartwright, whose family had lived at Netherwood Farm in the 1780’s.