Category: Bishopstrow: People

She Lived In A Tree At Bishopstrow

From Warminster And District Archive magazine, No.2, Spring 1989:

She Lived In A Tree At Bishopstrow

An unusual obituary notice with a local connection features in The Annual Register for the year 1777. It reads:

“At Bishopstrow, her native place, near Warminster in Wilts, the celebrated Juliana Papjoy, in the 67th year of her age. In her youth she had been the mistress of the famous Nash of Bath, and after her separation from him, she took to a very uncommon way of life. Her principal residence she took up in a large hollow tree, now standing within a mile of Warminster, on a lock of straw, resolving never more to lie in a bed; and she was as good as her word; for she made that tree her habitation for between thirty and forty years, unless when she made her short peregrinations to Bath, Bristol, and the gentlemen’s houses adjacent; and she then lay in some barn or outhouse.”

John Stokes Of Bishopstrow

From Wiltshire Notes and Queries, VOL. VI. 1908—1910, published 1911:

[Archdeacon’s Court, Sarum.]
John Stokes, of Bishopstrow, 1683. February 4, a.d. 1683. John Stokes, of Bishopstrow, yeoman, his body to be buried in the churchyard of Bishopstrow in the same place where his father was buried ; his grandchild Thomas Debnam, 20s. ; his grandchild Jane Debnam, 40s. ; and his grandchild Elizabeth Hopton, 20s. —to be paid them 6 years after his decease ; his grandchildren Mary
Debnam, Joane Debnam, Alice Debnam, Anne Debnam, John Debnam,
Margaret Debnam, John Hopton, and Daniel Hopton, 10s. each on their ages of 21, the legacy of any of them dying to be divided among the survivors; his daughter Alice Debnam, 1os.; his daughter Mary Hopton, £30; his wife Kimbry Stokes an annuity or rent charge of £16, out of his messuage and lands in Bishopstrow, payable half-yearly; also to her during her life the hall, buttery, and two lower chambers in the messsuage he now lives in in Bishopstrovv, and all his household goods in said messuage, except a furnace cupboard, great chair, four table boards, 2 tester bedsteads, a great brass pan, and “the halfe-headed bedstead”; his son William Stokes, his leasehold estate in Heytesbury tor the rest of his term, and that part of the said messuage not before bequeathed, and the arable lands and pasture lands thereto belonging subject to the said annuity of £16, and if William die without issue the remainder to be divided between his (John’s) daughters Alice Debnam and Mary
Hopton equally; the other part of the messuage after the decease of his wife also to go to William Stokes his son, and on the latter’s death without issue to his said two daughters, subject to an annuity of £1o to William’s wife if he leave one on his death ; his son William, residuary legatee and executor. “The mark of John Stokes.” Seal in red wax; device, a stag’s head. Witnesses, William Edwards, gentleman, John Gibbs, and Edward Slade.

[Archdeacon’s Court, Sarum.J
John Stokes, of Bishopstrow, 1687. Inventory of the goods of John Stokes, of Bishopstrow, yeoman, made 9 June 1687, consisting of a few cattle and household furniture, and a small chattle lease at Heytesbury worth 15li., in all amounting to £131 15s.