Aldridge of Wellow

Overview

Various researchers have attached my ancestor Nicholas Aldridge to the family of Aldridge in Wellow Parish, which today is in the county of Hampshire, but historically spanned the county boundary between Wiltshire and Hampshire. The name Nicholas Aldridge has repeated in that family since the sixteenth century, and been documented in the registers of the parish. But in lieu of concrete evidence linking Nicholas Aldridge of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, back to a family in England, I consider the connection only speculative. This page documents my research.

Parish registers

Transcripts of the parish registers of Wellow Parish are included in the FamilySearch database England Births and Christenings, 1538–1975. C. W. Empson also published an index of the registers in 1889, which is available on Google Books and the Internet Archive.

Burials

• Nicholas Aldridge, 23 May 1578.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 26 May 1579.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 23 Jan 1588.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 4 Jul 1661.
• Nicholas Aldridge (infant), 8 Mar 1664-65.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 21 Apr 1673.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 28 Aug 1708. (Of Bramshaw.)
• Nicholas Aldridge (22 years old), 26 Sep 1737.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 11 Nov 1759.

Other records

Will of Nicholas Aldridge of Wellow, Wiltshire, 1661

The will of Nicholas Aldridge, Gentleman of West Wellow, Wiltshire, was signed 25 June 1661 and probated 3 June 1662. It bequeaths:

• Item. I give and bequeath unto my Grandchildren John Kent, Martha Kent, Mary Kent, and Jane Kent Forty shillings a piece to be paid when they come to the age of one and Twenty years.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto the Children of my Son John Aldridge, Jane and Margaret Aldridge, Forty shillings a piece to be paid when they come to the age of one and Twenty years.
• Item. I give unto my Son Michael Twenty pounds to be payd within six months next after my decease.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto the poor of the parish of Wellow Twenty shillings to be payd at the end of six months next after my decease.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto my son George five pounds to be payd at the end of twelve months next after my decease.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Robert his son Forty shillings to be payd when he cometh to the age of one and Twenty years.
• All the rest of my goods and Chattles ... I give and bequeath unto my son John Aldridge whom I do constitute and make my whole and sole Executor...

This Nicholas Aldridge was buried in Wellow on 4 July 1661, nine days after this will was signed.

There is no mention of a son Nicholas. Did his son Nicholas die young? Did he, being a younger son, not receive any inheritance? It seems unlikely to me that after leaving money to three sons and a number of grandchildren, he would not have left anything at all to a younger child. Could his son Nicholas have been disinherited? That seems especially unlikely, given that the Nicholas born in Wellow in 1653 would be only seven years old.

So if the Nicholas born 1653 did die in infancy, there is at least no record of his burial. But a Nicholas dying in 1661 and one dying in 1673 does suggest that either there were two men named Nicholas Aldridge who were contemporaries in the same parish, or — the one who died in 1673 was the son of the one who died in 1661.