Generation 1

LAWRENCE BRINLEY of Willenhall

Parents: Christopher Brinley of Wildgoose House near Leek, Staffordshire

Lawrence had an older brother, Rafe of Cheshire, and a younger brother, John of Osley, Staffordshire. [Ref]

Children of Lawrence Brinley:

1. Richard Brinley married Joan Reeve.
2. William Brinley married Anne Tunkes of Billeson, Staffordshire. [Ref]

Generation 2

RICHARD BRINLEY of Willenhall

Parents: Lawrence Brinley of Willenhall

Richard Brinley married Joan Reeve. [Ref]

Children of Richard Brinley and Joan Reeve:

1. Thomas Brinley died on 15 Oct 1661. He married Anne Wase.
2. Lawrence Brinley married Mary Minise [?] of Henyton [?]. [Ref] He was a merchant of London.

Generation 3

THOMAS BRINLEY (d. 1661) of Datchet, Buckinghamshire

Parents: Richard Brinley and Joan Reeve. [Ref]

Thomas Brinley died on 15 Oct 1661. He married Anne Wase. Anne was the daughter of William Wase, who was born in 1580 and died on 19 Sep 1642.

The wonderfully genealogist-friendly slab on the floor of the nave in the church at Datchet says: [Ref]

Here lieth the body of Thomas Brinley, Esq., who was one of the auditors of the Revenue of King Charles the First and King Charles ye Second. Born in the City of Exeter. He married Anne, youngest daughter of Wm Ware [Wase] of Petworth in Sussex, gent., who had issue by her five sons and seven daughters. He dyed the 15th day of October in the year of our Lord 1661. Here also lieth buried ye body of the above said William Ware [Wase] who died the 19th of Sept. 1642, aged 62 years and 5 months.'

Auditors of the King's Revenue assessed and collected the rents on the king's estates. They also valued, bought and sold land on behalf of the king. Future Auditors trained as clerks and then were deputies to the existing Auditors. [Ref] Thomas was clerk to Richard Budd, who was living in Datchet by 1625 and whose sister had married into the Wase family. [Ref] Richard Budd left Thomas his copy of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of England. [Ref]

He was a 'noted cavalier sufferer in the English Civil War'. [Ref] He was stripped of office, possibly lost his property and may have gone into hiding. [Ref] On the restoration of Charles II in 1660 it appears from his tombstone that his position was restored, but he died the next year. Judging from the inventory of his estate, it appears that Thomas was living in the manor house at Datchet at the time of his death. [Ref]

In his will, dated 13 Sep 1661 with a codicil added 11 Dec 1661, Thomas Brinley of Datchett, Buckinghamshire left one third of his tenements in Newcastle-in-Tyne and two thirds of the manor of Burton in Yorkshire to his eldest son Francis. He left half the township or manor and all his lands and tenements in Wakerfield purchased in the names of William Wase of Durham, Robert Worrall, Michael Lambcroft and John Maddock, to his wife Anne for life and then to Francis. He left other lands to Anne for life and to his second son Thomas and third son William. He mentions his daughter Mary, widow of Peter Sylvester; his daughter Grissell, wife of Nathaniel Grissell, gentleman, of Shelter Island; his brother Lawrence Brinley, merchant of London. His will was witnessed by William and Budd Wase. [Ref]

Children of Thomas Brinley and Anne Wase:

1. Anne Brinley was born about 1628. She died on 9 May 1708 in Newport. She married Gov. William Coddington.
2. Francis Brinley was born in 1632. [Ref] He emigrated to Barbadoes. But, he did not like the climate and moved to Newport as early as 1652. [Ref] He acquired considerable property and was a judge in the Court of Common Pleas in Rhode Island. [Ref] He collected books and by 1713 his library had over 200 works. [Ref]
3. Thomas Brinley
4. William Brinley
5. Richard Brinley was the godson of Thomas's mentor Richard Budd. [Ref] Richard left his 'household stuff' at Datchet to Anne Wase Brinley for her life, and after her decease to Richard. [Ref]
6. Grissell Brinley was baptised on 6 Jan 1635/6 at St. James Church, Clerkenwell. [Ref] She married Nathaniel Sylvester in 1653. [Ref] Nathaniel was the son of Giles and Mary (Arnold) Sylvester. [Ref]
   When her older sister Anne and her husband returned to Newport in 1653 they took Grissell with them. [Ref] After her marriage to Nathaniel, she lived on Shelter Island. Nathaniel and his brother Constant were sugar traders and used Shelter Island as a provisions base for their ships. [Ref] Grissell and her husband were Quakers and offered sanctuary to the persecuted. [Ref] Nathaniel signed his will in 1680, among other things he left twenty four African slaves to his wife and children. [Ref]
7. Rose Brinley married Giles Baker, the lord of the manor of Ripple in Kent. [Ref]
8. Mary Brinley married Peter, the brother of Nathaniel Sylvester. [Ref]
9. Unknown Brinley married Richard Hackle, Esq. [Ref]

Generation 4

ANNE BRINLEY (abt 1628 - 1708)

Parents: Thomas Brinley and Anne Wase

Anne Brinley was born about 1628. She died on 9 May 1708 in Newport, aged 80. [Ref][Ref] She married Gov. William Coddington as his third wife. [Ref][Ref says that a daughter of Thomas married Gov. Coddington]

On 19 Feb 1673/4 Francis Brinley of Newport sold to William Mays land which was in part "bounded on the north by land of my sister Ann Coddington, on the west by land given to my cousin William Coddington". [Ref]

After William's death, the Assembly asked Mrs. Ann Coddington, "widow to our late deceased Honored Governor" to give them the Charter and the "other writings that were in the late Governor's custody and belonging to this Colony". [Ref] Anne gave them both the Charter and a duplicate on 15 Nov 1678. [Ref]

A fragment of her will survives, in it she refers to her deceased husband William Coddington and makes bequests to her son Nathaniel Coddington. [Ref]

References

Arnold, James N., Vital Records of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, First Series, Births, Marriages and Deaths: A family register for the people, Providence, Narraganset Historical Publishing Co., 1891-1912.

Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Vol. 1-3, Boston, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.

Brinley Family Papers

Datchet Village History Website

Moriarty, G. Andrews, "President John Sanford and his Family," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 103, 1949, 270-.

Waters, Henry F., "Genealogical Gleanings in England," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, many issues.