According to his age at death John Rudge was born about 1707. We suspect he was born in Ruardean in the Forest of Dean. We don’t know when he came to Thornbury. The earliest mention of John in Thornbury is a document in the churchwarden’s accounts in 1738.
Another document dated 1739 is interesting. This involves a court case where the plaintiff, Joseph Neale, yeoman, aged 17 is described as ‘infant, (by John Rudge, joiner) both of Thornbury’. This might imply that John was the father of Joseph Neale but we can’t be sure because John Rudge would have been only 15 when Joseph was baptised in Oldbury in 1722. Joseph’s mother was Elizabeth Neale, a widow. If John Rudge was indeed the father of Joseph Neale this would suggest that John Rudge was in the Thornbury area from as early as 1722.
John owned the property on the site of Rosemount at the upper end of the High Street on the west side. We don’t know when he acquired it but he sold this property to Walter Spann in 1744.
On 3rd May 1748 John married Mary Bartlett. John was a widower at that time and Mary was aged ‘about 30’. Both of them were described as ‘of Thornbury’. The marriage took place at Rockhampton. The groom and Benjamin Addis (a cooper and one of the witnesses) were bound in the sum of £500. Mary Bartlett was born in Kington and baptised at Thornbury in St Mary’s Church on 2nd February 1702. She was the daughter of Edward Bartlett and his wife Margaret.
We can’t find anything about John’s first wife.
Another marriage record dated 1749 mentions John Rudge was a witness in the marriage of John Baker and Mary Lydiard. This record also describes John as being a ‘joyner of Thornbury’.
John was Mayor of Thornbury in 1750/51. In various records he is referred to as ‘Alderman John Rudge’ and appears to have been very active in the running of the town. In 1767 he is referred to as being ‘the surveyor of the Town’ in documents relating to a dispute between the vicar William Holwell and James Vaughan who was Steward of the Manor of Thornbury. Holwell had complained about the nuisance caused by the amount of sewage and waste draining down the hill from the town towards the Church. As a result work was done under the supervision of John Rudge to raise the level of the road and improve the drainage.
On 22nd April 1756 Richard Scarlett of Thornbury, shopkeeper, and his wife, Hannah, appeared before Thornbury Manorial Court. As a result £43 was paid by John Rudge, of Thornbury, gentleman, for ‘all that messuage or tenement and water grist mill with appurtenances lying and being in the tything of Morton and late in tenure or occupation of James Eley deceased, late father of the said Hannah, and now of the said Richard Scarlett, his tenants and assigns, …’
By 1763 John is being described as ‘yeoman of Thornbury when he is witness to Benjamin Addis’s marriage.
John died on 25th February 1777 aged about 68. He was buried in a ‘table top’ grave in the churchyard of St Mary’s in Thornbury on 27th February. He died without making a will, but the indentures list the property he owned:
From the time of their marriage John and Mary’s main house was the property which became known as 5 High Street. The Overseers Accounts show that John was paying the poor rate of one and a half pence per month on the property ‘for Cookseys’ from 1747 onwards. We know from an indenture for the adjoining property (3 High Street) dated 1767 that this messuage on the south side of that property was owned and occupied by John Rudge. The 1775 land tax record shows John as the owner of the property still being referred to as ‘for Cookseys’.
A group of indentures dated 1777 held by South Gloucestershire Council described this property as: all that messuage or tenement wherein the said John Rudge before his death inhabited and then occupied by widow, Mary (the greatest part whereof was rebuilt by John Rudge during his lifetime) adjoining the High Street otherwise Fore Street having a messuage of Ann Baker widow on the south part and a messuage or tenement in the occupation of Thomas Clark tallow chandler on the north part and the said street on the western part thereof’.
Following John’s death, his widow, Mary, continued to own the property. She is listed as the owner in the 1780 and 1781 land tax records when the property was let to Misses Waggstaff. By 1782 these ladies had moved to Castle Street as tenants of Elizabeth Crowther and from 1782 to 1784 Mrs Rudge was shown as the owner and occupant of the property at 5 High Street.
From 1748 John Rudge also owned the property adjoining 5 High Street on the south side. The Mayor’s account books show that he owned the property from 1747 to 1775. This property was one of the ‘Hylpe Charity’ properties and as such John was liable to pay 16s a year which was used by the Mayor to provide aid for the poor.
An indenture dated 1750 relating to the adjoining properties (thought to be 9 & 11 High Street) confirms that John Rudge owned this property on the north. There is a 1753 listing which seems to indicate that John was letting the property to Thomas Swanley, Mary Cossham and Dorothy Raymond. We believe John sold 7 High Street to Ann Baker at some time before his death. Although we haven’t seen the will of Ann Baker widow proved in 1778 notes on the Internet mention it refers to ‘land purchased from Mr John Rudge’.
Two properties built on the orchard between St Mary Street and Nelme Street (now called Rock Street)
On 4th November 1774 John Rudge bought the two properties from Joseph Hulbert, baker, for £100. John let both these houses out to tenants. These were described in the 1777 indentures as being:
“all that messuage or tenement adjoining to the Back Street of the Borough of Thornbury wherein John Hulbert, baker formerly inhabited and Joseph Iles the younger, Anthony Wisse and Thomas Gough do now dwell with garden orchard and backsides thereunto adjoining and belonging”. This is assumed to be one of the three houses which later became known as 47, 49 and 51 St Mary Street.
“and also all that one other messuage or tenement wherein Thomas Sharp some time since inhabited and one John Mills labourer doth now dwell and standeth on the eastward part of the garden last mentioned”. This is assumed to be 20 Rock Street. Click here to read more about the Orchard
On 14th February 1783, following John’s death his relatives sold the two properties to Thomas Hendy, butcher of Thornbury who went on to develop the site building extra houses on both St Mary Street and Rock Street frontages.
Chapel Street house and The Paddock
“all that messuage or tenement wherein Susannah Ward spinster lately inhabited and Thomas Walker butcher doth now dwell together with the garden thereto adjoining and belonging and one close of ground also thereto adjoining and belonging formerly called The Paddock but since planted with fruit trees and now called the Orchard containing by estimation two acres..”
This house is assumed to be in Chapel Street, possibly on the site of what later became known as 16 Chapel Street. The close called The Paddock was in the rear of this property.
The Pest House
“and also all that messuage or tenement commonly called the Pest house wherein George Budding formerly dwelt adjoining to the foot way leading from Thornbury to Tytherington on the southward side thereof with the garden and orchard thereto adjoining and belonging and also one orchard called Gromage containing three quarters of an acre (be it more or less) thereto also adjoining ..”
This property later became known as 3 Upper Bath Road.
Interestingly at the time of his death John Rudge was in the process of selling this property to Robert Caddy and William Attewell but the transaction was not completed.
John Rudge died without making a will and his property descended to John Jones his nephew and heir at law and yeoman of Ruardean.
Mary Rudge
On 1st July 1780 John’s relict, Mary Rudge, sold her ‘dower rights’ in John’s properties to a group of his relations. These were Thomas and Ann Rogers (Ann was the daughter of John’s sister, Elizabeth or Betty, and Betty’s husband, George Jones) and Thomas Hatton and his wife Mary (Thomas was the son of Elizabeth or Betty and Betty’s second husband, Thomas Hatton). Thus both Ann Rogers and Thomas Hatton were nephews and nieces of Mary Rudge through her husband’s only sister. For renouncing her dower rights, Mary Rudge received £15 15s. On 4th October 1780 another of Mary’s nephews, John Jones (the son of George Jones and his wife Betty, and sister of Ann Jones, and half brother of Thomas Hatton) gave up his right of inheritance in the property.
Mary Rudge died on 2nd September 1788 aged about 85. In her will she asked to be buried in the same grave in St Mary’s Churchyard as her parents and brother. In her last will and testament dated 22nd August 1788 Mary Rudge left the freehold house where she was living to her cousin, Nathaniel Adams Bartlett of Kington, yeoman. She also left him several closes of land in Morton. Her will was proved on 30th July 1789.
We know that an indenture dated 3rd April 1818 relating to the house on the south side of Wigmore House in Castle Street, mentions that the house had ‘previously belonged to John Rudge, deceased, followed by Nathaniel Adams Bartlett’. There was no mention of this property in any of the indentures listing John’s other properties at the time of his death. It could be a house on the site of Oriel House, 8 Castle Street or possibly 6 Castle Street and it seems likely that Mary was living here at the time of her death.