Bures-online.co.uk
Serving the communities of Bures St Mary and Bures Hamlet

Ferriers has links with the settlers who emigrated to the New World in circa 1630
Herbert Pelham (1600 -1674) lived with wife Jemima Waldegrave in Ferriers
Herbert and Jemima were the parents of Penelope Pelham b1633
The family emigrated in 1639 to the Americas
Link to the Mayflower

1871 and 1881 census

Joseph Adams, Farm Bailiff, Male aged 56, born 1825 Shalford, Essex,
Louisa Adams Wife, Female aged 56 born 1825 - Roxwell, essex
John Horsnell Brother in Law Widower, Occupation:Gentleman, Male aged 70 born 1811 Roxwell, Essex,

From the Ipswich Journal, 9 March 1872
Bures.
Destructive Fire. On Thursday week, a destructive fire broke out at Ferrier's Farm, Bures, in the occupation of Mr. G. Markham, who entered into possession only at Michaelmas last, and was uninsured.....The farm belongs to Mr. O. Hanbury, in whose name the buildings were insured. The stacks belonged to the executors of the late Mr Townsend, the outgoing tenant.....

Also a report of a fire where the Water Mill burnt down, but no date given but it could possibly have been the above fire

There are auction notices in the Essex newspapers relating to Ferriers Farm in 1882 (executors of the late Osmond Barnard Esq.) and 1884 (farming stock, implements, by order of the executors of the late O Hanbury Esq., the Farm being let)

Bury Free Press , Saturday August 8th 1931

Ferriers being sold by the Official Solicitors

As Harry Cant died possibly within a year,
were the Official Solicitors taking care of the sale due to his ill health ?

	Ferriers in ruins, dated 1933

Ferriers and the Pelham family

As a resident in the Parish of Bures St Mary on the Suffolk, Essex border I wandered into the parish church of St Mary the Virgin one day and, upon reading the pamphlet sold there, which contains the history of the church from earliest times, I became aware of the two floor tombs beside the South Porch.
In these tombs are remains of the members of the Pelham family who were, in their day, parishioners of this church. The pamphlet to which I have referred tells us that the persons entombed there were residents of Ferriers in Bures Hamlet, a part of the parish across the County boundary in Essex.
It also says that they were descended from an earlier Pelham who emigrated to America in the early 17 century. Like many who live in this part of East Anglia I was aware of the close association of this area with New England and in particular with the contribution made to the development of Massachusetts by John Winthrop (1588-1649) who came from Groton near Boxford in Suffolk.
This man, who became Governor of Massachusetts in 1629 and was thereafter re-elected, has been said to have had "more influence, probably, than any other high forming political institutions of the Northern States of America".
The village of Groton with its church, houses and a lone tree dating from his 'lifetime', remains a place of pilgrimage for New Englanders to this day.
Returning to the two floor tombs in Bures village church, they mark the place where, in one, are buried the remains of Herbert Pelham (c.1669-1746) and his wife, Sarah and in the other, their son William Byatt who died in 1780.

The Herbert Pelham who is entombed in the first of these floor tombs was the grandson of an earlier Herbert Pelham (1600-1674) who did emigrate for a time to America and who was known as "colonist"
There are two articles about him in successive versions of the Dictionary of National Biography both of which describe him as such. I had always looked upon this work as one of historical accuracy, but the two accounts of Herbert Pelham disclose such a large number of discrepancies as to remind one of these tests of ones powers of observation hi which two identical pictures are set side by side and one is challenged to spot the differences!
However, both articles agree that he was a "colonist" and that he was born in about 1600, the son of yet another Herbert Pelham and his wife Penelope - daughter of Baron de la Warr.

In 1626 with an address at Boston, Linconshire he obtained a license to marry Jemima Waldegrave daughter of Thomas Waldegrave,
Jemima came from the very well known and respected family of Waldegraves who lived at Smallbridge Hall..

By the time of their marriage the Waldegrave Chantry known as the Waldegrave Chapel, had been situated in Bures church for over 100 years.
Herbert and Jemima had a number of children - five in one version of the Dictionary of National Biography and seven in the other. In any event they must have been a considerable responsibility for then: parents. Meanwhile the future colonist, Herbert Pelham was becoming increasingly interested in North America. In 1629, three years after his marriage, Herbert became a member of the Massachusetts Company. At some stage he with others was engaged in framing oaths of office for the Governor, his deputy and counsel of that company.
In 1630 John Winthrop sailed across the Atlantic in the 'Arabella' he being, by then, Governor of Massachusetts. From his journal it appears that Herbert Pelham was due to sail with him. For some reason, perhaps his obligation to his wife and children, he did not go on this voyage. Meanwhile his younger brother William did travel with John Winthrop and, therefore remained in America until his death in 1667.

While there he purchased property for Herbert in Sudbury, Massachusetts, but Herbert does not seem to have ever lived there.
hi about 1639 Herbert's wife, Jemima, died leaving him with five (or seven) children - and free to travel to New England - which he did. What became of these children in unclear. One of them Penelope, so called after her grandmother, married Josiah Winslow, one time Governor of the Plymouth colony in America, so it seems that she did well and maintained her interest hi colonisation.
Once in Massachusetts, Herbert remarried to a widower, Elizabeth Harlakenden, and had more children. In one version he had another five and in the other seven, so that he had ten or fourteen children in all and must have led a very busy family life.
Once hi Massachusetts Herbert Pelham was heavily engaged in the life of the community. He lived in Cambridge later home to Henry James, where his house was burnt down and he was fortunate to escape unhurt. He never lived at Sudbury, where his brother had acquired property for him, but he was involved in the settlement of that town.

He became a freeman of the Massachusetts Company, a Captain of Militia and a member of the Court of Assistance and he was active as one of the commissioners of the United Colonies in arranging a treaty with Narragansett and Niantic Indians. In 1643 he became the first treasurer of Harvard University, which was close to his home in Cambridge - a fact which I have had confirmed by the Associate Secretary of that body. In about 1646 he returned to England but it would seem that he was expected back hi Massachusetts for sometime because he was elected an assistant in the following three years, "in absentia'. What became of his second wife and his numerous children is unclear, save that she had died in 1659.
By 1648, and possibly before, he was living at the Manor of Ferrers (now Ferriers) a property which had come to him through his first wife Jemima nee Waldegrave, of Mount Bures. These were savage times in England. The Civil War raged. The King was executed hi 1649 and prior to this the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud had suffered the same fate circa 1645.
The effect of these troubles locally on the churches of Bures and Mount Bures was significant. While Herbert Pelham had been in America, the year that he became treasurer of Harvard University.

Bures the village church was visited on February 23 1643 by the dreaded Will Dowsing, the well known, iconoclast, who 'broke down' 600 superstitious pictures, 8 holy ghosts and no doubt removed the arms on the monument raised to remember a William Waldegrave who had died ha 1613. Meanwhile in the same year the vicar of the church in Mount Bures was removed from his benefice on charges that "he would not come out of the alter rails to administer the sacrament that he swore by his faith and "troth"', that he suffered the youth of the parish to use sports on the lords day as scales and football; that he took the Archbishop to be wise and holy man, wishing himself as godly; and (most of all) he prayed not for parliament". The Archbishop was clearly a reference to the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, who was trying to unify the forms of service to be used by the Church of England and seeking to Romanise them. The Archbishop was in the tower awaiting trial in 1643. He was executed two years later.

What Herbert Pelham would have thought of these events is impossible to surmise save that he, and others who went to New England, did so, very largely to avoid the high Church influence of Archbishop Laud and to settle there as a Congregational Church with the institutions and character of the English race. That he was interested in religious matters is made clear by his efforts, after his return to England to form a society for the religious instruction of American Indians.
In 1654 he was a member if Cromwells Parliament for Essex. His second wife died in or before 1659 and he lived on till 1673 or 1674 leaving property in Essex, Lincolnshire, Iceland and New England. The two versions of his life in the Dictionary of National Biography differ as to the year of his death and as to whether he still lived at Ferrers. However, his grandson, also Herbert Pelham and his wife, entombed with him hi one of the floor tombs, certainly did so at the time of his death in 1846. They had seven children one whom Elizabeth married the Reverend John Gordon who came from Assington Hall and who was rector of the Mount Bures parish for 50 years, a remarkable span and Vicar of Bures for 35 years. He died in 1784 and his wife Elizabeth some eight years later. Both are buried in the middle of Mount Bures Church. On a plaque in this church is a description of the Rev. Gurdon as "most amiable and benevolent". As a young girl from her house, Ferriers, Elizabeth could see the spire of the church across the fields which was to be her burial place - a short distance which she must have walked or ridden many times.

I have touched on the Pelham family over five generations. There remains a town in Massachusetts called Pelham but this coincidence does not indicate any connection with the Bures Pelhams, save for the possible family relationship. In the 1740's this town was engaged in establishing itself and acquiring a name. "New Lisbon" had been proposed. The then Governor was a friend of Lord Henry Pelham (1696-1754) who was passing through New England. This friendship resulted in New Lisbon being abandoned as a name and Pelham, in honour of Lord Henry, being adopted. The Colonial Act establishing the town was passed by the Colonial House of Representatives on 28th December 1742 and was enacted in the following January. Incidentally the Lord Henry Pelham concerned was, at one stage, Secretary of State which was equivalent to the office of prime minister today, as also was his brother the Duke of Newcastle.
Although Bures cannot claim any direct association with the town of Pelham, it can certainly take pride in its connection, through Herbert Pelham, with the early colonisation of the state of Massachusetts.

Editor - I have this scanned text on file, but no record of where it originated from, or the author

Later 20th cent residents of Ferriers

Taken from "The Peerage" web site
His Honour Francis Petre, resided at Ferriers between 2003 (?)and 2015

Read more about the Pelham family who set sail to America in 1620

16/2/2009
updated 07/04/2016
updated 25/06/2017 with "Find my Past" material