Origins of the Chitty name and family
(continued)

We return to Henry the mercer's eldest son, John, elder brother of Richard of Chichester, the shadowy Thomas and Dr Henry.

Like his uncle Robert, he was a Godalming clothier, and at his death in 1610 he too left considerable property - the lease of 'The Berryes' to his eldest son John, houses to his other sons Henry and Jonas (Joseph received only £10, 'my best staff' and other personal effects) and his wife Alice. He had previously sold Walnut Tree and Maple Hatch to his doctor brother.

John was twice married, to Joan the mother of his children (the last of whom was born in 1590) and Alice, probably the Alice Bradfold who married a John Chitty in 1597. However, we have not got the burial record of Joan and it is possible that this John married another Alice (not at Godalming) about 1591, for in 1592 John Astreate sued 'John Chyttee alias Booche and Alice Chyttie alias Bocher' regarding two messuages, curtillages and gardens in Godalming. On the other hand, this couple could belong to another less documented branch of the 'alias Bocher' family.

John the clothier's four sons, in dividing his property and becoming, for the most part, yeomen, seem rather less leading citizens of Godalming than their predecessors, whilst the genealogical narrative necessarily becomes more dispersed. Jonas, who died 1635, left only daughters, who shared several properties including Dr Henry's messuage 'Cullmer'. Nephews were named as reversionary beneficiaries.

But to avoid - or at least to reduce - confusion, the other three brothers, John of Catshall (died 1629), Henry the elder, yeoman (died 1651) and Joseph of Witley, yeoman (died 1650) must be given separate sections.


continued ...

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Page created 29 Sept 2001 by Mike Chitty; text written 1975 by the late Erik Chitty