Abraham CHITTY III (1648-1703) became a brewer and was Warden of the Company in 1696, also listed as a liveryman in 1700. In 1695 he was a customer of Hoar's Bank, and it seems that he was also a Director of the East India Company.

He was plaintiff in several actions, mainly for debts relating to wine and 'prize brandy' and was also involved in 1688 in a legal dispute with his brother Josiah who claimed that, after their mother's death and during the minority of their nephew Richard RICHBELL, Abraham and the Lord of the Manor of Crondall, one HARLIS, had kept Josiah from his rightful half-share in the property. Evidently the brothers were not permanently estranged by this matter, for Abraham chose Josiah as an overseer of his will, together with his cousin Agnes's husband, William HALL, serjeant-at-law.

In 1679, Abraham, then 'junior', was Churchwarden of St Benet Paul's Wharf, but by 1693 he was living in St Helen's Bishopsgate. A list of London Inhabitants within the Walls in 1695 shows him living there, '£600, commoner', with his wife and seven of their children. It was also from St Helen's that his body was brought to St Laurence Pountney for burial, 1703 Nov 14. He had made his Will on the preceding Oct 9.

The record of his marriage to Elizabeth (?SYMES) has not been found, but she too was buried at St Laurence, 1730 Dec 24. It appears that her mother, Mary SYMES of Croydon, had bequeathed land in Croydon to her grandson Abraham who in 1714 conveyed this to his brother Josiah. In 1716, Josiah and his wife conveyed this land to Elizabeth of London the elder, widow - i.e. the wife of Abraham III and mother of these sons Abraham and Josiah. (Mr Hector Carter kindly supplied a note of this last indenture, 1716 Dec 22, from a 1769 copy among the 'Abstracts of the Ancient Muniments of the Whitgift Foundation, Croydon' (page 155).

In his Will, Abraham III remembered cousins REAMES (a name also occurring in his father's Will) and PECK, together with servants and others. Most of the property was left to his children, with his widow Elizabeth as executrix. She, in her Will, included her cousin Rebecca, wife of John DODSWORTH, and their daughter Rebecca.

Extracts only from the Burial Register of St Laurence Pountney have been transcribed, but it is evident that from 1709 at least members of this family chose to be buried there if it could be arranged. It was at that Church that banns had been called in 1608 for the marriage of Abraham I and Alice PARKS, and this may have been the reason why their descendants, living in other London parishes, liked to be laid to rest there.

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