Abraham III and Elizabeth are said to have had twelve children, but the order in which they are shown below may not be correct:

1. Abraham entered Westminster School in 1689, King's Scholar, and proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1696, becoming a Fellow Commoner. He was not at home in 1695 but was named as eldest son in 1703. He probably conveyed the SYMES land at Croydon to his brother Josiah because, despite his academic education, he was engaging in the Eastern trade. In 1704 he escaped the massacre of Pulo Condore, being on a business trip to the French Indo-China mainland. (See the Diary of William Hedges, Hakluyt Society, 1888, Vol.II, pp 110-2, 328-42.) Like his parents, he was buried, 1724 May 31, at St Laurence Pountney. No marriage or Will has been found.

2. Mary, listed in 1695 and left £1000 by her father in 1703, to be paid when married or of age. Family tradition says that she was married twice - to Mr DEAN, oilman, and Mr FRANKLIN, apothecary, but she is not named in her mother's Will, dated 1722.

3. John, at home in 1695 but probably dead by 1709.

4. Josiah, described as third son on his admission to the Middle Temple in 1693, was at hone in 1695 and in 1703 was left £1000 and The Blue Boar Inn at Maldon. He is said to have married twice, one wife being described as 'widow of Governor HALSEY, India', and the other, who survived him, being Elizabeth, widow of Ralph SHELDON of the East India Company's service. Josiah having received Croydon lands from his brother Abraham in 1714 conveyed them to his mother, 1716 Dec 22. He was of Bethnal Green, gentleman, when he made his Will in 1720, leaving all his property to his widow; and he too was buried at St Lawrence Pountney, 1720/1 Mch 15. In 1725 his widow Elizabeth appeared at the trial of Lord MACCLESFIELD, a former Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor, on charges of corruption. Elizabeth alleged that he had machinated to prevent her obtaining a fourth husband. (See Howell's State Trials, Vol.16). As CHITTY was therefore her third husband - was HALSEY her first, and had Josiah only one wife?.

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