The Cranborne Lockyers

Other Lockyer families in the region

The records I present here are incomplete and represent on-going research of the records held at the County Records Office in Dorchester. This material is supplemented by information from the IGI and from inscriptions on headstones. Naturally, I shall be grateful for any information that others may have, especially where it indicates or confirms links with the Cranborne Lockyers.

The Hampreston Lockyers

The parish of Hampreston lies between Cranborne and the harbour town of Poole. The parish records there are those of the Church of All Saints, the size of which indicates a much larger early population for the village than the present few dwellings there would suggest.

It is clear from the records that a large subset of the Lockyer family lived in this area from the early seventeenth century. It is very possible that the Lockyers who lived on the Cranborne heathland came originally from this area, for there are a number of interesting links among them to be observed.

The family about which I have the best information is that of Thomas Lockyer and his wife Catherine, who married at the time of the Civil War. Since the West of England was, in general, where traditional Royalist feelings were strongest, it is likely that the Lockyers here were supporters of the King.

Thomas and Catherine's family

	Name	Birth/*Baptism	Married
Parents	Thomas Lockyer	Unknown	6 February 1642
	Catherine Hayward	Unknown
Children	Thomas	*20 June 1644
	Edward	*18 January 1647
	Joseph	*22 October 1650
	George	*12 March 1652

The Kinson Lockyers

Their first son, John, died in the same year as his birth and he was buried on 27 November. As was common then, the couple also named their second son John. Sadly, he too died and was buried on 12 January 1738.

Another family of the same period was that of Robert Lockyer and his wife Elizabeth, shown below. I do not know for sure, but I suspect that Robert was the brother of John (above).

Moving forward a generation, we come across the family of William Lockyer and his wife Anne. They had a large family, which included the twin of Mary and Elizabeth, but some of their children died in infancy. Here they are -

William's contemporary was another John Lockyer, who married Anne Perham in 1753. Here is the family -

John and Anne's family

	Name	Birth/*Baptism	Married
Parents	John Lockyer	Unknown	3 January 1753
	Anne Perham	Unknown
Children	Joseph	*28 October 1753
	John	*7 March 1756
	Anna	*22 April 1759
	Mary	*26 February 1762
	Gideon	*22 April 1764
	John	*23 November 1766
	William	*8 December 1771

At about this time, there were two families in which the father was a Joseph Lockyer. It is likely that one of these Josephs was the son of John and Joyce, born in 1736. There was a marriage in Kinson in 1761 between a Joseph Lockyer and Elizabeth Evamy and I suspect that this was John and Joyce's lad, but I cannot say for certain that it was. Here are the two families -