Betty Hayward

Year Age Events

1746 B Betty is the only child of Robert and Elizabeth Hayward

1754 8 Her Mother dies when she is only 8

1760 14 She is orphaned when her father Robert dies at the age of 53

1765 19 Betty marries William, the son of Humphrey & Elizabeth Tugwell

1767 21 George Hayward Tugwell is born to William & Betty Tugwell

1769 23 Thomas Tugwell is born

1770 24 Daniel Tugwell is born

1772 26 Betty Tugwell is born

1773 27 Mawbrey Tugwell is born

1774 28 Her Husband William dies at the early age of 32

1775 29 Her son Daniel dies at the age of 5

1776 30 Betty marries Thomas Stephens.

1778 32 Betty marries her Doctor -Thomas Davis of Bradford

1780 34 Bridget Hayward Davis born

1782 36 Betty dies and is buried in Holy Trinity Church, Bradford.

Betty Hayward was to lead a very eventful life in the 36 years she was to live for. She was the only child of Robert's second marriage to Elizabeth Bampton and was born in 1746.

By the age of 8 she had lost her mother, who had no doubt died of Small Pox which so often appears as cause of death in the Parish records of the times.

When she was 14 her father Robert was to also die, leaving her an Orphan with her neighbours the Coopers as her guardians.

Betty is married in Freshford, where the Parish records show the ceremony on November 19 1765, with Elizabeth Norman and George Cooper as witnesses.

Her Father's servant ~ Elizabeth Norman, no doubt help bring up the young heiress and appears as a witness when she marries William Tugwell in 1765. A later marriage settlement shows Humphrey Tugwell (father-in-law) giving her £4,000, a considerable sum in those times.

Source Michael Poole:

"Marriage Notes for Betty Hayward and William Tugwell:

her family is allocated to brother Thomas in a family paper - but some children were too young.

Children of Betty Hayward and William Tugwell were:

  1. +George Hayward Tugwell, b. 1767, d. 14 Jan 1839, Crowe Hall, Bath.

2. +Thomas Tugwell, b. 1769, d. 18 Apr 1833, Woolley, Bradford.
3. Daniel Tugwell, b. 1770, d. 1775.
4. +Elizabeth Tugwell, b. 1772, d. 31 Jul 1847137.
5. +Mawby Tugwell, b. 1773, d. 15 May 1815."
Sadly William dies at the age of just 32 on Christmas Day in 1774 and Betty has now to bring up their 5 children.

Two years later she marries Thomas Stephens, who is described as a Gentleman aged 32 living in Bradford on their Marriage License. Tragically he is to die shortly afterwards and Betty is a widow again.

But help is at hand from her Doctor ~ Thomas Davis , a Surgeon and Apothecary living in Bradford, for in 1778 she marries Thomas and for a short period of her life she is settled and in 1780 the couple have a daughter Bridget Hayward Davis(1780-1857) baptised at holy Trinity Church in Bradford upon Avon.

But her happiness is short lived and she dies in 1782 at the age of 36.

Her five surviving children go on to become very successful , though all were orphaned at an early age.