This is a website for anyone with an interest in Caffyn & Caffin ancestry. I have been researching Caffyns for a long time (33 years and counting) and am happy to help anyone with their connection to our family. I would also like to hear from all modern Caffyns as it would be great to link you to the family tree.
Current projects include an index to all names which appear in Caffyn wills.
Lucy Caffin 1787-1879
John Caffin and Elizabeth Cooper were married on the 29th October 1786 at St Peter the Great, Chichester and five months later their eldest daughter Lucy was baptised, also at St Peters (although as St Peter the Great was not built until 1848 she was actually baptised in the cathedral where the parishioners had use of a side alter).
Lucy’s siblings were Charles who was born in 1788, John in 1790, then George in 1791, Henry in 1793 and her sisters Caroline in 1795 and Mary Ann in 1797 and finally William in 1798. Sadly John died in 1790, Charles in 1792 and William died before 1822. It is also possible there is another sister but I have found no trace of her.
On the 13th January 1807 Lucy married James Jeffery; as they were born underage – they were 19 years old - they were married by licence with their fathers giving permission and they lived for some time in Shadwell, London before moving to Portsea in Hampshire (James’s home town). As they are not Caffin’s I am not 100% sure of their children but it looks likely that they had Charles Cooper born 1807, Emma Caffin born 1808, Caroline born in 1816, Matilda born in 1818, Mary in 1820, Henry in 1822, George in 182 and/or 1830, Elizabeth in 1825 and finally Samuel born in 1827.
Lucy’s father John died in 1822 and in his will he leaves his goods to be divided between his surviving children. His daughter Caroline is married to John Smith and they are living in Stepney, London; John Smith is named as one of the executors of his will. James Jeffery is also mentioned; he has had a loan of £100 from his father in law (depending on whether you use the retail price index or average earnings this is equivalent to between £8,000 and £81,000). Providing that Lucy inherits more than £300 her husband’s loan is to be deducted from her inheritance, if she inherits less than £200 she is only required to pay back half of her husband’s loan. Whatever she does inherit she is only to receive the interest on her inheritance and it is for her own use unless her husband predeceases her in which case she receives her full inheritance. If she dies before her husband then her inheritance is to be divided between their children.
Reading between the lines it appears that, from her father John’s point of view, Caroline had married the good son in law who was approved of whilst Lucy has married the unreliable son in law who could not be trusted with money.
Despite this Lucy and James had a long marriage although the census cannot reveal how happy it was. The 1851 census finds Lucy and James living at 17 Church Path in Portsea, they are both 64 years old. Also living with them is their daughter Caroline who married Charles Dryden in 1837, Henry who is a seaman gunner, Elizabeth who has married Henry Hall (1850), Samuel who is working as a labourer and George who has followed his grandfather into the tailoring industry.
In 1861 James and Lucy have moved to 4 St John’s Street in Portsea and just Samuel is living with them although Caroline is living next door and George is next door but one along with his wife Sarah.
Later in 1861 Lucy was widowed, she was 74 years old before she finally came into her full inheritance. In 1871 she is living at Swan Street in Portsea, Lucy died in 1879 at the age of 92 years.
