JOHN GREENGRASS.

1700 3rd October. Married SARAH RIGHTEOUS of Swaffham. John Greengrass of Beachamwell.

1708 8th September. Burial of wife Sarah at Beeston next to Mileham. Of Beachamwell.

1710 20th November. Married Anne, the widow Houson of Beachamwell, at Swaffham. John was a widower of Beachamwell.

 

CHILD of John and Sarah (1st wife):

 

MATTHEW GREENGRASS 1702. Baptised on the 4th of February at Beeston. Of Beachamwell.

1728 3rd December. Married Margaret Waller at Brandon.

Children: Matthew Greengrass 1729, John Greengrass 1731, Elizabeth Greengrass 1733, Thomas Greengrass 1735, Sarah Greengrass 1738.

 

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THERE IS FURTHER RESEARCH TO DO - Beachamwell parish registers have not been checked as yet. They may be helpful, but baptisms are recorded as missing from 1697 to 1737. This is the period needed for any more children of John Greengrass and his first wife Sarah, and any by his second wife Anne. It was fortunate that Matthew, the first born of John Greengrass, was baptised at his wife's home parish of Beeston.

 

Matthew Greengrass (1702) son of John, married and lived at Brandon where some of his descendants and non-descendants were recorded confusingly in the church registers as Greengrass and Grass. Some of these continued using the Grass surname.

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A Matthew Grass of Beachamwell married Mary Green at Wangford, Suffolk, on the 14th of February 1779. They appear to be the Matthew and Mary who had children baptised at Brandon: Elizabeth Grass in 1779 (bur. 1779), John Grass in 1781, Henry Grass in 1784 (bur. 1784), Mary Greengrass in 1785, Henry Grass in 1788, and Martha Grass 1792. Matthew Grass was son of John Grass and Rebecca. (marriage not found), and was baptised at Brandon in 1764. It seems likely Matthew's father John was a younger brother of Matthew Greengrass (1702) at the top of the page, but his baptism may have been missing in the Beachamwell register gap.

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John Greengrass (1731), son of Matthew and Margaret, married Elizabeth Stannard. John Greengrass died and his widow Elizabeth, in June 1764, had an illegitimate son Henry Grass. In 1766 widow Elizabeth Grass married William Towler at Brandon. Henry Grass (1764) married Dianah Aylemer in 1789, and they had Grass children. Henry Greengrass/Grass, although he had the surname, appears not to have been a descendent of Matthew Greengrass baptised 1702 at the top of the page, but he may possibly have been a descendant of the Towler family that his mother married into two years after his birth. She went on to have children with William Towler.