Benjamin Shepheard married
Elizabeth Farmer at Stoneleigh church in December 1793. According to the marriage register Benjamin was from Preston Capes in Northamptonshire. Elizabeth (b.1752) was the 2nd daughter of Richard Farmer of Manor House, Stoneleigh, churchwarden and overseer of the poor. Her brother Richard and younger sister Mary were witnesses at the marriage.
They set up home in Hunningham as tenant farmers on the Leigh estate and 5 years later, in 1798, the Leigh records show bills from carpenter Edward Treadgold and mason Michael Clark for repairs to the old house and the building of a new one for the Shepheards.
The Shepheards had no children.
Benjamin was buried on 9th June 1825 (not 1826) and Elizabeth on 6th January 1836.
From Benjamin's will dated 1804 (probate date 20th September 1825), he makes a bequest to his wife Elizabeth, then for trustees William Grimes of Baginton and James Harris of Hunningham to arrange annuities to Benjamin's mother Esther, Benjamin's brother William, his sister Elizabeth Shand widow, his brother Samuel, and the children of his late brother Richard, who was farming at Furzenhill and died in 1800.
One of the children of Benjamin's late brother Richard from Furzenhill was another Richard Shepheard who had married Elizabeth Farmer's niece Jane Berwick at Hunningham in 1809, with Benjamin as one of the witnesses. Richard and Jane also farmed at Furzenhill and their children were baptised at Stoneleigh.
Trustee William Grimes from Baginton had married Elizabeth's cousin Jane Corrall in 1777. Then after Jane died he married Elizabeth's younger sister Mabell in 1791, witnessed by Elizabeth's brother Richard and the as yet unmarried Elizabeth. William Grimes died in 1806 after the will but before Benjamin died.
(See also the
Shepheard children in A.7).
