William of Farleigh was so named by one John Mills, a local historian of the district of Shirley, near Croydon in Surrey.  He produced a small family tree of William's youngest son Samuel (b 1807).  It seemed to be an appropriate name to give the head of the family responsible for the ongoing "trees" which follow.

William of Farleigh was born in 1752, married his wife Elizabeth, probably in 1779, at the age of 27.  He died in 1811 at Cudham and was buried on the 16th of June.  He was the aged 59.  So far it has not been possible to trace the place of his birth, nor the exact date and place of his marriage, although it seems likely that the marriage to Elizabeth took place at Farleigh where their first child Elizabeth, named after her mother, was born in 1780,  Subsequently the family moved to Cudham in Kent where the remainder of their children were born.  I have a speculation that the family came from Carshalton and will be posting the family tree soon for comment.

Well here it is: are these the Ancestors of William of Farleigh ? Here is the proposed William as a child Family Group Sheet.

In case the reader imagines that the title "William of Farleigh" implies the possibility of his being the "Lord of the Manor" it must be pointed out that the opposite was the case, William being a :"horny handed son of the soil" in other words, a farm labourer.

After Elizabeth was born, William and his wife produced ten more offspring as shown below.  Seven of the children were boys and five of them married and produced families of their own.  One boy Samuel (b 1801) only survived for one year and Edward (b 1794) appeared to have survived, but, so far, no trace of his having married has been found nor the date of his demise.

Above each name, the surname under which they were recorded in the British Register is indicated.  because of the illiteracy common among most labouring folk, the parents would not have been able to spell their surnames.  It was left therefore to the Parish Clerk to enter the name into the records and they did so according to how it sounded to them.  For this reason we have to this day the variations in the spelling.

In order that the ongoing families of each of William's male offspring can be easily identified, the colour used for each son has been used on the pages which follow.  Therefore if your name appears, for example, on a red page, then you are a descendant of William's son George (b 1804).