See also

Family of Joseph II STURGE and Barbara WILLIAMS

Husband: Joseph II STURGE (c. 1648-c. 1710)
Wife: Barbara WILLIAMS (c. 1652-c. 1710)
Children: Joseph III STURGE (1680-1761)
Caleb STURGE (1682- )
Mary STURGE (c. 1685- )
Marriage 1674

Husband: Joseph II STURGE

Name: Joseph II STURGE
Sex: Male
Father: Joseph I STURGE (c. 1616-c. 1669)
Mother: [unnamed person] (c. 1610- )
Birth c. 1648 Earthcott, Gloucester, England
Death c. 1710 (age 61-62)

Wife: Barbara WILLIAMS

Name: Barbara WILLIAMS
Sex: Female
Father: -
Mother: -
Birth c. 1652 Olverston, Gloucester
Death c. 1710 (age 57-58)

Child 1: Joseph III STURGE

Name: Joseph III STURGE
Sex: Male
Spouse: Mary YOUNG (1680- )
Birth 1680
Occupation Farmer of Olveston
Death 1761 (age 80-81)

Child 2: Caleb STURGE

Name: Caleb STURGE
Sex: Male
Birth 1682

Child 3: Mary STURGE

Name: Mary STURGE
Sex: Female
Spouse: William TANNER (c. 1682- )
Birth c. 1685

Note on Husband: Joseph II STURGE

The second Joseph, who died in 1710, lived first at Gaunts Earthcott and later at Littleton near Aust. He and his wife Barbara Williams had four children. In his Will, signed with “X his mark,” he left the Manor House to his younger son Caleb (who lived in fact in a house nearby,) “other grounds” to his son Joseph, five shillings to his daughter Mary (who had four successive husbands) and £5 and his best bed - reminding us of Shakespeare - to his daughter Elizabeth. In “Besse’s Collection of the Sufferings of the Quakers” Elizabeth Sturge is described as having been sent to a prison reformatory with twenty-two others in 1682 for “refusing to deposit a security” because of her faith.

 

Caleb was an eccentric, “a man who loved to take life easy. Among other occupations which did not meet his taste was chopping wood, and he therefore opened a hole in the back of the kitchen fireplace and passed the end of a log of wood through it, so that by pushing it gradually through he might have a fire without the labour of cutting it up.” He seems to have let his house fall into ruin, and was disowned by Friends for disorderly and unacceptable behaviour.

 

http://www.sturgefamily.com/Discover/THE%20STURGES%20OF%20BIRMINGHAM.htm

 

The story of the Quaker Sturges has already been well recorded but the origins of the family who lived in the region of Gaunts Earthcott remains something of a mystery. Joseph Sturge, whose name is recorded in the Olveston Quaker burials for 1669 would appear to be the father of William, Nehemia, Joseph, Abigail, Thomas and Nathan, but who was this Joseph? Where did he come from? Who was his wife?The story of the Quaker Sturges has already been well recorded but the origins of the family who lived in the region of Gaunts Earthcott remains something of a mystery.

 

"Where there's a will there's a way" goes the old saying. An old Sturge Will may go some way to solving the problem! Joseph's son married a girl named Barbara Williams and when they "took hands" at a Frenchay Quaker Meeting in 1674 Joseph and Barbara stated that they came from the village of Filton. No Sturge entries appear in the parish registers for St. Peter's, Filton, for this period, but the Will of a John Sturges of nearby Stoke Gifford mentions a son called Joseph. "Josufe" was baptised in 1601, so might be the Gaunts Earthcott ancestor shown on the family tree drawn up in 1851 by Walter Sturge. This early will shows that John Sturges worked on the land and had some rather odd sounding implements of husbandry,