Family name also spelled BURSTED, BRISTEAD and BRESTED.
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Shortly after their marriage in Leeds Kent in October 1734, John and Catherine settled in the parish of Harrietsham, about 4 miles east of Leeds. Catherine hearked from Langley, just under 2 miles south-west of Leeds. Their eldest daughter, Sarah, was christened in Harrietsham in June 1735 and buried there three months later. Thereafter John's children born in Harrietsham were Mary (1736), John (1739), Richard (1741), and Benjamin (1742/3). Mary and Richard are recorded as children of John and Mary, which is evidently an error as this would point to there having been two John Bristeds residing in or close by Harrietsham during this period. The records do not otherwise support this: there is no marriage record for a John Bristed and a Mary belonging to the same generation; there is no burial record for the said Mary and the only burial record of another John Bristed (Brested &c.) who didn't die in childhood was in 1790 in Leeds. It is safe to say that this was John Bristed Jr (b. 1739).
Within 12 months after the birth of Benjamin, the family relocated back to Leeds, where daughter Catherine was born in 1744 and daughter Sarah in late 1745 / early 1746. In 1747 John's and Catherine's youngest child, Mortar*, was christened on 21 April in Leeds, his father having died about a fortnight earlier. In the following month Catherine lost both Benjamin and Sarah, who were buried in Leeds on 1 May and 15 May respectively. And finally in August 1748 the youngest son Mortar died. Just over a year later Catherine remarried to William Atwood.
* His maternal grandmother's maiden-name was Morter or Mortar.
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In 1737 John Bristed and his siblings Thomas Bristed and Sarah Bristed, were bequeathed 1 shilling only in their father's Will 'by reason that they have had £5 each all ready.' *
* Obadiah's bequests to his older children would have coincided with when they married: Sarah and Thomas in 1733 and John in 1734.
Twelve years later, in 1749, and two years after John Bristed of Leeds in Kent had died, Richard Bristed of Warbleton (4 miles SE of Heathfield) wrote his Will. In it he made bequests to various relatives, including his cousins Ezekiel Bristed, Thomas Bristed, Benjamin Bristed and Mary Bristed, the 'children of Obediah Bristed' who were still living. Obadiah was Richard's uncle. Richard then made bequests to the children of his cousin Sarah Bristed deceased (who married Samuel Swatland and died in 1744 in Wadhurst) and to the children of his cousin John Bristed deceased. As the children of Sarah and John were minors at this time Richard paid their shares to their uncle Richard Bristed for their use. Per below, said uncle was therefore one of the abovenamed sons of Obadiah Bristed.
In 1796 Richard Bristed of Warbleton, yeoman, wrote his Will. After addressing the future needs of his natural-born son John Bristed Huggett, Richard distributed the rest of his personal estate between his nephews Thomas Swatland and Samuel Swatland, sons of his sister Sarah, his nephew and niece Richard Bristed and Mary wife of James Kennard, son and daughter of his brother Ezekiel Bristed, his nephew Richard Bristed son of his brother John Bristed, and others. These names identify the testator as one of the younger sons of Obadiah Bristed.
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John Bristead (burial record)
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