Anne married John UNDERHILL in May 1728. They had two children including Susannah in 1729 and John in Feb 1731/32. Anne died as a result of John's birth and was buried the same day as he was baptized.
No widowed Anne PADDY has been identified to date, and no baptismal record has been found for an Anne PADDY being baptized near Coleshill between 1690 and 1710. The closest are:
- in Bushbury, Staffordshire on 2 Aug 1710 by Richard PADDEY. Bushbury is on the other side of Birmingham, 23 miles away.
- in Meriden, 6 miles away, with a birth date of 31 Aug 1713, making her only 14 years old if married in May 1728. This marriage would have been legal at the time (> 12 years for a girl), but unusual. She would have been 15 at the time of Susannah's birth, and 18 when she died.
Looking at the PADDY family of Meriden:
- Anne BURNETT of Allesley married Thomas PADDY, a yeoman of Meriden on 1 Jul 1701.
- There were 7 children: Thomas Jun. 1702, Katherine 1703, Thomas 1704, Jonathan 1707, John 1709, Anne 1713 born 6 Jun 1713 and Lydia 1716.
- One oddity was that the later children's baptismal entries record a birth date "nat." not a baptism date "bapt." unlike every other entry in the register. In Anne PADDY's record "bapt" was erased and replaced by "nat" meaning this was a purposeful entry. My suspicion is that the PADDYs were Catholic, dissenting or had other reasons for not wishing or being refused an Anglican baptism, but were on sufficiently good terms to have their children officially recognised.
- A Thomas PADDY senior was buried in Meriden in 1706, probably Thomas' father.
- Thomas PADDY wrote a will, dated 9 Oct 1725, in which he named his wife Anne, son Thomas, daughter Katherine and her husband Thomas BENTLY (who only received a guinea each) and daughters Anne and Lydia (who were to receive £200 each at age 21). No mention was made of Jonathan or John, who presumably had died before the will was written.
- Thomas PADDY died in May 1729, after the birth of his granddaughter Susannah. His 1725 will was probated in 1729 to his wife Anne. The inventory of "Coleshill - Thomas Paddy de Meriden" itemised the content of a dairy/pig/sheep farm including a buttery, brewhouse, dairy, cheese chamber, smith and garret, and was valued at £165 7s 8d.1
- This is the first reference to Coleshill and links the PADDYs of Meriden to John UNDERHILL of Coleshill.
- Lydia might have been the Lydia PADDY who married William SMITH in Handsworth, Staffordshire in 1742, or the servant who died in Ombersley, Worcestershire in 1737. Given her inheritance the former is more likely.
One plausible narrative is that, knowing that he was dying, Thomas PADDY accepted the proposed marriage of his 14 year old young daughter Anne to John UNDERHILL, presumably in the hope that she would be taken care of after his death. John may have been a friend, neighbour or one of Thomas' farm workers. Thomas didn't update his will of 1725 after Anne's marriage. This suggests that he was happy with that match (unlike his daughter Katherine's). His affection for Anne might have given the impetus to see the birth of Anne's first child Susannah before he died a few week later.
Tragically, Anne herself died less than 3 years later, in 1731, most likely as a result of the birth of her son, John, who was baptized on the same day that Anne was buried in Coleshill. Her husband remarried and baptized another John in 1734, so her son John almost certainly did not survive, although no burial record has been found.
