Narrative and Notes
The name of the wife of Thomas WOODWARD, mason of Chipping Campden, and who bore him 14 children, was not recorded in any parish document found to date. It may also appear as ACOCKS or similar.
It is far from clear that Anne ACOX was that wife, but the evidence that does exist is as follows:
- The only record for the marriage of a Thomas WOODWARD near to Chipping Campden in the years before Feb 1694/95 (when Thomas first child, Richard was baptized) was to Anne ACOX on 24 Jan 1688/89 in Blockley. Two issues: Thomas would have only been 16 years old in 1688/89 (assuming he was baptized soon after his birth), and his first known child wasn't baptized until six years later, when he would have been 22. Either this was not his marriage or there was some other explanation for there not being children conceived until after he was 21.
- Anna AUCOX, the daughter of Johannis and Susanna AUCOX, was baptized on 4 June 1665 in Saintbury.1 Saintbury is just 2 miles from Aston Subedge where Thomas was baptized in 1673. The key issues with this baptism are the implied 8 year difference in age, and the implication that this Anne would have been 56 years old when her 14th child was born is another. Also none of Thomas' children were named John, after this maternal grandfather. These issues might be explained away, but it is far simpler to believe that Anne ACOX was not Thomas' wife, or she was a different Anne ACOX.
