Edmund ABNEY

     Edmund ABNEY, son of George ABNEY and Ellen WOLSELEY, was born in 1562 in Willesley, Derbyshire, England. He was a gentleman and Lord Mayor of Leicester. Being the youngest son, he had received only 50 pounds inheritance. Edmund moved from Willesley, Derbyshire to Leicester where he started in trade. He was admitted as a freeman in 1594 and a member of the Council in 1599, and Lord Mayor of Leicester in 1587.^1,2,3,4

Edmund ABNEY witnessed outbreaks of the bubonic plague or Black Death between 1563 and 1666 in England. Plague epidemics ravaged London in the 1563 London plague, in 1593, 1603, 1625, 1636, and 1665, reducing its population by 10 to 30% during those years. The 1665–66 Great Plague of London was the final major epidemic of the pandemic, with the last death of plague in the walled City of London recorded fourteen years later in 1679.

Edmund ABNEY was named an heir in the probate of the estate of George ABNEY on 7 January 1578 in Willesley, Derbyshire, England. As the third son, he was left 40 pounds. His brothers older brothers James and Robert both inherited estates.^5,6

Edmund married Katherine LUDLAM, daughter of William LUDLAM and Isabella DANNET, in 1587 at St. Mary de Castro Church in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. Her father, William Ludlam, was an alderman and Lord Mayor of Leicester. All of the Abneys in America descended from the marriage of Edmund and Catherine.^2,7,3,4

Edmund left a will dated 17 March 1603 in Leicester, England. Will of Edmund Abnye, of the Borow of Leicester, gentleman, dated 17 Mar 1603, proved 24 Jan 1604. To Catherine, his wife, a messuage within the Southgate, in Leicester, in which they dwelt, whilst Paul, his son, was apprentice, his term of apprenticeship expiring at the Feast of the Purification of our Lady, 1607. His wife was also to have a cottage at Belsthorpe, Rutland. Paul to pay to his mother £26 . Dannett, his son, to have £13 out of the Belsthorpe property, at his marriage, or when 21. Catherine, Mary and Isabel, his daughters. Richard Pudsey, of Chilcott, in Derby, gentleman, and Edward Turner, of Leicester, gentleman, his overseers. His brother, James, owed him £71.

Edmund ABNEY died on 25 January 1604 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England.^8,9 He was buried on 1 April 1604 in St. Mary de Castro Church, Leicester, England.^1,10,3,4 On the side wall of St. Mary's chancel is the following: To the memory of Edmund Abney born at Willesley Hall, Derbyshire, married Katherine Ludlam of the parish. Buried in the chancel 1604. Paul Abney, his son and heir, born circa 1590, married Mary Brooksby of Stapleford, buried in the chancel 1634. George Abney, his son and heir, born 1613, married Bathshua in the time of the Civil War, buried in the chancel 1631. Erected by John Rutledge Abney of New York, their descendant in the seventh generation from the said George. "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."