Lydia Sutton (née Byam)

Lydia Sutton nee Byam, owner of the Willis Freemans estate in Antigua, the compensation for which was paid to her husband Robert Sutton (q.v.). Mary Willis nee Freeman (q.v.) and her daughter Mary Cure (q.v.) had agreed between them to entail the estate on Lydia Sutton as the most worthy of their friends with children.

1. The Willis Freemans estate was left to Lydia as executrix by Mary Willis on her death in 1810, all direct heirs having died. The will of Mary Willis widow late of Eversley [then?] of Belvidere near Bath but now of Exmouth Devon had been proved 28/06/1810.

2. In 1851 Lydia Sutton aged 86 widow and annuitant born Antigua was a lodger in Swanton Morley, Norfolk.

3. A genealogical website identifies Robert and Lydia Sutton of 'East Bilney, near East [sic] Dereham Norfolk' between 1840 and 1845 as the recipients of correspondence from David Cranstoun on Antigua, sourced to the Papers of David Cranstoun in Senate House Library in London. East Bilney is very close to Swanton Morley, where the widowed Lydia Sutton had settled by 1851.

4. Administration of the will of Lydia Sutton late of Swanton Morley who died 28/01/1854 granted 13/03/1861 to Ann Hester Freeman Grounds and Maria Freeman Miles, two of the children of the deceased, effects under £600.

5. Family naming practices perpetuated her maiden name: her grandson Thomas Byam Grounds (son of William Grounds and Ann Hester Freeman Sutton) died in 1916 and her great-grandson, who died in 1956, was Noel Barwick Charles Byam Grounds.

1. Charles Beavan, Report of Cases in Chancery: argued and determined in the Rolls Court during the time of the Right Honorable Sir John Romilly, Knight, Master of the Roles, 1854 - 1855, Volume 19 , (London, W. G. Benning and Co., 1855), pp. 556 - 565; PROB 11/1512/480.

2. Ancestry.com, England and Wales, 1851 census [database online]

3. http://cranstoun-family.com/david-cranstoun.html [accessed 27/01/2013].

4. National Probate Calendar 1861.

5. National Probate Calendar 1916 and 1957.

We are grateful to Gabrelle Leese for her assistance in compiling this entry.