The Monument to the Joynes family in St Marys Churchyard Hendon

"...my Will is that I may be buryed in London Church Yard in the said County of Middlesex at the East End of the Chancell Building in a Grave of eight ffoot in depth to lye next to the Coffin of my late dear and beloved Wife Mary Joynes who was buried there in the beginning of September 1746 and that a Monument of Portland Stone may be set up there according to a draught prepared by me..."

So willed my 5x great grandfather Henry Joynes (abt 1684-1754) before his death. I had the opportunity recently to visit St Mary's Churchyard Hendon, where this monument now stands. I guessed it was a reasonable sized monument and it has Grade II listed conservation status, and therefore I was hopeful that I would be able to find it. And I did!

St Marys Churchyard Hendon

I spent some time transcribing the inscription on the monument, which actually commemorates five members of the extended Joynes family. I'm glad I managed to do this, because the inscription for Henry Joynes was extremely weathered and very difficult to see - I had to use my fingers to gently trace the shape of the letters to work out what they were. And the weathering will only get worse. It had also sunk on an angle, but at least didn't look likely to topple over any time soon.

The southern-facing side of the monument was dedicated to Henry Joynes himself:

Near this place lyes the Body of

HENRY JOYNES Esqr.

He was Comptroller and Conductor

of the Building of Blenheim House

in Oxfordshire from 1705 to 1715.

He was Surveyor of

Kensington Palace and Gardens

from 1715 to the last of his Days.

He was Many Years Surveyor of

the Sewers in Westminster.

He departed this Life the 2nd Day

of July 1754, Aged 70 Years.

The side facing east had the most inscribed on it. In the top section was an inscription for Henry's daughter Frances:

FRANCES JOYNES, Departed

this Life the 3rd Day of May

1749, Aged 28 Years

In the lower section of the east-facing side was an inscription in honour of Henry's wife Mary, and below that, her sister Elizabeth (noted as Henry's sister, but technically his sister-in-law):

Westward of this monument

lyes the Body of MARY

the Wife of HENRY JOYNES Esqr

who Departed this Life

the 29th Day of August 1746,

Aged 60 Years,

leaving three Sons,

SAMUEL, THOMAS & HENRY,

and two Daughters FRANCES & MARY.

Also the Body

of ELIZABETH PEISLEY, his sister,

who Departed this Life

the 30th Day of September 1746,

Aged 63 Years.

On the northern side of the monument, in the top section, was an inscription for Henry's son Thomas:

THOMAS JOYNES Departed

this Life the 14th Day of Dec

1750, Aged 28 years.

This news article from the London Evening Post (Dec 13-15, 1750) explains the sorry circumstances of Thomas' death:

"On Thursday Night last, between Ten and Eleven o'Clock, Mr. Thomas Joynes, Son of Henry Joynes, of Kensington, Esq; and Brother to Mr Joynes, of the Middle-Temple, going along the Strand, some Villains stopp'd him, and took from him his Hat and Wig, then knock'd him down, and robb'd him of what Money he had in his Pocket. He got home to his Lodgings, went to bed, and the next Morning, the Family not hearing him stir at the usual Hour, went into his Room, and found him dead in his Bed."

These are not the only family members buried in the churchyard at Hendon, but disappointingly, I was unable to locate the others, being Samuel Joynes, son of Henry and Mary - "Mr Joynes, of the Middle-Temple" noted above, and also Mary Baumgarten née Joynes, daughter of Henry and Mary Joynes, and her husband Samuel Christian Frederick Baumgarten. There are many gravestones which are too weathered to read, and perhaps some of these commemorated these other ancestors. 

The naming of the Baumgarten children

It's interesting to see if it is possible to work out who the children in a family were named after. You can surmise who might have been a beloved relative or a treasured friend. Of course sometimes it's completely impossible to work out who (or what!) ancestors were thinking of when they named their kids! However, the children of Samuel Christian Frederic and Mary Baumgarten née Joynes seem to have names that were honouring friends and relatives.

Name of child	Date of birth	Date of baptism	Parish of baptism	Possible namegiver
Elizabeth Mary	16 Feb 1753	22 Feb 1753	St Martins in the Field	The middle name of Mary is probably after her mother, but I'm not sure who the Elizabeth honours. I haven't found an Elizabeth amongst the Baumgarten or Joynes relatives so maybe she was a family friend. It's possible that it was for family friend Elizabeth Worrall - see Lucinda Worrall Baumgarten below.
Marie	21 Jul 1755	15 Aug 1755	St Margaret Westminster	Probably named after her mother.
Charlotte	24 Feb 1757	28 Mar 1757	St Margaret Westminster	Probably named after her maternal aunt or maternal step-cousin - her maternal uncle Samuel Joynes was married to Charlotte Tully, who had been widowed by the death of her first husband Stephen Downes. Charlotte and Stephen had at least three children, including a daughter, Charlotte, and a son, Tully.
Tully	c1759	19 Dec 1759	St Andrew Holborn	Probably named after his step-cousin Tully Downes.
Thomas	c1761	7 Feb 1761	St Andrew Holborn	Probably named after his maternal uncle Thomas Joynes.
Henry	c1761	7 Feb 1761	St Andrew Holborn	Probably named after his maternal uncle Henry Joynes.
Frederick	c1762	20 May 1762	St Andrew Holborn	Either named after his paternal uncle, Frederick Baumgarten, or after his father's second middle name.
William	c1764	2 May 1764	St Andrew Holborn	I've no idea who William was named after!
Frances	c1765	2 Jun 1765	St Andrew Holborn	Probably named after her paternal aunt, Frances Baumgarten.
Lucinda Worrall	30 Sep 1766	16 Oct 1766	St Andrew Holborn	Lucinda Worrall's middle name was in honour of Elizabeth Worrall, spinster of Kensington, who was her godmother (noted in Elizabeth Worrall's will). The reason for the choice of Lucinda as her first name is unknown.
Joynes Philip	c1768	7 Dec 1768	St Martin in the Fields	"Joynes" is clearly derived from his mother's maiden name, no idea where "Philip" comes from!

It was a very helpful exercise to put all this information into a table - firstly, I had an idea that Thomas and Henry were possibly twins, but realising that they were both baptised on the same day, when none of their other siblings were baptised with another, makes it more probable that they were twins. I wonder if they were identical or fraternal (fraternal being hereditary).

Secondly, I originally had a problem with Lucinda Worrall Baumgarten - I had her birth year down as 1756, and yet she was baptised 10 years afterwards, unlike any of her siblings. Plus, based on that birthdate, when she died in 1859, she would have been 102 - which I felt was highly unlikely in that day. Add to that the fact that she was baptised at St Andrews Holborn, when the two siblings apparently on either side of her - Marie and Charlotte - were both baptised at St Margaret Westminster. However, if we assume that 1756 was a transcription/typing error, and in fact she was born in 1766, that all works much better.

Edited on 12 January 2015 to add: Lucinda's death certificate from Mulhouse states that 30 September 1766 was in fact her birthdate.

Who was the rich uncle?

Reading through the autobiography of Gaspard Weiss today I rediscovered something intriguing that I had read once before.

"Les enfants Baumgarten avaient hérite d'un oncle chacun environ £1500, soit 36000 francs. Cette ennuyeuse affaire, si importante pour les hommes de droit qui me réclamèrent 51 Guinées, retarda notre mariage jusqu'au mois d'août; de plus, par contrat, nous nous engagions, au cas où je retournerais dans mon pays, de placer ce capital en Angleterre au nom de mes enfants. M. Baumgarten vit au bout de quelque temps que cette clause était injuste et il fit tout ce qu'il put pour la faire modifier, afin que cet argent nous fût rendu." Weiss (2012).

Roughly translated, it says that each of the children of Samuel and Mary Baumgarten (née Joynes) inherited £1500 after one of their uncles died, and it was right before Gaspard Weiss and Marie Baumgarten were married in 1775. I'm pretty sure £1500 was a large amount then (the National Archives UK's currency calculator puts it at a value of £95500 in 2005's money), and considering at least four of them made it to adulthood (out of eleven children in total) that's a substantial amount of money to be passing on at the uncle's death.

On the paternal side I only know the date of death of one of Samuel Baumgarten's brothers - John Henry, who died in 1770. Having read his will, he left all his money to his siblings and not to nieces and nephews. I don't know of the wealth of any of Samuel's other brothers nor when they died. I do, however, suspect that the uncle in question lived in England, of which none of Samuel's other brothers did.

Of Mary Joynes' brothers, Bartholomew, Samuel, Thomas and Henry, I assume Bartholomew and Henry died young (likely in childhood) as they weren't mentioned in their father Henry Joynes' will - written in 1754, Thomas died at age 28 (1750), when he probably wouldn't have had time to amass a large fortune, but Samuel was a prominent lawyer who worked in the Middle Temple and had a number of high profile and/or high society clients. He certainly could have left a fortune of the magnitude left to the Baumgarten children. According to his will, Samuel Joynes, after divvying up most of his belongings amongst friends and family, left the remainder in equal shares to his sister's children - Mary and Samuel Baumgarten's children.

Samuel Joynes died on June 10, 1770, which fits with the uncle in question dying before 1775 when Marie Baumgarten and Gaspard Weiss married. So I don't know for certain, but I believe it was Samuel Joynes who left £1500 to Marie Baumgarten.

Henry Joynes

As established in a previous post, Henry Joynes (c1684-1754) was my great great great great great great grandfather.

Henry Joynes' death notice from the London Evening Post (July 2-4, 1754):

Last Tuesday died, at his house at Kensington, Henry Joynes Esq.; an eminent Architect, upwards of Seventy Years of Age. He was employed by John Duke of Malborough, as Comptroller and Conductor of the Building of Blenheim House, near Woodstock, and for upwards of thirty Years last past was Surveyor to the Commissioners of Sewers at Westminster.

Whilst I have not been able to establish his exact date of birth, it is likely that he may have been born in Westminster - his brother Clement Joynes was baptised in St Clement Danes, Westminster, in 1680.

In his lifetime Henry Joynes was apparently involved in the public works of a number of important buildings in England. There is no record available of an apprenticeship or other such education in terms of surveying or architecture, and one can only assume that this sort of thing happened (in those days) either on the job, or came about as a result of innate talent.

His work on Blenheim Palace is where first he comes to notice in the history books. At the age of 21 he was appointed from the Board of Works to the Blenheim Palace project, on the recommendation of the famous gardener Henry Wise. He was apparently a skilled draughtsman, and Nicholas Hawksmoor, with whom he worked at Blenheim, took him under his wing and helped develop his draughtsman and architectural skills. Henry Joynes worked at Blenheim Palace for ten years, apparently during which time he married Mary Peisley, daughter of Bartholomew Peisley, a mason from Oxford who also worked at Blenheim Palace.

Henry Joynes was working as the Clerk of Kensington Palace by 1715 - his first child, Bartholomew (probably named after Mary's father) was baptised at Kensington in May 1715. Apparently being the Clerk of the palace meant that he oversaw any work that was done on the buildings and the gardens. He worked at Kensington Palace until his death in 1754. He was also on the Board for the Sewers of Westminster for about 30 years before his death.

As well as those official roles, Henry Joynes took on a few private commissions for houses, including Linley Hall, Shropshire, the Water Pavillion at Carshalton House, London, a house at 57 and 58, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, plus he designed his own monument for his grave, details of which he set out in his will:

"... my Will is that I may be buryed in London Church Yard in the said County of Middlesex at the East End of the Chancell Building in a Grave of eight foot in Depth to lye next to the Coffin of my late dear and beloved Wife Mary Joynes who was buried there in the beginning of September 1746 and that a Monument of Portland Stone may be set up there according to a draught propos'd by me."

Henry Joynes was buried in a tomb in St Marys Churchyard, Hendon, which was indeed made of Portland Stone, and designed to his specifications.

Tracking down the Joynes family

In researching Samuel Baumgarten I had never been able to locate any details regarding his wife Mary Joynes' family. Until the other day. Cassmob mentioned that the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes were available online, which I hadn't known, and I made a chance discovery in the London Gazette (27 July 1793):

Pursuant to a decree in the High Court of Chancery, made in a Cause Baumgarten against Caldecott, the unsatisfied Creditors (if any) of Samuel Joynes, formerly of Cursitors Street, Chancery-Lane, London, Gent. Deceased, are, on or before the 5th Day of October next, to come in and prove their debts before William Graves, Esq. one of the Masters of the said Court, at his chambers in Symond’s-inn, Chancery-Lane, London, or in Default thereof they will be peremptorily excluded the Benefit of the said Order. [Italics emphasis my own]

I know Samuel Baumgarten lived in Cursitors Street, according to his daughter Lucinda's baptism record. It seems too much of a coincidence that another Joynes might live in Cursitors Street and not be a relation.

Assuming that my assumption was correct, I then needed to work out how Samuel Joynes might have been related to Marie Joynes.

FamilySearch reveals that there was a Joynes family with both a Samuel and a Mary born to it. Henry and Mary Joynes had at least six children, all baptised at Kensington Parish. Mary Joynes was baptised in 1729, and assuming she was born sometime close to that - if it is the same Mary Joynes who married Samuel Baumgarten - she would have been about 22 years old when they married. Mary's brother Samuel was born about 1719. Other children in the family of Henry and Mary Joynes were Bartholomew, Frances, Thomas and Henry.

One way of establishing possible links between the families is to look at names. In those days it was reasonably common to carry on names from one generation to the next. In the family of Samuel and Mary Baumgarten we have Elizabeth Mary, Marie, Lucinda Worrall, Charlotte, Tully, Henry, Thomas, Frederick, William, Frances and Joynes Philip. Is it too much of a coincidence that there are four names in common with both families?

There is a bit of information about on Henry Joynes because he was a well known architect at the time, and Samuel Joynes was a prominent attorney. However, there was conflicting information on Samuel Joynes (two apparent dates of death - 1770 and 1794) which confused me a little. I spent quite some time searching for information on the Joynes in order to try to resolve the Samuel Joynes problem, and in the process discovered that the National Archives (UK) has a Documents Online search engine which allows you to download items for a small fee, including wills. And I found the wills of Henry Joynes, Samuel Joynes and Samuel Baumgarten there, all available to download as soon as I had paid £3.50 for each of them. A small price to pay for such a goldmine of information!

Henry Joynes' will confirmed for me that Samuel Joynes was his son, and Mary Baumgarten was his daughter, and therefore that he was my great great great great great great grandfather! He also had one other adult child, Henry. As an added bonus he mentioned his brothers Clement and John, and their respective daughters Susanna Downing and Mary Worsley. Interestingly, Henry Joynes expressly stipulated that none of his estate was to go to his son-in-law Samuel Baumgarten, though he provided generously for his own daughter Mary (Samuel Baumgarten's wife) and the grandchildren produced from the marriage. Was it just that Henry knew Samuel Baumgarten was well enough off on his own, and so he only needed to take care of his blood relatives, or was there some animosity between them?

Samuel Joynes' will confirmed for me his date of death as 1770, though I'm still not sure of the significance of the year 1794. Samuel Joynes was married, though his wife is not mentioned by name, and he mentions his daughter Marie Downes, his daughter-in-law Charlotte Downes and his son-in-law Tully Downes (who was actually apprenticed to him in 1761).

Samuel Baumgarten's will is most revealing. I have to assume his wife had died before him, as his will left everything - which was substantial - to his servant (mistress?) Elizabeth Cannon. He even appointed his daughter Charlotte Potter as Executor, but left nothing to any of his children. I'll bet that grated! I'll have to see if I can find out anything about Elizabeth Cannon.