The first records of Crathornes in Warwickshire are three weddings: Elizabeth Crathorn married Hugh Mills at Fillongley on 20 November 1556, eight years later John Crathorn married Agnes Beck in Fillongley. Then seven years later Johanna Crathorne married Thomas Johnson on 2 December 1571. The next recorded event in Fillongley is the death of a Richard Crathorn, who was buried on 1 September 1583.  Who was he?  He can't have been John's son Richard, as he went on to marry in 1606 and again in 1623.  He could have been an unmarried brother, but the most likely explanation is that these four Crathornes were one family, with father Richard, daughters Elizabeth and Johanna, plus son John, all moving south in the early 1500s to the little village of Fillongley.

Above: Fillongley today: north-west of Coventry, just off the M6
Below: Fillongley in 1694: a long way from anywhere

We can only speculate as to why Richard Crathorne brought his family to Fillongley, but as the village church belonged to the nearby Priory of Maxstoke, there may well have been strong Catholic connections.  Fillongley was certainly a long way from the troubles of the north: 166 miles due south from Crathorne village.  Having settled there, it seems probable that Richard is the ancestor of all the later Warwickshire Crathornes.  Quite how he links into the Crathorne family tree is currently only speculative, but using estimates of generation dates, he would have been a Great-great-great-great Grandson of the original Sir William.  The potential first Crathorne family of Warwickshire is shown below, with birth dates estimated from marriages.

The most likely make up of the first Crathorne family in Warwickshire

Elizabeth and Hugh Milles had four children, including an Elizabeth who married George Shakespeare, and so hinting at the Catholic nature of at least some of the Shakespeare family.  Johanna and Thomas Johnson don't seem to have had any children, but as John and Agnes had 3 sons and a daughter, the Crathorne clan expanded.  They named their youngest son Avery - a very unusual name, but one that crops up over several later generations, helping to link them all together.  In fact, there was an extended family of Averys (as their surname) in Fillongley at this time.  So it seems that John and Agnes named their son after the family - or possibly it was the surname of Richard's wife?  

John died early - in 1591 - apparently without leaving a Will, and when his goods were finally appraised in a document dated January 1598/9, they included a cow, a table, a form and a cupboard, a pot, 2 kettles, some pewter, all sorts of household bed linen and some farming equipment with a total value of £1-15s-5d - or about £230 in today's money.  Click on the image below for the full appraisal, and click here for the modern English translation. 

Part of John Crathorn's Appraisal dated 1598

John Crathorn and Agnes Beck had 3 sons: George, Richard and Avery

George & Katherine had a daughter and a son, George, who married Eliza Warren in 1634 but the couple seem to have had no children. 

Avery & Mary founded a tribe in Sutton Coldfield that was to last for 3 generations until the 1730s, but then seems to have died out.  When Avery himself died he again left no Will, but his Inventory records him as a labourer, leaving a long list of possessions including his clothes, 2 firkins of bacon, 4 chairs, 3 stools, a pair of bellows and lots more, totaling £22-17s-8d - more than £3,000 at today's prices. Strangely his second wife Grace apparently refused to take on the administration of the Inventory.  Click on the image below for the full Inventory, and click here for the modern English translation. 

Part of Avery Crathorne's Inventory, dated 16 February 1640 

Avery Crathorne's Sutton Coldfield tribe died out after 3 generations

Avery and Mary's middle son Thomas had a son Thomas who seems the only one of these ancient Crathornes to have left a Will.  He and his wife Esther had no children, so he bequeathed the little money he had to his sisters and his nephews, leaving the remainder to his wife Esther. Click on the image below for the full Will, and click here for the modern English translation. 

Part of Thomas Crathorne's Will of 1753, giving 1 shilling to each of his sisters

It was John's middle son Richard marrying Eleanor that was to spread the Crathornes further, with their son John having 5 children in Coleshill with his first wife Elizabeth, then a further 5 children at Kingsbury with his second wife Katherine. 

Richard and Eleanor's son John was to spread Crathornes to Coleshill and Kingsbury

There were then lots of Crathorns in Coleshill and Kingsbury over the next four generations (see pdf) with the John born about 1619 having 10 grandchildren and at least 16 great-grandchildren, including one line that moved to Leicestershire. The Coleshill Crathorns clearly liked the name John, as at one point there were two John's christened in Coleshill within a year of each other: John son of John son of John son of the original John was christened on 17 September 1722, while his cousin John son of John son of William son of the original John was christened on 20 October 1723! One of these two John's – probably the one born in 1722 – was to marry Hannah Nail from Harborne in Birmingham, providing a direct link into the nearby growing city. And this couple are the most likely parents of Joseph, born in Handsworth in 1741. There are still several unproven gaps in this ancestry, but for now it seems the most likely route from Fillongley to Handsworth, and the start of the Birmingham Crathornes.

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