Joseph Wakeford Family of Andover

I. William Steele III (1689-1769) married Anne Froude (1684-1720) in late 1713 or early 1714. She was the daughter of Edward Froude (1645-1714) and his wife, Elizabeth Blackbarrow.  Her sister Elizabeth married Richard Tezard, and their daughter, Elizabeth (d. 1740) married John James Manfield (d. 1762). 

II. William Steele III married Anne Cator Steele (27 April 1689-28 June 1760) in 1723.

1. Mary Steele Wakeford (29 June 1724-1772) married Joseph Wakeford (1719-85) of Andover in 1749. He had one child, Hannah Wakeford (b. 1746), from his first marriage to Hannah Towgood (1725-46). 

a. one child died at birth in 1750

b. Joseph (1751-53)

c. William (1753-1819)

William (1753-1819) married Elizabeth Bartlett of Budleigh, and had six children. Like his father, he too was a linen and woollen draper, and was most likely involved in the Wakeford banking firm. According to the 1784 Trade Directory for Andover, Joseph Wakeford, Jr., was listed as a banker, with a subsidiary line as Joseph Wakeford and Son, linen and woollen drapers. In 1793, William Steele Wakeford was listed only as a woollen draper, but it is probably he was still maintaining an interest in the family banking business. After his death, his three sons--William, Joseph and Robert Wakeford—were operating in Andover as linen drapers and bankers. The Wakeford bank, however, fell upon hard times in the 1820s, and by 1827 had gone into bankruptcy.[i]  The evangelical faith of the Wakefords was evident not only in their letters and poetry, but also in the daily aspects of their business, their drapery accounts often beginning with the heading “Laus Deo.” Mary Steele Dunscombe’s will, proved in late 1813, left a portion of the Steele lands in and around Broughton to William Steele Wakeford.[ii]

d. Samuel (1754-67)

e. Mary (1760-1824) 

She married the Rev. James Lloyd Harries [Harris] of Andover on 24 February 1789. The only extant copy of Anne Steele’s Verses for Children (Bampton, 1803), now belonging to Columbia Teacher’s College, New York, is signed by Mary Harries; she also appears in the Steele Correspondence and Jane Attwater’s diary. Mary Steele’s friend and fellow poet, Elizabeth Coltman of Leicester, met her on one of her trips to the West Country and composed a poem in her honor, “To Mrs. Harries, On receiving a Beautiful Vase for Flowers ornamented with a Picture of Abra” (see below, poem 129).

[Henry Steele (1655-1739) had a daughter, Clemence (d. 1766), who married Thomas Etheredge (d. 1752); they had a daughter, Sarah (d. 1791) who married John Kent (1707-96), who served as assistant pastor to both Henry and William Steele III at the Broughton church. It is most likely their daughter or granddaughter, Lucy, who lives with the Steeles.]  

[i]The books for both the drapery and banking businesses of the Wakefords can be found at the Hampshire Record Office, Finding No. 52M84, under the title, “Wakeford of Andover Bank, 1736-1860.”  Among the papers is the cashbook of Joseph Wakeford, 1759-67, which includes a poem, “Light shining out of Darkness,” by Wakeford.