Jenet BARRET

• General Notes
  •      Erasmus (son of William and Joan Saunders of Ewell) possibly accompanied his mother to the West of England; in any event, he eventually settled in Pembrokeshire. The date of his arrival is not known, but it is certain that he was there on 23 Sept., 1577, as on that date he, described as of Jordanston in St. Florence, was sued by Griffith White, esq., for trespass, at the Great Sessions held at Haverfordwest. As to the inducements that first led him to Wales, there is no record. He is stated to have been a lawyer - the Golden Grove Book describes him as 'learned in the law' - and it is possible that he may have practised at the Great Sessions in South Wales. We are, however, able to make a pretty safe guess as to the reason that caused him to permanently settle in Pembrokeshire. Somewhere or other he had met Jenet Barrett (the daughter of William Barret of Tenby by Anne his wife, who was the daughter of Thomas Lougher of Tenby), and determined to make her his wife.
    
         William Barrett was a substantial landowner and apparently also a merchant. His will, proved in London on 26 May, 1553 (Taske, fol. II), shows that he owned Tremoillet (near Pendine), lands in the parish of Pendine, in Tenby, and also at Llanstephan in Carmarthenshire; he was also owner of a trading vessel, as he bequeathed to his brother James Barrett 'my bote and my gayne,' (i.e., my boat and my profit therefrom). Subject to certain life estates and terms of years, William Barrett seems to have devised all his lands and his silver plate to his daughter Jenet Barrett, or to use his own words, 'I make [her] heyre of all my lands.' Jenet Barrett at her father's death was of  'very tender years,' and the property, which also included lands in Crosland and Llanstafan [Llanstephen, Carms.], came into the hands of James Barrett, a merchant in Tenby, who was the brother and one of the executors of the testator, William Barrett, Rees Barrett, another brother of the testator, having renounced the executorship, and Anne, the widow and other executrix, having on 15 Feb., 1553, assigned by deed all her interest under the will (except her dower), and also the custody of her daughter Jenet, to the testator's brother, James Barrett.
    
         It appears in a bill in Chancery (Chancery Proceedings, Ser. ii., bundle 166, No. 70), filed by Erasmus Saunders, that of the property in question, lands to the value of £ ____ were held of Sir John Perrott, as of his manor of Laugharne, by knight's service, and that the residue of the lands was held by socage service, and that the wardship of Jenet Barrett was claimed by the Right Hon. William Orle on account of the reversion of certain lands holden of him by knight's service, whereof Katherine Morgan had an estate for life. James Barrett alleged that the wardship of Jenet Barrett had been acquired by him from Orle, and that he was therefore entitled to her custody till 18 April 15 . . .
    
         This bill gives the interesting information that Jenet was in the night-time carried away by a certain Peter Veale, gent., and her wardship sold to Erasmus Saunders, who no doubt immediately married her. James Barrett, it would seem, sued before the Lords of the Star Chamber for the recovery of Jenet, but evidently failed, as he adds in his Answer that it lost him £40. The Chancery suit was brought by Erasmus Saunders, who was described as 'of London, gent.' to recover his wife's property from James Barrett.
    
         After his marriage Erasmus Saunders settled permanently in Wales. In 1572 he was bailiff of Tenby, and in 1577 he was mayor of that town. The exact date of his death is not known, but there is evidence existing that he died before 29 Sept., 1603. This is proved buy two documents (among the papers of the Great Sessions) relating to an action brought in 1603 by his widow Jenet to recover rent from John White, to whom Erasmus Saunders and his wife had on 23 Sept., 1597, granted a lease of Tremoillet, in the parish of Eglwys Cymmin, Carms., together with 12 cows, 8 oxen, and 100 sheep, for a term of five years at a rent of £22 per annum.
    
    Jenet Saunders died prior to 10 Sept., 1628, her will, dated 16 May previously, having been proved on that date. She devised all her lands, except the tenement called Pricstarow in the parish of Laugharne, to her son William (probably her second son), and bequeathed to her son Nicholas and his son Francis £200, which Nicholas owed her for the fee simple of Newbourne.