The Early Cufflins

The earliest of our Cufflin ancestors we have traced are Raph and Margaret Cufflin of Blaby in the County of Leicester.
Most of the following information has been gleaned from the contents of 'Raph's will, dated the 4th December 1623 and 'Margaret's will, of the 20th of January 1624 these have been transcribed from copies of the original, by Janette Shepherd of the Leicestershire Records Office, to whom we are indebted.

From Burial records contained in the document 'Families of Blaby' there are references to the following Cufflins:
21.10.1590 Henry.
04.03.1600 Margaret Wife of Ralph
20.01.1607 Anthony Son of Ralph
09.05.1617 Ralph Son of Ralph
17.02.1623 Ralph
25.01.1624 Margaret
10.01.1667 Ann Widow
It is possible that Henry, who was buried in 1590, is the father of Ralph and Henry, which would of course take us back a further generation but equally, Margaret (buried 1600) and Ralph her husband, could be the parents.
It will be seen from Margaret's Will that Ralph had a brother Henry Cufflin of Whetstone and she mentions her own brother John Cowper. We are aware of another Ralph Cufflin married to Bridget Warde from baptism records of their three children Ann b. 1600, John b. 1603 and Guliemus b. 1606. Could he be the son of Henry (Raphs brother) ?
There is no mention in Margaret's Will of her three eldest sons Zachary, John or William, although we know that John was already in possession of most of the family wealth by virtue of Raph's will, nor is there mention of her eldest daughter Ellen but given that their ages in 1624 would be: Zachary 34, John 30, William 27, Ellen 20, they may well have been making their own way in the world whereas Mary 17, Ann 14, Frances 10, and Henry 7 would still be minors.
The family wealth would appear to have been substantial as Margaret was able to leave each of her children three pounds although Ralph only left the children twelve pence each apart from John of course, who received the bulk of the estate.


The Family of Raph and Margaret Cufflin

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