Some 17th Century Cayleys

Edward Cayley (d. 1642) and Mary Waters had at least eight children:

• Mary Cayley (born c.1605, buried at Brompton, Yorkshire on 4 July 1624)
• Catherine Cayley, who in 1629 married Arthur Ingram, a Collector of Customs and resident of Hull and Knottingley in Yorkshire

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  Sir William Cayley ⑂27 (1610-81), who was knighted by Charles I in 1640 or 1641, fought at Marston Moor⬀ (where three of his cousins died) in 1644, and in 1661 was created the first Cayley baronet for services to the royalist cause in the English Civil War. Under Charles II he was a JP, and in the late 1670’s a Catholic missionary, Father Nicholas Postgate⬀, was caught baptising a child illegally in his jurisdiction. This was a period of anti-Catholic hysteria: Sir William committed Father Postgate to trial at York, where he was convicted of high treason, and hung, drawn and quartered: he was one of 85 English Catholic martyrs beatified in 1987. (See the blog post Hung, drawn and quartered – Nicholas Postgate.) In 1633 Sir William married Dorothy St Quintin (d. 1684), daughter of a leading Yorkshire parliamentarian, Sir William St Quintin. This marriage probably made it easier for the Cayleys when the parliamentarian were victorious.

• Arthur Cayley (born c.1615, died c.1684), who captained a royalist troop of horse in the Civil War, and surrendered after the battle of Marston Moor. His lands were confiscated and plundered, and he had to pay a heavy fine to the parliamentarians in order to regain them. This fine was reduced in 1649 to one of £20 a year, Arthur Cayley was knighted in 1660 for services to the royalist cause. He settled near Coventry, Warwickshire, and was one of the Warwickshire gentry often called upon to collect taxes for Charles II. In 1683 he was a Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire. Arthur Cayley’s first wife was Mary Oldfield (d. 1643), daughter of Anthony Oldfield of Spalding, Lincolnshire: it seems she had no children. His second was Hesther Simonds, daughter of a London gentleman, and they had two children:
  • Mary Cayley (d. 1714) who married Sir Samuel Marrow)
  • Arthur Cayley, whose son, another Arthur Cayley (b. about 1669), was vicar of Brompton, Yorkshire from 1714 to 1728 and of nearby Allerston from 1728 to 1735, when he probably died, and had a wife called Sarah. This Arthur and Sarah had at least three sons:
    • William Cayley (d. about 1748);
    • Robert Cayley (c.1716 to 1784), who was vicar of Hutton Buscel, Yorkshire and a prebendary of York
    • Robert Cayley (c.1718 to 1784), rector of Belton, Suffolk, who married Mary Overton. Robert Cayley and Mary Overton had a son, William Cayley (1761-2) and four daughters, one of whom was Ann Cayley (c.1773 to 1787)
• Thomas Cayley (1617-1622)
• Anne Cayley (born c.1618) who married Thomas Davile of Kirby Fleetham, Yorkshire
• Thomas Cayley (1623-1643) who died fighting for Charles I (in times past it was common when one child died young to give a later child the same Christian name)
• Elizabeth Cayley, who married Robert Colthurst of Up Leatham, Yorkshire, and whose dates are uncertain

Sir William Cayley, the first baronet, and Dorothy St Quintin had at least eight children:

• Edward Cayley (1633-1642)
• William Cayley (c.1635-1708), 2nd baronet, who in 1653 married Mary Holbech (d. 1709), daughter of Barnabas Holbech, a Warwickshire gentleman, and Mary Oldfield
• Mary Cayley (b. 1636), who married Thomas Simpson of Ryton, Yorkshire
• Arthur Cayley (c.1639-1739), a barrister, who lived at the Low Hall, Brompton and married Elizabeth Shipton (d. 1688), daughter of a Yorkshire MP
• Cornelius Cayley ⑂38 (1634-1734), another barrister, who in 1681 married Ann Tyrwhitt from a Lincolnshire family
• Anne Cayley (c.1647-1719), who married Christopher Hewley, a draper of York
• Hugh Cayley (1644-1666)
• Dorothy Cayley (c.1664-1695) who in 1695 became the second wife of Sir John Legard (1659-1715), second baronet of Ganton, a place close to Brompton. The Cayleys and Legards were to have further links in the coming centuries.

From Arthur and Cornelius Cayley descended important junior lines of the Cayley family.