John Dimes

  General Notes:

With his elder brother likely to succeed to his father's business the younger son was often apprenticed to another trade or skill. In 1696 john was apprenticed to John Raymond the elder, combmaker and Citizen (freeman) of London and in 1703 John himself became a Citizen of London by servitude having completed his apprenticeship. In October the following year, aged about 24, he married Susannah West at the church of St. Catherine by the Tower in London. He set up business in Guildford where they baptised three children, Sarah in 1705, Susannah in 1709 and John in 1713, but his wife Susannah died at Christmas 1715. In 1722 John saw his apprentice, Gilbert Harrison, become a Freeman of Guildford. Gilbert had started his training with a Daniel Burges but for some reason, perhaps his master's death, he had been reassigned to John. By the 1720s John had become an important member of Holy Trinity and was Churchwarden during the years 1723-1725 when his signature appeared on various documents. In October 1735 his son John married Mary Worsfold but not in church. They chose a current fashion, being married in the Fleet, London, where certain clergymen conducted clandestine marriages. Their union was recorded in the book kept by Burnford. Their first daughter, Mary, was baptised at St Mary's, Guildford in 1736, their son John was baptised at Holborn, London in 1739 but he was buried at Holy Trinity two years later and the third child, another Mary was baptised at Holy Trinity in 1747. The last entry in the parish register for this branch of the family is a burial record for John Dimes on 29^th December 1756. Was it father or son?

John married Susannah West on 3 Oct 1704 in St. Katherine's by the Tower, London. (Susannah West was born in Devizes, Wiltshire and was buried on 27 Dec 1715 in Holy Trinity, Guildford.)