Bright

The Bright line runs through the Hundred of Dunmow in Essex, traced from Mathew Bright of Barnston in the mid-sixteenth century to William Bright of Little Dunmow, who died in 1917. The line is patrilineal — son to father — across ten generations of Essex parish records, anchored in a small cluster of villages in the upper Chelmer valley. Wives appear with each generation; their own ancestral lines, where traced, are documented separately.

10 · earliest documented

Mathew Bright

d. 1646

Barnston, Essex

Elizabeth Gyles

d. 1648

married 7 June 1640

9

Samuel Bright

d. 1643

Great Dunmow, Essex

Jane Anna Philpott

d. 1666 · Great Dunmow, Essex

married 28 April 1618

8

Humphrey Bright

1630 – 1704

Barnston, Essex

Jane Philpott

1647 – 1706 · Great Dunmow, Essex

married 13 October 1669

7

Joseph Bright

1676 – 1740

Barnston, Essex

Sarah Cooke

1674 – 1719 · Barnston, Essex

married 4 October 1702

6

Robert Bright

b. 1712

Little Dunmow, Essex

Sarah Stoaks

b. 1712 · High Easter, Essex

married 26 December 1733

5

Robert Bright

1741 – 1840

Great Easton, Essex

Mary Sewell

1750 – 1838 · Little Dunmow, Essex

married 10 October 1779

4

William Bright

1780 – 1844

Little Dunmow, Essex

Elizabeth Hockley

1788 – 1857 · Great Dunmow, Essex

married 13 September 1802

3

Joseph Bright

1797 – 1859

Dunmow, Essex

Hannah Pavelin

1809 – 1854 · Stow Maries, Essex

married 10 June 1832

2

David Bright

1833 – 1918

Little Dunmow, Essex

Emma Barnard

1832 – 1903 · Little Dunmow, Essex

married 1868

1 · most recent fully documented

William Bright

1857 – 1917

Little Dunmow, Essex

Emma Snare

1860 – 1937 · Lower Kirby, Essex

married 1878

The line continues into the twentieth century through their daughter Minnie Victoria Bright, who married George Pickin in 1917. Her marriage and later life are documented on the Pickin line.