© 2016 David E. Spencer
The earliest of the Trood family we found was Mathew Trood, born about 1740, who in 1763 at Broadclyst married Mary Walrond, the daughter of Benjamin Walrond. Mary had been baptised at Huxham where several of the subsequent Trood family members were "hatched, matched and dispatched". Benjamin Walrond's Christian name and surname are perpetuated within the Trood family history. The graves nearest to the entrance to Huxham Church are Trood and Walrond family members - this is an indication of their prominence in the life of this tiny village.
Mathew's marriage to Mary Walrond was, according to the Parish Register, a marriage by licence. A check at Devon Record Office failed to locate the licence (unlike all the others we searched for) so we assume that it is lost. Mathew was a prominent member of village society - he was a yeoman, churchwarden and Overseer of the Poor for the Parish of Huxham.In consequence there are many documents signed by him that survive. There are many indentures of apprenticeship issued by him, and later by him and his son Thomas. These were the means by which poor children of the Parish were apprenticed to local employers (mainly farmers and including some to Mathew himself).
Mathew had three sons - Thomas, Matthias and Benjamin.
Thomas never married. Like his father before him he was Overseer of the Poor at Huxham. On his death he is described as being a gentleman. When he died in 1849 he left an estate of £10,000 mainly to his two brothers. The younger brother Benjamin does, however, seem to have inherited rather more than the family of Matthias.
Huxham Church in 2006
Location of Thomas's grave near the church door at Huxham
The gravestone of Thomas Trood
Matthias was baptised in 1766 at Huxham. Like his parents he married by licence but his marriage allegations / bonds have survived and are kept at the Devon Record Office at Exeter. They were married at Huxham in 1798. His wife was Charlotte Bear, baptised at Huxham in 1773, the daughter of Richard Beer and his wife Ann.Richard and Ann (nee Newberry) had been married by licence in 1758 at Huxham.The documents for this licence are also at the Devon Record Office.
Matthias was like his ancestors before him, a yeoman. he and his wife had 3 daughters and a son who survived to marriageable age. A fourth daughter died in infancy.
• Mary was the eldest child of Matthias and Charlotte.She was baptised in 1798 at Huxham and married a farmer called Francis Richards at Broadclyst in 1820.
• The second child and eldest son of Matthias and Charlotte was , like his father, called Matthias.He was a farmer at Broadclyst. He was baptised at Broadclyst in 1801 and was married by licence (the documents survive at the Devon Record office) at Topsham, Devon in 1828 to Mary Trott (baptised in 1806 at Cullompton, Devon, the daughter of Henry Trott. There is a prominent gravestone for Matthias still standing in Broadclyst churchyard. To read about Matthias and Mary's family Click here.
• Matthias and Charlotte's third child was Charlotte (baptised 1804 at Broadclyst) who married Henry Copp at Broadclyst in 1835.
• The youngest child of Matthias and Charlotte was their daughter Frances Walrond Trood who was baptised in 1817 at Broadclyst. She married George Salter Snell, a farmer from Ottery St. Mary, Devon in 1835. Frances died in 1854.