Additional information, photographs, documents and corrections all gratefully received and added to web site.
EMAIL HOME
The son referred to in the Vicar's notes is William Carless, who married his cousin, Mary Pratchet at Birmingham in 1779. William and Mary were the parents of three key Carless ancestors:
1) Rev. Edward Carless (married Anna Maria Noble, his cousin) died in 1833, no children
2) Elizabeth Carless (married Thomas Attwood) see Attwood Line
3) Mary Ann Carless (married John Freeman) see Freeman Line
Joseph Carless and Mary Knight
Attwood Line
Freeman Line
1 February 1754 - Death of Edward Carless Gent.
Note VI by the Rev. Edward Best in the burial register
One of the Chapel wardens of Bilston for this present year. He was the sixth son of the late Joseph Carless of Corbyns Hall, Esq. by Mary his wife one of the daughters of the late Mr.Richard Knight of Bringwood, the great Iron Master.
Mr.Careless death was occasioned by the following melancholly accident. On Saturday the 19th January; about 2 o'clock in the afternoon he went into his store room, to examine a vessel of spirit varnish that was heating in one of his stoves; & unfortunately, pulling out the cork, the first spirits took fire & with great fury burst over him in flames; and as it was some minutes before he had any assistance, his head, face. neck, breast, shoulders & arms were burnt in a terrible manner.
His wounds however digested well & begun to heal in a kind way; but it was supposed that the nerves which come through the sutures of ye head were injured by the fire & that the meninges were inflamed; which brought on a delirium upon the seventh day & upon Tuesday 29th January betwixt six & seven o'clock in ye evening eleven days after he was first burnt, he died, in the 28th year of his age.
As he was my near neighbour, intimate aquaintance & very good friend, I think myself, in justice bound to give ye following short but true Testimony of his character. The principles of Religion & Industry that were carefully instilled into him, when a child by a tender, prudent & good mother, he as carefully improved, as he advanced in years & knowledge; so that he had,in a manner, the acquisitions and advantages of a Hoary Head, almost as soon as he arrived at the Reason of Man. He had quick parts & a sound judgement; and such was his application to business that he would, in a short time (with ye blessing of God on his endeavour) have aquired a plentiful fortune, not by the too common arts of fraud & over reaching, but by ye only justifiable & more certain method of thriving, industry & punctual dealing; which always afford true peace of mind & make riches really a blessing. He had a just abhorrence of gaming, swearing, drunkeness & ye many fashionable vices of ye present age; He constantly attended the publick worship of God, duely frequented ye holy Sacrament, had a deep sense of the obligations of Religion impressed on his mind and not only lived himself in ye practice thereof, but, as far as was in his power, obliged his whole family to do ye same; thereby fullfilling that noble resolution of Joshua, As for me and my House, We will serve the Lord. In short, he was sober, chaste, temperate, frugal, industrious, pious; kind to his dependents, charitable to ye needy, generous to his aquaintance & sincere to his friend.
He married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Thomas Tomkys of Nechells, Esq. by whom he has left one son, about 9 months old. I pray God bless him, and cause him to inherit his fathers virtues.
St Leonard's Church, Bilston
Richard son of Joseph Carless of Corbins Hall d1755 aged 40 (brass plate).