“So what happened to the rest of the family?”

~ Wilfred Gayleard

The first evidence I can find of Gayleards in Portsmouth is William Gayleard listed as a saddler. I find him marrying a Elizabeth Ashford around 1803. Although the spelling is often different, I do find him spelled Gayleard in the Portsea Island rate books from 1821 to 1832 either on Oyster Street or Prospect Row. In 1831 he is found in Pigots as running a store.

This is the parish marriage record for William Gayleard and Elizabeth Ashford. Although it if you search for it you will either find it as Gaylard or Gaylord. However what is really interesting in this marriage record you can see that they actually write out their names, and if you look closely enough you can see the name spelled Gayleard.

William and Elizabeth went on to have several children, I have found most of the baptism records for them and I am currently searching the records for more. So far; Elizabeth(1) William, George, Elizabeth (2) and Sarah. There are a few more possibilities, but I will post about them later.

I have edited the information on all the pages to show persons and dates as possible, so it isn’t all crowded. Here is the baptism of both Elizabeth and William Gayleard showing their parents and Elizabeth Gayleard. You will also notice that I have included on the same date William and his daughter Elizabeth Ashford being baptized. I believe that William Ashford is most likely Elizabeth Ashford/Gayleard’s brother. It shows their parents also having the names William and Elizabeth. The date being June 10, 1806. You will notice that Elizabeth is born November 17th, 1804 and William is born October 2nd, 1805.

Here is the baptism record of George Gayleard son of William and Elizabeth Gayleard, the date April 19th, 1807.

I believe this to be Elizabeth Gayleard daughter of William and Elizabeth Gayleard there is a second Elizabeth born to the couple. It appears that they named their second daughter after the first.

Elizabeth daughter of William and Elizabeth Gayleard born July 29th, baptized on September 22nd. And unfortunately she seems to have died a year later.

Continue Reading: 1. William Gayleard 1753 to 1840