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"This William Brind was born in 1691. He married Mary Coleman of Cricklade, and died in 1732 at the comparatively early age of 41. He had three sons, Henry, Walter and Thomas who all migrated to London probably soon after their father's death, as between 1733 and 1739 all three became apprenticed to the Goldsmiths' Company. Whether these three brothers were related to the William Brind who became similarly apprenticed nearly 80 years before, is impossible to state. "For 180 years, from 1733 to 1913, an unbroken connection of the Brind family with this great City Company was maintained. "The three brothers all became Freeman of the Company between 1742 and 1746, and the two elder were subsequently admitted to the Livery. Henry the eldest seems to have died without issue. Thomas the youngest had sons and grandsons who were members of the Goldsmiths' Company, but there is no trace in the records of his family beyond the third generation. "Walter, the second son of William of Highworth, (who will be referred to throughout these notes as Walter I), was the great-great- grandfather of the Brind family to which the writer of these notes belongs. He had four sons, and several daughters. The two elder sons, William and Henry, died without leaving any children. Thomas the third son became a Freeman of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1782 and rose to the position of Prime Warden of the Company in 1813. He married a Miss Mary Sowley, the daughter of a Jamaica planter, and had two sons, Charles and Thomas, the elder of whom, like his father became Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths Company (1848), and two daughters. All however died without issue. "The fourth son of Walter I was Walter II, who was destined to become the founder of the large family shown in the following tables, and whose descendants have now scattered all over the world, from China to Chile, and from New Zealand to Nova Scotia. "Walter II seems to have followed almost exactly the same career as his brother Thomas. His record with the Goldsmiths' Company is identical, and he became Prime Warden of the Company in 1820. He too married a Miss Sowley, Susannah, whose sister Mary married his brother Thomas. Walter II had a very large family, six sons and six daughters. Of the sons the three eldest, Walter III, William Henry and Edward continued the family traditions in the City, but two of the younger, Frederic and James, struck out a new line and both joined the Bengal Artillery, in which both had distinguished careers. (The careers of these two brothers are briefly recorded on pp 8-11). Of the daughters two had families, Susannah, who married Mr. William Welsh, and Elizabeth, who married Mr Thomas Davies and emigrated to Australia. "The history of our branch of the Brind family may therefore be summarised as follows. Prior to and during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries our ancestors farmed their lands with varying success in the N. E. of Wiltshire. During the 18th and early part of the 19th century our branch carried on business in the City of London and several of them reached positions of eminence in one of the greatest of the City companies. During the 19th century and early years of the 20th the elder branch continued mainly to carry on the family traditions in the City, while the younger branches scattered all over the World, many of them in Government services, civil and military, while several emigrated to the Colonies, as they then were, and to the New World.
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