Who was Mrs Sarah Cocks, widow?

Sarah was the daughter of Richard Solme who lived at Hall Place, then Yateley's largest mansion, on the site of what is now Yateley Manor School. Richard was the son of George Solme who had bought Hall Place around 1630. Both were London lawyers. Sarah married John Ball on 3 Sep 1651, but he died in 1670. John Ball lived at Hilfield the second largest house in Yateley, which also had a vast estate. Sometime before she is recorded as giving the Crystal Cup to the Church in 1675 Sarah married her second husband, Nathaniel Cocks. She raised families by both husbands and was

buried in Yateley on 22 Aug 1685. The entry of her burial in the registers describes her as wife of Nathaniel Cocks of Chobham.

The note in the Churchwarden's Accounts recording the gift of the Crystal Cup states that Sarah presented it when she was a widow, ie after John Ball's death in 1670 and before she married Nathaniel Cocks. Her mother, Sarah Solme was buried on 22 Dec 1675, the same year as the gift of the Cup is recorded, but sometime after Sarah made her gift. In her mother's will she is called Sarah Cocks, so the period of her widowhood was between 1670 and sometime before 1675. When she gave the Crystal Cup to the church she was Mrs Sarah Ball, widow. When the gift was recorded by the Churchwardens she was the newly remarried Mrs Sarah Cocks.

Sarah was the daughter of one high status family in Yateley, and married into another. Her first marriage was to the rich owner of the second largest estate in Yateley, and who had other estates in other counties. Sarah was the friend of Sir Richard and Lady Ryves who had recently purchased Hall Place, her father's estate from her brother after he married and moved to his wife's estate in Dorset. Sarah was certainly rich enough to have purchased the Crystal Cup as a gift for Yateley parish church.

Note 2007: I am currently working on the hypothesis that one of Sarah's daughters became Lady Henley of Bramshill. PJT

Back to The Crystal Cup Myths