In 1567 John Stansfield was born.
Before 17th November 1598 John Stansfield [aged 31] and Eleanor Comber were married.
On 17th November 1598 [his daughter] Eleanor Stansfield was born to John Stansfield [aged 31] and [his wife] Eleanor Comber. She married 27th January 1614 Richard Evelyn of Wotton and had issue.
On 27th January 1614 [his son-in-law] Richard Evelyn of Wotton [aged 27] and [his daughter] Eleanor Stansfield [aged 15] were married.
John Evelyn's Diary. 1625. I was this year (being the first of the reign of King Charles [aged 24]) sent by my [his son-in-law] father [aged 38] to Lewes [Map], in Sussex, to be with my grandfather, Standsfield [aged 58], with whom I passed my childhood. This was the year in which the pestilence was so epidemical, that there died in London 5,000 a week, and I well remember the strict watches and examinations upon the ways as we passed; and I was shortly after so dangerously sick of a fever that (as I have heard) the physicians despaired of me.
John Evelyn's Diary. 1627. My grandfather, Standsfield [aged 60], died this year, on the 5th of February: I remember perfectly the solemnity at his funeral. He was buried in the parish church of All Souls, where my grandmother, his second wife, erected him a pious monument. About this time, was the consecration of the Church of South Malling, near Lewes [Map], by Dr. Field, Bishop of Oxford (one Mr. Coxhall preached, who was afterward minister); the building whereof was chiefly procured by my grandfather, who having the impropriation, gave £20 a year out of it to this church. I afterward sold the impropriation. I laid one of the first stones at the building of the church.
On 5th February 1627 John Stansfield [aged 60] died.
John Evelyn's Diary. I had given me the name of my grandfather, my mother's father, who, together with a sister of Sir Thomas Evelyn, of Long Ditton, and Mr. Comber, a near relation of my mother, were my susceptors. The solemnity (yet upon what accident I know not, unless some indisposition in me) was performed in the dining-room by Parson Higham, the present incumbent of the parish, according to the forms prescribed by the then glorious Church of England.
John Evelyn's Diary. My mother's name was Eleanor, sole daughter and heiress of John Standsfield, Esq, of an ancient and honorable family (though now extinct) in Shropshire, by his wife Eleanor Comber, of a good and well-known house in Sussex. She was of proper personage; of a brown complexion; her eyes and hair of a lovely black; of constitution more inclined to a religious melancholy, or pious sadness; of a rare memory, and most exemplary life; for economy and prudence, esteemed one of the most conspicuous in her country: which rendered her loss much deplored, both by those who knew, and such as only heard of her.