The Conyers family lived in Helmsley from at least the seventeenth century. John Conyers Hudson was descended from a junior branch of the family through the female line. His great great grandfather was John Conyers of Helmsley, younger brother of Richard Conyers, from whom the main male line descended (the book of genealogical information at DDCV/212/55 was begun by Christopher Conyers [b.1647] the ninth of eleven children had by Richard Conyers). John Conyers' third son, Richard Conyers (1724-1786), was the vicar of Helmsley and husband of Jane Conyers whose household account book is to be found at DDCV(2)/78/2 (the genealogical book at DDCV/212/55 was carried on by Richard Conyers after the death of Christopher Conyers, all his children and his siblings).
Richard Conyers' older brother, John Conyers (1723-1761), and his wife Ann Fenwick were John Conyers Hudson's grandparents and they had three children - John, Richard and Ann. Ann Conyers (1753-1829) married Robert Hudson (1751-1814) and they had eight children, of whom John Conyers Hudson (b.1789) was the seventh. Robert Hudson was a clerk at East India House. This profession was also taken up by his son and there is a small amount of correspondence in the collection relating to the East India Company. John Conyers Hudson married Mary Fothergill, daughter of Colonel Fothergill of Kingthorp in Yorkshire.
John Conyers Hudson has left a few estate papers, letters from the early part of his career and diaries from his later married life. The diaries indicate that he and his wife had several children, some of whom died young. His two surviving daughters, Mary Frances and Anne, died as very young women in 1842. His one remaining child, a son named Conyers Hudson (b.1821), joined the church. Both he and his father were very involved with all aspects of Anglican church life and the cash book for the Church Missionary Society for Beverley 1839-1846 is consequently in the collection. Two small diaries survive for Conyers Hudson but he died a young man. On 24 February 1850 his father recorded in his own diary: 'I am now 60 years of age & my last child is taken from me'. John Conyers Hudson, himself, probably died about 1860 as his diaries, religiously kept over many years, terminate in that year.
