Stockleys of Corfe Castle

[tor_man]

OK, so I've got back to George Stockley b.1645 at Corfe Castle.  This is, I believe the limit of the Dorset Records Office.

Is there anyway that we can go further back or is that the end of the road?

Thanks

[Victor Harvey]

Hi,
Welcome to RootsChat.
You could try contacting the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society - society@sdfhs.org
The National Burial Index lists 44 STOCKLEY burials at St Edward, King & Martyr, Corfe Castle, 1813-1837, and the data has been supplied by sdfhs. I'm sure that you will find more data there.
Good hunting!
Victor

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Tor_man,

I've made a special study of the Stockleys of Corfe Castle. I would welcome a PM to make contact off-line so I can work out where you fit in (unless of course we have already been in contact).

There are two schools of thought on George. Well actually there are hundreds of possible explanations why a number of Stockleys were baptised in Corfe starting in 1668 with parents George and Mary but I have heard of two believable but unprovable ones.

1. George was from Stockley farm in Wareham and took the name from where he came from - I understand this was common back then.

2. George was a military man that happened to be stationed in/near Corfe when he completed his service.

Sadly we have no way of proving either of the above as there seems to be no reliable data about George.

I see this is your first post on Rootschat - Welcome! Everyone is friendly here. You will need to post a couple more times before you can Private-Message (PM) me so just post your thoughts here. Where do you think George and Mary came from?

It is interesting to note that the 1662 Hearth tax records do not show any Stockleys in the list. This does not necessarily prove that George and Mary arrived from outside the parish but it certainly suggests that the Stockley name started elsewhere.

Paul

[Richard Knott]

OK, so I've got back to George Stockley b.1645 at Corfe Castle.  This is, I believe the limit of the

Welcome to Rootschat.

I'm not sure what you mean by the limit of the DRO. they say that their oldest document is from 965, but the parish Corfe records may not start much before 1645. In fact they do have the Protestation Rolls from 1641 (which don't feature a Stockley) as well as three Subsidy Rolls from the 16th century.

Have you browsed these sites? There are certainly 16th century Stockleys in places like Bere Regis, which is only about ten miles from Corfe Castle. There is a will of a John Stockley (1667) which mnetions his son, George, to whom he leaves his cooper's tools.
http://www.opcdorset.org/
http://www.bereregis.org/VillageHistory.htm

Richard

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Richard,

Any chance of a link to the John Stockley Will? The search on the Bere Regis site seems to be not working for me. Or did I misunderstand your post and that was somewhere else?

Paul

[Richard Knott]

Paul

It was under 'Bere Regis Wills' and then '1600-1699'. They are arranged chronologically.

I think I read somewhere that your George had a child who was a mason, so I assumed he was as well, making this cooper someone else.

http://www.bereregis.org/VillagerWills16C.htm

Richard

[Paul Caswell]

Thanks Richard.

I think I've seen this before and disregarded him but as he is about contemporary to our George so he may be worth another look. They may at least be brothers - John is a common name in the line.

Paul

[stevenzstockley]

hi I am a nz relative of joseph and mary stockley who emigrated to Christchurch nz 1880s we have established a great many descendants since then you may have already had contact with
regards steve stockley

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Steven,

Yes I do recall being in contact with a number of NZ Stockley descendants. Give me a few days to try to track down who it was that made contact.

There are also a number in Australia if I remember correctly - it has been some years.

Paul