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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Norfolk => England => Norfolk Lookup Requests => Topic started by: philipsearching on Saturday 07 May 16 15:14 BST (UK)
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On 2 October 1730 William CLARK married Susan BROUGHTON in Litcham
They lived there, had seven children (1731-1745) and died there (1777 and 1783)
I have searched the Litcham register images on familysearch - no Clark or Broughton baptisms from c1680 to 1730.
Using a soundex search on freereg for baptisms in Norfolk 1680 to 1720:
Susanna Braighton baptised 1713 Marham (about 18 miles west of Litcham)
Using a soundex search on freereg for baptisms in Norfolk 1680 to 1720 and narrowing it down to parishes within about 30 miles of Litcham:
William Clark baptised 1698 Beetley
William Clark baptised 1700 Bylaugh
William Clark baptised 1713 Horningtoft
freereg has no burials for William Clark that I can relate to my two candidates.
freereg has a marriage North Elmham 1736 William Clark to Ann Hart.
Beetley, Bylaugh and Horningtoft are all within 5 miles of North Elmam.
Beetley, Bylaugh and Horningtoft are from 5 to 10 miles east of Litcham.
So, I have three questions:
1) Is it reasonable to believe that Susanna Braighton of Marham is the Susan Broughton who married in Litcham?
2) Is there any way I can identify which William Clark married Susan?
3) Can anyone come up with other Susans or Williams which I may have missed?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Philip
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I would say that Susan Broughton could be Susanna Braighton- the names Susan/Susanna seem to be pretty interchangeable in my experience and I've seen far more mangled surname misspellings. But there could easily be another Susan closer to Litcham whose baptismal record has not survived. That's always the problem with "best fit" records.
Equally your William Clark could be one of those you've listed or could be another from further afield who had travelled to Litcham for work.
Are there any clues among the names of the 7 children that might derive from their grandparents' names?
Beetley William has Richard and Mary, Bylaugh is Thomas and Mary while Horningtoft has Willliam/Alice. Susanna also has a father Thomas but no mother's name, sadly.
A Richard or an Alice among the children would be helpful!
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For other researchers the children are
James bap 8 August 1731
Martha bap 9 December 1732
Anne bap 14 June 1734-17 August 1734
Mary bap 25 September 1737-18 February 1738/9
Twins
(Susan bap 30 September 1739- 14 November 1739
(Mary bap 30 September 1739
Susan bap 6 January 1740/1
William bap 23 July 1745.
If they kept to naming patterns James is his father, Martha her mother.
Mary has some significance as it was used again after the death of the first Mary, although Ann was not unless I missed one.
Susan of course is for William's wife
I count 8 children.
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Thank you so much for your efforts and ideas.
I think until I can conclusively rule out any alternative Susan BROUGHTON baptisms (by checking that every parish in Norfolk has online records and there are no matches) I will have to consider that Susanna BRAIGHTON is "most probable" but not 100% definite. It is possible (though very unlikely) that she could have been baptised in another county - but in that period people from outside Norfolk did not seem to be moving into rural parishers in Norfolk.
The names of the parents of the potential William CLARKs don't seem conclusive enough to identify one stand-out candidate, so I may have to accept that I won't solve that one.
Philip
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Susan Braighton of Marham would have been 17 when she married 1730 if baptized in 1713, this would have required permission of her father or guardian and so noted in the marriage entry.
Not every parish in Norfolk is on line, some that are on line have only partial transcriptions.
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Susan Braighton of Marham would have been 17 when she married 1730 if baptized in 1713, this would have required permission of her father or guardian and so noted in the marriage entry.
Not every parish in Norfolk is on line, some that are on line have only partial transcriptions.
And others have quite a bit of wear, damage and stains. I've searched parish records for a record that I know, from other records, must exist, only to find that the bottom of the relevant page is faded or torn or marked "water stains."
What is the condition of the Litcham records and those of the surrounding parishes?
It's a pity there is no James & Martha among the parents of the Williams and Susanna you've found.
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Susan Braighton of Marham would have been 17 when she married 1730 if baptized in 1713, this would have required permission of her father or guardian and so noted in the marriage entry.
Not every parish in Norfolk is on line, some that are on line have only partial transcriptions.
And others have quite a bit of wear, damage and stains. I've searched parish records for a record that I know, from other records, must exist, only to find that the bottom of the relevant page is faded or torn or marked "water stains."
What is the condition of the Litcham records and those of the surrounding parishes?
It's a pity there is no James & Martha among the parents of the Williams and Susanna you've found.
The Litcham register (and those for nearby parishes I have seen) are in quite good condition - although I haven't yet checked every parish.
If the baptism and marriage are for the same Susan, and if she was baptised soon after her birth, she would have been under 18 and required permission to marry. It is possible she lied about her age and married in a parish where neither she nor William (nor anyone of the Clark or Broughton surname) had been baptised.
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Age of consent was 21 in the time period you are researching.
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It is possible she lied about her age and married in a parish where neither she nor William (nor anyone of the Clark or Broughton surname) had been baptised.
Have you considered other variations of the names, eg. Brighting/Briton as there was a Susan Briton baptised in Litcham in 1687 (possibly a bit early for your Susan) there was also a Clark baptised there in 1623
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01hm5/
yokel
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Age of consent was 21 in the time period you are researching.
21 would give her more reason to elope!
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Check for a marriage license, cannot marry by banns unless a resident of at least 3-6 weeks.
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Yokel - I have tried soundex searches of every variant I can think of (Broughton, Browten, Braighton, Brayton, Brighton, Briton, Britain, Braden and so on) on freereg throughout Norfolk as well as searching through the images of the parish registers available on familysearch and the only candidate I have found so far for Susan Broughton in Litcham is Susanna Braighton of Marham.
amondg - That is a very good point about a licence - I had not considered it. On familysearch the banns records for Litcham begin in 1768, so I can't check for banns. At the moment I am ploughing my way slowly through marriage bonds in case I find one to indicate a parish of origin, but so far haven't found one.
Philip