RootsChat.Com

I've always been a bit dubious about the use of DNA testing and genealogy, and I don't have a very scientific brain to wholly understand if it would really give me more than a general idea of where in the world my ancestors come from in the distant past, but I have blood group B+ which I inherited from my mother and which I understand is rare in England. All the ancestors I have traced (and I have gathered a lot over the years) are English, the only query line I have is my mother's father who was born in Australia in 1895. His mother's family came from Lancashire but he was illegitimate and I haven't been able to trace his  father. My grandfather, unusually, had black hair and blue eyes - which neither I nor my mother inherited.

Might a DNA test suggest a line of enquiry for me?

Carole

When is a marriage not a marriage? Has anyone got any ideas about something that has been baffling me for several years now - sorry if it’s a bit longwinded - I made it as short as I could!

The Rev John Smith was b.c. 1735 and studied at Caius College Cambridge and got his BA in 1756 and MA in 1759. He  was Greek and Hebrew lecturer at the college until 1780 when he took the living of Bratton Fleming in Devon, exchanging it the next year for Mattishall in Norfolk where he became a neighbour and acquaintance of James Woodforde and appears regularly in his Diary of a Country Parson. Smith was apparently a bachelor and there is never any mention of a wife. In 1784 he made an offer to marry a widow Elizabeth Davie “after his mother’s decease” (she died in 1786)
but withdrew the offer the next year, blaming her for going off with someone else (Elizabeth never re-married).

In his will PCC PROB 11/1399/166 dated 15 April 1795 (he died in 1803) he left his wife Frances, formerly Brace, a life interest in his Mattishall property, £500 and most of his household effects. Other beneficiaries were his niece Frances, the wife of Leonard Hampson of Luton and nephew the Rev Thomas Cave of Bedford. A lot of the will is about the legality of  his marriage:

“The said Frances Hampson and the said Thomas Cave or either of them who shall so dispute and call into question the legality of my marriage with my said wife Frances Smith or shall prosecute or commence any such Suit at Law or in Equity shall forfeit and absolutely lose and be deprived of the rest residue and remainder of all my Estates and Effects  .... and finally to remove all doubts and suspicions that may be entertained by the said Frances Hampson and the said Thomas Cave or either of them respecting the certainty and legality of my aforesaid marriage I refer them to my Books of Accounts to my said wife Frances Smith and to such living witnesses as she may be able to produce after the time of my decease from anyone of which they may receive such evidence or so ought to prove perfectly satisfactory and restrain them from making any attempts to controvert my assertions or to set aside any part of this my will.”

If either started a lawsuit their inheritance was to go to “Sarah the daughter of the late William Wills of St Neots in Huntingdon and Harriot his wife”

Frances was made sole executrix but renounced execution of the will which was done by Frances Hampson and Thomas Cave.

I am pretty sure I have the right Frances Brace - she was born in Tempsford Beds in 1746 and one of her sisters, Henrietta, married William Wiles an Innkeeper in St Neots and their eldest child was called Sarah - not quite, but near enough to the people mentioned in Smith’s will. Frances Brace lived with them, died in 1813 and was buried in Tempsford. She made an Archdeaconry of Huntingdon will in which she called herself spinster and made no mention of  either John Smith or Mattishall.

I can’t find a marriage - surely - especially as he was a clergyman Smith would have known that a legal marriage would have to be performed in church and easy enough to confirm by the register? I’m guessing the marriage took place while he was at Cambridge at a time when married Fellows were forbidden to live in College as he did, but what other form of marriage could that be? A marriage that he considered to be perfectly legally binding but one that it appears she did not?

Carole

Does anyone know if the Morning Post newspaper pre-1801 is online anywhere? It starts in 1801 on the British Library Newspaper site and I guess the same applies to it on Findmypast as I've been unable to find what I'm looking for on it.

I want to check a story that was supposed to have been published on 22 March 1777 about the Herefordshire Giant, a chap called Edward Longmore at St Mary's Hendon, and that although he was supposed to have been buried 15 foot deep, the anatomists dug him up and stole his body.

This is referenced on British History Online, and also apparently is the basis for most about him that comes up on a Google search. All I've found searching the BL Newspaper site are reports of his death on 24 January in The Scots Magazine and Northampton Mercury. As a lot of newspapers at the time seem to have copied their content from other papers I'm surprised that none of them picked up on such a story and published it themselves.

Thanks

Carole

Can anyone help me locate the Service Record of Sergeant Herbert Cartwright 46730, "D" Bty. 108th Bde., Royal Field Artillery? I can find him on Ancestry under soldiers who died in the war - that has a date of 18 July 1917. The CWWG website says he died 15 July 1917 and the family believes he died on 19 July 1917. He was born in Walthamstow in 1890

He was awarded the Military Medal on 22 January 1917.

I'd be very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction (if there is one!)

Thanks

Carole

I've looked at a good few parish registers over the years but I've just seen two new (to me) entries from the register of St Mary at the Walls in Colchester, Essex:

John Gilson widower & Sara Wiggoner widow both of St Peters parish in Sudburie were married after ye Scotish manner June 14 1644 by me Ro. Mercer

John Gooday singleman & Elizabeth Earle singlewoman were married after ye Scotish  manner Februarie ye 16 1644/5

What was the Scottish manner?

I know this was during the Civil War and I've a hazy recollection reforms bought in by Archbishop William Laud and of services being conducted differently in some churches, is this something to do with that, or the fact that there was a lot of Puritanism in Essex at the time?

Carole