Hi all,
All of the many family trees I have seen for "The Shears of Winterslow" have included the marriage between Jonathon Sheath and Mary Forder 28 sep 1693. The trees show links via dotted lines from Jonathon back to William Sheers who is the first Sheers entry in the register via his marriage to Margery Lane 12 Sep 1636.
This all very tenuous. The parish register states the marriage was by licence and that Jonathon was resident Winton [which I take to be Winchester] and this is confirmed by the licence which also states he to be 22 years of age and a yeo. There are no Winterslow register baptism entries about 1670 that could be Jonathon.
There is, however, an entry for the baptism of Jonathon Shears 11 Nov 1687 with no parents listed, and my current hypothesis is that this is the adult baptism for Jonathon Sheath. My reason for this is that there is also a baptism for Deborah Shears with no parents listed about the same time, and there is a subsequent marriage for Deborah Sheath; QED, Jonathon and Deborah must be brother and sister? I can understand the interchangeability of Shears and Sheers spellings, but why Sheath?
Any information [speculation] to illuminate this Jonathon Sheath would be most welcome because he is a crucial link in the Shears family tree.
Many thanks
Colin
