While at the Dorset History Centre a few weeks ago I came across a collection of family papers for a Pike family that lived at Downshay in the parish of Worth Matravers, Dorset in the 1600s and 1700s. Between these papers and some online searching, the family in question appears to be that of Robert Pike, Esquire, and his wife Sarah (nee Dixon). They seem to have had 4 children:
- Thomas, eldest son, gentleman
- John, second son, described as Rev Mr John Pyke of Sandwich, Dorset in one of the documents at Dorchester
- Martha, who married Thomas Fisher of Hackney, Middlesex
- Elizabeth, who married John Jacob Bennett
Thomas might have resided at Clanfield, Hampshire.
John seems to have married in 1749 to Frances Dover, by whom he had sons John, Thomas and Robert, and daughter Frances (who married in 1781 to John Damer).
I'm wondering if anybody knows more of what became of this family.
- David.
