records

[JaneyCanuck]

coralreef - if you're still reading --

I have recently decided that the John Hoare of the two bastardy bonds is my greatx4 grandfather. Lucky me.

He is not the John Hoare who was the father of Elizabeth Hoar borne 1766 / who married John Merrifield.

I have collected a load of info about him from the OPC site and elsewhere. His two actual wives (after his relationship with Elizabeth Harris) were Catherine Harpur and Maria Hugh(e)s. He married Catherine Harpur at St Enoder in 1783; she drowned in 1798 in Lamorran, and he married Maria Hughes in 1803. He had numerous children with Catherine in St Erme and Lamorran, and numerous more with Maria, who was some 25 years younger than him and had had one child before her marriage to John Hoare. He was resident in Newlyn when he married Maria Hughes (who was from Lamorran) and his last child was born in St Columb Minor in 1820.

I imagine he was the John Buncombe Hoare (the name is more commonly Bunkum) born in St Enoder in 1753, son of Francis and Hannah. (He shows in several online family trees as born in 1854). Their other children who show at the OPC site are Francis 1758 St Enoder and Ann 1760 St Enoder. (My woman, who seems to be an unrecorded daughter of John Hoare with one of his wives or someone else, named her first child Francis.)

So the bastardy bonds were at the beginning of his career -- they were in the two years before his first marriage, to Catherine Harpur.

For him (baptised in 1753) to be the father of Elizabeth Hoar born 1766, he would have had to be somewhat older, unless he began his career very early indeed. He was likely buried at St Columb Minor in 1828 at age 74. (Although if baptised in May 1753 he would have been 75 in October 1828, the rest of the details of his life make it pretty certain these were his baptism and burial.)

The Elizabeth Hore who was baptised in 1766 in St Austell was the daughter of John and Dorothy. There was also an Elizabeth Hore baptised there in 1767, daughter of Benjamin and Joan. And an Elizth Hore baptised at St Mary Truro in 1766, daughter of Wm and Jane. (All at the OPC site.) Was there an Elizabeth Hoar baptised in St Clement?

But ... I'm afraid I am lost -- someone born 1766 didn't marry 1762.

John Merrifield married Elizabeth Hoar in 1789 in St Roche. ("The Register records the groom's surname as Merrifield, but he signed Merifield") Is this your couple? (Oops, sorry, I just realized you must have meant John Merrifield was born in 1762.)

Anyway, I wanted to put the record straight on John Hoare of the multiple liaisons, and also wonder whether you know anything else of your Elizabeth Hoar's family. I'm looking for Hoar(e)s (or Hores) from that area who might be interested in doing DNA testing to help out with a puzzle I and someone I have just met have run into. Elizabeth's descendants wouldn't count, as we need YDNA from a straight line of men with the surname. If you know of anyone, I'd love to hear!

[coralreef]

The reason I beleaved this John Hoare was in my family is that on one of the two Basterdy Bonds I have
downloaded has John Merryfields name on it as a witness I have not worked on that tree for a while
coralreef

[JaneyCanuck]

Ah, interesting -- I'd copied the contents of the bonds and I see that, now: the bond dated 1782 (the first one) for the child Jenifer.

I also wonder, given that the other bounden was Stephen Hore/Hoare, whether he wasn't maybe John's father. There is a marriage in St Enoder in 1739 of Stephen Hore and Jane Carden; "my" John Hoare seems to have been born in St Enoder in 1753. He could also have had a brother Stephen. No other luck finding any records to match those possibilities. And the other son of the woman I believe was his daughter was Stephen.

Nonetheless, that still leaves John 1753, who I think was pretty certainly the John named in the bastardy bonds, not likely fathering a woman born in 1766.

However, I might wonder whether Elizabeth 1766 was his sister, and John Merrifield his brother-in-law.

I would still look at the Elizabeth 1767 Gwennap / Betsy 1867 Roche. Those seem to be the same child, in fact: the couple, Stephen and Philippa Hore, also had a son Stephen baptised in both Roche and Gwennap a few weeks apart in 1770. I mean, it seems unlikely that two couples with the same name were having identically named children in two different places at the same time. There are also baptisms for parents with those names in Roche and Gwennap, a few weeks apart, with the child(ren)'s names Ann and Mary. Seems odd, but the idea of it being a different couple and different children seems odder. Roche is where your Elizabeth Hoare married John Merrifield in 1789.

John Merrifield died in Roche Feb 1845 aged 77, i.e. born c1767-68 -- this looks like your John Merrifield?
And Elizabeth Merrifield died in Roche Feb 1837 aged 72, i.e. born c1764-65 -- is she the right one?

That John would not have been of an age to be witnessing the bastardy bond in 1782 himself, I think.

I guess it's the details of your Elizabeth Hoare and John Merrifield we're really needing (baptisms, children, burials, if you have them).

I'm more inclinded to think your Elizabeth was not a daughter of "my" John Hoare, still, and that she was possibly a sister or niece of his.