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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Norfolk => England => Norfolk Lookup Requests => Topic started by: jonwicken on Sunday 11 September 11 00:01 BST (UK)
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Hi I wonder if anyone may have access to the registers of Freethorpe?
I have just found from the 1734 Norfolk poll book that my ancestor Simon Panks (bef c1714-1760) had freehold in Freethorpe.
He was resident of 'Rantham' (?Wrentham) at the time and this was the location given on his 1735 marriage at Lound. However after this he moved to Southwold, Suffolk, where he died in 1760.
However I have not been able to trace his origins but, with the emergence of this freehold property, I now wonder if he was originally from Freethorpe.
If anyone may be able to assist me I wonder be most grateful.
Kind regards,
Jon
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Further to my post, I have just had a look at the Norfolk registers online at familysearch.
However for Freethorpe they only start at 1758, while the TNA entry states they hold them from 1755 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=153-pd355&cid=-1#-1
Does anyone know if the records for earlier than this for Freethorpe just do not survive?
Thanks,
Jon
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I wonder if this could be the baptism entry, mistranscribed:
Simon Parks bp.22/2/1710 Burgh Castle, Suffolk, son of James Parks and Elizabeth.
Burgh Castle is just a little NE of Freethorpe.
There also a marriage of a James Panks to Elizabeth Jenkinson 13/10/1708 Bradwell, Suffolk (now Norfolk), Bradwell being immediately SE of Burgh Castle.
Annette
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Well, Annette, I could kiss you! Rootschat never ceases to amaze me.
I have had a look at the image on the Norfolk registers on familysearch and the name is indeed Panks!
Furthermore, there is also a Martha daughter of [blank] Panks who was baptised there in 1709.
She would fit with a Martha Panks who married the same year [1735] and at the same place [Lound] as my Simon.
Thank you so very much for looking into this.
If anyone has any information on the registers of Freethorpe, I'd love to hear.
Jon
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Hi Jon
Pleased to have helped.
Have checked and it seems that the original Freethorpe parish records held in Norfolk Archives only begin 1758 for baptisms and burials, 1755 for marriages.
However, it states that records from 1600 are included in Archdeacons and Bishops Transcripts although I would guess it would be a long trawl searching these.
Good luck.
Annette
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Thanks for this Annette. Following your breakthrough message, I have now found out the following about the Panks family:
James Panks of Bradwell and Elizabeth Jenkinson of Lound, married at Bradwell in 1708.
They had a daughter Martha Panks at Burgh Castle in 1709 and a son Simon Panks also baptised there in 1711 NS.
Two further daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, were baptised at Oulton in 1713 and 1716.
Elizabeth, the wife of James, was buried at Oulton in 1718.
James Panks then remarried at Lound in 1721 to Sarah Thwaits and had four children at Lound:
Sarah Panks (1721 – 1721), James Panks (1724 – 1724), James Panks (b. 1728) and Sarah Panks (1729 – 1730).
His daughter Elizabeth from his first marriage also died at Lound in 1722.
However there don't appear to be any more Panks burials at Lound after 1730, so I think maybe the family then moved to Wrentham.
Simon Panks was living in 'Rantham' at his 1735 marriage and also in 1734, when he is listed in the Norfolk poll book as having a freehold property at Freethorpe.
I am just posting these details here in case future researchers come across the post.
Thanks again Annette.
Kind regards,
Jon
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Just came across this post and I have also messaged Jon as I think we share ancestry. So I’m hoping this research is also what I’m after as well.
As Margaret Panks b 1744 in Southwold as the record is just a transcription on ancestry it says father Simon mother Margt, just wondering if this then could be incorrect and her mother would be Martha?
Margaret Panks then being the mother of my ancestor Maria panks who marries William Colby in 1787. Margaret it seems had 4 children as an unmarried mother before marrying Henry Pritty or Pretty. Which I thought rather unusual to have so many out of wedlock back then.
Any advice would be appreciated
Blessings
Deb
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Hi Deb,
Thanks for the reply to my message. Always nice to hear someone has come across an old thread of mine!
Margaret Panks/Pritty (1744-1826) was indeed the daughter of Samuel Panks and Martha Durrant. Unfortunately the fact that the Suffolk parish registers are still to be put online/transcribed means lots of these lines can't be taken much further back at the moment.
You have perhaps seen though that Margaret's death is recorded in the Southwold Diary of James Maggs: '1826 April 25th I held an inquest upon the body of Margaret Pritty, who died suddenly yesterday. Verdict died by the Visitation of God.'
Margaret's story is interesting having so many children outside of marriage. 'Base born' children are found in all parish registers but it would be interesting to know who her children's fathers were. I doubt though we will ever know.
Your reply did make me have a look again at the Panks family and see if they are are in Freethorpe. The only possibility I could find was a Mary Pamp, wife of James, who was buried in 1724. But this might not be them.
However there are members of the Jenkinson family in Freethorpe which I hadn't seen before. So I now rather suspect that Margaret's father Simon Panks (1711-1760) must have had freehold property there because he inherited something from his mother Elizabeth Jenkinson/Panks' family.
More digging to be done!
Jon
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Thanks Jon ... have filled in best as I can found most of the corresponding records, what a huge job you’ve done.
I hadn’t seen the inquest information for Margaret’s death so that’s interesting.
The Panks certainly seem to move about a bit, but then so do the Albrow family, who Margaret’s grand daughter Margaret Colby marries into. A lot of them where wherryman so assume they travelled via the river?
Interesting that you found a will for Simon’s mother Elizabeth I don’t suppose that’s online too?
Thank you for sharing what you’ve found
Blessings
Deb
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Hi Deb,
Your post getting me to have a look again has led to me finding the will of George Jenkenson of Lound from 1719.
This confirms what I suspected as in it he names his grandson Simon Panks and left him property in Freethorpe.
The will is here:
http://www.suffolkarchives.co.uk/collections/getrecord/GB173_IC_AA1_148_119
So George Jenkenson who died in 1719 was the father of Elizabeth Panks/Jenkinson who must have been born c1671-1690 who married James Panks in Bradwell in 1708. she died in 1718.
George Jenkenson appears to have been married three times, firstly to Elizabeth and had Francis in 1665, Robert in 1669 and Henry died 1670 all at Frethorpe. The parish registers are a a bit patchy for this period due to them being Bishop's transcripts.
George then later married Hannah Carnwell of Hopton in 1710 and after her apparent death in 1713 he then married Margaret Connold in 1714. This Margaret is named in the will.
In his 1719 only his son-in-law James Panks and his four grandchildren Simon, Martha, Margaret and Elizabeth are named so I assume all his children must have predeceased him.
That is where I am at with the family at the moment.
Best wishes,
Jon
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Thank you again Jon for sharing what you’ve found you’ve certainly managed to find out quite a lot. To view the will do I just need to register?
I’ve still got quite a bit of filling in to do but would not have got mich further back without what you’ve uncovered.
Thank you
Deb
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So after doing quite a bit of digging around I have found out the following about the Jenkenson or Jenkinson family of Freethorpe. I will outline this below. Sadly the original parish registers only survive from 1755 and only some pages of the Archdeacon's transcripts for the period before then survive.
For the 1600s less than 20% of the BT entries survive for the following decades: 5 years of the 1600s, 2 years of the 1620s, 2 years of the 1630s, 4 years of the 1660s and 6 years of the 1670s. You can see the issues this holds for genealogy when there are non for the 1610s, 1640s, 1650s, 1680s and 1690s.
Despite this some wills of the periods are helpful and help unlock the Jenkenson family. It is worth remembering to check surnames on the indexes on both the Norfolk and Suffolk records websites for this area as the two counties were so close together.
From this I have been able to put together the following information on the Jenkensons of Freethorpe, Norfolk and Lound, Suffolk.
The earliest Jenkenson entry in the registers for Freethorpe is the 1625 burial of Elizabeth wife of who appears to be Richard Jenkenson. He could link into the other Jenkenson families of Oulton and Halvergate as they have Richards but this is not sure.
Moving on a few years there are some baptisms and burials in the 1660s and from the wills and other parish records the following can be put together.
George Jenkenson of Freethorpe married Elizabeth Hanne of Freethorpe at St Andrew Norwich on 10 May 1654. We can here assume that George was therefore born before c1633 and from the births of her children Elizabeth was born c1625-1638.
George Jenkenson is known from the 1670 Bishop Transcript page of 1670 to have been a church warden and he signed this record with an symbol that looks like an arrow.
This same signature witnessed the will of Henry Jenkenson a husbandsman of Freethorpe in 1698. This will was proved in 1704 and it would therefore seem probable that Henry was George's brother as George named a son Henry. Henry's will names his daughter Ann Jenkenson (prob m. Thomas Day in 1706 and died 1710) and grandchildren Henry Pitcher (then under 21), Elizabeth Pitcher and Katherine Pitcher.
George Jenkenson and Elizabeth Hanne/Jenkenson have three children named in the surviving BTs for Freethorpe: Francis baptised 1665, Robert baptised in 1670 and Henry buried in 1670. However neither Francis or Robert are named in his will dated 1695/6 so like Henry they two must have died.
George's will dated 10 Feb 1695/6 shows he was a blacksmith and this names his eldest son George Jenkenson, a farmer, and his second son Edmund Jenkenson, a blacksmith. Given George and Elizabeth's marriage date and the order of birth of the sons George Jenkenson was presumably born between c1654-1662 and Edmund Jenkenson between c1655-1663. George's will also names his grandson Robert Harth, a minor in 1695/6, so there must have been a daughter who married and predeceased her father.
George Jenkenson I will can be found online here at familysearch...
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C398-ZZKB?i=312&cat=504379
George Jenkenson I was buried in Freethorpe in April 1708 leaving his two sons George II and Edmund alive. His eldest son namesake George Jenkenson II is my ancestor and he moved to Lound in Suffolk. His will and other records help fill in his family line. George Jenkenson II had three wives: Dorothy (d. 1701), Hannah Conold/Carnwell m. 1710 (d.1713) and widow Margaret Wilkinson/Conold m. 1714 (d.1720.)
George II's father's will names his grandson George Jenkenson, so George Jenkenson III, and he is assumed to be a son of George II. However George III died in October 1712 and was buried in Lound. The will of George I in relation to this bequest to his grandson states that George III had a brother and sisters so we can add in at least two more daughters and a son born to George II and his wife.
The registers of Lound show that George II and Dorothy had twin sons Robert and Edmund who were baptised and buried in Lound in January 1697. This was after George I wrote his will so they are not the brother but we know that this unnamed brother in the will of George I must have died as no sons are named in the will of George II.
In fact George Jenkenson II outlived all his children as his daughter Elizabeth, wife of James Panks who she married in Bradwell in 1708, died in 1718. Her unnamed sister or sisters must also have died by then too as no children are named in the will. Therefore the beneficiaries of George II's will were her three children [his grandchildren] Martha Panks (b. 1709), Simon Panks (b. 1710), Margaret Panks (b. 1713) and Elizabeth (1716-1722).
George's brother Edmund Jenkenson died in 1724 and he had a son Francis (baptised 1707) by his wife Martha (d. 1707) and he also had two daughters named in his will, Martha and Wiifred. He later remarried widow Margaret Leeder in 1721 and his will indicates her first husband may actually have been alive at the time of the marriage. It is an interesting part of the story.
And for now that is all I have on the family. I would love to hear from anyone else researching the family.
Kind regards,
Jon
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Wow Jon you’ve done an amazing amount of research and it’s really very generous of you to share all you’ve found. I will need to re read it a few times to put it all together in my mind.
I descend from George the same as you as Margaret Panks is the mother Maria who is my ancestor.
Hopefully I will be able to visit the cemetery at Lound when I take me trip next year so all of this information is AMAZING! Thank you.
I will need a coffee to sit and re read all of this.
Deb
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No worries at all. Good to share.
So your line goes:
George Jenkenson (bef c1633-1708) & Elizabeth Hanne m. 1654
George Jenkenson (c1654/62-1719) & Dorothy (d.1701) (although his below daughter Elizabeth named none of her children Dorothy so there was perhaps a wife before her)
Elizabeth Jenkenson/Panks (c1675/90-1718) & James Panks (bef c1687-aft 1730) m. 1708 [he remarried Sarah Thwaites in 1721]
Simon Panks (1711-1760) & Martha Durrant/Panks/Holsworth (c1712/17-aft 1765) m.1735
Margaret Panks/Pritty (1744-1826)
All for now,
Jon
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Sorry George Jenkenson I's son Robert Jenkesnon was baptised in Freethorpe in 1669, not 1670. A mis-type there.
George Jenkenson and Elizabeth Hanne/Jenkenson have three children named in the surviving BTs for Freethorpe: Francis baptised 1665, Robert baptised in 1670 and Henry buried in 1670. However neither Francis or Robert are named in his will dated 1695/6 so like Henry they two must have died.
George's will dated 10 Feb 1695/6 shows he was a blacksmith and this names his eldest son George Jenkenson, a farmer, and his second son Edmund Jenkenson, a blacksmith. Given George and Elizabeth's marriage date and the order of birth of the sons George Jenkenson was presumably born between c1654-1662 and Edmund Jenkenson between c1655-1663.