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In connection with local history I am now looking at Edward Knipe who bought Ember Court, Thames Ditton in 1649 and sold it in abt 1676.  I have done the usual searches on the web and in ancestry & FindMyPast. I have the will of Edward Knipe and his father Christopher,  but there are some key points on which I should be really grateful for help or additional info. 

Background:
There are rather a lot of these particular Knipes!  Edward was one of sixteen children and it seems the family continued to breed:
Father: Christopher Knipe Haberdasher of London  son of James Knipe, of, Warton, Lancashire, England will made 1 Sep 1623  probate 1624

- m.  Elizabeth Hill, of Cheshire, England 1600 St. Mary-le-Strand, (Boyds Citizens of London) Westminster
    Children     
        1. Christopher Knipe 
        2. Thomas Knipe (father of Thomas Knipe who became Headmaster of Westminster School and is buried with many family at Westminster Abbey)   
        3. Edward Knipe  b 1609 see continuation below
        4. Henry Knipe   
        5. Bartholomew Knipe (possibly emigrated to Virginia, married dau of George Evelyn formerly of Godston Surrey who also emigrated)   
        6. Charles Knipe   
        7. Randolf Knipe,   b. 1622, St. Katherine, Coleman, London, Middlesex
        8. James Knipe   
        9. Philip Knipe   
        10. Jacob Knipe   
        11. Richard Knipe   
        12. Mary Knipe   
        13. Elizabeth Knipe   
        14. Hester Knipe   
        15. Martha Knipe
        16. Susan Knipe 

Edward Knipe
Edwarde Knipe Baptised 1 Oct 1609 Parish:St Katherine Coleman, London Parent Christopher
Knipe: London Metropolitan Archives, St Katherine Coleman, Composite register:
baptisms and burials 1559 - 1666, marriages 1563 - 1666, P69/KAT1/A/001/MS017832.

- elected a factor of East India Company 1630

Q1: My identification of the EIC Edward Knipe with Edward the merchant who bought Ember Court is based on the timeline and contextual circumstances but I would really welcome confirmation.  In "The travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667" Vol III Part II Appendix B page 458: Edward Knipe: "Since he plays an important part in the events of Mundy's third voyage to India in 1655, the information that has been collected
regarding his family history is reserved for a later volume"  Alas I have the five volumes in six parts downloaded, but there is no 'later volume' of the Travels which has that extra information - I would be most interested to track that down!
- 1645 EIC Court Book, vol. xix, p. 274. Court resolves that Knipe shall return to England.
- married Elizabeth nee Watts of Devon (Boyd again)  [Q2:  ?date]
- 1646 EIC Court Book, vol. xx, p. 7: "Mrs. Knipe to receive the calicoes sent by her husband, and the freight to be charged to his account."

- 1647/48 brought home by the EIC

- bought Ember Court 1 January 1649 from Sir Dudley Carleton, nephew of Viscount Dorchester.

- Sheriff of Surrey  1652

- PROB 11/356    Will of Edward Knipe of Thames Ditton, Surrey (will signed 1668)  Probate 1678.  Names wife Elizabeth as sole executrix and beneficiary to dispose of assets among his children (not named).

- last held court at Ember Court 1673 (VCH of Surrey)

Ember Court sold to Shem Bridges who first appears in vestry records in 1676

An Edward Knipe was buried 12 Jan 1677, All Hallows Staining, London; London Metropolitan Archives.

Q3: who were the children of Edward Knipe 1609 - 1676/7 and Elizabeth nee Watts of Ember Court & the City?

Possible progeny:
1.  Edward.  Notes and Queries, Feb., 1918:
In June 1677 another EIC officer was detained for some time at Kasimbazar, awaiting the arrival of Edward Knipe. [ comment: the first Edward Knipe believed dead by this time; EIC connection may suggest a son of same name]

Charles Knipe:
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/thomas-knipe
"(d.1717), a son of Edward (uncle of Dr Thomas), married Jane Needham, a daughter of the Abbey's Receiver General, in the Abbey in 1682 but neither are buried here."

Elizabeth Knipe Burial 16 Jan 1674, All Hallows Staining, London
Parent(s):Edmond [[?Edward], Elizabeth; London Metropolitan Archives, All Hallows Staining, Composite register: baptisms 1642 - 1710, marriages and burials 1653 - 1710, P69/ALH6/A/001/MS17824.

3.  Richard: Richard Knipe, writer is mentioned in EIC court record of 1674

Is there any trace of a burial in Hertfordshire of Robert Stuart Lambert who died 16 September 1836, possibly at Weston?

He was a Vice-Admiral of the Blue.  Confusion exists in obituaries of the time as to the place of death.  The Gentleman's magazine and some other publications (e.g. Burke's Annual Register) give it as "Weston, Hertfordshire" whereas other obits give it as "Thames Ditton", Surrey, where his country house was at Weston House, Weston Green.  The family frequently referred to this as simply "Weston" and I had drawn the provisional conclusion that the writers of some obituaries had erroneously introduced the "Hertfordshire"

However, some small uncertainty remains.  Although as he directed in his Will, there is a plaque in St Nicholas Church, Thames Ditton (in which parish Weston Green was then situated), I and separately, another researcher have not found a burial record or a grave there. 

In his younger years, the mid-1780s, the family did have a connection with Hertfordshire.  For a number of years his parents had a country house at Barham Wood (Borehamwood) and friends in Tring.  However, Robert was at sea during those years.

The year is 1784 and in her diary Catherine Lambert has written on Monday 2 August: "carried Bob to School at Mr. Virgins at Hammersmith"

"Bob" is her eldest son Robert Stuart Lambert (later to become Vice-Admiral Lambert), here aged 13, whom I am researching among other Lamberts.  The school was a weekly boarding school (for she has her boys home about once a week to their house in Mayfair for dinner, usually at the weekend).  They were gentry.  Searches on the web and here have not enabled me to pinpoint which academy this was: can anyone help identify it from "Mr. Virgin" - presumably the Head at the time.

(Bob escaped back to sea a year later, to resume a naval career begun under his father's command at the age of 8, having survived the foundering of HMS Leviathan in 1780, after which his mother seems to have kept him in London for a couple of years!)

Another local history story.

William Speer believed born 1717 died 1805 (Gentleman's magazine) described as a senior clerk in the Treasury. Owned property in Fulham/Hammersmith. Married Katherine nee Wilson in 1759.  She inherited property at Prospect Place, Westminster (later Old Queen St).  That became their London home.  She died 1780 & is buried at Thames Ditton.  On the strength of his Prospect Park property he voted (Tory) in Westminster in St Margaret, estminster, and St John the Evangelist

In 1778 he began acquiring land in Thames Ditton, initially in Weston Green in the NW corner of the parish.  There's a large amount of material at Surrey History Centre of which I'm aware.

For William Speer b. abt 1717
Q1: detailed dpob / dpod for William?

Q2: any fuller details on him esp. his work at the Treasury?

In about 1765 William x Katheriine had a son, also William.  I know that they had at least three daughters, the third of which was Frances died 1861. 
Q3: dates for offspring of William Speer x Katherine?

Q4: definitive address for the property they lived in as their country home in Weston Greem, Thames Ditton? (Not the many farms and other houses William bought to let out). Its not totally clear when William the younger b abt 1760 died: ancestry records give buried Thames Ditton St Nicholas 19 April 1844 in his 79th year curate Henry S Pollard, but Surrey History Centre's Speer papers give May 1846 as the date of his decease in connection with the will, and his descendant in the 1960s in private correspondence with a local historian gave 1845).   I am particularly interested in William the younger.  He bought the Lordship of the Manor of Weston from the Crown Estate in 1801 (I have photos of the full deeds) and ruthlessly added to the Speer land portfolio here and in Esher and Epsom, winding up with 660 acres - almost a quarter - of the parish of Thames Ditton.  His descendants maintain that he sired 19 children but many died in childhood.  I don't yet have the name of his wife nor the marriage details, but I know that she died before 1841.  His eldest surviving son was Wilfred b. 1800, on whom I have some detail (studied at Trinity Cambridge, ordained around 1831, he was suspended from his position as incumbent of Thames Ditton for persistent drunkenness).  Another son was Capt Wilhelm Speer of the 71st Highlanders died 1857.  Daughters included Maria and Cecilia or Cecelia.  Cecilia married Hannibal Sandys 05/12/1825

William the younger also gave his town address as Park Prospect Westminster (and also voted Tory), while his address in Weston Green was probably either (or both of)  Weston Grove or Weston Grange.  His occupation (if other than landowner and property speculator) is unclear.

for William Speer b. abt 1765:
Q5:  definitive dpob / dod?
Q6: marriage and spouse?
Q7: occupation ? (there may be clues in parliamentary records of the secret vote, where he is mentioned in passing: I wonder if he followed his father into the Treasury?).  For one year he was Sherriff of Surrey.
Q8: definitive list of children dob/dod?

Anything this wonderful forum can hunt down would be really useful.  Thanks.

Madge McIntosh, an actress who starred in the premiere of Shaw's play "Mrs Warren's Profession" is another interesting person who, I have just discovered, was for at least a few years in Thames Ditton (Weston Green Road) around 1904 (there is correspondence from her at a TD address in the National Archives).  Quite a lot of data on the web, which I have searched, and in old newspaper archives including The Times, but some basic genealogical details to be filled in by those better able to track people with common surnames than I am.

Madge (that seems to have been her name throughout) was born in Calcutta in 1875.

Q1:  Who were her parents?

She was certainly back in UK by 1894 and starting out in repertory.  In 1895 she was said (in a colleague's memoirs) to be recovering from a broken heart and by 1904 she seems, from the above-mentioned correspondence, to have had a husband - but he is nowhere mentioned in any of the online material I've found.  She always used her maiden name in connection with the theatre and is listed as Miss Madge McIntosh throughout.  So:

Q2: any trace of a marriage, between 1895 and 1904 inclusive, and to whom?

Q3: any trace of children? (I can find none).

After tours in the Antipodes in 1907 and 1912 her career as an actress gave way to work as a producer and before WWI she was involved with the Liverpool Playhouse and an actors' cooperative there during the war years.  Thereafter she produced both in London and points north, and was involved in securing fairer deals for actors and actresses from impresarios; but from 1926 things peter out and I can find nothing except a letter to Shaw in 1933 seeking a part in a new play (rejected)  - especially, no obituary - which is rather sad.

Q4: any obituary?  Where did she die? (UK assumed)

Thanks in advance to anyone of you wonderful contributors here who can add some of these crucial details for another interesting story.