RootsChat.Com

The will is challenging. After John HALL getting a moiety (half share) he mentions Nathaniel HALL I think getting the other half before Catherine. I cannot make out what comes after her name. Brother GIBSON (his wife's brother) is mentioned.

I'm stuck at this time. The HALLs of Newsham and the HALLs of Byerside seem to be related, but there's no tree filling the gap in years around 1700 to 1750. These HALLs seem to link back to Gretford in Lincolnshire, possibly the Thomas HALL of Kettlethorpe and Amy MILDMAY marriage. None of it helps with my quest though.

I was reading a book about how 'uneducated' people got into the church, how grammar schools were able to educate children who the became priests. The main thing I learned from that is that there are many more documents still held by the church that probably contain the information I need, letters a reports on how or why a person was accepted.

I'm now researching life around Chew Magna and possible family links from my tree.

Unfortunately, the more I look the more it gets complicated. The CHAL(L)ONER families are implicated, along with the LASCELLES, TROTTER, LAWSON and GIBSON, intermarrying and associating with each other more than once. A CHALONER is on a church memorial along with a TROTTER, I think I saw a HALL, LASCELLES and CHALONER together in another article about the HALL's quarry.

They all cross each others path in Durham, Lancaster (HALL-STEVENSON property?), Egglescliffe, Elwick, Guisborough (Skelton Castle included). Some are also found in York. Properties were passed to brother Thomas HALL (General) by HALL-STEVENSON, so Stotfold and Elwick are mentioned in his will.

There are two trees mentioning Lincolnshire, the Byerside tree started my search there and inspired my search for MILDMAY connections assuming that HANNAH MORE was right about John HALL's ancestry. There are mistakes though: Lawson TROTTER is shown as 'died unmarried' but I have him marrying Dorothy LOWTHER and they produced a dau. Elizabeth. George Lawson HALL, a colonel in the army had, I presume, an illegitimate child the year after his wife died, as there's a birth for 'George Lawson HALL or KETTLEWELL' in 1761, and several more generations of people withe the same name.

The Durham archives provides many references to these people and British History Online helps. The 'History of Mount Grace' book has the LASCELLES tree.

Regarding the GIBSON ladies: We have Dorothy who married William LASCELLES whose descendant became vicar of Gilling. I'm struggling to understand how many generations fit between William and the vicar, two or three.
Dorothy's sister Frances first married Joseph HALL, whose grandson John married Anne STEVENSON and he took the name HALL-STEVENSON. Frances secondly married John STEVENSON, a descendant of the MANNERS line, and his grand-daughter was the Anne STEVENSON who married John HALL. Anne's mother was not Frances, so the gene pool was not compromised!
The MANNERS line can be traced back to Lincolnshire and includes a marriage to a MILDMAY of Essex. It also includes a couple of links to the WHARTON name, Anne STEVENSON's father, Ambrose, married an Anne WHARTON.
The John HALL I'm interested in doesn't seem to be in any of the trees I've seen now that I know he is not the son of General Thomas HALL (1725-1809).
There were a number of HALL families in Rutland and Lincolnshire, including a Thomas HALL who married a MILDMAY at Kettleworth, Lincs, but they do not match the people in the Skelton HALL families so I'm still wondering what was in that document that the Rev Francis POYNTON had regarding the Rutland families.
Joseph HALL who married Elizabeth TROTTER is the right age to be my John HALL's grandfather, and his sons, including Thomas were great candidates for father. I'm still looking at George as a possibility, but if not him then I go back to the story that Joseph HALL was the only son of Frances who survived, so I'd then have to go back more generations to find a more distant cousin who was appointed as curate at Gilling.

It looks like I might be going back to square one or two. I found the will of General Thomas HALL of West Wratting in Cambridgeshire who owned a lot of property around West Colville. In the will he mentions wife Elizabeth, daughter Elizabeth, and son John. He mentions other property in Elwick, Durham, and Lancashire. His brother-in-law is John Carter POLLARD. Thomas married an unknown CARTER from Cambs. according to an online tree. The Elwick reference matches the will of John HALL-STEVENSON.
Most importantly, Thomas mentions Corbetta HALL, his niece, who must be the daughter of TH's brother George Lawson HALL and Corbetta MANNERS.
While daughter Elizabeth is shown marrying John MORSE (1776-1844) of Sprowston Hall and Bagthorpe in Norfolk, in 1800, son John HALL is not mentioned much in the will. A web search for HALL West Colville brings up John's history as the Squire, he died in 1860.
Elizabeth the daughter was born in 1775 I believe.
I'll have to do some more research for a John HALL, son of an army man as well as dig deeper into the CARTER side now I have the full name.

A note about Thomas HALL, son of Joseph HALL and Catharine TROTTER.
Thomas' brother John, who changed his name to HALL-STEVENSON has a will (1785), and names Thomas, his brother, several times. One reference calls him Lieutenant-General Thomas HALL. The list of British Generals on Wikipedia names Thomas HALL as being promoted to General in 1796 and died in 1809.
Wikipedia references the Book of Dignitaries, Generals of the Army, and in appointments for May 8 1796 lists Thomas HALL, died 1809, age 84. That age matches his known baptism in 1725. I am going to assume that this is the father of John HALL, curate of Gilling and vicar of Chew Magna.
Unlike his brother George Lawson HALL who has a bit of history online, i am yet to find any other army records for Thomas HALL.