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« on: Sunday 21 April 24 08:19 BST (UK) »
The story handed down in our family was that the first Abbott ancestor in Ireland was a brother of Archbishop George Abbot, sent to Dublin as Master of the Rolls. A cousin of my father was a professional genealogist in the days before the internet, so was familiar with archives and record offices. She looked into it and found that nobody named Abbot or Abbott has ever held that office. What she did find was John Abbott, brewer and steward to the Inns of Court (a master at rolling the barrels, perhaps). I imagine his grandchildren were told “Grandpapa had something to do with the law courts”; John rose rapidly through the ranks with every retelling of the tale, until he held the highest legal office in the land! Such is the stuff as trees are made on.
Rather more recently, and quite by chance, I came across an obituary of someone who had spent all his working life with the George Abbott brewery in Canterbury. I don’t know when that was founded, but if it has been going for a couple of centuries it seems likely that John was a member of the same family and carried on the trade in Dublin. From “brewer, of Canterbury” to “Archbishop of Canterbury” is but a small step for a determined myth-maker.