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« on: Saturday 03 January 09 15:39 GMT (UK) »
My earliest traced ancestor, John Pearle, was born in 1541 and died in 1637, having lived during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, MaryTudor, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. Now I am trying to create a timeline to cover his life, and find that he was born at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in England. When John was 2, Copernicus published his theory that the Earth revolved round the Sun and in his teenage years Mary Tudor was having martyrs burned in the local market towns. He was 46 when Mary Queen of Scots was executed, 47 at the time of the Armada, and 64 at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. His death in 1637 meant that he narrowly missed both the English Civil War, and an outbreak of Black Death in the village.
Living in rural Suffolk, the things which affected him most were probably the 'little ice age' which started when he was 9, and which resulted in bitterly cold winters and poor harvests, and the occurrences of plague. These seemed to strike the village at intervals, the parish register of the times generally noting the death of a 'travelling stranger' from 'ye plague' shortly followed by more settled residents being similarly afflicted. In addition, towards the very end of his life, a number of Puritan families from the village set off for America to seek freedom from religious persecution.
So his life would certainly make an interesting story but currently I am just enjoying gathering the information to 'bring him to life' again!
Greensleeves
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