Mary PAYNE - Cookham

[jillruss]

Can anyone help me find the baptism of MARY PAYNE (PAINE) in about 1735-50 please?

I think she's likely to have come from Cookham as that's where she married in 1764 - and her husband Francis came from Hurst.

I know that Cookham is supposedly covered on the IGI but , in my experience, the coverage of any particular parish isn't always as complete as you'd think!

Going by naming patterns, her father's name is likely to be Francis, James, Thomas or Charles.

Thanks,
Jill.

[colinsorigins]

Hi Jill

I certainly endorse your comments about IGI coverage.

I wonder whether Mary was born in Cookham.   As you know, there is no significant presence of the Payne family there.   The earliest marriage is John Payne 1761[could this be Mary's brother?], and the earliest baptism is 1781.

In a quick look at the IGI baptisms for Cookham I found at least one entry for each of the years from 1735 to 1750, so it is unlikely that complete pages have been missed.   Therefore if Mary is there, the transcriber either missed a single entry or miss-transcribed it.   It would be too much of a coincidence for the transcriber to have missed other Paynes, so Mary would be the only Payne baptism from the start up to 1781.

It is possible that Mary had family connections in Hurst before her marriage, which may explain why she married somebody from Hurst.   There is a continuous presence of the Payne/Pain(e) name in the Hurst parish register from 1589 to the present day;  unfortunately, Mary was not born in Hurst. {IGI only covers Hurst baptisms up to 1607}

Good luck

Colin

[jillruss]

Hi Colin,

Thanks for your efforts.

No, I couldn't find Mary's baptism in Hurst either even though there are lots of Paynes there over the years.

The best I can find on the IGI is

1744 Lambourn, Berks , daughter of Francis Paine and Mary - but Lambourn is quite a distance away

1737 Eton, Bucks, d/o Thomas Payne which is a bit nearer but a bit too early as her last child was baptised in 1786.

I don't suppose there's any kind of connection between Hurst and Lambourn e.g. an old road?

Jill

[colinsorigins]

Hi Jill

I don't think there is super-highway between Cookham and Lambourn.   There are plenty of villages in and around Cookham where she could have been born.

I would estimate that less than 30% of parish registers and entries there-in are covered by the IGI  -  I am sure somebody will give a better estmate if I am wrong.   As examples, Maidenhead and New Windsor are promising places to look for Mary, but neither is covered by the IGI for the period of Mary's birth.

It is worth noting that Cookham is on the river Thames which is the county boundary with Bucks.   Two promising parishes are Burnham and Marlow  -  neither of these is covered in the IGI.

Eton is across the river Thames from Windsor, and seems a perfectly reasonable place for Mary to have been born;  there is a Payne presence over many years.  I would have no problem with Mary's age when she gave birth to Charles[and we do not know how old Charles was when baptized] - I have several mothers in my tree who were mid-forties.

What would be useful is Mary's age at burial.   There is a Mary Simmonds buried Cookham 12 Feb 1799, but no age is given and this could be the daughter Mary - there are no later burials.

Two Cookham burials which could be of interest are Thomas Payn 1 Oct 1797 and Mrs. Elizabeth Payn 10 May 1807.   Neither was baptized in Cookham and we could speculate that they were Mary's parents who had migrated across the river from Eton to Cookham.

I think Mary of Eton is a viable candidate but proof will be difficult.   It is always worth checking the original parish records because transcriptions can leave out vital information;  for instance does the parish register for the burials of Mary or Elizabeth include the comment "wife of", or does the marriage of Mary state of this parish?   The best proof would be Mary' gravestone with her age on it.

Good luck

Colin

[jillruss]

Thanks Colin.

Interestingly, I've found a marriage for the Thomas Payne who is the father of the Mary Payne baptised in Eton in 1737 and it is to an Elizabeth - Elizabeth Godwin in 1735. So this adds weight to your theory that they could be my Mary's parents who moved over to Cookham after the births of their 4 children 1736-49 and whose burials you found in Cookham.

Thanks so much for the advice and help. This is certainly a theory that I'm going to look further into.

Jill