Info:Davey's MSS in the British Museum - Suffolk Pedigrees

[sunnylew]

The British Library holds a collection of Suffolk Pedigree Manuscripts which were the life's work of David Elisha Davey (1769-1852).

He only ever published one book, which many suffolk researchers might know:  Journal of Excursions through the county of Suffolk, 1823-1844, which is an account of some of his journeys as he researched his pedigrees.

I came upon them quite by chance and ordered the two relevant sections for my family. Because they are already digitised (I think) I ended up with two complete volumes and was amazed by the breadth of work within.

The volumes covered the surnames beginning Blo-Bra and Bro-Bly, and each had 800-900 pages of pedigrees. This gives some indication of what the entire collection represents.

Quite detailed pedigrees are drawn up, all based on wills and extracts from various rolls among other things - but the incredible thing for the age was that he has referenced all of his extracts very well, and the wills in general are transcribed in full - so his pedigrees are provided with the backing of proof.

Many of his references can be checked by searching archive.org, because any published book he used is now well in the public domain, and the others give leads to forgotten collections lost in the Catalogues of the great institutions of the UK.
 
I had great difficulty in finding the Manuscripts, and again today could not find them using the catalogue, but they are in the

"Additional Manuscripts" section, my particular ones being 19119 and 19121.

It is well worth contacting:

Rachel Stockdale
Department of Manuscripts
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London, NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7749
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7787
Email: rachel.stockdale(@)bl.uk

For particular names, as they are very helpful and do have indexes.

If anyone does have a surname of interest beginning with letters between Blo - Bra, and Bro - Brys, I am happy to check my copies to see if your family is contained.  Please contact me by personal message.

Cheers,

Lewis

[youngtug]

hi Lewis, I would be interested to know if blomfield is one of the names . thank you , john.

[sunnylew]

Hi John,

Yes, there's all manner of variants of Blomfield, each with a different section:

Blomvile Add MSS 19119 f.1-2
Blomfield    "      f. 2-3
Blomvile (again) f. 3
Blomfield, of Badingham f.4-9
Blomfield, of Bury    f. 10-12
Blomfield, of Bildeston  f.13-16
Blomfield, of Stonham Aspall   f.17-18
Blomfield         f.19-21
Bloomfield       f.21-22
Blomfield         f.22-32.

All of the folios are double page spreads, and some pages are blank.

If one of those places mentioned is yours, I can let you know a little more about what it contains. I only wish I could post the whole lot so they could be studied.

I'm going to write to the library and see if I can host them on a website, but I doubt it.

Lewis

[youngtug]

hi Lewis.thank you for looking. the family i am interested in were in earl stonham in 1841 but they came from woolpit where i need to trace them. thank you, john.

[sunnylew]

Hi John,

I'll have a bit of a look for you for Woolpit, but be aware that as Davey died in 1852, it is unlikely that he will have traced a connection between places so recent.
You never know, though 

Lewis

P.S. If you can give me any names it would be helpful - after a quick glanbce there are notices from papers up to at least 1844.

P.P.S.  Are Earl Stonham, Stonham, and Stonham Aspall nearby to each other?

[youngtug]

hi Lewis. thankyou. john.

[sunnylew]

Hi John,

I had a scan through - no Woolpits I'm afraid, but have you seen this webpage? - http://www.pbenyon1.plus.com/Den/Woolpit/Woolpit_B.htm

There was a Richard and Lionel in Earl Stonham in the Suffolk Poll of 1702, and pages and pages with people from Stonham Aspall (who at first glance seem to be the forebears of the Bildeston and Bury branches).

Good Luck,

Lewis

[youngtug]

hi Lewis, thank you, the people i am interested in are on the pr for woolpit, so a bit more cross reference. thank you. john

[sunnylew]

Hi John,

I haven't been able to find any mentions of Woolpit in the pages in the manuscripts. If you can give me any relevant names I may be able to help you further, but unfortunately without any references I would not be able to make any cross references.

My best guess is that some people in Stonham Aspall could be related to your people of interest, but without their actual names or vital statistics it is difficult to draw any inferences from the pedigrees in Stonham. All or none of the people born around 1800 or so could be related.

Lewis