Hannah Armstrong of Cople

[wdurham]

JohnP -

You are a bl@@dy marvel. I knew that already, of course, and have had many causes to thank you in the past, but this is above and beyond the call of duty as it were!

Thank you SO MUCH.

Some untangling required, but I am sure my "distant cousin" will be utterly delighted.

[wdurham]

John -

Have now had a chance to look in detail at the info you dug up, bits David found, and stuff I dug out myself and it seems to pan out like this:

Thomas Tatman, bap 27 Jul 1766, Blunham
Mary Crawley, bap 1 Jul 1770, Cople

Married: 6 Jan 1792, Northill - by licence

Children:
Mary Tatman, born 11 Feb 1792 (!), bap 15 May 1796, Cople
also possible: Thomas Tatman (or Crawley?), b about 1789, no baptism found, buried Cardington 19 Mar 1813 aged 24.

The marriage broke down - not surprisingly, as it seems to have been a shotgun wedding the the first place! They only just made it to the altar before Mary Jnr was born. By 1802, Mary Tatman is in Cople attempting to marry William Armstrong, a widower with existing family. Notably two sons, John and George. Her husband is living in Gt. Staughton.

A Thomas Tatman was buried in Lt Staughton on 13 Aug 1825, aged 59. (A perfect fit with the above baptism in Blunham).

Mary Tatman and William Armstrong had an illegitimate son, Henry, b 1803, who was baptised as an adult on 6 Dec 1826 in Cople.

They almost certainly also had an illegitimate daughter who was not baptised at all. Hannah, b 1806 in Cople, according to later census returns. There may have been a son as well, Samuel, born and buried in 1814, and others who have not yet surfaced.

Mary Tatman Jnr, daughter of Mary Snr and Thomas Tatman, married Joseph Hartop in Cople on 19 Jan 1817. One of her witnesses was her half-brother John Armstrong.

Henry Tatman Armstrong married Maria Cambers in Cople in 1826.

Hannah Armstrong married John Bassett in Cardington on 25 Dec 1827. One of her witnesses was Joseph Hartop, her half-brother-in-law. Joseph would have been her only male relative in the immediate area - her half-brothers John and George Armstrong had both moved away by then to Blunham and Eaton Socon.

William Armstrong was buried in Cople on 11 Feb 1828.

Mary Tatman moved to Cardington, to live with one or the other of her daughters. She died and was buried 26 Nov 1828 aged 57, a perfect fit with the above baptism for Mary Crawley in Cople.

Now, of course, it MIGHT not have been like that...but it all looks to be beyond any reasonable doubt...

Thanks very much, John and David, for helping me piece it together.

NB All IGI info is extractions - member entries (some highly spurious!) have been ignored.

[bedfordshire boy]

Hi Wendy

Have you seen http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BEDFORD/2010-08/1281877367

David

[wdurham]

Thanks, David - I hadn't seen that.

The originator of that thread is one of the Hannah Armstrong descendants I am in touch with - on whose behalf you and John were so helpful!

[bedfordshire boy]

Thought she might have been!

[Richhoo]

I am another very grateful Hannah Armstrong descendant.  I wanted to put a couple of questions to the contributors to this thread about a possible maternal line from Hannah, given some of the Bedfordshire names that are cropping up.

There are detailed family aggregates on the IGI which give the mother of Mary as Margaret Merrill (born about 1745). Her marriage, but not her birth-point, are verified in the Cople parish record. I wonder if those with Merrill/ Crawley family connections have spotted any other records referring to Margaret.

For starters I see there is an IGI aggregate of a large Merrill family in nearby Kempston, father William, mother Sarah Cooper, but no Margaret. The situation has a resonance with Hannah in that Sarah Cooper dies in 1748 and William remarries to have at least one more child according to the parish record.

Many thanks,

Richard

[bedfordshire boy]

Hi Richard

Welcome to Rootschat

My mother is a Beds Merrill, originally from Potton in the late 1600s (her ancestors, not her!). A few years ago when trying to find out where they were from I tried to pull together all the Merrills from mid/north Beds. A dismal failure. I don't think I managed to link any of the families from around that area. The odd non-conformist didn't help either

The Cople Merrills seem to have died out 100 years before the marriage, so I don't think Margaret was from there. The marriage entry, 14 Sept 1766, gives Thomas Crawley as of Willington, but Margaret was otp. She was buried at Cople on 25 Feb 1825 age 85, and Thomas Crawley age 88 on 25 Aug 1826. Burial ages can be unreliable, particularly the older they got.

With no baptism in Beds of a Margaret, and given the number of Merrills around, it will be a difficult task to prove that she was from Kempston, or from any other parish for that matter.

Thomas Tatman of Blunham married Mary Crawley by licence at Northill on 6 Jan 1792. Have you found any other evidence that Mary was the one from Cople, other than their daughter Mary was baptised there in 1796 (born 11 Feb 1792)?

David

[wdurham]

There are lots of Merrills in the IGI christening batch for Cople, up to and including 1667 - then nothing.

Same with the Marriages batch - the last marriage is in 1663.

So they clearly went somewhere!

In the Kempston christening batch there is just one family in the mid-1700s - the William Merrill you mention, married to a Sarah in 1745 when Thomas was christened, and to an Anne by 1750 when Robert was christened, plus five other earlier children. Only the father's name is recorded at the christening of these five. There are no recorded marriages in the relevant marriage batch.

New Familysearch turns up a family in Potton and another in Little Staughton, but no sign of a Margaret anywhere.

I've also checked the various christening and marriage records available on Ancestry, The Genealogist  and Find My Past without any luck.

So thus far, no luck with Margaret - sorry!  

PS I was going to ask you about the marriage record of Thomas and Margaret, but see David has already confirmed it!

[bedfordshire boy]

There's a Thomas Crawley, son of William and Sarah, baptised at Cople on 4 Oct 1741, which would make his burial age of 88 in 1826 reasonably accurate. If Margaret's age was similarly accurate, it would give a birth of c1740

The Kempston marriage of William Merrill, miller, and Sarah Cooper spinster was much earlier than 1745, on 15 July 1722. Sarah was buried on 17 June 1748. William and Sarah baptised their children pretty promptly, although there's a big gap between 1738 and 1745. Unfortunately William doesn't seem to have left a will. It's pure speculation to link Margaret to this family

David