Accuracy of Boyd's marriage index - Littlewood marriage, 1736

[suffolk*sue]

A possible marriage

Joseph Newcomb
Mary Harrison
November, 1682
St. James, Dukes Place, London

[Poppy Rose]

Thank you Suffolk Sue. That marriage looks very promising. Ties in nicely with the parish records Helen found.

[helvissa]

Hello!

Mystery solved, sort of... I got hold of three Burton wills from Wakes Colne (arrived just now), and the one of John Burton, Nov 1723 (he was buried in Wakes Colne on 6th Dec 1723) gives the following:

He had two sons, Samuel and John.

He had four daughters:

eldest, Mary, married to James Keable
Sara, wife of Thomas Newcomb
Grace, wife of Samuel Newcomb
Rebecca, his youngest daughter, under 21 in 1723.

Samuel Burton, who died in Wakes Colne in 1707 wrote his will in 1706 and he is John's father (the grandson, Samuel Burton, is mentioned).

Samuel also had two daughters - Mary (married to John Kendall, schoolmaster in Colchester) and Anne (married to Ralph Polley). Joseph Newcomb is one of the witnesses to Samuel's will.

The will of Samuel Burton, 1749, mentions Thomas Newcomb and Samuel Newcomb (haven't finished reading it yet).

Interestingly, in John Burton's 1723 will, he mentions that John Bacon is living in his messuage at Chappel, called "The Oak" - it's possible there may be a link there with the Sarah Bacon who married a Newcomb in Tendring, I suppose. The Chappel register is in a poor way and missing a lot of years though.

[helvissa]

Ok, Samuel's will from 1749: As well as mentioning Thomas, son of Thomas Newcomb and Samuel, son of Samuel Newcomb, he also mentions his brother John Burton, and then John Keable, son of James Keable. He mentions Isaac son of Isaac Nicholls - I wonder if Rebecca Burton, his sister, married Isaac Nicholls? I can't find that marriage online, but it's very suggestive given that he has a big list of who inherits all his farms, one after the other (if this person dies without legal issue, it goes to this other person. If they don't have legal issue... etc), and they're all his siblings, or husbands of his sisters.

But anyway, there's our John Keable, the cousin who popped up in Sarah Newcomb/Allen/Gill's will!

As an aside... I was looking at the Bull family (Sarah Newcomb/Allen/Gill's daughter Sarah married Ralph Bull). Ralph Bull senr's will is great as he acknowledges the daughter he had with his housekeeper. Whoops! But then, it was the 18th century, and they had 100 years of rebelling against puritanism!

[Poppy Rose]

Wow! You've been busy! A father, a grandfather, aunts and siblings for Sarah plus also solving where John Keable and Grace Burton fitted into the family.

The other day I noticed on the SEAX index for Wakes Colne there was a piece of Copyhold land called Rolphs being passed around the Burton family:

John Burton who died before 1690 passed it on to his brother Samuel. This Samuel had died by 1708 so the land passed to his son John. John had died by 1724 and the land then passed on to his son also a John. I wondered then whether one of the two younger Johns was Sarah's father. You've solved that one!

Looks as if they all owned quite a lot more than that one peice of land! This is certainly an interesting family.   

[Poppy Rose]

Just been searching the internet and came across this:

homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mwi/josselin.txt

Ralph Josselin was the Vicar of Earls Colne 1641-83. He mentions a Samuel Burton, chandler and Quaker, in his dairy.

 

[helvissa]

I took a gamble and ordered those three Wakes Colne Burton wills, and it paid off! Phew!

I've transcribed two and they're on my site now: http://essexandsuffolksurnames.co.uk/documents/ (Samuel 1708 and John 1723).

Bearing in mind what you said about the land of John Burton, deceased, in 1690 going to his brother Samuel, I'm sending off for the will of John Burton of Earls Colne, 1689, and also Samuel Burton of Earles Colne 1663 and Ann Burton of Earles Colne, widow, 1681. I think there's a connection there. Anyway, the parish register for Earls Colne is pretty thorough so hopefully I'll be able to find them in there (probably also the baptisms of Grace and Sarah in the late 1600s/early 1700s). The only thing is that it's been scanned in very small so it's a bit of a challenge to read, unfortunately.

I've also got this, where Samuel Burton of Earls Colne is the godson of Anne Scroggs (probate 1641) http://frostandgilchrist.com/getperson.php?personID=I24164&tree=frostinaz01

And then also a reference to Samuel Burton of Earls Colne being a Quaker: http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-820820-0.pdf Also mentions the will of Ann Burton.

If this is our family, this is rather nifty as there's even a couple of Burton wills in Earls Colne back to the 1500s - one as early as 1529!

[helvissa]

Posted at the same time! Ah.... just checked an online catalogue and we've got that book at the library I work at! Huzzah!

[helvissa]

And did you see this name in the index too?

NEWCOMEN   Mathew        Lecturer at Dedham 1637-62