Assistance Please with the HARFFEY family from Chichester

[bryan5808]

Mike your last helps some of the way. What I am desperate for are the full details of the parents William Harffey and Elizabeth (no maiden name). They are obviously not the couple married in London as you say. I think I should concentrate on getting these details from somewhere. Have you any suggestions? Would I have e-mail access to birth and death records from Chichester. It may well be that they never actually married (could be the case). I think my progress is to identify the parents and then move on from there. Sorry if this is confusing (tearing my hair out this end!!)  Thanks

[mazi]

It now seems more likely that the William mentioned as being on the roll of electors, living in Chichester but qualified to vote as a landowner in East meon is your Charles father, suggesting he a man of some substance, maybe worth looking at the history of the Harfy family in Hampshire, as East Meon  is near petersfield in Hampshire.  Nothing obvious tho' but my knowledge of Hampshire records is nil.

Mike
 

[mazi]

Since I have found this I will offer it as pure speculation.
I searched family search for any mention of the name. Harfy,  anywhere in England 1650-1760,
The only William showing is a birth in Horshan Sussex   William Harffy 15 July 1743, parents Thomas and Mary.

The right age to be Charles father, and to die in 1816.
Why the move to Chichester I have no idea.
No marriage or death that I could see

Pure speculation, but sometimes the records we want are just not there.

Mike

[mazi]

It is worth googling. Harffy Sussex,  and reading the many results, especially the the will of Mary Harffy wife of William of St. Peter the great, Mary was wealthy, 12  Feb 1773, but there is more to see as well.

My eyes are tired 
Mike

[artifis]

As I said above, the Sussex Family History Group's Sussex Marriage Index doesn't record a marriage for a William and Elizabeth in the time frame but A*****ry does have one at St Mary's at East Lavant on 18 Dec 1772 between William Harvy and Elizabeth Richards. 

East Lavant is approx. only 2 miles north-west of Chichester on the road that eventually leads to either Midhurst or Petersfield so this could be a candidate, the time frame certainly looks good.

No Harvy/Harvey/Haffrey/Harffey etc. nor Richards baptisms at East Lavant though.

As I was recently reminded, the Hardwick Acts of 1754 were meant to ensure that proper parish records were kept but I have found that subsequently still not to be the case with B, M & D events missing from the records especially where there was an absentee incumbent and only locum curates or parish clerks keeping and recording the events.  It's not uncommon to find events recorded in parish records and not bishop's transcripts and vice versa.  In one parish I researched the incumbent's health obviously deteriorated until his writing was all but illegible but luckily the bishop's transcripts had been completed by someone else and were very clear.

[bryan5808]

Mike Thanks. I will try the HARFY family form Petersfield with the Hampshire records. Please send anything that you come across as it would be gratefully received and many thanks for your help thus far.

[Little Nell]

I suspect that the writing in the East Lavant register is faded or hard to decipher.  The marriage has been transcribed by SFHG as William HENRY and Elizabeth Richard.

If you can, try to see the original register entry so that you can decide for yourself.

Nell

[mazi]

More about Harffy on this thread

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=636191.18

May be useful to eliminate some possibilities.

Mike

[AlanWatson]

Hi,

Harffy/Blunt

I am from the other thread referred to above. I would like to explain our interest and ask for your help.

There seems to be a close link between the Harffy and Blunt families, but what it is is not clear. Our ancestor is Richard Blunt who lived in Southwark, worked in the Bank of England, married once, in 1764, to Mary nee Reynolds widow of Edward Burbidge, had five children and died in 1773.

1. Robert Blunt's will appointed William Harffy a surgeon of Chichester as one of his executors and mentioned his niece, William Harffy's daughter Mary

2. William Harffy's wife Mary (nee Brett?) died in. 1771 (according to find-a-grave). Her will, proved 1773, leaves her assets to her only child Mary, or failing that, to her brother-in-law Robert Blunt of Southwark.

3. William Harffy's 1795 will bequeathed a ring (I think) in remembrance of Mr Robert Blunt to George Moody Longcroft, who had married his daughter Mary.

4. Another of Robert Blunt's executors was Mr William Coleman of the Bank of England, he married another Mary Harffy, William’s niece.

5. Robert Blunt's will provided for his wife and children, in particular for his children's apprenticeships. Two of them went on to be chemists, the Harffy family business.

I was wondering whether William Harffy  and Robert Blunt might have been half-brothers if William's father Thomas Harffy of Horsham had died young and his wife Elizabeth re-married,  and chanced on this 'index only' record on Ancestry:

Harffy, Elizabeth
1720
Horsham, Sussex, England
Sussex: Chichester - Calendar of Wills in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Chichester, 1482-1800
Wills Now Preserved in the Probate Registry at Chichester.
Chapt 1482-1800.
Harffy, Elizabeth, widow, Horsham 33 12 1720

I assume this means that both parents died shortly after the birth of William's sister Petronella in 1718.

I also noticed that the West Sussex records office holds a box

Certified copies of parish registers relating to the Taylor, Longcroft and Harffy families

which looks promising.

We would be very grateful for any help with this.


Alan Watson