Whittlebury PR's - baptism Elizabeth JUDGE around 1794.

[Rob - Leicester]

Hello Northamptonshire neighbours.

My g-g-g-grandmother was Elizabeth Judge but I have not been able to find a baptism for her. I have seen her in other trees as the daughter of Thomas Judge and Mary Frost. This couple had a series of children baptised between 1792-1803 in Whittlebury. I have seen mention of Elizabeth Judge as being born in 1794 in Whittlebury with these parents but with no source.

Elizabeth was married (to Robert Grantham) in Whittlebury 1821, and is also buried there (1848) so there's a good chance that these really are her parents - but I would really like to have a bit of evidence to go with it.

I have found an Elizabeth Judge baptism date 10 Nov 1794 at Preston Bissett in Bucks as an alternative so I can't stick with Thomas and Mary as parents without that doubt in my mind..


Could anyone help to throw some light on this?

Many Thanks

Rob (Leicester)

[PrawnCocktail]

Hi Rob,

Don't know whether you'd noticed, but all there is for Whittlebury from 1790 to 1803 is BTs. No actual parish register.

BTs are good - but when all is said and done they are a copy. Which means they are not always 100% accurate.

Looking at Thomas and Mary's family, they marry in 1791, and they have one child (Joseph) in 1792 in Paulerspury. The next child there is a record of is John in 1795, in Whittlebury.

The pattern most families had for childbirth would have been one child in 1792, the next in 1793, and then every other year for up to around 20 years. But here we have apparently a three year gap between Joseph and John. At a time when there was both no parish register, and they must have moved from Paulerspury to Whittlebury.

So there we have two possibilities for non-recording - a house move and a missing register.

At the end of the day it will be up to you whether you believe she was born in Whittlebury or Preston Bissett - unles someone can find some proof! But her son George's settlement examination does say "My Mother Elizabeth Judge belonged to Whittlebury." (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=towcester&id=I9422)

[Rob - Leicester]

Hi PrawnCocktail

Thanks for your well considered reply. No I didn't know that the Whittlebury records are from BTs.

Yes I have noticed the pattern of having one child nearly every year and it works quite well for Thomas and Mary's family if I leave Elizabeth in with them.

'My' Elizabeth was married and buried in Whittlebury... So it would be quite 'normal' that she was also born there.

I have looked to see if I can marry the Preston Bissett Elizabeth off with someone else. There is a marriage in Great Linford to George Kiddle in 1817, however that is further away than Whittlebury - then I found a baptism for another Elizabeth Judge in 1774 at Great Linford in the IGI.

I've also looked for a burial of an Elizabeth Judge but didn't find one.

Your last paragraph probably holds the most compelling evidence - why would Elizabeth Judge of Preston Bissett travel to Whittlebury to have a child 'out of wedlock'?

It is possible that Robert Grantham is actually George Judge's father. George was probably only a year old when Elizabeth and Robert married. And then I look at where Robert was baptised and find that it's Akeley Bucks, which sits right in between  Preston Bissett and Whittlebury...

My head is spinning!

I must say though that your reply has helped me because as you say - at the end of the day it's up to me to decide what I believe. I have enjoyed typing this out as I go along and maybe that's the way ahead - I'll just paste all this into my research notes for Elizabeth and put a caveat note in with her. Then I'll reconnect Thomas and Mary as her parents (I felt couldn't delete them! I just disconnected them and left them as a separate tree in my GEDCOM).

Maybe someone will come up with a definitive answer in the future. That's the great thing about RootsChat - it's here now for posterity.

Thanks again.

Rob

[PrawnCocktail]

If you follow the local roads, the road out of Whittlebury goes to Akeley, on its way to Buckingham. Preston Bissett is, from Whittlebury, through Buckingham and out the other side.

And you're quite right about Elizabeth not going all the way to Whittlebury to have an illegitimate child, if she didn't belong there. An illegitimate child became chargeable to the parish it was born in, so no parish would want a stranger having a baby there, and then have to contribute to raising it for the next 10 years or so.

[Rob - Leicester]

Thanks again!