Depear / De Pear family

[alexreg]

The name David seems important to your Matthew/Jane as they seem too name 3 Sons that died David.
Born 1831/1834/1835 and died 1832/1834/1836

I did also notice that one Ellens Bapt 1838 (Elen on FreeREG) Matthew was a attorney messenger and the 3 Davids above have the same occp for their Father.

The Matthew who was buried 22 Apr 1842 was age 54 (1788)

Correct. I suppose he worked as an attorney's messenger either after being a grocer & draper or to supplement his income. This was just before he became the town crier in any case.

The Matthew who died in 1842 was definitely the one born to another Matthew Depear and Frances March (Burton). I have a copy of his will, so I can be even more sure he's not the father of my Matthew Depear.

You are also correct about that Sarah Jackson marrying Isaac Jackson of Northamptonshire first, as far as I can tell.

I just remembered that I managed to rule out the Matthew Depear b. 1790 in Moulton because I found out that he died in Manchester in the 1850s (I think), where he was an eye surgeon. His father is given as an eye surgeon there too, which together with his implied year of birth means it must be that this Matthew Depear moved to Manchester, where he practised as a (very respectable, I believe) eye surgeon.

Altogether, this means my Matthew Depear must be lacking a baptismal record. The two census records I have for him (1841 England and 1850 US) suggest a birth year of 1801/1802. His wife Jane's implied birth year ranges from 1801 (with the caveat of the age rounding rules in thee 1841 UK census) to 1806 (1850 US federal census) to 1791 (1865 NY state census) to 1786 (her US death certificate). I'm more inclined to trust the earlier ones of course, combined with the fact her husband definitely seems to have been born 1801/1802. I find it very strange that neither person apparently has an English baptismal record though.

Finally, I agree David is a significant name. It doesn't seem to recur amongst the Depear's of the area (Depear is a rare surname, and I think they're all descended from a single patriarch of the early 18th or late 17th C). So, I would guess it might be Jane's father's name. Not sure though.

[Jennifer Chatfield]

Just to throw some more information into the mix, I am descended from another line of Depear's which has a few Matthews in it, but I don't think mine match any of the ones you have already mentioned, although they only come from about 5mins down the road in Whaplode. I guess they might join onto some of these other branches further back.

[alexreg]

Just to throw some more information into the mix, I am descended from another line of Depear's which has a few Matthews in it, but I don't think mine match any of the ones you have already mentioned, although they only come from about 5mins down the road in Whaplode. I guess they might join onto some of these other branches further back.

Hi Jennifer. Which line are you descended from? The union of Matthew Depear and Frances Burton March? I have some ancestors from Whaplode too (the Brown's lived there). We are surely related, but I would suppose that our trees join up further back in the mid 1700s. Depear certainly isn't a common name. I've actually had trouble locating the baptismal record of my oldest Matthew Depear, born ~1800/1801, but he seems to have ebeen from Holbeach too.

[alexreg]

Hello folks. I just thought I'd post an update here that I finally managed to resolve my Depear line, and made a few breakthroughs with regards to the origin of the Depear family in Lincolnshire. Specifically, I have come to the conclusion they all descend from a certain Matthew Depear who lived 1669-1720. He was a Walloon (Calvinists of 'Belgian' origin, similar to the Huguenots) born as Mathieu de Lespiere (a surname with several variants, including De La Piere and Du Pire) in Thorney, Cambridgeshire. He moved to Moulton, Lincs (pretty close to Thorney) around 1700, where he died in 1720. He was married twice and fathered at least 5 children. All Lincolnshire Depear's are descended through three of his sons, by my reckoning. Possibly all Depear's in England, even, though it is harder to tell if Matthew's siblings and cousins from Thorney left descendants that settled elsewhere. Through my research, I have mapped out the majority of the Depear's from Lincolnshire until the early 1800s.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in knowing more, I'd be glad to share my findings. Probably the easiest thing to do is send me a private message with your email address, and we can converse from there.