Robert Piper of Tonbridge 1616 will listing wife Margaret possibly "Hablett"

[bstauf]

Trying to identify the wife of Robert Piper, clothier.

Merriam Genealogy in England & America includes the 1616 Tonbridge will of Robert Piper/Pyper available free here https://archive.org/details/merriamgenealogy00pope/page/n3

He has a wife Margaret, brother Daniel Piper (possibly married to Margaret Burges, daughter of Jacob and sister of Sarah Burges who married William Merriam about 1590 likely around Tudeley).
Robert's will also lists brother in law" William Merriam so one possibility is that Robert married William's sister Margaret Merriam.  However, the will also lists the deceased grandsire of (at least) his 3 eldest daughters, John Hablett.  Daughters were Elizabeth, Margaret and Anne Piper.

That implies Robert's wife is Margaret Hablett, not Margaret Merriam and the b-i-l relationship with William Merriam was through some other connection.  Or else he had a prior wife, or Margaret had a prior husband Hablett who gave her 3 children.

No luck yet on finding any supporting records.  Anyone familiar with any of these folks?

[bearkat]

There is a marriage for a Rob PIPER to Mgt HARBLET 25 November 1594 at Tonbridge.  It doesn't say she was a widow.

Take a look at this website

http://www.vulpeculox.net/history/wkw2016/pdf/V2PR.PDF

which has information on the PIPERs of Tonbridge (page 120) including will transcriptions.

and

http://www.vulpeculox.net/history/wkw2016/pdf/V2AB.PDF

page 280 for the BURGEIS family

People researching in this area of Kent are very fortunate.  A great deal of research has been done.

[bstauf]

Thanks so much bearkat!  I'm new to Rootschat so just getting to know the resources and didn't want to list this as a research request since my question was pretty open-ended.  A quick check of the West Kent database at the site shows some other names I'm interested in too.

I now find an April 1578 baptism for Margaret Harblett, daughter of John in Brenchley which seems to be likely to be her as well.

One of the b-i-l possibilities is that the 1616 Robert Piper's father married William Merriam Sr.'s mother Alice Apse after her husband William died in 1565, making Robert and William Jr. step-brothers (my understanding is brother-in-law was used to describe this relationship too).

Thanks again for your help!

[bearkat]

Researching families at this time can take some untangling but there are some great resources for this area.

In addition to the site I mentioned earlier

A list of West Kent wills

http://vulpeculox.net/history/kwills.htm


Kent Family History Society West Kent Marriages Index 1538-1812 an index to all known marriages that took place in parishes in the ancient Diocese of Rochester, including the Deanery of Shoreham, i.e. the whole of Kent, west of the Medway

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01mvx/


Findmypast for baptisms, marriages and burials - many records for this area and more are due to be added soon.


Google books - definitely some mentions of the families you are researching


Kent Archaeological Society - much is searchable  http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/search.htm


Weald of Kent & Sussex genealogy
http://theweald.org/A01.asp?AZCode=16

[bstauf]

Thanks, I'll check these out too.  I used to have a subscription to findmypast while I was focusing on English ancestors but let it lapse in the past.