Help finding a marriage

[..claire..]

From a newspaper, I have no sub to this article but there was this information

7 October 1927 - Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Exeter, Devon, England

" ... Elijah Dene had a sister, Mary, who was the great-grandmother of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Elijah. Dene was twice married, first Rebecca Huyshe, who died in 1670, and secondly to Mary Smith, of Great Torrington, 1673, who died in 1701. He was born in 1633 ...

Claire

[pinefamily]

Thank you so much, Claire. That is absolutely amazing.
It confirms everything I already had about Rebecca being Elijah's sister-in-law. And also places her and Mary in the Smith family of Great Torrington, which was the same family that purchased Canonsleigh.
Now to find the marriges, and baptisms.
Once again, thank you very much.

[maddys52]

The article mentioned above is part of a series about Clyst Hydon and it's rectors, though I can't see a mention of William PALMER. I'm happy to email you a copy of the series. Send me a pm if you'd like a copy. 

[pinefamily]

Thank you, Maddy. Those pieces have proven very helpfil in piecing these families together.
I understand why we probably wo't find Philip Potter's second marriage to Mary Dene in the Commonwealth period, but don't see why I can't find marriages for two vicars/curates. One in the early 1670's, the other in 1698 (according to Burke).

[osprey]

Not all parish registers have survived. Not all registers have been transcribed or are online. You can check what records there are and where they are on the parish pages of Genuki

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/GreatTorrington#ChurchRecords

If you can't get to the archives in Exeter, you can pay for research

https://swheritage.org.uk/devon-archives/services/research/

[BumbleB]

Using the link given by osprey for South West Heritage, you can also look at the Catalogue section to see which parish registers they hold.

[pinefamily]

Thanks Osprey and BumbleB. I've looked at various parishes for what records do survive.
Of particular interest, Sidbury only has BT's surviving from that era. Dunkeswell seems to have neither PR's or BT's extant from that early.
I am currently looking for a marriage between a John Smith of Great Torrington and an Elizabeth in the mid 1640's. This couple is almost certainly the parents of Rebecca and Mary Smith. Possibly the two girls were living with their mother's family; Elizabeth died a year after Rebecca's baptism.

[Thomas Palmer 94]

Hi There,

How are you related to William + Rebbeca?

They are also my direct ancestors and I can help provide the below information

William I (c.1675-1726) and Rebecca
Palmer (c.1675-1714)
They had married on the summer’s day of 2 September 1698.
Rebecca Smith was from a landowning family at Canonsleigh, in the
parish of Burlescombe a village on the watershed between north and
south Devon, some nine miles north of Clyst Hydon where William
Palmer hailed from. She and William had two children, William
(1701-1784) and Dorothea (no dates). In 1700 we find them living at
Clyst Hydon.
William I was university-educated, with a degree in holy orders
from Queens College in Cambridge, indicating that the Palmers
were already a family of substance. In the 1712 he was presented the
living at Combe Raleigh by his friend, Francis Drewe, who was the
lord of the manor. The Drewes had had the estate since c.1533,
when an Edward Drewe purchased it. The living came with a large
parsonage, built some distance from the church. However, the house
3
had “in a great Measure let down at or Soon after Cromwels
usurpation”, noted in an assessment of the parish in the 1720s. This
was all too typical in the aftermath of the Civil War of 1642-1651,
Roundheads and Cavaliers having wantonly looted and set on fire
parsonages across England in the course of the conflict, and William
and Rebecca chose to live in a large house next to the church,
Abbot’s House, which became the home of two generations of
Palmers.
In 1744 the parish of Combe Raleigh had 35 families, three of whom
were Dissenters: an Anabaptist family, a Presbyterian one, and the
third Quakers. It was a hamlet rather than a village, comprising the
church and associated buildings such as the rectory and the chantry,
and no more than half a dozen thatch-roofed homes. St Nicholas,
regarded as somewhat over-sized for the parish, was also thatched.
Communion was four times a year, usually attended by about 15
parishioners, so, despite Tindal Hart’s exemplary ‘extremely hardworking clergyman’, William I’s duties were not onerous.
William I and Rebecca lived out their years in Combe Raleigh. In
about the year 1716 Rebecca died; she could not have been more
than 40

Attached is a painting of his Son William Palmer II

[pinefamily]

Hello Thomas,
Hopefully you get this reply. Sorry I haven't replied sooner, but I haven't been on here for quite some time due to personal circumstances.
I am descended from William Palmer and Rebecca Smyth/Smith through their grandson John. Burke's Landed Gentry states that of the sons born from William Palmer junior's second marriage, only Samuel had descendants. This is incorrect, as John, Peregrine, and possibly Francis all had offspring, as I have found in my research.
John only had the one surviving daughter, Mary Ann, who is my 3x great grandmother.
William Palmer senior was born c. 1669 in Broadclyst, calculated from his university record, and was buried in 1726 in Combe Raleigh. Rebecca Smyth/Smith was baptized in 1663 in Bideford, daughter of John Smyth, merchant. Her older sister Mary married Rev. Elijah Dene c. 1674, location unknown. Elijah was the curate of Clyst Hydon. In 1688, Rebecca married John Farrant, a widower of Clyst Hydon, who subsequently died in 1689. Rebecca was buried in 1720 in Combe Raleigh.
The marriage date of 1698 is in Burke's, but no location is given. Given the exact date, I take it as correct. The Canon's Leigh connection is a little misleading I believe, unless Rebecca lived there with relatives before moving to Clyst Hydon. Her father died in 1680, and was buried in Great Torrington, which is where the family originated.