Hi Matt
I agree with your findings re the baptisms to Robert Packham or Peckham in Fletching.
The August 1673 baptism of Anne has Mary as mother on both the PR and the BT.
But I can't see a burial of an Ann(e) / wife of Robert since the earlier baptisms. Could it be some kind of mistake made at the time?
There is a Robert Peckham burial at Fletching, 6 Dec 1673.
BT here, date confirmed by PR
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DYQC-2M?i=117&cat=583952
Now I don't know that is the Robert Peckham (or Packham), but if there are no more baptisms after 1673 then it could well be.
The problem is that it is quite a while later in 1690 that we have the widow Ann Packham marrying. Well it seems quite a long time, but I suppose there is no reason why it shouldn't be her.
What happened to the children - are there alternative marriages for either Ann, mother and daughter?
I can't see that Fletching burials at this time are indexed anywhere online, so that's another difficulty, we have to see if we can make them out ourselves from the images we have.
Yes, I agree, it would be worthwhile looking for Durrant wills. Can't do any harm!
John
Hi John
It looks like something is definitely odd here. As far as I know James Martin and Anne Packham only had one child - Elizabeth Martin [my ancestor] who was christened in Fletching in 1691.
Given that the PR and BT do clearly show Anne as a widow on her marriage to James Martin the question is who was she married to before?
One option is that she was the widow of Robert Packham [or Peckham]. I know that Robert married a woman named Anne Durrant in Buxted in January 1666/67 and she was the mother of the Henry and Mary Packham born in 1668 and 1671.
I have found that there is an Anne Durrant christened in Framfield in 1640 which could fit with the marriage of Anne to Robert age wise.
Framfield, Buxted and Fletching are all about 4 miles from each other so very close.
If this Anne [Anne Durrant] is the widow who married James Martin in 1690 she would be about 51 when their daughter Elizabeth was born however. Also like you say it seems strange that if Robert died in 1673, Ann would wait 17 years before remarrying.
It definitely is a mystery but I can't really see Anne Durrant being the woman who married James Martin given that she'd probably be in her late 40s or early 50s when Elizabeth Martin was born.
I had a quick look at the East Sussex website today and so far I haven't found any sign of any suitable Durrant or Packham wills in the right area and period.
I think James Martin was christened on 13 February 1666/67 at Fletching but I don't know where that information is from and I don't have his parents noted down so that may be wrong. I will check the Fletching PR and BT to see if I can spot him.
More digging required.
Matt