Flack baptism, Redgrave cum Botesdale, Priscilla 1615 or earlier

[findem]

I am looking for a Priscilla Flack who would be of an age to marry in 1631, so perhaps 1615 or earlier.

I have a Robert Woodfine who married Priscilla Flack 1 Nov 1631 at Lindsell, Essex, her parents were stated to be Nicholas and Jone.

I have been advised of a marriage of Andrew Flack and Elizabeth Collham 4 Aug 1580 at Redgrave cum Botesdale, Suffolk.  That couple had a son Nicholas baptised 29 Mar 1597 at Redgrave cum Botesdale.

I have searched Ancestry's Essex Parish Register Index, FreeReg, Family Search and FindMyPast, using wild cards and anything else that come to mind, the only mention I got was her marriage to Robert Woodfine.  Also I couldn't find any other children of Nicholas and Jone Flack nor their marriage.

So I've come to think Priscilla was certainly not born or baptised in Essex, I even searched in Ancestry's Essex PR Index on just the name Priscilla without results, so in desperation I'm wondering if Andrew and Elizabeth had a daughter Priscilla born close to their son Nicholas or perhaps there was a Priscilla born to another Flack family in Redgrave cum Botesdale, or wherever come to that?

I would be extremely grateful for any help, pointers or ideas.

Regards.

[goldie61]

Couldn't find Priscilla's baptism anywhere, but did you see on findmypast there is a baptism of a Nicholas FLACKE 1576 in Lindsell. Father Thomas (no mother's name given).
This would be the right timing for a marriage say about 1600 or later.
A better option I would have thought than a Nicholas born in Suffolk.
There's also a William with father Thomas baptised 1582 at Lindsell.

These brothers Nicholas and Thomas baptise children in the early 1600s, at Lindsell (unfortunately no listing for Priscilla). These are only indexes on findmylast.
Have you been able to look at the actual registers? I see familysearch.org have the microfilm, but unfortunately not yet digitised. All filming was supposed to be completed by 2020, but obviously not made that target. Should be soon though I suspect.

It may be that there are pages missing, or unreadable in the registers, hence the lack of Priscilla's baptism record. The further back we go, the more records are lost, or are unreadable. Just because you can't find her in Essex, I wouldn't go presuming she must have been born in Suffolk.

Normally to try and find other evidence for children, I would look to see if these men left any wills. (only single women and widows were allowed to leave wills). You never know what may turn up in them.
I don't know my way around Essex records though, and Essex wills don't seem to be on findmypast or Ancestry. I think you have to search the Essex Record Office site Seax. Getting too late here now for me to do that.
Good luck!

[trish1120]

Priscilla FFLACKE bapt 11 Mar 1609/10 St Mary the Virgin, Lindsell, Essex
Father NICHOLAS

Children 1600 to 1618;
Thomas 1600
John 1602
Anne 1603
John 1605
Nicholas 1607
Priscilla as posted
Richard 1612
George 1613
All only have Fathers name
Last is GEORGE Fflacke 07 Jun 1618, Parents NICHOLAS/JOANE*

4 Burials of children, Father Nicholas;
John 1602
Anne 1604
Richard 1612
George 1613

All on FreeREG

Trish

[goldie61]

Priscilla FFLACKE bapt 11 Mar 1609/10 St Mary the Virgin, Lindsell, Essex
Father NICHOLAS

Children 1600 to 1618;
Thomas 1600
John 1602
Anne 1603
John 1605
Nicholas 1607
Priscilla as posted
Richard 1612
George 1613
All only have Fathers name
Last is GEORGE Fflacke 07 Jun 1618, Parents NICHOLAS/JOANE*

4 Burials of children, Father Nicholas;
John 1602
Anne 1604
Richard 1612
George 1613

All on FreeREG

Trish

oh well done Trish!
I did't have time to go over to Freereg last night.
There seems to quite a variation in the number of records that come up on the various research sites.
Interestingly familysearch didn't bring up any, although they do hold the film; findmypast had a few, and here's Freereg with them all!
Unless it was just a case of their soundex options not recoginising the 'double ff'. In which case they should tweak the program. Did you have to specifically put the 'ff' in to search, or did Freereg recognise it as an option?
Glad to see them found anyway. 

[findem]

Many thanks Goldie and Trish.

I must say the reply from Trish was a bit of a shock considering I searched Ancestry's EPRI and FreeReg and never found Priscilla, not even a search on just Priscilla in the appropriate years brought her up on the EPRI.

I think my searches on the name Flack could well have been foiled by that Ff, although I seem to recall having noted some children of a Thomas Flack in my searches but of course didn't pay too much heed of them because I was searching for children with a father named Nicholas, I'll have to go back over my notes.

I will be following up on all of this info.

In my desperation my thoughts were beginning to wonder if Priscilla's Flack family were Romany gypsies, which would explain why they were hard to find.    By way of explanation one of my  great uncles, Arthur Searles, married a Councellatta Flack, a Romany lady, so I began to wonder if Priscilla was related in some way to Councie..

If I find a link to Suffolk Flacks or the marriage of Nicholas and Jone I will post the results in this topic.

Now to get all this recorded on my Family Group Sheets in MS Excel.

Just in case someone else comes along sometime who is interested in these Flack(e)s or for the Robots, here is the marriage of Priscilla.

Priscilla Flacke married Robert Woodfine 1 Nov 1631 at Lindsell, Essex.
Robert was stated to be of Great Easton and his father named as William.
Priscilla I'm assuming was of Lindsell, her farther was stated to be Nicholas.

Witnesses were Joane Flacke and Joane Woodfine, it was noted that they are the mothers of the bride and groom.

So far I have only found two children of Robert and Priscilla., both baptised at Lindsell.
Robert Woodfine baptised 18 Feb 1633.
Mary Woodfine baptised 21 Oct 1637.

Regards and thanks a heap

[trish1120]

I just typed in Flack and used the soundex option on FreeREG.
I dont have access to FindMyPast.
Believe me I was surprised that Priscilla popped up too as you both had done extensive research,

Trish

[trish1120]

As you say FreeREG has the 1631 Marriage info and 2 children to Robt/Priscilla.

Also;
10 Aug 1607 Marriage Great Easton for Will Woodfine
Robts Bapt 12 Mar 1608/9
16 Oct 1652 Burial of Joane, Wife of William the elder
Williams Burial 5 Apr 1659
Use the soundex option

[findem]

Hi Trish,

Thought I'd try and backtrack to see where I went wrong, I did manage to get Priscilla up in FreeReg.

I also tried  Ancestry's EPRI again and she just doesn't appear to be there unless the transcriber mangled both name so as to be completely unrecognisable, I tried searches on Priscilla, on Flack and FFlack then trying with both the first and surname, nothing.  Mind you it's of no importance now that I have her details from FreeReg.

As for the Woodfines I do have those you mentioned, the William Woodfine and Joane Heywood marriage 10 Aug 1607 at Gt Easton you mentioned gave me a headache, the bride's surname was so difficult to decipher, in the end I settled on Heywood, although I can't be 100% sure, I had to magnify the entry from a copy of the PR entry quite a bit.  I do wish some of those Vicars/Rectors hadn't watered down the ink quite as much. 

[findem]

just for the record, I went on FreeReg this afternoon and searched Flack Essex 1530 to 1600, baptisms and Marriages .

For baptisms I found Flack families in Lindsell, Saffron Walden, Stambourne and Stansted Mountfitchet.

Marriages, I found 13 marriages in that period, six male and seven female Flack(e) marriages.
Of those marriages one male was at Dedham and one female at Thaxted, all the others were at Saffron Walden.

As you might expect the marriage of Nicholas Flacke and Joane 1600 or earlier wasn't among those marriages, tomorrow, if I have the courage,  I'll see if Ancestry's Essex Parish Register Index will add to the baptisms and marriages, already tried for the marriage  of Nicholas and Joane but no luck, have yet to try FindMyPast.