Your post caught my eye because I remembered a Robert Minson was a witness in 1755 to the marriage of my GGGG grandparents, Honour Hutchings of Kingstone and Thomas Poole of Seavington. Must have been the son born 1720. Honour and Thomas were also both from yeoman families.
What a coincidence! Yes that would be his son, Robert Jr., from whom I am descended! His daughter Sarah is my 5xGG. It's kind of crazy to think that our ancestors knew each other 250+ years ago.
Anyway, on the basis of the naming scheme I would guess that Robert's father was probably John (first son named after paternal grandfather, second after father himself).
Unfortunately, the Minsons were not very consistent when it came to names. Robert Jr.'s first son was called John (after his wife's father), his second son was called James, third son was Joseph and finally Robert for the fourth son.
I see there is a will available from TNA (£3.50 I think) for a John Minson, yeoman, of Charmouth, proved 1744. Have you seen it? Might mention his offspring and be the father of Robert if as you surmise they had Dorset roots. Age-wise, if he fathered Robert about 1685 he could be the one, elderly but not impossible.
Thanks for that. Funnily enough, I was looking for it on the PCC database on Ancestry but couldn't find it for some reason. Digitised TNA records are free at the moment so I went ahead and downloaded it.
He doesn't mention any children but 3 brothers: Andrew, James & Robert (deceased). His wife was called Ann.
There is some interesting information about John Minson on freshford.com, which seems to be a local history website:
https://www.freshford.com/the_water_head.htm . I think it is the same one as in the 1744 will but they've attached someone else's will instead of his for some strange reason.
It mentions a lady who sold a property "in 1711 to John Minson of Eype for £58" and also "William Walter who was to later purchase the property from his son Robert Minson, for £71 in 1747." So John obviously did have a son called Robert, even though he was not mentioned in his will and John was from Eype, which was mentioned in Robert's will.
It is definitely possible that my ancestor is the son of John but with no records and not even a mention of him in his will (something like "my son Robert of Kingstone"), I don't think I'll ever be sure
Thanks!
Queenie