Fridiswede (Friday) Small possibly curry rivel

[loubags]

Good morning! I'm trying to find a birth record for Fridiswede (Friday) Hooper who married William Small at St James Taunton 15 July 1725.
According to the parish record, William was from Aller and Frideswede was from Curry Rivel. I can find records for William but not Fridiswede.
Any help would be appreciated 

[goldie61]

I see from the image  on Ancestry this marriage was by licence.
Have you found this?
It may give you some further clues.
Often one of the reasons why a couple were married by licence was because one of them had been married before.
Have you checked this out?
Perhaps William had been married before, or Fridiswede.
I see Ancestry have some Somerset marriage allegations, but only from 1754 onwards.

familysearch.org have several films.
 If you go to Search -> Catalogue -> Somerset, you get a long list for all Somerset records.
-> Church records. Scroll down to 'Diocesan licence books'.
Looks like the one that covers 1725 is film number 8092307.
Unfortunately it is locked even when logged in from home, which means you would have to visit an LDS centre.

Or you could try searching and/or contacting the Somerset Record Office
https://swheritage.org.uk/somerset-archives/catalogues-and-indexes/

[goldie61]

How many children did William and Fridiswede have after their marriage?
When was the last one born?
What were their names?
Do you have Fridiswede's death? Does it give her age?

All these could give clues to her parentage.

I see Fridiswede was quite a popular name in Devon around this time.
Devon is just over the border from Somerset.
There are several Fridiswedes (and slightly different spellings), born at Hemyock, Devon, which is only 10 miles or so from Taunton. All on familysearch.

[loubags]

Many thanks for the suggestions Goldie. I've found the marriage in the Somerset, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812 and it lists the marriage of William and Fridiswede but no mention of the parents on either side.

I have found two children so far, Ann and John Small. In the church record, when written down it looks like Ann was baptised in Aller on 28 Jun 1727 but it is listed under baptisms for 1724 with other baptism's?? So it is possible she was baptised slightly before William and Fridiswede's marriage (both parents are listed as Small).

John is also a bit woolly! His baptism is listed in Aller but the church record says his baptism was on 13 Feb 1725, 26 - which again could put his birth either before or after the marriage. Both parents are again listed as Small but I suppose there is a chance the babies were born out of wedlock and and then William and Fridiswede got married in Taunton.

Her death was in Curry Rivel in 1768 (burial 2nd Feb).

[goldie61]

Many thanks for the suggestions Goldie. I've found the marriage in the Somerset, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812 and it lists the marriage of William and Fridiswede but no mention of the parents on either side.

Marriage entries in parish registers at this time are rarely likely to mention any parents.
But have you tracked sown the licence as suggested in my first post?
I really think it might be worthwhile.

[DRH123]

The date written Feb 1725,26 for John is just a way of indicating that the year was either 1725 or 1726 depending on which date was used for the New Year - 25 Mar or 1 Jan. Either way it means the February after July 1725, so John was baptised about 7 months after the recorded date of the wedding.

The date recorded for Ann is definitely 1724. Hers is one of two baptism entries written in a different hand, using an unusual way of writing "4". There are similar entries among the 1724 burials and marriages.

It would be very unusual for the minister to record a baptism in that format if he knew the parents were not married. Perhaps they lied - and then married at Taunton by licence without anyone in Aller knowing - or perhaps one or other of the records is wrong. Some old registers are not actually originals but copies made later when the original was falling to bits. In which case it is just possible the dates got muddled. It would be interesting to see what date is on the marriage licence/bond, if it survives.

David

[goldie61]

As John was born 7 months after the marriage, this is one reason why they may have applied for a marriage licence.
Once they had a licence, they could get married the next day, instead of waiting nearly another month to have the Banns read out on three Sundays.
Be interesting to see what date they got the licence and if that was in fact the case.

[goldie61]

This might be useful
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/0858c9b7-a207-4f01-a416-86462845e2ec

[DRH123]

The book by Jewers mentioned in Goldies's link is available through Familysearch. Unfortunately there is only one Small entry and it's not William.

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/579231-marriage-allegation-bonds-of-the-bishops-of-bath-and-wells-from-their-commencement-to-the-year-1755?viewer=1&offset=52335#page=380&viewer=picture&o=&n=0&q=

The other series of bonds described in the link only goes up to 1717, so it looks like the bond you want has not survived. That leaves only the chance of a record in the licence books mentioned at the end of that link. You would have to go to Taunton to see them, D/D/01\56 seems to be the relevant one.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/5c4e6207-aba9-4871-bd44-1f5ecf26bfbf

Quite possibly the entry will only say, "licence issued to William Small on such-an-such date"

David