John Nance Gooch, 1770, and his sisters

[Harlem]

Hello

I have been corresponding about my research into this family and have been off-topic on another thread, so I am starting a new thread.

I am researching the family of John Nance Gooch of Suffolk in the late eighteenth - mid nineteenth century. I think he had sisters who made a quilt that the Quilters Guild of Great Britain has acquired for its museum collection. I am a member of the Guild and an amateur genealogist, and I have volunteered to do some research to see what I can find out about the family.

Worlygigger, in the other thread, you said you had researched John Nance Gooch's sisters. I believe he had seven. The information the Guild has been given is that the quilt was made by three of these sisters. I know it is unlikely that I shall find out which three, but I would like to try. I am looking for evidence of connections with textiles: drapers, weavers, or information in wills. I am also thinking John Nance Gooch's wife may have been involved in the quilt, because the evidence seems to point to the quilt being inherited through him, to their son Edward.

Any information or stories about the family are potentially useful, though.

I am happy to correspond with anyone about this, and to share anything I learn.

Harlemswife

[gobbitt]

Shortly before her death in 1979, Dorothy Lucy Wainwright (Dor) sent me some details of our Gooch and Button relatives. Copies can be downloaded from my Dropbox folder (here) along with a typescript version of George Button's family history, which she had lent me a few years earlier. Unfortunately, there seems to be no mention of quilting.

Dor's lists of birthdays include John Nance Gooch, born 12 Oct. 1769. Her mother, Celia Mary Rope, was a daughter of my great-great grandfather's brother William Gobbitt and Jane Elizabeth née Garrard of Sudbourne. Jane's mother (b. 1798) was Celia or Cecelia, a daughter of Samuel Button and Dorothy Lucy Gooch (sister of John Nance Gooch).

My own notes are no neater than Dor's but they may be useful for analysis of George Button's 19 pages. Squeezed in at the foot of my third chart, he was probably George Tinline Button of Oxford (d. 1961).

David

[Harlem]

Hello David

Thank you for your message. I wanted to acknowledge it, and thank you for making a lot of data available to me. i am having a problem at the moment with accessing it. i think everyone must be on the internet doing their Christmas shopping. I will, though, have a good study of it when the www is a bit quicker! It has taken me ages even to access RC.

Thanks again, and I will get back to you,

Harlemswife

[Harlem]

Hello again, David

Thank you so much for allowing me to see these docs. I have now been able to download them and read them properly. Your notes may not look clear at first sight, but they are clear and I have been able to see, among other things, the births of all John Nance Gooch's children. As you say, no quilts, but I shall poke around and look for references to anything else that may be relevant. In the past I have found that quilters had connections with weavers or drapers, who may have been sources of fabric. But in large households, I would think there is plenty of scope for fabric to be available through purchase or 'make do and mend'.

The Button 'notes on family history' is a gold mine, isn't it? I love the formal prose, the style that dates it to the 1920s or 1930s, and the royalist sentiments. There are a lot of fascinating anecdotes. I shall probably include in my report to the Guild the story of the Spanish Armada! I was brought up in Plymouth, so was particularly interested in the Cornish connection. Wonderful!

Thank you again. If I can find anything else I shall post it here or send you a PM.

Harlemswife

[Harlem]

Hello to Gooch historians.

I have a quick puzzle:

John Nance Gooch married Elizabeth Button 29 Dec 1794

Their son Edward (b 1811) married Elizabeth Button 7 July 1835.

Is that right, or am I getting confused?

[hanes teulu]

The Framlingham Weekly News, 28 Apr 1894, ran an an item under the headline "Framlingham 65 Years Ago" about the somewhat eccentric Thos "Parson" Gooch, Vicar of Brundish and Bedfield.
The next issue, 5 May 1894, included a follow up article which stated "He was brother to John Nance Gooch, Esq, of Brundish Hall".
Haven't been able to find a birth/baptism for a Thomas Gooch, with parents James (Wyard) and Hannah to support the newspapers claim.

 

[hanes teulu]

A Thomas Caesar Gooch, age 86, was buried St Lawrence Church, Brundish, 24 Dec 1829 (born c. 1743). That burial date would "fit" the 1894 article "Framlingham 65 Years ago" but would make him an unlikely brother to John Nance baptised 1770?
Was the a previous John Nance Gooch?

[Harlem]

Hi Hanes Teulu

It is very confusing. According to Gobbit's data, Thomas Caesar Gooch, 1707, was father to James Wyard Gooch, 1739, who was father to John Nance Gooch, 1770. James Wyard Gooch had a sister , Mary Hobart Gooch, who married a Cornishman, John Nance, which is where the Nance name came from. This doesn't fit with what you found. However, it seems to me that all these people had big families and named their children after their siblings, causing no end of problems.

The good news is that I have found Edward Gooch in 1871, living with his family who were silk mercers, so I have found a link to the textile trade! Edward was John Nance's son.
(I hope you are keeping up . . .  )

[hanes teulu]

Good to see you are making progress. Chasing John Nance Gooch I had come across -

Cornubian and Redruth Times, 22 Apr 1905
"The bartons of Sinns, the joint property of the St Aubyns and John Nance Gooch, Esq., the latter being the representative of the family of Trengove, alias Nance, alias Trengoffe".

I had also checked out the wedding of Edward and Elizabeth Button, 1835. Marriage notices for several of John Nance's children appeared in the newspapers (Henry 1829, George 1831 and Hannah Justina 1844) -  but not for Edward.

Can't win them all!