Author Topic: Mary Browne (1530)  (Read 317 times)

Offline Rachel J

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Mary Browne (1530)
« on: Tuesday 31 October 23 18:07 GMT (UK) »
Hi,

On joining Ancestry, I discovered that others had already completed trees for both sides of my family based on their research. As I’ve been exploring these for myself though, I have struggled to find evidence of Mary Browne’s parentage (born 1530).

I found a record of marriage between John Tolvery and Mary Browne, on 2nd July 1545 at Stoke Charity, Hampshire. On the tree, Mary’s parents are listed as Henry Browne (1504 – 1557) and Katherine Shelley (c. 1512 – 1560), who married in 1528 in Surrey.

In Douglas Richardson’s ‘Magna Carta Ancestry’ though, it is reported that Mary (Henry’s only daughter with Katherine, his first wife) married Cuthbert Blagden, a gentleman. Searching for their marriage records however, I found that a Cuthberd Blagden married Elizabeth Browne on 24th October 1569, in Surrey. I understand from Wikipedia that Elizbeth was the name of Mary’s half-sister, so maybe this was misreported in ‘Magna Carta Ancestry.’ I still have no evidence that John Tolvery’s wife was the daughter of Henry and Katherine though. Is there anywhere else I could look to confirm this?

Thank you so much in advance for any advice or information you can give.

Offline chempat

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 15 November 23 09:04 GMT (UK) »
Have you contacted the tree owner to ask them what evidence they have?
Any suggested marriage in a different county more than 400 years ago needs proof, because few records exist some people just pick the only one they can see, regardless of location.

Offline Rachel J

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 15 November 23 13:25 GMT (UK) »
Thank you so much for your reply. I did contact the owners of the trees that listed John and Mary's marriage, but those who responded either no longer had source documents, or had found the link in others' trees. Given the date, I wonder if it might be something that remains a mystery!

Offline chempat

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 15 November 23 14:44 GMT (UK) »
those who responded either no longer had source documents, or had found the link in others' trees.
That's a pity but, unfortunately, what one finds too often in other people's trees before 1700.


Offline Drayke

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 16 November 23 03:23 GMT (UK) »
I found a record of marriage between John Tolvery and Mary Browne, on 2nd July 1545 at Stoke Charity, Hampshire. On the tree, Mary’s parents are listed as Henry Browne (1504 – 1557) and Katherine Shelley (c. 1512 – 1560), who married in 1528 in Surrey.

Like many of the trees on Ancestry of this period, the ones shown for this couple are just wrong in many ways. Born one county, married in another and then died in another. Marriages at young ages, burials at over age 100 (did happen but very rare), etc. It is usually a case of people trying to link to nobility or just lazy genealogy of copy paste.

With regards to your Mary Brown who married John Tolfrey in Stoke Charity, her father was Nicholas Brown and mother Isabel. Not only did John and Mary Tolfrey name a child Nicholas, Nicholas Brown was also of Stoke Charity and left a will which is available on ancestry.

In that will dated 1 Feb 1550/51 and probate in 7 Apr 1551, he leaves legacies to his children John Brown, Richard Brown, George Brown, Agnes (cant read married name - looks like Ulie), Isabell Tetersall, Mary Tolfres and Jane Brown. Also made his wife Isabel executrix. John Tolfre was a witness to the will.

Parish register of Stoke Charity has Nicholas being buried 2 Feb 1551.

There is also another will dated 1550 for a William Brown of Stoke Charity however whilst indexed and appears in the search results on Ancestry, the images are not available. This William could possibly be another son of Nicholas Brown.

Given Mary was married in 1545 I would also put her being born about 1524 or 25 as 1530 would have her being married at 15 which, whilst possible and legal, even back then it was uncommon for commoners.

Offline Rachel J

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 16 November 23 07:07 GMT (UK) »
This is amazing, thank you. I had been confused by the family's links to so many different counties.

It looks like I now have a lot more working out to do - my DNA results suggested a surprising percentage of Italian, and the Brownes were the only link to Italy I've found in any members' trees!

Offline Drayke

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 16 November 23 12:26 GMT (UK) »
This is amazing, thank you. I had been confused by the family's links to so many different counties.
Not a problem at all, and glad the info helped. Good luck and have fun with your genealogy adventure!

Offline rosie99

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 16 November 23 14:33 GMT (UK) »
Welcome from me too  :)

I am sure that you are aware that you should treat all online trees with caution and that all the information needs to be checked.  It is not sufficient to think that because more than one person has the information it must be correct.  These trees are randomly copied over without being checked and the information on them is often wrong.  You will find many references on rootschat to wrong information posted.

Good luck on your search
Rosie
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Offline Rachel J

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Re: Mary Browne (1530)
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 16 November 23 17:16 GMT (UK) »
Thanks so much, Rosie. Yes, I'm learning not to rely too heavily on others' trees! I'm hoping that I'll find the time to work on a tree for myself at some point, using all the advice everyone has been kind enough to share here.