Monday, June 1, 2015

Elizabeth Pearce (1737 - 1823)

52 Ancestor Challenge - Challenge 22

Blake, King, Coleman, Pearce, Farmer, Mary (unknown), Lambden, Sarah (unknown), Knight, Ellis, Knight, Vincent, Butt, Durnford, Arnold, Molton, Cotterel, Bartlett, Alderman, Shepherd, Sherwood, Elizabeth (unknown), Happerfield, Collins, Rawlings, Tanner, Dove, Morgan, Lywood, Lanham, unknown, Peck, Pincombe, Charley, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Rew, Moggridge, Siderfin, Kent, Gray, Hilton, Cobb, Sproxton, Routledge, Tweddle, Routledge, Routledge, (unknown) Buller, unknown, Beard, Hemsley, Welch, Brockhouse, Cheatle, Woodcock, unknown Taylor, unknown, Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, unknown

Elizabeth Pearce is my 4x great grandmother and she married John Coleman 7 Oct 1771 at Abbots Ann. John and Elizabeth baptized one child at Abbots Ann namely Sarah baptized 15 Jun 1773 and one at Upper Clatford William baptized 12 Mar 1775. John died and was buried 2 Jul 1780 at Upper Clatford. Elizabeth was married a second time 10 Oct 1781 at Upper Clatford to John Head. They had one daughter Elizabeth baptized 2 Feb 1783 at Upper Clatford. John Head was buried 13 Aug 1809 at Upper Clatford and Elizabeth Head was buried 8 Apr 1823 at Upper Clatford.

Finding the parents of Elizabeth Pearce proved to be a very difficult ask. She was not baptized at Abbots Ann where she married. The Hampshire Baptisms are online at Find My Past and a review of the 251 results searching for an Elizabeth Pearce/Pierce, etc did not reveal any possible hits. So I hunted around the Abbots Ann area to see why she might be there and discovered Simon Pearce who was a malster there (a Peter Pearce had been a victualler dying around 24 Nov 1744). There were three members of a Pearce family in the early records of Abbots Ann. Simon, Mary and Elizabeth. Mary Pearce had married Joseph Welch 7 Oct 1769 at Abbots Ann. Simon married Sarah Cooke 6 Sep 1775 at Abbots Ann. The three Pearce marriages in 1769, 1771 and 1775 all at Abbots Ann. Were they siblings? That set me off on a hunt in Family Search and later Find My Past to see if I could link these three people together and find their parents. It proved to be fairly difficult and another researcher living in Wiltshire looked this family up in the Collingbourne Kingston and Collingbourne Ducis registers and found the following:

William Pearce married Elizabeth Hopgood 25 Apr 1736 at Collingbourne Kingston (Elizabeth was baptized 6 Apr 1712 at Collingbourne Kingston daughter of Thomas Hopgood).

Elizabeth daughter of William and Elizabeth Pearce was baptized 1 Sep 1737 at Collingbourne Ducis
Mary daughter of William and Elizabeth Pearce was baptized 22 Jun 1742 at Collingbourne Ducis
Simon son of William and Elizabeth Pearce was baptized 9 Apr 1746 at Collingbourne Ducis

Finding this particular set made me look harder at the Farmer family at Collingbourne Kingston. It was Isaac Farmer's daughter Ann that married Sarah Coleman's son John Blake. If Isaac had relatives in Collingbourne Kingston and also born there as I thought and mentioned in last week's blog and Elizabeth Pearce's daughter Sarah Coleman married to Thomas Blake also had relatives in Collingbourne Kingston then these two families would have a common ancestral village that could just be the reason that they get to know each other considering that Ann (daughter of Isaac Farmer) lived in Andover and John (son of Sarah Coleman, grandson of Elizabeth Pearce) lived at Upper Clatford where the Coleman family were buried. Abbots Ann is 9 miles from Collingbourne Ducis and 10 miles from Collingbourne Kingston. Abbots Ann to Upper Clatford is just 1.5 miles.

Have I solved the parents of Elizabeth? I have done a fairly exhaustive search of the Pearce families in this area and the three individuals baptized by William and Elizabeth at Collingbourne Ducis appear to be the three later married at Abbots Ann. What attracted them to Abbots Ann? Perhaps the Inn that had been owned by Peter Pearce who had died around 1744. No ideas there actually.

I did find a baptism for a William Peirce 30 May 1699 at Bishops Cannings son of Simon Peirce, labourer.  Bishops Cannings is 15 miles from Collingbourne Ducis. I did not find any further details for Simon Peirce.

Ancestry of Elizabeth Pearce:

1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Samuel George Blake (b 10 Feb 1875) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
4. Edward Blake (b 2 Jan 1845) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
5. John BLAKE (b 25 Feb 1799) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
6. Sarah COLEMAN (b 15 Jun 1773) - Abbotts Ann Hampshire England
7. Elizabeth PEARCE (b 1 Sep 1737) - Collingbourne Ducis Wiltshire England
8. William PEARCE

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