Robert Siderfin born circa 1540 died circa 1627

I have a will probated in 1627 for a Robert Siderfin and the naming of his children and his sister's children matches the Robert Siderfinne who appears in a set of documents from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I who reigned from 1558 to 1603. He would have then been  21 years of age in 1560 presumably as the regnal year of 2 is mentioned on some of the documents. At the time of writing a will in 1627 this would have made him 87 years of age. Since I do have other Siderfin males who lived to quite old age even into their 90s this is perhaps a long-lived family. But it is the will itself which makes me think that James Sanders has been incorrect giving Robert Siderfin son of William Sidervin and Wilmot Foster a death year of 1612. 

Definitely the documents dealing with the land contested between Robert Siderfin and James Foster (first cousins) do state that Robert is the son of William Sidervin and Wilmot Foster. There are items that Robert refers to in his will of 1627 that mention grazing rights that are then the property of one of his sons. He also mentions children that are born after 1612. I believe I need to reconstruct the initial family chart breaking it down into each family grouping to make it easier to follow. Robert and his wife Christian had ten children when the baptismal records and the will are reviewed together. 

I will add to this blog as the day progresses. It is helpful to work away sometimes on a section in the blog. It separates me from the book and I just look at the available data. One does tend, I think, to be influenced by the written word and you need to look at all the available material giving all of it the same weight of significance depending on the date that the work was written. Those items closer to the event carry more weight than an item prepared hundreds of years after the event. James Sanders was collecting material for a long time before he wrote the book in 1910 when he was 65 years of age. Now at 76 I am revising his book so I need to be very careful to let the early works held by the Archives weigh in and make my decisions based on what is in those early works. 

Ice storm followed by snow here yesterday. Very pretty but likely somewhat difficult to get around. We are into the warmer part of the winter to some extent now as March approaches and we get our heaviest snows. Early March can be very difficult in this area. Generally though we have less of the polar vortex so somewhat warmer.