Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Beautiful sunrise but cold again

Only minus 14 degrees celsius at 7:30 a.m. this morning and we are promised a snowfall later today. The laneway all melted out so ready for the next deluge. Cleaning all accomplished yesterday and will finish today with just the basement to do. 

Continuing to solidfy the first three generations of Pencombe at North Molton/South Molton. It would be fascinating to know the surname of John Pencombe's son John's wife. Her first name was likely Emma but all else is lost to time perhaps although  the Manor Books for South Molton might be helpful. Since he is shown with Goods at 10 on the 1524-7 Subsidy and his son Christopher (who is likely a young child) with Goods at 5 his marriage must have been to an heiress. Perhaps it is significant that John Pencombe at South Molton was taxed in South Molton borough and his son Christopher was taxed in South Molton Parish. South Molton is a beautiful town with its beautiful facade on the main streets dating back to the days of wool merchants. We visited it in 2008. 

A little searching on the Discovery Catalogue at the National Archives of the United Kingdom reveals an item of interest in 1363/64 for a John Pencombe. Too early to be the Pencombe with Lord de la Zouche at North Molton but interesting to see that the name John was used by this Hertfordshire family.  I do not see any mention of a John Pencombe of Hertfordshire being investigated at the relevant time period before 1489 when he likely arrived at North Molton. The Manor Books of Pembroke Hertfordshire might provide more information. There is mention of John Pencombe and Thomas Pencombe in some of the records held by the National Archives. 

I tend to think this is a young person who has come to North Molton with Lord de la Zouch, likely as a page. He was protected for his devotion to Lord de la Zouch and brought with de la Zouch when he finally was released from being attainted and restored to some of his lands in 1489. Guessing age around 15 would make him old enough to marry by 1500 and the four children would have been born over a period from 1500 to 1520 perhaps since we find Thomas, next to the youngest possibly as his sister Margret Pencombe married in 1539 (Philip Kingdon 15 Nov 1539 at North Molton) when she would have been in her early 20s or older. Earning wages and found beside John Pencombe at North Molton one might think Thomas is in his teens in 1524 as the records were used from this year being the best preserved of the original documents. Interesting really and I must get into those early Pencombe documents that I photographed at Kew in 2010 and 2013. They are in latin and slowly my ability to manage improves - very slowly but perhaps sufficient to help me as I work through the early generations of this family. Interesting how the name evolved from Pencombe to Pyncomb(e) to Pincomb(e) and in the West Devon area around Bideford and Barnstaple to Pinkham. 

The question does remain though was there a distinct family named Pinkham in 1500 as we do find an outlier of this family with the name Philip Pynkeham at Tawstocke on the 1544 Subsidy with a worth of 8. By 1581 this is an Edward Pencombe at Tawstocke with Goods worth 5 at Tawstocke. By 1641the Protestation Returns do not list anyone in Fremington with the Pencombe etc surname. Moving forward to 1733 and the Freeholders Book at Fremington there isn't anyone with the surname Pencombe etc listed. If for what ever reason this family lost their land they would not appear in these early records other than the BMBs  of the parish which I shall have a look at in the Fremington Hundred and mostly at Tawstocke. I am unable to place Philip into the early family at this point in time so in the fourth generation he remains an outlier. Richard Pencombe at Bideford is, I suspect, a descendant of the North Molton line but I am at this time unable to assuredly place him into the family structure. However, I continue to forge ahead. 

Having reached this point I shall work on the autosomal DNA matches at Ancestry which have proven to be rather interesting given that I (along with my siblings and cousin) appear to have matches with a number of individuals who trace back in their trees to a Richard Pinkham of Dover Neck, New Hampshire. 

On to breakfast and the cleaning.



No comments:

Post a Comment