Last day of cleaning

 I found myself contemplating the communications between Galen Pinkham and myself the last two days. I know Galen was interested in an update to the earlier Pinkham family book published back in the 1800s. I did encourage him to do it himself but as I work at 81 I realize this is a huge task and I did not realize until two days ago that when he sent me an obituary for a fellow Pinkham that it was his wife and not realizing it I did not say anything beyond did he want me to publish it in the next Newsletter and he said no he just wanted me to know that. Looking back in my life I often realize that there are times when my possible autism really stands out. I need to be told directly what has to be known as I am  not one to think anything past the words themselves. 

That being said I accomplished very little yesterday but today will perhaps be better. But it is also the  heaviest cleaning day because it involves cleaning the rug on the stairs along with the main floor. Now that the record has come forward and looking back at the Rev. Charles Sinnett's publication "Richard Pinkham of old Dover New Hampshire and his descendants east and west" I reviewed once again the originating information on the emigrant Richard Pinkham and Section one begins with the likely arrival of Richard in 1640 at Dover Neck, New Hampshire, his wife was Julia and the names of their three sons Richard, John and Thomas. His location in England by family tradition was the Isle of Wight but the author says there is no historical proof. Galen and Richard, the two earlier researchers, created Chart 10 which is labeled Bideford (Devon) and it has a genealogical tree reaching back from the emigrant to his father also a Richard and to his father Philip. Finding the baptism of the father of the emigrant Richard was truly amazing the other day although the chart did provide a very close date to this so perhaps his birth in 1585 a couple of days before the baptism. But finding this location in Devon verified now by record is a fascinating happening. Although it is not  my line I am incredibly happy that it has been located (Find My Past Hint).

I do find it interesting that the children's names are similar to the names in the Pencombe family found in Herefordshire - in this case John and Thomas. Philip and Richard are not found in the Herefordshire names although I continue to review those documents. Roger as a forename is not present but that was the early 1300s and this is 1585. Forenames are not necessarily an indication of a family as far as I can tell but can reinforce the search in some ways leading you to other possibilities.  

 The actual Parish Register line is now available on Find My Past:

 Richard the sonne of Phillippe Pyncombe the xxvii th daie of Marche

 And so the research of Galen and Richard has now been fortified with this original record on Find My Past. 

 

 

This process of going through the 50,000 records will be a slow one but will continue to verify the great work that Galen and Richard did (I take no credit for it other than my access to Find My Past) but I am sharing this screen shot as it is permitted to do small amounts of a document. I will not share any further as I do not wish to infringe on copyright.  Why the spelling of Pyncombe? Generally this spelling was used by the South Molton branch of the Pincombe family but the records that were lost would have let us see any connection between the two families using the surname in the 1300s in Devon. The distance from Bondleigh to Bideford as the crow flies is shorter actually than the distance between South Molton and Bideford. Now by modern roads it is nearly the same. The Manor Records may yet help to understand why we find Philip Pyngham in Tawstock on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy probably as a very young adult but perhaps a teenager as he is earning wages. The person he follows on the list is actually a common surname in Tawstock. The spelling of the name here and again on the Devon Lay Subsidy in 1543-45 Philip Pynkeham does leave me wondering as he is now established and his tax number is 8 which was a medium to upper range in Tawstock at that time. I believe it is the same name. The assessor collecting this information has a different set of records than a priest recording information on a baptismal certificate. Usually the assessors for a village/town/city were local to the area whereas the priest often had the luxury of knowing people from a larger area.  There is an independent group of Pinkham and I did forward my last conversation with Galen to this group leader in  hopes that he can pass on my writeup to his family. The email address is still functional I think as I did not get an error message for the email I sent to Galen. 

Since I will continue to see Pinkham records in the search I will of course relate them in this blog along with the other records that catch my attention. A grandson taking on a grandfather's surname (particularly a daughter's son) is generally indicative of the family having daughtered out and the property to remain in that family could have someone change their surname (of their father) to that of the family line of his mother (since it was his mother's maiden name) that owned the property which was not unusual in England and particularly with the huge number of young male deaths at the Battle of Bosworth Field there would have been quite a few I suspect who had not left a male heir of their own. There also remains the possibility that picking the name of a village (Pencombe, Herefordshire) is not that unusual but when I discovered Roger de Pencombe I did wonder if he himself had chosen that particular surname as it was only the early 1300s. But the loss of records due to the bombing of the Exeter Record Office in 1942 has created a hole in the records of Devon although some records still remain (the parish records are primarily intact having been retained by the parish through the centuries). The Manor Records may also exist and the wills probated by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury still exist. But a huge amount was lost although we in the Pinkham/Pincombe families are very lucky to have the abstracted wills done by Dr Richard Pinkham prior to the bombing of the Record Office. I do have copies and I believe I have blogged all of them but will check. Two methods of arriving at those wills - label - Devon-wills and Pincombe/Pinkham will bring up the wills but also the name itself on a search. I welcome any queries and do try to check my comments on the blog and will make an effort to do that a little more regularly. They do not publish immediately as I do get a lot of comments that have nothing to do with my blog.  

Moving on to the work of the day. Although I will likely return to this blog (I do make corrections through the day on occasion) as my review of the results of my search 1480 to 1560 continues and I am on the fifth page. 

Continuing to read the Psalms as I do appear to get easily distracted. Having the email in my box of the Bible Readings of the day does keep me focused on that but I do want to continue and complete my reading of the Bible to better understand now in my 80s God's vision for our world. Psalm 19 Verse 14 "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." So familiar to my Anglican ears. The beauty of the Psalms about 50% written by King David is a source of so much joy in one's life. As I enjoy my solitude day after day (except when I am with family) and continue with my writing, the years pass by but my being with non family will not happen now in the rest of my life unless of course I end up like my elder sister in a wheelchair. I did speak with her on Thanksgiving but the call went on and on without my really realizing it (but it was special). It was a joyous family time with my sister and my brother in law whom I have know since I was an early teenager. A PhD Psychologist who taught at Memorial University for many years (my sister's degree was in French and German) and my children remember them as they drove back and forth to our mutual home in London (and my brother in law was from the Niagara area) stopping to visit us here in Ottawa. As I downsize the binders I am collecting up the many pictures of their trips here through the years to send back to them for their grandchildren to have and enjoy (I still have the electronic copies but also paper copies in the binders that I am creating). Edward especially enjoyed their coming as they had much in common with their PhDs from the same university except Edward's PhD was in Chemistry (Inorganic) and then his Postdoc in Chemical Engineering (Environmental) and I did three years of Honours Chemistry, got married and finished off my degree as a BA. I did contemplate and actually was marking papers for a professor that I would do my masters with when my eldest was settled in school but surprise my second daughter made her entrance and she definitely needed me to be with her those early years as her health was needing that extra care. Then I just decided to go back to work and did proofreading and copyediting initially the proofreading for the National Research Council Journals but later for the private printers and that included copyediting.

Vacuuming done, lunch time and then dusting and scrubbing the bathroom. I am late starting. My next neighbour appears to work at night I think sometimes so I never know and try not to start vacuuming as early as I used to (7:00 a.m. when my daughter is not here). I have only spoken to her once when I offered her a length of fence and the posts (wrought iron). My husband never got it put up and she had someone there doing work so I thought I would offer it in case she wanted it. But she suggested I throw it in her huge refuse bin so obviously was not interested which is fine not everyone wants a fence but I generally put anything I do not want out to the street in case someone else wants it. It is still in my shed actually. But for that reason I tend to clean later these days.  

Solitaire puzzles all completed in the middle of the night as I awoke with my brain full of thoughts. A couple of good puzzles tends to mediate that tendency of mine.  

 

Cleaning day and it is the main floor

 My cleaning days continue and it is the main floor today and I shall begin shortly. 

The find yesterday of the baptism of Richard Pinkham was really excellent. My first thought was to share it with Galen Pinkham but I did  not know that he had passed away (in the December issue of the Newsletter I will remember Galen and all his work). I looked back at our shared emails over the last eighteen years and had asked him if he would like to come back and share the study a while ago now but I understood why he did not want to do that. He had done that work for quite a few years with Dr Richard Pinkham a Gloucestershire physician (England) and was busy with other items. Their work still very valuable although I have disagreed with some of the dating here and there but it captured a generation's thoughts on the family which is really important and not available for all families. That was why I published them in the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletters although I did express that I did not always agree with them. But data is becoming more and more available and will  help with that search backwards into time to locate our ancient ancestors. 

Now I must get some cleaning done but will continue with my work on the first eighty years of records on Find My Past later today and add anything in to the blog as I move along with that project.  

Cleaning accomplished and returned to the search pattern and I am now on page 4 and nothing really new; possibly as much as 50% of the items are single and can not be linked. A quiet day for sure and that will be the case for  some of the 50,000 items that can be searched on these derivatives. I have given myself two years to complete the book so I guess I am not in a rush and likely there will be other interesting items emerging especially in the 1600s. 1600s are very important because during the Commonwealth under Cromwell all such records were supposed to be maintained by the governing body of the village/town/city. The records were both really great and not so great so we will see what we learn in the 1600s. 

Solitaire puzzles done and the day has passed quickly as it always does on cleaning day and I manged to use up over 2500 calories working away. Not bad for an 81 year old woman I guess.  

Continuing with the extraction of data

 I am now up to the 19th Psalm in my reading and I do love the Psalms. It will take me a while to read the 150 Psalms and I shall enjoy every one so will go slow. I also love the Proverbs but then the Bible is really the pinnacle of books - its very ancient history is all part of that. Unfortunately church was cut off about half way through yesterday. I switched to the Service from England and I also enjoy these Anglican Services that remind me very much of my childhood days at Church. Sometimes it is just the accents because my grandfather lived with us although his Hampshire accent was very mild and I spent a lot of time with my grandmother with her Birmingham accent which was much stronger. With just one tiny little Canadian line and all the rest from England at least back to the 1500s where I have Huguenots from France and Scots from the Highlands being part of my lines. But my mother was born in Canada and her father was born in Canada and his mother was born in Canada (so just three Canadian born ancestors and myself born in Canada before the 1 Jan 1946 Citizenship act and so I am Canadian by right of birth in Canada at that time as were all those born in Canada prior to 1 Jan 1946). 

 Yesterday was reasonably good in terms of research as I gained a few new insights and solved a few interesting queries on my part which I noted in the blog yesterday. I will continue extracting from the 245 results for the Pencombe and derivatives search between 1480 and 1560. Primarily the early records link to the North Molton/South Molton Pencombe/Pyncombe families predominantly but there are a few that center in the Tawstock and Bideford area which is a short distance from Bondleigh where Roger de Pencombe received land grants in the early 1300s (one notes Richard Pencombe who lived at Bideford and was the son of Thomas Pencombe (son of John Pencombe (known to be in Northmolton from 1486 on) does appear to be the only member of the North Molton family to do so and that was after we find the Philip Pengham/Pynkeham records on the two Devon Lay Subsidies 1524-7 and 1543-45). I do plan to have a look at all the area around Bondleigh and Tawstock/Bideford/Barnstaple on the 1332 Devon Lay Subsidy. The problem is the destruction of the Exeter Record Office in 1942 during the Second World War where huge amounts of material were lost in particular the wills that had been probated by the Church in the Devon/Somerset areas. This loss is huge although in the case of the Pincombes Dr Richard Pinkham did abstract many wills before this happened and this information was placed in the keeping of the Society of Genealogists in London. It was a very valuable find and I did record all of his records there when I visited just the one time with my husband in 2013. Some of his material was missing and perhaps they have found it now I have not looked recently but my cousin in England had copies made which she sent to me earlier when she visited (I think it was 2008 when she was there) and I have published them in the Newsletters on the yDNA Pincombe/Pinkham project at FT DNA. As I mentioned at the time of publication I do not agree with particularly the oldest part of the charts but access to some records was possibly not convenient for a busy Doctor and he did rely heavily on talking to descendants in their areas in northern Devon. As well the knowledge of records available has expanded enormously as the National Archives continues to organize, scan and make available ancient information that exists in their vaults. On one of our trips to Kew in 2010 I was given a box that was quite old looking itself and the hemp perhaps ties that held the documents in their rolls sometimes disappeared as I tried to untie them. But the reward of seeing those ancient documents was wondrous and I did photocopy all of them at the time. Many of them were involving the Pyncombe family of South Molton. 

Moving forward to try and do what my correspondent (I believe his line used the Pyncombe spelling but I think it was his mother's line) from Chittlehampton was unable  to do going backwards from his generation as it became complex and difficult to link generations. Having one of the yDNA testers with a history from Barnstaple does give me pause to consider the family lore that discussed the South Molton (a few members perhaps) moving into the Barnstaple area early on so probably looking at the 1500s where I am reviewing the data available on Find My Past. For that reason I will pursue going through these 50,000 records that are available on Find My Past for this family which appears to have its roots in the Pencombe surname which has a number of derivatives. I shall watch the Charts which the earlier researchers used to see where they might have had that particular spelling as it is primarily Pincombe/Pyncombe/Pinkham later on.

But today is cleaning the basement day so I will be in and out looking at records plus I need to rake the front lawn to do one more bag today and then probably one bag left and the front will be completed as I shall not cut down the plants as my husband used to do in the fall but leave them to rot and enrich the ground for next year - perhaps I will move in the next year and that thought is very exciting. But I will move in three years that is for sure. 

If I find anything I will return to this blog. Right off the bat a hint from FMP for Richard Pyncombe's baptism at Bideford 27 Mar 1585 and his father listed as Phillippe Pyncombe (married at Bideford to Wilmote Beare 10 Feb 1583). I have already mentioned a record for Phillippe Pynkeham 8 at Tawstock on the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy and an earlier one at Tawstock for Philip Pyngham W1. The W refers to wages being earned so probably a relatively young adult or a teenager. The person above him does not share the same surname so possibly he is working for him at Tawstock and on the Tawstock Lay Subsidy just 20 years later we see him well established with a tax of 8 which was medium to perhaps a little higher.  A baptism for a known individual Richard Pinkham in the earlier researcher's Chart 10 is fascinating (although the date is different but could be the date of birth which Galen Pinkham might know). I will try writing to him later. Obviously this priest has seen the surname as a different spelling than the Assessor for the Devon Lay Subsidy - it does imply that one should look carefully as one individual is seeing this as a distinct line that is different from the Pyncombe family at South Molton which is not that far away (about 35 miles so not that close actually at that time). So a good find and thank you to FMP for their hints - they can be extremely useful. 

The information that my cousin in London, England had from Dr. Richard Pinkham does need to have a longer look on my part again as I have not looked at it since 2008 particularly other than more recent information. However, I am still resolved to only produce a book on the descendants of John Pencombe at North Molton but for those interested in doing more on the Pinkham family in the United States this will be very interesting. 

The sad thing is my email to Galen will probably not be productive. I did not check online as I thought I might have heard that he passed and it was recent 23 March 2025. He would have been so excited at this find; I have to say that. We corresponded through the years and I did try to persuade him to come back to the project but he was a couple of years older than me and I can tell that time is making it harder for me to follow through on some of this although my health is good and I will stay away from large branches that have come down. 

Rest in peace Galen and I am sorry I did  not know sooner. I mention you often enough along with Dr. Richard Pinkham of Gloucester.  Perhaps someone is picking up his study and I may hear back. Will wait on that. I did send a letter to the same address expressing my sadness at the passing very belatedly and added in the material that I have been writing up on the blog. 

I decided to stop for the day and think about Galen and our many emails back and forth through the years.  

 

 

 

 

A very quiet Sunday today

Another beautiful Sunday and it is Thanksgiving Sunday in the Church Calendar. I shall go to church in an hour and a half online as ever. I may break my general rule about working on Sunday with regard to the raking as it looks like it might be a good day to do another bag. Likely three in total from the front yard but we will see. There are a lot of leaves out there. 

I mentioned the AI yesterday with regard to my sleep apnea. I had the paid version of FitBit for about five months when the switchover happened. I was considering having it permanently but did not do so. I ended up not using it as much as I thought. But the FitBit AI would give me a sort of analysis of my exercise and its effects and I did discover that I really found that to be a bit restricting although enthusiasm was certainly on the part of the FitBit and one appreciates that sort of support. But in the long run I simply did not use it sufficiently to justify in my mind having the extra support with FitBit. But I really do like my FitBit and will probably always have one now. Whether or not in the future I look to returning to the AI support is hard to say. 

I do like AI though and find it very useful in my research and will continue using this tool and the enthusiasm expressed by the AI for this work is really quite interesting. I am finding AI to be more and more useful as I always did use the power of the ability to look items up quickly on the internet mostly just to reinforce my thought but sometimes I had actually forgotten something and it provided the details which brought the memory back. There is so much one can cram into one brain I rather think and that is probably the greatest advantage to AI as we move ahead quickly in our process of attaining a degree of advancement that will protect the planet but provide the best life for the people on the planet.  

I will continue working on the Find My Past Pencombe etc. results of the search and I am perhaps half way through the third page. I did find the 1564 Visitation by Vivian et al but did not yet look at the information and will do that probably this week sometime. I believe I looked at it years ago but it is a dim memory so I may review my blogs from that time first. I do not recall though that it provided anymore information than I am currently in possession of with regard to the Pencombe line at North Molton but always good to have a refresher. 

I think what will eventually continue to link this study Pincombe-Pinkham is the shared ancestry back to the Pencombe name which in reality is a place name in Herefordshire, England that traveled to Devon for whatever reason. But on the other hand there could be two separate studies as one can see. This one is labeled Pincombe with Pinkham one of the derivatives (for a period of time some members of the Pincombe family used the surname Pinkham in the 1700s and 1800s but that is very less frequent these days). 

Solitaire puzzles to do next since it was very late when I did them yesterday. Then back to research. 

John Pyncombe Sr wrote his will 25 Jul 1604 and it was probated 15 Apr 1605. John Pyncombe Jr (son of the aforementioned John Pyncombe Sr) wrote his will initially in 1593 but it was not signed until 19 Feb 1597/98. His date of death does not appear to be in the records thus far. But definitely John Pyncombe Jr died before his father (John Pyncombe Sr) leaving one son John Pyncombe who appears on the 1620 Visitation as a student in the Middle Temple and his age is probably appropriate to that time frame. I have more documents at hand now since I wrote blogs years ago - they were my thoughts at the time but the further availability of records improves on that blog. I did find this very confusing years ago and did not fully resolve it at that time; amazing what a decade of time does to one's  thinking. This youngest John Pyncombe does marry and have a son Richard who died young relatively in his 20s leaving no male descendant with the Pyncombe surname to inherit and The Pyncombe Charity was created from the wealth of that estate and it still persists in this 21st century. 

Have not looked at Free BMD for a while and there are a lot of Pinkham in the 1900s. There is also a lot of Pincombe. I do not usually check out the 1900s as I only plan to work to the beginning of the 1900s. 

Still pulling data and not too much new but did reconcile a couple of Barnstaple records. 

Another busy day almost concluded.  

 

 

Continuing to extract information on the Pencombe family and its derivatives

 There are 225 matches with a slightly different criteria and I think I will stay with this criteria as it collects more information. So using a + or - 40 years over a time period around 1520 gives me 1480 to 1560. A perfect expanse for what I am looking at in the records. You can adjust the display by clicking on year at the top and that will have the years beginning with the oldest and numerically following that. 

So continuing today and I have almost completed the first three pages of the sort. Some repetition from yesterday and the day before but I believe I am capturing more of the records this way. I am into the John Pyncombe family at South Molton and it is a difficult one even in the 1500s but I believe I have it sorted now. John Pincombe Senior son of John Pencombe (son of John Pencombe who arrived in 1486) outlives his son John Pincombe Junior and it is John Pincombe Junior that marries Amy Doddridge. I am thinking that it was a second marriage for John Pincombe Senior at Bishops Nympton in 1598 (Margarett Stephan). That one has always been a slight source of confusion. 

The drive itself from South Molton to Bishops Nympton is a lovely scenic route which sits somewhat above the surrounding land and you sort of swoop into Bishops Nympton suddenly as you round a curve. The Church at Bishops Nympton is simply beautiful and it is not that far from South Molton having driven from South Molton to Bishops Nympton in 2008 with  my cousin. It was my cousin who spotted the gravestone of my 3x great grandfather Robert Pincombe and his wife Elizabeth (Rowcliffe) Pincombe firmly attached to the outside wall of the Church but behind a small Yew tree so was slightly hidden. On the road (away from the main  highway and to the south of it) into Bishops Nympton right at the outskirts is the farm/home known as Park where Robert and Elizabeth raised their eight children. That is what has really saved this family because in this generation three of the four boys including Robert had huge families and the one sister as well. The second sister died quite young in childbirth.  John Pincombe and Mary (Charly) Pincombe had 36 grandchildren with quite a number of sons compared to daughters. And so the Pincombe name was propagated quickly throughout the British Isles in this generation with William's line going to Australia and Robert's line going to America and Canada. However quite a few remained in England to keep up the name there and I did find a lot of Pincombe matches at Living DNA, as well as FT DNA, Ancestry, My Heritage and 23 and Me. Now all of these matches carry the Pincombe spelling and it was just during a period between the late 1700s and into the 1800s that one saw some using the spelling of Pinkham particularly if they were from the Barnstaple area. It has helped with noticing who kept the spelling as they, I believe, are likely descendant of the John Pyncombe family at South Molton perhaps by his son Christopher. Part of doing all this extraction is to see if I can build the line and see where I can go with it. It is handy having the Charts from the earlier researchers as I tend to be able to separate the Pinkham from the Pincombe although in essence because they chose a surname that is a village in Herefordshire there could be a number of descendant lines not yet noted in the DNA groups. But for the moment it appears to be only two and I do suspect that the Pinkham family of the United States is descendant of the line at Bondleigh where Roger de Pencombe received land grants in the early 1300s (they appear to disappear but that can happen in the records especially as most of them were destroyed in 1942 when Exeter Record Office was demolished). Not seeing them on the 1332 Devon Lay Subsidy means I couldn't find them in the index (just one at Molland, John de Pencomb'). But finding John on the wrong page from what was in the index I probably need to read the Subsidy for that area and I will eventually as part of the study created by Galen and Richard. Fascinating really all of this sleuthing but they do share this history that was created by the earlier researchers in this study - Galen Pinkham in the United States and Dr. Richard Pinkham in England (I have not located him on any of the charts but I am about to do a more thorough perusal through them as I proceed through this data). 

I record all of this in case one day my Sleep Apnea or whatever  takes me out sort of and my daughters would give my research away for sure. They helped their Dad with his graveyards tours as children and did not acquire an interest in genealogy. Since I didn't have one either I can understand completely. So I am trying to write up as much as I know so that in the future someone might run with it to learn more about our shared ancestry which was brought together by the two original researchers in the Pincombe/Pinkham family at the Guild of one-name Studies. But my research materials (parish register fiche in particular will go the Anglican Church Archives) as I agreed when I purchased them that they would be placed in a suitable repository. 

 I digress and I continue on the John Pyncombe family at South Molton which included two known sons John and Christopher. The puzzle is not Christopher who died before or during 1585 when he was at least 61 as he would have been an infant possibly on the Devon Lay Subsidy where he appears but likely older just unknown how much older. It is John Pyncombe Senior that is the question as he does not appear on the Subsidy so born after 1524-7. There is one likely daughter Margret who married in 1539 to Philip Kingdon at North Molton (the item to remember is that North Molton was the wealthier of the two Moltons in this time frame) and her age could be as young as 16 perhaps. Another possible daughter Marye Pencombe who was buried 4 Feb 1563 at North Molton. Establishing this third generation is interesting for sure and lots of data flowing by and trying to figure it all out. But noting that most data is centralized in this North Molton/South Molton area so the family Pynkeham at Tawstock/Bideford is small probably since there are few records. We also know that it exists before Richard Pencombe (son of Thomas, grandson of John (in North Molton in 1486) arrives in Bideford. So lots gained in all of this working through the data. 

I went out raked and it may be that it is too much for me to do the yard work. We will see. I did just one bag of leaves. There are likely two more. I will investigate having a company come in the spring and do the cleanup and cut the grass. I did sort of do that thing last year but decided to work away at it but I do think it is too much for me. My health although good is fragile somewhat due to my crashing out at 29 or I am still recovering from my puncture wound which is all healed; we will see. 

I am still sorting the John Pyncombe members at South Molton. There are according to the Visitation of 1620 five in a row. The first one died by 1571. I think I have now determined that the second one died by 1605 and the third one died by 1604 although his initial will was dated 1593 (he was married to Amy Dodridge). The fourth one I am still working on and there is a fifth one who died young and the line then daughtered out in that generation. A trust was established and which provides financial assistance and welfare grants to needy, serving clergy of the Church of England (I was not quite right about the purpose earlier). But Christopher and his descendants still remain and it is that information that I am pursuing as I believe that one of the members of our yDNA match is a descendant of this family which would then prove that these two lines are descendant of John Pencombe (in North Molton in 1486) coming down from the two sons John and Thomas and that is hugely amazing to be honest. I am very pleased with the process thus far. The family lore points to the South Molton family being also in the Barnstaple area.

I was in communication with a Pincombe descendant in Chittlehampton (he was fairly old in 2007 and the lines dropped maybe ten or  more years ago) who had not been able to trace his Pincombe line because there were too many so the hope is that as I move forward I will be luckier. We will see how that transpires as that is the purpose of this digging forward into 50,000 records.  I have sorted out the beginning so now I just have to push forward with my checking all these matches. As I mentioned, I will pull the Pinkham as well as I move along and enter them into my Legacy file. Eventually I will burn that to a DVD and make it available to anyone in the family that wants it. It will only carry information up to the beginning of the 1900s (my uncle and mother will be on it). This is a memory of John Routledge Pincombe who died much too young at 53 years of age. His life was sad but he had a joy in his children and he and my grandmother had a good marriage. He loved to argue politics which she did not like but other than that their life together was full of joy she told me. 

 There does appear to be a problem with the Visitation and I note that it was prepared by William Pincombe (descendant of  Thomas) and in 1620 he was 54 years of age although he did live at South Molton at this time it was only because he was Coroner as his usual abode was at East Buckland. I think he has an extra John Pyncombe in the list and does not know what has happened to Christopher's son John. They are second cousins and what I did learn was that this was not as close a relationship as first cousins especially with William normally living at East Buckland and this John Pyncombe family was at Poughill, Devon and the distance is 44 miles from South Molton which is substantial and how often would they see each other. However I will continue observing the results. I also have a copy of the 1620 Visitation with additions which removes that extra John (forgot I had that).  The footnote for this updated Visitation reads:

The portion of this pedigree printed in italic is a copy of the Original Visitation of Devon, Harl M8, 1163, fo. 95b  and not signed. Additionally six items were used to make these changes:

 1. The Visitation of Devon 1564 contained in Harl. MS. 1080, fo. 64 b, commences with this.

2. The Original Visitation begins here. 

3. Washfield Parish Register.

4. Southmolton Parish Register.

5. Crediton Parish Register.

6. Barnstaple Parish Register 

 I did look at this on my blog years ago but had forgotten that I saw it then. So the one problem solved but still I need to pursue the records to see if I can bring Christopher's family down in the records. I did find it interesting that John Pyncombe married Amy Dodridge at Barnstaple although I need to see that record but it is mentioned in this footnote. 

Quitting time and I must be quick  to get my steps for this hour. 

Solitaire puzzles to do; forgot them today.  

 

 

 

 

A beautiful starry night

 Woke up and looked out the window to a beautiful starry night. God's world alight with the brightness of the stars; what a stupendous sight. We are blessed with such a beautiful world. 

Sleep apnea does tend to wake me up these days; in my eighties now and hard to believe. Life passes very slowly as it seems like eons ago that I was a child. As a child I was also a restless sleeper. 

The books keep me busy and that is good. What does God plan for the remainder of my life? I wonder that sometimes. It is my quiet time of life when I just work away on the books and downsizing as it happens. I can not move until I downsize and so slowly that is happening. The picture books (40 large binders) are slowly disappearing as I create a set for the next generation. Never thought I would be doing that task as it was Edward's love and joy all those pictures with his children through the ages. How he loved those books that told the story of his life and I am saddened to keep taking them apart but yet it is a glorious thought that his descendants will enjoy them with all the unknown scenery stripped away and just the pictures of a growing family that was so young and then older and finally the oldest ones are gone and slowly the turn becomes ours to grow old. We are lucky as in my youth we remembered the young people who went off to war and did not come home. We must strive harder for peace; that perfect uplifted plain where all can live in unison. 

Thank you God for all that You do for the world. We need to follow your commandments and then peace can come to our world. Love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and love our neighbour as ourself. 

Soon it is time to plan the rest of the donations in remembrance of Edward. Already done his Alma Mater Western University (and mine for that matter) and Ontario Ancestors (was Ontario Genealogical Society). Next will be the Ottawa Hospital where I worked  and he received care as his health slowly slipped away from him (I generally wait for a wealthy person to be doubling or tripling the donations that come in). Then as Christmas comes the Shepherds of Good Hope and the  Ottawa Mission all in his memory. But he also loved the Groups devoted to care of the environment and the many species within that environment so they too I must remember in his memory. The need is great at this time for everything. I think I remembered last Christmas to donate to the Food Bank as that was one of his very important donations. I did have a thought on this that one could have a label that reads "I already donate to the Food Bank" to wear when you go to the store but that seems a bit of overkill in a way. I just have to go with "not today" with no explanation and move on. But I have written it down on my list to do at Christmas. Edward loved to garden and so he gardened our back yard and a huge garden plot taking the girls along with him to help with both plots. They are terrific gardeners with great knowledge on gardening. But I digress and we could never eat all of that food so Edward took it to the Foodbank and also he donated to the Foodbank. If I did not do it last year when I was finally catching up on his donations then I will this year. I am after all in my eighties. It was part of being like his Dad all of that gardening as his father was a farmer; lucky we did  not live in the country or there might have been cows and chickens in the yard as well! I am not a farmer although my grandfather was; I actually dislike gardening now. It is more than I am capable of doing so I do not. 

I give to my Church monthly (mostly Alongside Hope (was the PWRDF)) and the Ottawa Mission also monthly which I have been doing for many years now. It is important sometimes to decide where to put any extra dollars as the need is there for so many. But I must admit I do prefer a receipt as that helps me to see where I have contributed and how much. I like to decide on my own where as well without being asked constantly. But perhaps people do not always think of donating to needed causes automatically on their own; no ideas on that. It is our Christian duty to give at least 1/10th of all that we have to support the needs of those around us.

Time marches onward for sure and waits for no one and it is our task to keep up with it whilst we can. My quiet time after working most of my life has been busy with publishing in one way or another all of this fascinating information on my family lines and that looks to be the case for quite a while yet. I have a great deal to publish and must not get distracted. I have the lawns all cut now for winter. The raking once I get a couple of dry days will also be done but will leave the large leaves to rot on the ground I think once again.  

My daughter corrected me that she had not applied to every university in Canada but rather those that were advertising back when she graduated (so long ago now, amazing) but the reality was that they all hired American graduates and when she was offered a tenure track position by an American university she took it and the research group at that university was absolutely perfect for her. That often does have a lot to do with the individuals hired by universities I must admit. She does hear back from her many students thanking her for her help when she was their professor. Since Edward's ancestry is primarily early Colonial American (they came to Canada as settlers mostly from the early 1800s to the 1830s and primarily his colonials to the American colonies came from Germany, The Netherlands and France between 1620 and the early 1700s) it does seem interesting that his daughter would teach in the United States all these years. 

It was nice to see a Nobel prize go to a Canadian I must admit and she was a graduate of U of T. Congratulations to her on her accomplishment a Nobel prize in literature for herself and for Canada.  

Well must try for sleep again. Thank you God for all that You have done for Homo sapiens.The AI on the Fitbit told me that I should never exercise after lunch as it makes my sleep restless. I did lift weights mid afternoon. Interesting really the addition of the AI to our lives. I do mostly do all my exercise in the morning before lunch and before breakfast and usually just walk after lunch every  hour at least ten minutes.  

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen. 

Records at Tawstock

A record at Tawstock for Edith Pincombe, widow, whose will is probated in 1572. The only known Pinkham there is Philip Pencombe/Pynkeham whose will was probated in 1564 at Tawstock. The FMP records are interesting. The earlier record on the Devon Lay Subsidy 1524-7 at Tawstock has a Philip Pengham. The 1543-1545 Devon Lay Subsidy had the spelling Philip Pynkeham. There is a Phillippe Pyncombe married to Wilmote Beare 10 Feb 1853 at Bideford. This is on Chart 10 with the father of this Philip  possibly  being Philip Pynkeham. The distance from Tawstock to Bideford is around 8 miles (we actually were in both of these places in 2008). It seemed very short but we were in a car. It is troubling though looking at the published book for the Pinkham family of the United States not to find a Philip in later generations. I found just one in the index in the 1880s. The repeating of Richard through three generations beginning with the father of the emigrant also interesting certainly but Richard son of William and Emotte Pincombe died at Bishops Nympton in 1648 and Richard son of Thomas and Joane Pencombe died at Bideford 7 Jun 1592 (he was known to have lived in Bideford). The children of that Richard at Bideford appear to be Helen and Thomas. William (Richard's brother) mentions the son Thomas (Richard's son) in his will. Richard became a much commoner forename in the 1800s and 1900s in the family in England and Canada. But the sister of the emigrants did marry Richard Elworthy perhaps accounting for the name being used later. But I will continue my work through all the data tomorrow. Time to lift weights and take a break!

I did have a look at Charles Nelson Sinnett's book "Richard Pinkham of old Dover, New Hampshire and his descendants East and West." I have had the electronic copy for quite a few years but wanted to refresh my mind on what he had said about the origins of the family. The last records in it are mid 1800s (this book I am writing will only go to the very early 1900s but there has never been a book of the Pencombe/Pincombe family of North Molton so definitely needs to be written). I remembered that the initial thought was this family came from the Isle of Wight but the author Sinnett did have some thoughts on that.  What I find confusing on some of the earlier researcher's charts is the forenames which do not resemble the generations that preceded which was common in English families of all levels through all of my searching in my lines. However, I will try not to be distracted. Again I would never attempt to revise and update Sinnett's book on the Pinkham family of the United States. But I will collect the material as eventually it will become part of the study and stored electronically at the Library of the Guild of one-name Studies in London, England. I will extract the entire file of Legacy and place it there. 

As I continue pulling records from Find My Past, I continue in my estimation that John Pencombe of Northmolton had only three sons (I am not sure if they all were full siblings as Thomas seems younger than John and William). William born closer to 1500 than Thomas but younger than John because he has Goods 2 listed on the 1524-7 Lay Subsidy whereas John Pyncombe at South Molton is G10 and his son Christopher G5 (the other son John is not listed on this 1524-7 Subsidy). But Thomas is earning Wages 1. John is definitely the elder brother of both Thomas and William. His son John remains at South Molton and this line eventually daughters out and their wealth created the Pyncombe Trust in 1731 (John generally used the surname Pyncombe as did his line).  The second generation is coming together but the ages are still somewhat weak but will continue to work on them. I feel that I am in a good spot as I have now put forth an argument that works for me not to include extraneous lines from the charts that do not come back to John Pencombe known to be at North Molton in 1486. But I continue collecting the information as I pull it. I have done some work on that but generally it is items that I have collected rather than all the BMBs in Find My Past - 50,000 records is somewhat daunting but I have given myself two years and so I will move ahead on that. 

Summing up my work ideas: Returning to Blake in a couple of weeks is a thought but my next step really is the Lay Subsidies and I need to actually go to the Family History Library to acquire that information. Publishing it with just the descendants of John Pincombe and Elizabeth (Rew) Pincombe (the emigrants in 1850 to Canada) seems a bit weak plus I do have more material going back but didn't want to do just a straight line so collecting as much as I can seems more reasonable but also I am helped in this somewhat with the bottleneck that occurs in the 1600s with the number of descendants somewhat low but I am sure I am missing some of them. And so I continue with extracting data from Find My Past. 

 

Grocery shopping and some research

Yesterday, I decided would be a grocery shopping day and the total runs around $100 to $110 each week which is up from $70 per week from a year or so ago. I only buy basic ingredients but these two have increased in price. I make all of my meals from scratch and they are simple. I am not a foodie and so it suits me well. I spent years and years preparing special meals so I am just enjoying the easy meal life that I have created. I do not mind spending half an hour to an hour preparing and cooking my meals; it is a good break away from the computer. I do not anticipate that costs will go down in the near future. Generally I do not eat processed foods other than perhaps humus. I try to minimize the plastic containers that I have to recycle (none is always better but pretty hard to reach these days). I only drink teas, milk, cranberry juice and tap water. An occasional glass of wine, maybe once or twice a year, and occasional ginger ale. Four bags of groceries is generally it and they are not big bags. Today I was asked about giving to the Food Bank but I do prefer to donate directly and generally do that. Although I suspect if everyone gave $1 then that would work well. I will consider it but I do prefer to donate directly personally. The gas tank is still full because I do not really go anywhere except groceries and I did drive to the doctor last week when I needed to check on my puncture wound to the face which has healed. 

Working on the Pencombe book and I think I will continue to the end of the second research week. Then I will create the next Blake Newsletter already more than a week late and back to the Blake book. I had not really thought about the Pinkham family of the United States being part of the book as they are a part of the greater study for the Guild. But I have now concluded my thinking and will do just this little basic book about the Pencombe family of North Molton now that I have separated them out of the American Pinkham family although I am quite aware that a number of Pincombe descendants particularly in the Barnstaple area used the Pinkham spelling. But one must remember that people probably did not actually write their own names down and that it was the Assessors who spelled their names on the different tax and other returns that were created in this time frame prior to people learning to write on a regular basis. When one says either of the two commonly used names they both sound like "Pinkom" as I noted through the years. Here in Canada the name was generally pronounced as Pincombe in my experience but I remember my grandmother saying that people usually said "Pinkom." So one can see how the spelling could get changed although in my line here there was a huge objection when the name was spelled incorrectly particularly one of the census really irritated my great grandfather. 

Continuing to enter the information into my legacy file (a number of unlinked items) and I also started a blog for the information on the Tawstock Pynkeham family just to keep that fresh and ready for the next Pincombe/Pinkham newsletter. I also have information from Dr. Richard Pinkham which he gave to a cousin of mine who visited him in Gloucestershire when he was in his nineties I think. He gave my cousin a pile of stuff which he photographed and put onto a DVD for me and sent it to me. It was most interesting actually and I have shared it with a few of my cousins who also found it interesting. I usually publish everything that is sent to me but for the moment I prefer to stick to the records that I am pulling from Find My Past. It does sort of appear that the father of Philip Pynkeham was possibly Philip Pengham and both were at Tawstock on two successive Lay Subsidies. Assessors did make spelling errors for sure in those days and now we fill in our own forms so any errors are ours! An Edith Pincombe leaves her will at Tawstock and she was a widow. I will keep accumulating all of this information as I simply could not locate a William in that area that could be the father of Philip. Given the presence of a de Pencombe family at Bondleigh in the early 1300s receiving land grants a drift towards Tawstock would not be unexpected but this is not a family that links anywhere else that I can see and there are three individual events involving a de Pencombe/Pencombe between the early 1300s and the presence of John Pencombe at Northmolton in 1486. Looking at the Herefordshire records there isn't a Roger de Pencombe there but there are de Pencombes with forenames John, William and Thomas at various times between 1100 and the mid 1400s but linking them has not yet been possible. Why choose the surname Pinkham from Pencombe is possibly just a pronunciation thing with the assessor recording it with the spelling he felt was correct. Certainly some known descendants of John Pencombe of Northmolton have the Pinkham spelling in the Barnstaple area. 

The number of individuals descendant of John Pencombe in my Legacy file is now just over 1000 but I am picking up new records every day now and anticipate that it will likely double in size because a lot of Pincombes stayed in England including three of my 2x great grandfather's siblings where I have some information but need to ensure it is complete and the census will do that for me. 

Today continuing with the research and then a week Saturday I will have another consult with the AI on what I have learned. I have found this to be most interesting; it is like having a colleague with his/her fingertips on all the history that has been published and my introduction of specific items that I want to discuss with respect to the descent of the Pencombe family of North Molton and balancing that with the known history of the time. The tricky items include: can information be found to prove their link to the de Pencombe family of Herefordshire? who is Alice and she appears to be the wife of John Pencombe but not listed as a widow in 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy where John is missing and presume deceased. Those to me are the most important as I move forward. The presence of Alice (Ales) as one of the daughters of Thomas Pencombe was very interesting.  John Pyncombe, the eldest son's daughters were named Mary and Margaret so not helpful. William Pencombe the middle son Agnes and Mary were the names of his daughters. There are a few thoughts on perhaps John Pencombe was married more than once in his lifetime but still Alice was not listed as a widow as perhaps she was in control of the property but John was still living but elderly. Lots of thoughts but none provable probably. But sometimes the naming of the children can be quite interesting. 

Solitaire puzzles. Exercises all done before breakfast which is also finished. I need to rake the leaves and if it stays dry out there I will do one bag each day over the next few days just to collect up the leaves from the tree at the front.  

Reading the Psalms and they remain some of my most favourite songs. I am now looking for references to the Messiah to come although the prophecies by the prophets will soon be in the readings. Why I do not see them as others in the productions on YouTube is my  not being a religious scholar. I am just reading word for word. 

God be praised for all that He does in this world. He sent Jesus His Son to be with us and to teach us the two laws that we must never move from and that is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourself (I do see this as respect for our neighbours). Thank you God for another beautiful day in this world which You have created for all the life that abounds here under the Sun which You also created.  

 

Working my way through the records on Find My Past and Thursday is recovery day from cleaning

The work that I did yesterday: This next set of results for the search (which is just 96 records actually and a number of them are duplicate because of two different sources (this is always good for sure). I have now encountered Philip Pyncombe in the records at Bideford and looking at Chart 10 which is Bideford from the earlier study Philip is said to be a son of William Pincombe. There are a couple of known William Pincombe in the time period that I am reviewing. Thomas has a son William married to Emotte but they did not have a son Philip so they are eliminated from the known descendants of John Pencombe. William the actual son of John Pencombe and his only son William are deceased in the 1560s but the time frame does not work anyway as the son was very young in the 1560s. Family lore does have some members of the South Molton Pincombe family moving to the Barnstaple area. According to Chart 1-2 which is North Molton/South Molton there are no William Pincombe descendants in this time frame eligible. However, Christopher does have a son John and he is not listed on the Chart so I need to be open minded (but the time frame would not really work). I will review the Charts as I move through the records and if I find any changes I will blog them for people's interest.  

As I have now found three distinct areas in Devon where the Pencombe/de Pencombe surname existed from the early 1300s. There is a possibility of having a surname similar to others without being related. Particularly a surname that is attached to the name of a village (in this case, Pencombe, Herefordshire). 

Quite a few people on Chart 10 continued to live in the Bideford/Barnstaple area up into the mid 1900s when Dr. Richard Pinkham was collecting data. However he does not list anyone particularly on Chart 10 as being an informant. Most of the chart is somewhat broken (links are not generational) except at the very top. I did provide all of these charts in the Pincombe newsletters on the FT DNA website by the way. 

I did then move to Chart 14 (Chart 10 does say to go to Chart 16 although it does look overwritten so maybe 14) which repeats the William Pincombe ancestor of the emigrant Richard Pinkham to the United States. William is said to be born in 1539 and married in 1561 (but no name listed for the bride). 

 I pulled up the Devon Lay Subsidy for Tawstock Parish 1524-7 and listed there is Philip Pyngham. There isn't any name similar to Pincombe/Pinkham in Bideford I then moved on to the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy where I located Philip Pynkeham and a Richard Pencombe is at Bideford (this is Thomas Pencombe's son). Moving back to 1332 and looking at Tawstock Parish there is no surname resembling Pincombe. A slow day for sure but what did I learn - the derivatives of the Pinkham surname existed in 1524-7. I also learned that thousands of people with the Pinkham surname are using the data prepared by the earlier researchers. For instance Ann Pyncombe married Christopher Rashleigh and I was amazed to see how many people actually had Ann in the family of William Pincombe and Emotte (Snowe) Pincombe (and no Ann although there is a Johane). The will of William Pincombe in 1602 clearly states the names of the children in this family. So an interesting day spent looking at Philip Pyngham/Pynkeham and his descendants in the Tawstock etc. area and I will put that information into the next newsletter. 

I am in the midst of a second research week where I will look for instances of Pencombe here and there but along the way I wanted to look at the Philip Pynkeham in Tawstock/Bideford area. I am completely unable to link this individual to the Pencombe family in North Molton. Chart 10 though clearly shows the emigrant to the United States and his father as descendant of Philip. The entire chart 10 has many instances of the surname Pincombe and these were primarily word of mouth although a lot of them have BMB data attached to them. But as mentioned the top of the chart does link several generations but the lower half are individual families for the most part. But it was interesting to see the spelling of Philip Pyngham in 1524-7 at Tawstock on the Devon Lay Subsidy when Pencombe/Pyncombe was pretty much localized in North and South Molton. The presence of a surname so close to Pinkham in 1524-7 does give one pause for thought. Had these earlier de Pencombe family members at Bondleigh gradually assimilated into the area. The distance from Bondleigh to Tawstock is 19.6 miles (31.5 km). 

The methodology for doing genealogy has changed in some ways but still one does the reading of all the records and puts together family lines. But DNA lets us check those family lines to see if indeed as one compares with matches that the flow back is the same at the 2x great grandparent level and further back. Most people know their grandparents but not everyone knows their relatives further back.  That is why testing 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins is really a great idea. 

An interesting day and I completed maybe 1/3 of the 96 records and will complete today perhaps since I have the whole day. All the cleaning is accomplished.

My two week research event is to look at the areas that are of interest; determine if there is a Pencombe/Pyncombe family presence there between the 1332 Devon Lay Subsidy and the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy. I did find some information and perhaps I have located the furtherest back ancestor of the Pinkham family of the United States. Myself, when I discovered that my Blake line was ancient British it was rather intriguing to know that my ancestral line went back to the Western Hunter Gatherers as they worked their way across Europe to the British Isles probably via Doggerland at that time so a dry type of voyage for the most part. Tugging away at my brain was the notion were they returning to a land their ancestors had talked about because Homo sapiens retreated to the south of Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum. Discovering that my Pincombe line came from the continent likely in the 1100s but probably before the 1330s when the Emigrant's Database collects those names as they are not there was different. They were not part of the Norman Conquest but they had been the later group coming to England looking for new places to live in so less exciting perhaps than the Hunter Gatherers. Although it does take true spirit of adventure to leave a solid European environment and go to the wilds of Herefordshire I suspect in 1100. 

There is still some time left in my research period of two weeks so will spend it continuing to look at the records. But I do believe that John Pencombe arrived in 1486 in North Molton just as the Visitation states and that his three sons were born in North Molton possibly with Alice as their mother but I have nothing about Alice other than she is on the 1545 Devon Lay Subsidy at North Molton and the tax 5. It does not say that she is a widow. 

I have begun my Legacy Chart in earnest now and have pulled in the information from my family tree to add to Richard son of William and Emotte Pincombe. Identifying Richard with his son William in the will of 1602 was very handy but I have still spent some time making sure that this Richard is my direct ancestor (there are several thousand or more cousins going along for this ride with me and I would like to get it right). So the book will be solely about John Pencombe at North Molton with his three sons and all their descendants. I am unable to link in the Roger de Pencombe at Bondleigh or the John de Pencomb' at Molland in 1332 to this family. I am also unable to be sure that John Pencombe is related to the de Pencombe family in Herefordshire and will leave it to those closer to Herefordshire to check out the documents in their Archives to see if such a link exists. Just the fact that the forenames are so similar in that both use John, William and Thomas through the generations is not really enough for proof since they are also typical English forenames. But 1486 isn't a bad year to have worked your way back to in a family line and there is room for others to do more in the future. The clustering of this Pencombe family at North Molton and then South Molton is an indication also of their newness perhaps although the movement out in the next generation towards the west including Bideford/Barnstaple and East Buckland and then in the next generation to the east towards Bishops Nympton and Molland is very interesting. Pioneer spirit I guess but it was a long time before my line went to America or Canada except for one individual that tested in the United States although I believe he told me that his family had arrived in the early 1800s as opposed to the middle 1800s for my direct line going to Canada along with his brother who went to America. 

A personal thing this book as opposed to my gathering of information for the Pincombe-Pinkham study. Full speed ahead although I will continue to blog any differences I find with the charts as I work my way through the information. 

The coat of arms for Pincombe was granted to John Pyncombe of South Molton in 1616. He was married to Amy Dodridge  (Arms of Pincombe (or Pyncombe) of South Molton, Devon: Per pale gules and azure, three close helmets argent garnished or) and my understanding is that a Coat of Arms belongs to the person to whom it is granted and one must apply to use the Coat of Arms on a regular basis and there has been a change to show different ownership but I am not an expert - it is just my thought. Exceptions would be the Blake coat of arms that is old and used by a number of Blake lines in the Wiltshire/Hampshire area. 

I was surprised to see how mixed up some people's trees are with the South Molton and the North Molton branches of Pincombe. I guess it just gets started and then people copy. Always better to do one's own research. 

Time to do the solitaire puzzles and keep the brain active.  

 

 

Solved the mystery

 Remembering the 1200 deaths three years ago when Hamas attacked the kibbutz areas of Israel and the Music Festival where so many young people had come together to celebrate their love of music. God be ever with those murdered that day and with those who had to recover from the dreadful consequences of that act. 

Yesterday amazingly successful for a couple of items that have been on my mind for years.  A Margaret Gregorye married William Pyncombe the 26th Nov 1564 at North Molton. I have puzzled over this marriage because of the way it was recorded on Chart 1 of the original researchers in the Pincombe Pinkham study. The William Pincombe who actually married Margaret Gregorye was the son of John Pencombe and he had just buried all three of his children and his wife a year earlier and then he himself died about four months after this marriage. It was a mystery as the ages; the timing so many things just did not make sense. That corrects that glaring problem that was in the North Molton/South Molton Chart. It was purely by chance that I suddenly realized I likely had the burials of the father of William Pencombe interchanged with that of his infant son. Once fixed, it all fell into place. 

It was the son named William of William Pyncombe and Emott Snow that married Temperance Pollard and this William was a Coroner in Devon as listed on the Visitation not his grandson as shown on Chart1-2. But solving the Margaret Gregorye marriage and then the marriage of William Squire to Margaret Pyncombe was fortuitous because there isn't a Margaret Pyncombe in these families in this time period (1560s) at North Molton (but she would then have been a widow which works). There is a Margaret Pyncombe in the  early register at North Molton who married Philip Kingdon 15 Nov 1539 at North Molton and I suspect  she was the granddaughter of John Pencombe (arrived in 1486); daughter of his eldest son John. She would have been born in the early 1520s perhaps. There are few accurate dates of individuals in this time frame although on the Visitation William married to Temperance Pollard is 54 years of age in 1620 thus placing his birth in 1566. He was the second son of William and Emott Pincombe. In the will of Johanne Pencombe (mother of William married to Emott) she does not mention that William is married but does mention all other marriages of the six children she shared with Thomas Pencombe. One can perhaps assume that in 1563 (the year of her will) William did not yet have any children. It all fits together like a glove!

I completed the first 80 year search of Pencombe (including derivatives) from Find My Past. It was a very successful day and hopefully today equally promising as I continue to put together the third generation. I am in conversation with a member of the Pinkham family in the United States and an email between us revealed that Philip Pynkeham is his ancient relative - the father of the Richard Pinkham that came to the royal colony of now Maine in the 1600s. Who this Philip Pynkeham is is a mystery but not mine to solve other than putting it into my file system in case anyone asks me about him. He simply does not fit into the third generation of the Pencombe family of North Molton. He is at Tawstock on the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy as an adult presumably. There remains the two other de Pencombe families that have appeared  in the records of Devon namely Roger de Pencombe at Bondleigh in the early 1300s and John de Pencomb' as an Assessor on the 1332 Devon Lay subsidy at Molland (he does not appear though in the tax list there). Are they related to this Philip Pynkeham? No ideas on that but I am not able to look at the very large Pinkham family in the United States in terms of publication; first of all I do not have that information at hand, it is too much work for me and I will stick with the smaller family of Pencombe which is my line of descent for the book publication and eventually Pyncombe and then Pincombe (although some members did use the Pinkham spelling) in Devon. John Pencombe of Northmolton is there in 1486 with John Lord Zouch who is attainted and has taken up residence with his cousin in North Molton (it was part of the la Zouche family holdings but gradually moved into a female line by 1486). 

I do hate to appear to be separating the two studies but at 81 I can manage the Pencombe in the book I have decided to write which I am familiar with but not the very large American Pinkham family which is in good hands already. I can see now that this is the moment when I truly do cut loose the two parts of the study in terms of writing my book but the study has been together for a long time and when I retire from the Guild of one-name Studies perhaps someone else will see it differently;  no ideas on that. The yDNA results do indicate that the founder lines are not the same and it is good to just continue with my project of following down the lines of John Pencombe at North Molton. I now have a good second generation although still working on the likely years for each of the three sons. Although I will continue extracting for the entire study into my system files I will only use the Pincombe material related to North Molton in the book. I do still get requests for information from the Pinkham family in the United States but I tend to refer that to the individual who has taken a strong interest in that history as he is more knowledgeable than I am for the Pinkham family of the United States. I did invite Galen Pinkham to work with me maybe fifteen years ago but he was busy with  his own family material which I understand completely in that I have two books on the go. I am too busy now to take on such involvement as I am now writing up what I have learned for the benefit of family members. 

I need to do the Blake Newsletter and will move to that likely this week to complete that. I have quite a bit I can report on the Blake book as it moves forward as well. Mind a bit active and it is 3:00 a.m. I will work for a bit and then back to sleep. 

Next step, the North Molton branches appear to be sorted in the second generation, is looking at the Pencombe family in South Molton as John (eldest son of John Pencombe) is already there and well propertied with G10 on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy and his son Christopher at G5 (presumably a very young child). The other son John does not appear in the tax records until the 1543-45 Devon Lay Subsidy. On Chart 1-2 John, son of John Pencombe, is not given a year of birth but his son John is listed as born in 1501 (Christopher does not have a year of birth listed). I would propose that the father of Christopher and John was likely born in this 1501 time period rather than his son and the dating in this Chart 1-2 is out by a generation. 

Looking at Chart 1-2 prepared by the earlier researchers one can see large changes in the family of Thomas already (he was not born in 1481 as he would have been 43 then on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy where he is listed as W1 just under John Pencombe (his father) and that is very unlikely (W meaning wages). In 1543 he is at East Buckland and listed as 9 (which is the level of taxes). William Pyncombe (listed as born in 1506 on Chart 1-2 (he left his will dated 1602 so another unlikely happening) was the son of Thomas Pencombe as listed on Chart 1-2. This chart does not include William's siblings Richard, John, Alice or the unnamed youngest sister. 

William married to Emotte Snowe is part of the fourth generation and he was likely born in the early 1530s or late 1520s. I always had a problem with that section of the chart. William (married to Emotte Snowe) left his will dated in 1602 where he lists his children as Johane, John, William, Symon, Richard, Thomas, Lewis, Peter and Katherin. Thomas (father of this William) was still earning wages in 1524-7 so late teens and then by 1543-45 at East Buckland on the Devon Lay Subsidy listed as 9 on the tax roll for value. The marriage with Emotte Snowe is not in the registers thus far but it is a while since I did a thorough search and I continue pulling that data, if I missed any earlier, today. Chart 1-2 lists William and Emotte's children as John, William, Agnes, Richard, Mary, and Ann which does not fit the will of William. Interestingly an Ann Pincombe married a Christopher Rashleigh (a very well known upper class Devon family) and has been listed as part of William and Emotte's family. The blog that I published which was a reprint has this Ann as part of the South Molton Pincombe family (which is principally John rather than Thomas although William Pincombe (son of William and Emott Pincombe) married to Temperance Pollard did live in South Molton for a period of time as Coroner). 

I consider sometimes recreating these charts but they are a part of history; how people saw these things and how they explained them and so we must just move on making our additions based on the available information and the book will contain my thoughts and certainly the material that the AI brings to the table as well in terms of looking at it with the knowledge of all available history at the AI's fingertips. That was how I treated James Sander's book on the Siderfin family. It remains an important book in the history of the Siderfin family mine simply attempted to add in more information but I must fix the index and will do that and add in my new material unless someone beats me to it!

Instead I will produce a generational chart that will, hopefully, capture all the male lines coming down and the female lines for one generation to show the surnames that married into the Pincombe family of North Molton (including my line!).  

Solitaire puzzles are next and it is basement cleaning day.  

Top floor cleaned and today the main floor

 Fortunately for this 81 year old the house is small so the top floor is all done this week (last week not as good) so today the main floor. The big thing with the main floor is moving everything about to make it easier to clean. I usually watch the TV and generally that is my big day of the week for watching news to see what is going on in the world and mostly in Canada. The weather is also very interesting. My father, when my oldest sister lived in Newfoundland, watched the weather every day to see what the weather was like there particularly. I think he missed her and did  not see her very often although she did bring the children in the summer for a good long visit. My mother too missed her eldest daughter for sure. 

I worked on the first three generations yesterday and in particular I reviewed the first table created by the original Pincombe/Pinkham researchers and this is for North Molton and South Molton. My revision dealt solely with the first and second generation. Along with that I am looking at the results in Find My Past for this time frame beginning with 1480 and then a 40 year spread which is part of the search tool which brings me to 1520 and then 1560 as it is + or - 40.  This is 913 results although quite a few of them I have or are not useful in this case. So I will look at them today. 

Cleaning soon to start as I was a late start yesterday and spread it out over the day but I think I will be organized today. 

Solitaire puzzles next.  

Doing a bit of contemplation

Working on the second generation at North Molton and quite quickly we have John, the likely eldest son of John Pencombe in South Molton married to Emma (need to find this) with two sons John and Christopher. Since Christopher has property on the 1624-7 Devon Lay Subsidy I suspect he is the oldest although the only death I find is Mar 1623 at South Molton. There is a Christopher Pyncombe on the 1624-7 Devon Lay Subsidy with G5 at South Molton. He could have inherited this property when he was born but that is still a pretty long life of 100 years plus. The registers for South Molton do not begin until 1601. At some point I acquired the date of 1575 for the burial of Christopher and I will have to see why I have that; at the beginning I was not always as careful to record where I found things although I quickly learned but again I am going back a long way looking at some of these items as I pursue the Second Generation of the Pencombe family. Interesting though that there is another Christopher Pyncombe at South Molton perhaps as not listed on the Visitation of Devon 1620. Often a lot of people can be missed on these Visitations. In particular this one has Richard and John (brothers of this William) as executors but reading my transcription it is his wife that will be executrix and his two oldest sons William and John are to assist with the will execution. One does have to be careful to check all the data. My Richard is mentioned along with his son William and I do think that he doesn't say where anyone is and at this point Richard is in Bishops Nympton. This will take a while as some times the Parish Registers have not yet begun or were lost and finding those tiny bits that let you recreate takes time. I did find them years ago but sometimes I  need to find them again! 

I have now vacuumed everything and it is time to dust. Then the bathroom to scrub and the day of cleaning is complete. I have still not used my antibiotic and it is actually feeling fine. The worst part was the drainage as I do not believe I have ever in my recall experienced a puncture wound. The draining was quite exceptional and one could feel it as it pushed out through the scab opening. A good one to avoid I think perhaps. But as always I recommend going to a doctor to be looked at; they are the experts.  

All fascinating really how health care works. I was contemplating how much I pay for health care as a tax paying citizen and how seldom I actually have needed to go which has been lucky for me just one visit a  year since my daughter said at my age (I think I was around 75) I really should (and I now have had two visits this year)  sees me paying a portion of my taxes (I assume that I pay the usual 24% to 25% as a family (even though I am just one person)) and my private health coverage ($2200)) so I estimate that I pay around $5000 per year but eventually I may cost the system money no ideas on that although I suspect I will die in my sleep at some point because I have sleep apnea. I have been in a hospital three times (2 pregnancies (seven days (difficult birth) and two days), one breakdown and I was on the Psychiatric Ward for 14 days (you do everything for yourself on this ward except food is provided in a cafeteria which you go and get so perhaps the cheapest ward to run no ideas on that) and the total number of days is 24 hospitalized in my lifetime plus I was born in a hospital but my mother came home quite soon actually (I think she said three days, forgot about that)). Some of the wards are very expensive to run and have far more people working in them.  I have now used five full days of my antibiotic and the redness is gone, the drainage stopped a couple of days ago and the wound is healed although I will have a scar (a tiny one) and I begin to wonder if I was bitten by an insect perhaps no ideas on that but the mark is so small. I really do not remember hitting my face with the branch but it was sort of a difficult couple of minutes as I pulled it off the fence where it was stuck and down from the tree where it was hanging and I could have missed noticing that. I did see it out the window for maybe a week before I tackled it. I think there might be a bit of nerve damage but it appears to be correcting itself.  The redness is all gone and my prescription doesn't say when to stop using it but my daughter (who has not seen me as she is 65 kilometres away) kindly told me that 5 - 7 days is common so this is day 6 (I must figure out  how to call the office I go to). I must say the antibiotic was very efficient. Chemically speaking though in another 23 days it is useless so really we should go back to packaging it in smaller quantities like the druggists of old (mind you that doesn't save the medical system money but does make a lot of money for pharmaceuticals). It is difficult to guage how much will need to be used so the common packaging is probably cheaper than having to measure it out constantly and protecting the product from contamination is very important so one has to take the down sides with the upsides (and the business case is made for larger packaging). Two weeks though on a psych ward was more than enough medical care to last me for a lifetime to be honest. I never like being a patient if I can help it and I will not move another downed branch over one metre long. It surely is time to move and maybe I will be lucky and it will be sooner rather than later. If it ever happens again I will remember to ask when one stops the medication. The tube is very large and you can hardly see that I used any. Never thought of it at the time; getting old for sure. Thank you to my daughter for helping me out.  We need to have a good medical system for all (I firmly believe in that); I worked in the hospital for more than 12 years of my working life and I do place a high value on our medical care system. I do not especially want to see children needing care; we are better than that for sure. I willingly pay all that is asked for my taxes and for my extra coverage. Personally I probably would never go except when I absolutely need care but I do not like to make my children stressed worrying and so I go once a year (or if I have an accident). It seems to work well. I have blood work to do and will eventually get there. Since I know some of the items in my family history I am not going to rush for sure; I remember my uncle needed these blood product transfusions the last maybe five years of his life and I am suspicious that I will end up that way. We will see. But he had them transfused in his house. Perhaps it is even easier now to acquire such items everything is so portable these days. 

Must accomplish more cleaning and than back to writing. I have a lot to do and must try to get to it all. My uncle though was 89 when he passed and still quite capable right up to the last few days.  

Dusting all done and just the bathroom to scrub. Dinner is chicken stew (my favourite by far and four days in a row is great) and I need to make my banana bread because I just have one piece left. That keeps my weight fairly stable because I do have this tendency to forget to eat on occasion. 

I actually found a will for a Simon Pincombe that I downloaded back in 2010 at Kew. I randomly picked some wills and that was one of them but I have never transcribed it. I might do that as it looks interesting but not the Symon (son of William mentioned above) who was gone from England in 1602 and I still haven't pulled up that blog discussing the person who wrote me from Sweden and had traced back and discovered a non-Swedish ancestor and also we matched on atDNA as did my siblings who are a much better match to Pincombe than I am. But there are a couple of lengths that we all share; all of us third cousins and fourth cousins and it goes on. 

I think I will spend a bit more time on Christopher to see what I can learn. He had a son John and this family is by family lore mentioned as some of them moving to the Barnstaple area where we do find Pincombe. It is linking them all together and the Barnstaple Parish Registers are quite good so will get into that. Having the path all the way back for my line is very helpful. I know where the bottlenecks are (i.e. only one descendant in a generation).  William's huge family (he was principally at East Buckland) really set up the Pincombe family for a large expansion as the two eldest pretty much inherited everything so the younger sons had to be inventive to get ahead and they were pretty much. Peter and Lewes, the youngest two, though I know virtually nothing about them but will try to discover what I can. 

 

A quiet day

Church was lovely and I do so love that organ music. Mind you a lot of churches online have organ music but this one I attended with Edward in our "empty nest" period of time which was actually not empty until our eldest went off to do her PhD after working in industry (an American company actually) for about five years. It was a great addition to her already excellent CV and work activity. Then our youngest was busy with university and then medical school and along the way getting married and having children although sadly they did leave us and move out on their own. But that is the way of life for sure. 

 But I digress from Church and the sermon was quite interesting as I love hearing the meshing of Old Testament and New Testament and how the Christian religion developed and grew. Mind you he did not use all those words but overall his sermons are very educational and there is nothing I enjoy more than learning for sure. A day gone by without learning is a lost day I used to tell my children and so at two and three they were busy learning to read and working with numbers, printing and having fun too with it. Ready for school far too early for the system but I think it is catching up. The school can not be everything to a child; it is a learning centre with learning and ethics top of the list from the earliest days as it should be. Every child matters; the First Nations are so right about that. 

 Not too much done in terms of work as I planned for a quiet day for the most part. The only time I went outside was to shake out the toaster crumbs onto the grass for the birds. There wasn't very much. 

I continued contemplating the first three generations as I gather up everything that I have to create this family tree along with the tree created by the two earlier researchers. This tree is Chart 1 and does not have any acknowledgements so likely it was put together using the Visitations and perhaps some knowledge of family lines coming down. I am bothered most by Thomas being given a date of birth in 1481 as he was a worker on the Devon Lay subsidy in 1524-27 since he received wages and he was listed right next to his likely father on the subsidy. That would make him 43 years of age and the son listed to him William is given a year of birth of 1506 and this individual wrote his will in 1602 and it was probated by 1605. This will listed all of his children and they do not match the children on the chart. William's will was probated by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and there were undoubtedly lots of problems having access especially during war years and the researchers did not live in the London area. On the other hand John Pyncombe in South Molton is not given a year of birth but his son John is given 1501 as that year of birth but Christopher his other son is not given an age but is on the Devon Lay subsidy with Goods of 5 and his father John Pencome with Goods of 10. My suspicion is that this record was perhaps seen by the creators of this table and gave John that age thinking he was at least 21 years of age but the large loss of life ended up with new laws on how to deal with underaged inheritors and they were listed at any age. So just a couple of items at the beginning that I found difficult to resolve with the parish registers where they exist and especially the tax records. Just wanted to explain that to anyone who has the Charts since I put them into the Newsletter a while ago. 

Today is cleaning day and I will be doing the top floor. Starting soon. Solitaire puzzles done in the night as I continue with a runaway mind because I am thinking too much. But soon will be resolved. I am that kind of a person who must think everything through; search out the documents if they exist and I can purchase them and then move forward once again.  

The Pincombe Charts created by Galen Pinkham and Dr. Richard Pinkham

 Sunday once again and I do love the flow of the week. Sunday is a quiet contemplative day. Another beautiful day in God's world. A bit cloudy but some sun expected for the day didn't check the weather forecast very closely. Church today and not sure where we will see. Perhaps always a surprise. The Anglican Church Services from England always remind me of my childhood which is very pleasant for sure. The Services here have the organ which is fabulous. The choir singing is spectacular. Still reading Job and it is slow reading as I go word by word. I am not sure I ever did that before. Job loved God and couild not be moved away from Him. From the depth of Job's soul he reaches out to God to understand and he feels fulfilled. The Psalms are next and I do love the Psalms. They surround one with beauty and mystery and God Himself. Thank you God for another morning in your world.

 For a long time after I acquired the Pincombe/Pinkham charts I mention in the title I contemplated how to best utilize this information. I photographed them all as a cousin in England had sent them to me. My line was incorrect I did notice that right away. My mother knew her line back to John Pincombe and Grace Manning at least that was what her father told her and my uncle did reinforce that (I have all of those Bishop Nympton records and there are several Pincombe families there in the 1700s and they readily separate out into their respective lines  descending from John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore (married 22 Sep 1655 at Bishops Nympton)). So it was an incentive to really look at everything that I collected and I have a lot of information over time. All backed up on drives and shared around so as not to lose it. I have blogged a huge amount of it and my blog is backed up as well. Aside from that, it is time to utilize those charts and my account with Find My Past and do a little more sleuthing. I have purchased a number of sets of fiche from North Devon Parishes but Find My Past does have them online now and these old eyes like to be able to enlarge these fiche to read them. So I do that in preference. The Parish Registers were supposed to begin in 1538 which is really handy for this study. Many of them do but not all; some were lost to time and circumstance. Some are very difficult to read. There are nearly 1000 pages of Word text transcription for the Bishops Nympton registers beginning to end. That was my beginning and I discovered a real knack for reading the old script.

I have a study for Pincombe yDNA which I manage and Bill Bleak along with his supporters including me have one for the Blake yDNA. Both have been fascinating and I think finding these de Pencombe families in Devon in the 1300s is a real luxury to sorting out the lines of yDNA perhaps and it is also true of the Blake and I thank Barry Blake for his work initially in creating the different yDNA groups in the Blake lines (there are quite a few in England and Ireland and of course the United States and the Commonwealth plus other areas).  

The interesting part about the charts is that Dr. Richard Pinkham visited many Pincombe families in North Devon and they shared their family lines with him (he acknowledged them on the charts with their names). This work was done in the 1930s or into the early 1940s on I believe. I know that it was before or during the Second World War because he was able to read the Pincombe wills probated within the diocese held at the Exeter Archives. He then donated the Will Abstracts to the Society of Genealogists of which I was a member although I finally did let that membership go. Occasionally I think about picking it up again but for the moment I am not. We spent one day there collecting information that I knew they had and that included the wills which was marvelous as there was the will of my 4x great grandfather (John Pincombe) and others but especially his because I needed to know more about him in order to sort him for sure back to his parents John Pincombe and Grace Manning. 

This however is a research day and I am beginning the three generations starting with John Pencombe and given that his son John had a son Christopher who both also held goods (I must be more careful how I refer to ownership because the English are quite consistent with land or goods being the taxed item) one can not assume that John Pencombe (father to John, William and Thomas) was older because his children had all received goods plus his grandchildren also had goods. A quick check with the AI was revealing as I had a vague memory about the laws of inheritance which Henry VII quickly brought in because of all the deaths particularly young men at Bosworth Field in 1485 leaving a lot of underaged males as inheritors. Christopher and John have both inherited during the life of their father (and mother) but it could be from their mother's side and hence they could be quite young in 1524-7. None the less their father John was likely in his 20s and hence his father likely in his 40s or more. The ability of AI to recall all of this information in an organized manner is excellent and great help with my pursuit of the best story I can write (doing it myself so far from the documents is difficult - AI is a great addition to our lives). Although I normally use CoPilot I do sometimes use some of the others mostly out of curiosity. It will be a Creative Commons License under which I will produce this book and it will be free on my website plus I will upload it to the various places where I uploaded the Siderfin Books that I produced  (I do  need to do proofreading for the indexes which I will do in my spare time one of these days but I suspect it will be another year and I do have new material to add). Although some of the libraries I will upload to like the Guild of one name Studies does keep their Library for members of the Guild. But it will appear on my blog how you can download the book if you wish to have a copy. 

But back to the charts and the first chart is for North Molton and South Molton. For the most part I am not in agreement with this chart because it does not match the wills and the Devon Lay Subsidies or even the Visitation of Devon 1620 - it has some of the information but the descendancy then does not match the Parish Records. I will spend the day working my way through some of that data although this will also be a rest day for my eyes. They are getting old and need one day off a week. I may sort pictures for a while until Church time. 

Solitaire puzzles are done; I woke in the night and did them. I do that sometimes as it stops a runaway/busy mind that sometimes comes to me in the night. Breakfast also; exercises all done.  

 

 

 

Working with the AI for a bit today

 Today ends my one week looking at the old records and contemplating just what the one liner in the heading of the Visitation of 1620 Devon for the Pyncombe family really meant. 

Point one: The logic of choosing Pencombe as a surname with a village called that in Herefordshire was fairly common when surnames first came into being. generally it was de Pencombe so "of Pencombe" leaving one with the impression at least two sets of people from Herefordshire were in Devon in the 1300s - early 1300s Bondleigh (Roger de Pencombe) and as an Assessor on the 1332 Lay Subsidy for Devon at Molland (John de Pencomb'). Were they related? Then we have the third Pencombe family in 1486 at North Molton (one hundred and fifty years later) but they use the surname Pyncombe on the Visitation of Devon  1620. 

Point two: The only Pencombe/Pincombe/Pyncombe family members on the 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy are living in the North Molton area. I did try a number of spellings including Tencombe which has been suggested to me but on the early records it was spelled Teigncombe like the river nearby where they were and considerably further away from the Pencombe than Bondleigh was.  I have eliminated that line as being Pencombe. 

Point three:  

 The 1524-7 Devon Lay Subsidy for 1524 has in the index Pencombe pages 89, 90, 91; Pincombe page 89, which results in South Molton Borough: John Pencome G 10; South Molton Parish: Chris Pyncombe G5; North Molton Parish: John Pencombe G5, Thomas Pencombe W 1 (one after the other), William Pencombe G2.  The 1620 Visitation of the County of Devon for Pyncombe was submitted by William Pyncombe of South Molton and East Buckland the son of William Pincombe and Emot Snowe with this William being the son of Thomas Pencombe as noted on the Visitation. The sons of John Pencome/Pencombe at South Molton were John and Christopher with each having a son John. So this second generation coming down is visible with this chart and leads into the third but rather inadequately given the actual parish registers that exist and the Devon Lay Subsidy of 1543-45 and the Devon Muster Roll of 1569. But it does serve to separate out the two son's lines since they are the only two of three sons with descendants coming down past the third generation. Christopher's line appears to disappear but there was family lore in the South Molton family that some members of the South Molton family moved to the Barnstaple area and the one tester who matches the other four has a family history back to Barnstaple and is the basis of my thought that the two lines continue to be represented to the current time. The only Pencombe in  Devon at this time appears to be at North or South Molton.

Point four:

The 1543 - 45 Devon Lay subsidy has entries for Pencombe pages 62, 63, 77, 86, 105; Pincombe page 61, Pinkham page 94. This results in South Molton Parish (1544): John Pyncome 13, Christopher Pyncombe 10; North Molton Parish (1545): Alice Pencombe 5 (one notes this does not say widow), William Pencombe 6, John Pencombe 4; (1544) William Pyncum 13; Nymett Regis (Kings Nympton Parish (1545) Richard Pencombe 1; Estbuclond Parish (East Buckland (1544) Thomas Pencomb 9; Tawstock Parish (1544) Philip Pynkeham 8 (who is he?); Bedeford Parish (Bideford 1544) Richard Pencombe 5. 

Summing up: I have looked at all this data a number of times but it was back in my much earlier days into genealogy. First things I noticed was the Snow family here and there although said to be Anstey for Emot Snow the wife of Thomas Pencombe (there was actually one at Bishops Nympton). I found my eyes wandering over the areas around North Devon and contemplated whether everything made it into the index since this was prepared totally by hand but knowing the ancestors they tended towards accuracy but having discovered the page difference in 1332 for John de Pencomb' I feel I should spend perhaps another week looking at all of this data. 

Point five:

The Devon Muster 1569 was also very interesting: Pincombe pages 147, 162, 164, 165: East Buckland William Pyncomb G7, William Pyncombe pikeman; North Molton John Pincomb (presenter sworn); South Molton Parish with the Towne Christopher Pincomb G7, John Pincomb G6, John Pincombe G7, John Pincombe pikeman. Pinkham page 141 Yarnscombe: Richard Penkham pikeman;  A little more time on this database is needed as well.  (Yarnscombe is near Barnstaple). 

The one week revealed a few weaknesses in my work although I did review the Early Chancery Proceedings going backwards from 1486 and then forwards from 1486 but did not locate anything on the Pencombe (or any derivative spelling) in these records. 

Point six: 

The Purcome family on the 1543-45 Devon Lay subsidy I have eliminated in the past at Blackawton Parish. I could revisit that although I do not think they are the same family as they are in Exeter which is too far away for either of the two de Pencombe members found in the 1300s I still think.

Conclusion on the one week for me:

As suggested by the AI, the use of Pyncombe of Northmolton may have hinted at prior knowledge of Pyncombe elsewhere in Devon. It was not possible to link the two records from the 1300s with the family in the late 1400s. It was not that unusual for people to pick a place name as their surname. I think I will spend another week sorting and entering in all the information for the first three generations at North Molton. The line at South Molton was considered to have died out in the male line so will have to look at that carefully to see if indeed this line coming down into the 2000s is totally descendant of Thomas Pencombe son of John Pencombe. All testers match so one must be careful to consider all the written thoughts on the family at South Molton having moved there from North Molton in the early 1500s. 

Time for a bit of exercise. Breakfast finished and solitaire puzzles complete.  

 Put my points into my chat window with the Co-pilot and we agree. Another week still trying to locate information on Pencombe in Herefordshire or Devon. The importance of the la Zouche family in all of this is the location of Northmolton being in common to both at this moment in time and that the arrival was simultaneously occurring at the same time - the reason unknown and without reading into the la Zouche family papers I think that I would not find it. A number of young men were executed after the Battle of Bosworth Field and it is highly likely that anything that saved a youth in a family was probably kept pretty tight in the family. Releasing it in this way over one hundred and thirty four years later was likely considered to be history and the English are sticklers for history having grown up with two English born and raised grandparents and coming from families dating back hundreds of years and perhaps thousands. The English do appreciate their history and have been very speedy at saving it electronically for the generations ahead to enjoy. The lessons of the Second World War were well learned. Moving ahead in some terms with actually creating the three generations coming down from John Pencombe and possibly his wife Alice. The lack of the word widow in the record is troubling but at no point do we see a daughter in that second generation. The  name Alice was a popular one within the family in those generations along with Johane. 

I must continue to hunt out the mystery of the South Molton Pencombe family. Christopher and his son John disappear. John and his son John continue the line and it is well known and published. The wealth of that family became the Pyncombe Trust and has been very well utilized through the centuries in the village concerned. I have a Philip Pynkeham at Tawstock that is very interesting. 

Robert Pincombe (my 3x great grandfather and his wife Elizabeth Rowcliffe Pincombe) had eight children and the daughter was named Elizabeth; the seven sons were named (birth order) Robert, John, William, Thomas, George, Richard and Philip. Interesting that but Elizabeth's father's forename was Philip and her brothers' forenames were Philip, George and William so not referring back in time perhaps very far. The interesting part of all of this was I discovered Rowcliffe cousins in Huron County, Ontario. 

Must check on lunch.