Landkey Parish Registers - 30 January 2009

Parish Registers transcription completed up to 1698 today. The number of baptisms continues to be low compared to earlier years although there are a lot of marriages from the small villages around Landkey (plus from Barnestaple which is somewhat larger). There are now 1272 baptisms, 537 marriages and 1103 burials. We are now seeing 169 more baptisms than burials which is a good increase following the plague. The new priest is recording more details including the farm/locale of the individual entries in the register. Sadly his own son died as an infant and no new baptisms for he and his wife yet.

Snowshoeing today in the new snowfall was most pleasant. The snow is nearly up to the bottom branch of the large tree in our front yard (about five feet but that includes the snow heaved off the laneway into that spot! Standing snow on the backyard is around 3.5 feet now (two good thaws have helped us although leaves this six or seven inch thick layer of ice under all that snow but it does moisten up the earth so that we are not watering lawns all summer long). When you see those lovely pictures of snow in Canada all over the rooftops and the trees and the sun brightly shining that is what I am looking at out my window at the moment. And we have a few days relief from the minus 20 or minus 25 degrees celsius temperatures - it is a balmy -1 degrees celsius. Thank goodness, we need a respite every couple of weeks or so!

I am coming to the end of the third fiche for Landkey with just one more to transcribe before I move on to something else. I suspect I will go back and complete the banns for Bishops Nympton. I needed a break from that for a bit. It is actually quite easy as I can just cut and paste into each set of banns but the break has been nice and the Landkey register has been most interesting with regard to the Pincombe family my one name study.

We watched another episode of the History of Britain (produced by BBC) and it dealt with the French Revolution, Rousseau, Wordsworth and a few other writer and the impact on England. We are now into the early 1800s. I found it interesting because it was actually looking at Staffordshire where my Welch/Brockhouse/Linn/Lea/Wood/Diram families lived between the 1500s and the late 1700s. I haven't tried to find any of these families prior to the beginning of the Parish Registers. Our trip through Staffordshire was very quick and we stopped only at the Wedgewood Factory. This was a marvelous tour and we were very surprised to hear that it is now closing. We spent most of our time on major roadways so did not really see a great deal of the landscape. I was peering out the window at all the signs to see if Rugeley would be mentioned.

We now have a box for digital TV although the conversion to digital has now been put off until June 2009. Our ISP provider sent us one so we will attach it and see what happens.

Tomorrow I shall carry on with Landkey registers and hopefully complete up to 1704. I am beginning to see the end these days as my fiche only take me up to 1750s so likely just a week left to complete that project. I have the land records for 1798 and this priest is making note of the place where his flock lives (if other than the village) so that is most helpful. Perhaps I will purchase the registers up to 1812 in the future but for the moment this will be sufficient to give me a picture of the area.

Results of Research at Salt Lake City - 16 Nov 2008

I am continuing to transcribe the information that I accumulated at Salt Lake City. I have now completed the Protestation Returns for Devon (1641-1642) and a quick sort revealed a total of 23 Pincombe/Pencombe/Pinkcombe signers with 1 Bartholomew, 1 Henry, 3 John, 2 Philip, 3 Richard, 4 Robert, 1 Roger, 4 Thomas, and 4 William. The locations include: 2 Abbotsham, 1 Alwington, 1 Great Torrington, 4 Bishops Nympton, 3 Chittlehampton, 3 Chulmleigh, 1 Knowstone, 3 North Molton, 2 Satterleigh, and 3 South Molton. Thus giving us a cluster of Abbotsham, Alwington and Great Torrington and a cluster of Chulmleigh, North and South Molton, Bishops Nympton, Knowstone, Satterleigh and Chittlehampton, The Tax Rolls for Devon 1544-1545 include 10 Pencombe/Pincombe/Pinkcombe listings including 1 Alice (widow of Thomas), 1 Christopher, 2 John, 1 Philip, 3 Richard, 1 Thomas and 1 William. The 1581 tax subsidy lists 9 Pincombe heads including 1 Christopher, 1 Edward, 1 Emma, 3 John, 2 Richard and 1 William. The Hearth Tax of 1664 lists only 1 William at Filleigh. The Hearth Tax of 1674 lists 1 Richard, 2 Thomas and 2 William.

With the addition of the Protestation Returns we have a fuller picture of the Pincombe famly which is known to have arrived at North Molton/South Molton in 1485 with Lord de la Zouch - perhaps they received this land because of their loyalty at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Queen Elizabeth I later appointed John Pincombe, South Molton, as the Sheriff of South Molton (1598). He was the Pincombe who bore the coat of arms attributed to this family. My suspicion is that the Pincombe member who arrived in 1485 likely had two sons with him and it is these two sons from whom the Pincombe family of Devon is descended (lending credence is the distribution of family members in the Protestation Returns with two distinct groups - one centered around Barnstaple and the other around South Molton). The elder son probably settled in the South Molton area as an adult and then his descendants were found at Barnstaple/Bideford with the other son at North Molton and his descendants were found at North Molton/South Molton/East Buckland/Bishops and Kings Nymptons in the 1500s. Looking at the 1544-1545 tax subsidy the locations include: 1 Bideford, 1 East Buckland, 2 Kings Nympton, 3 North Molton, 2 South Molton and 1 Tawstock. Family lore says that the Pincombe family initially at South Molton did move to the Torrington/Roborough/Barnstaple/Bideford area in the 1500s. Our DNA study thus far includes just one person who traces back to the Bideford area and he matches an online Pincombe result at ysearch 23.5/25 who is known to be a descendant of the North Molton/Bishops Nympton family. Hopefully, this winter I will complete my conversion of the earlier data to my Legacy one name Pincombe study file.

I have now begun my transcription of the Rugeley Poor Tax Rate looking for my Welsh/Brockhouse/Lea/Linn/Wood/Diram family lines. These interesting records from 1783 also include the overseer Account book. Thus far I have entered 208 properties with likely another 700 listed. I did not realize how large Rugeley was in the 1700s. It is a mystery to me the occupation of my ancestors although I suspect the Welsh family were Innkeepers. This transcription will occupy me for another week since I collected several years worth of data.

I spent a short period of time reviewing the Parish Registers for Rugeley and need to incorporate this information into my Family Legacy file. I rather think that I will put my Lambden one name study into hibernation since I have not had time to pursue it at all. Perhaps even withdrawing my commitment will result in someone else taking it on. Doing the Siderfin and Pincombe one name family studies is likely all that I can manage at the moment.