I have now reached the fourth week of the 52 Ancestor Challenge and still reporting in a timely fashion. My lecture now complete, my back very much on the mend, I can now settle back into my daily research pattern with one exception. Sitting is apparently the new smoking so I will get up every thirty minutes or so and do some exercise. Being a bit of an exercise fanatic anyway, that is not a problem! But coming up with so many exercise routines will be an interesting challenge in itself.
This week Ann Sproxton is my 4x great grandmother as are all the individuals in this 52 Ancestor Challenge. Ann was baptized 14 Sep 1760 at Great Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire. The knowledge of Ann goes back to our first time at Salt Lake City Family History Library and indeed our only time there thus far. The marriage registration for John Cobb and Ann Sproxton is dated 24 Nov 1782 at Lund, East Riding of Yorkshire and the priest obligingly wrote that Ann was born at Great Driffield and John born at Kilnwick (East Riding of Yorkshire). I attach an image of their marriage registration:
Interestingly enough the x is written in such a way that it looks like a w and transcriptions of this marriage registration have read John Cobb and Ann Sprowston. This is the only Sprowston that I have ever found and it wasn't util I saw this marriage registration and realized that it read Sproxton that I was able to move back in time with Ann. The witnesses are John Wilson and Benjamin Cobb. Benjamin is likely the brother of John Cobb.
Going to the Great Driffield parish registers which I could readily do at the FHL in Salt Lake City I found the baptism of Ann Sproxton 14 Sep 1760 and the daughter of Richard Sproxton and Ann Harland. Richard and Ann had been married 24 Dec 1753 at Great Driffield. They baptized four children at Great Driffield:
Daniel baptized 12 Mar 1754 (and about whom I know nothing more at the moment)
Richard baptized 10 Oct 1756 (married Frances Dent 12 Apr 1790 at Tunstall, ERY and they have three children Richard 1791, Francis 1794, and Ann 1797)
Ann baptized 14 Sep 1760
Dyna baptized 22 Jun 1765
Richard was buried 3 May 1770 at Great Driffield and Ann 17 May 1797 was buried at Great Driffield. I continued following both lines back in the registers at the Family History Library and I will show this information at the bottom of the post.
Ann Sproxton and John Cobb baptized three children at Lund:
Elizabeth 24 Aug 1783 (my ancestor)
Ann 18 Mar 1791
John 18 Jan 1793
I have not been able to learn anything to date about Ann and John but will take a few moments now to look them up in Find My Past as I have not examined this family in a few years.
However, Elizabeth married Robert Gray 13 Jan 1806 at Lund and more on the Gray family another day but they baptized 9 children at Etton. Three of these children emigrated to Canada and one of them, Robert junior, is my 2x great grandfather and my second emigrant ancestor to come to Canada from England. He married a daughter of the first emigrants (and she herself was also an emigrant). One of their daughters, Grace Gray, was my first Canadian born ancestor. This is a very thin line as her son was my second Canadian born ancestor and my mother was my third Canadian born ancestor.
Back to John Cobb and Ann Sproxton and especially Ann. Ann was buried 21 May 1838 at Lund near Beverley (she outlived her daughter Elizabeth by 7 years and also lived long enough to see my ancestor Robert and his brother William depart for Canada around 1832). Realizing that I feel even more compelled to see about the other two children Ann and John siblings of Elizabeth.
This partial map of the East Riding of Yorkshire lets you see the location of the various parishes mentioned above and can be seen on the Genuki webpages:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/Maps/ERYParishes.gif
I know from the Land Records that John Cobb farmed and paid rent of 5.5 pence to the Parish Church at Lund. His brother Benjamin had an ale house. John is in the land records into the 1830s at Lund although by 1837 the rent is paid for the late John Cobb perhaps by his wife as she is still alive at this time and this is of course Ann (Sproxton) Cobb.
In the burials for Lund, I found John son of John Cobb, labourer, buried 16 Jan 1803. Ann is baptised as the daughter of John Cobb, Yeoman, 18 Mar 1791. There are a number of marriages for an Ann Cobb but difficult to determine if one of them is this Ann.
Ahnentafel Chart for Ann Sproxton (abbreviated):
1 Ann Sproxton (1760-1838)
2 Richard Sproxton (1721-1770)
3 Ann Harland (1731-1797)
4 Richard Sproxton (1691-1768)
5 Dorothy English (1692-1772)
6 Timothy Harland (1674-1776)
7 Ann Wilkinson (-1761)
8 Richard Sproxton (1663-1774)
9 Margaret Garrit/Garratt (-1720)
10
11
12 John Harland
13
14
15
16 John Sproxton (c1630-1714)
17 Ann Simpson (-1708)
18
.....
33 John Sproxton (-1663)
34 Isobel (-1650)
Ann is my 4x great grandmother:
1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Helen Louise PINCOMBE (b 18 Oct 1916) - Westminster Township Middlesex County Ontario Canada
3. John Routledge PINCOMBE (b 10 Sep 1872)- Lobo Township Middlesex County Ontario Canada
4. Grace GRAY (b 22 Mar 1839) - London Township Middlesex County Ontario Canada
5. Robert GRAY (b 3 Nov 1810) - Etton Yorkshire England
6. Elizabeth COBB (b 24 Aug 1783) - Lund near Beverley Yorkshire England
7. Ann SPROXTON (b 14 Sep 1760) - Great Driffield Yorkshire England
8. Richard SPROXTON (b 10 Oct 1721) - Hutton Cranswick Yorkshire England
9. Richard SPROXTON (b 2 Oct 1691) - Hutton Cranswick Yorkshire England
10. Richard SPROXTON (b 2 Aug 1663) - Hutton Cranswick Yorkshire England
11. John SPROXTON
12. John SPROXTON (d 21 Jul 1663) - Hutton Cranswick Yorkshire England
Prior to 1663 I do not have any information on this Sproxton family. In the records at Kew C 135/104/7 there is mention of a Post Mortem for William Sproxton or de Sproxton Yorkshire and 23 Edw III is 25 Jan 1349 to 24 Jan 1350. Three hundred years earlier there was a Sproxton in Yorkshire so all rather interesting but is this the same family? There was also a Sproxton Leicestershire which occurs in the records and could this family have taken their name from that place. A mystery and perhaps next time at Salt Lake City will have a look.
Also in the reign of Edward I, Robert de Sproxton Post Mortem C 133/88/3.
According to the National Archives there are 4 records 1000-1099, 9 records 1200-1299 and 11 records 1300-1399. With the earliest records being in the Domesday Book. Sprostune being in North Yorkshire in the Domesday Book.
