The new tablet is a wonderful addition

 My tablet is working perfectly and fully equipped to suit me. The trip to get the power adapter smooth and efficient. It was lovely and thank you to the store for making it so easy. I asked if I could come and order my desktop next summer before Windows 10 maintenance disappears and no problem. So I was pleased. Thank you to Best Buy much appreciated. 

I actually did my Duolingo Latin on the tablet last evening and quite pleased with that result as well. The setup was easy and I have little to do now except update some of the apps that crossed over from my phone. That was also very efficient. Tablets have come a long way since I last used one in 2018. I always meant to replace the last one but COVID arrived and I just didn't really need one as I was pretty much home 24/7 with the desktop. My desktop though is now six years old and I was replacing it every three years so will be ready for the new one. This one still works very well but Windows 10 will no longer be supported towards the end of this year. It will not upgrade to Windows 11 but I would rather have a new one anyway. 

Read the Blake Book yesterday and it is already 86 pages. Found a few items here and there that I improved for the read of it but did not add much just smoothing out the read. I like it and I am not finding anything as I was a bit concerned after rereading the first Siderfin book. But I think my eyes just got very tired proofreading and I missed a few things. I did see it as many but actually it was not even an entire page of corrections/changes. Perhaps there were 15 items in total but I am a knit-picker. I have had a few thoughts on where I am going with the Blake book and I think that I do need to put in more about the Le Blak family of Rouen Normandy and see if I can actually sort out that line from their arrival along the Hampshire coast; their move inland to Berkshire and then to Wiltshire where they are eventually found in Calne. Proving that will be an interesting proposal and I know one of my co-administrators at the yDNA Blake project would really like that to happen. A lot of people have looked at this family likely because of the Pedigree Chart which the Royal College of Arms produced in concert with members of the family in 1690 with additions into the mid 1700s. There is one obvious error in that chart and the beginning is somewhat vague particularly using an item from the Calendar of Patent Rolls to discuss the progenitor of this family chart Richard le Blake and attributing to him a transfer of property that rightly belongs to Roger le Blake of Herefordshire. But it was a long time ago and the time between the creation of the Pedigree Chart and this event in the Calendar of Patent Rolls is itself a length of over four hundred years so I will proceed carefully and keep it historically accurate. It is always better to be right even if it doesn't paint quite the picture that was desired. The overall flow is pretty accurate although will check each generation carefully with the extant records. Why would I do this? I can sense my grandfather and his indignation that Nicholas Blake would be so badly used by a known fraud genealogist in the 1800s namely Horatio Gates Somerby. Nicholas was just a small holding landowner/farmer at Knights Enham who left his will in 1547. His son William amassed a considerable amount of land and holdings and lived at Eastonton (near Andover). This Blake family, likely descendant of the Robert Blake who left his will in 1521 naming his eldest son Richard and he also had sons William and Thomas, left their wills with great accuracy for five generations clearly noting siblings and children making it easy/straight forward to construct that pedigree chart. But in 1690 when the Pedigree Chart was created likely these wills were not quite so available and the Blake line that created it with the College of Arms support had left the Andover area about 100 years earlier. The Blake family (known to be of Andover) left in that area was not particularly large and no longer held the land they once did as far as I can tell. Continuing to work on that aspect as it helps with my direct line which tended to be younger sons for the most part with my great grandfather Edward Blake being the fifth and last son of John Blake and Ann (Farmer) Blake. 

There are two Pedigree Charts that claim the Andover Blake family was related to the Blake family at Calne but I propose that any linkage was actually with the le Blak family in Berkshire at a much earlier time period and wills of the Blake family in Berkshire (in the 1500s) support this idea but I need to prove it and time will tell if that is possible. I do find it intriguing that the future King of England (William, Prince of Wales) is related to the Blake family at Calne tracing back through his mother's line. I find it intriguing that he may also be descendant of the Blake family at Andover which appears to trace back to the beginnings of settlement/re-settlement of the British Isles after the Ice Age by the Western Hunter-Gatherers. One of the reasons that when I do publish this book it will be with an embargo permitting usage only by family members and academic researchers. I will place a copy in the Library of the Guild of one-name Studies where I am #4600. But I will restrict myself to the four years as I will want to move on to other lines of my family at some point in the future. 

Sunday and Church in Westminster apparently so looking forward to attending just after breakfast (nice that it is filmed five hours earlier than my time zone). It will be great if incoming President Trump does abolish daylight savings. I am looking forward to that. I do like the bright early mornings. 

Drinking my tea and soon my yoga and then breakfast.

Snow 5 cm is predicted

There is a 5 cm snowfall predicted for the end of the week. That would be a nice end to winter for sure. It has been a strange winter here. Climate Change is having an incredible effect on Canada with out polar regions being a large part of our country. Perhaps one more day of skiing is in the works.

Today is a Pencombe day and I have a few more thoughts on Philip Pynkeham at Tawstock that I will check out. I do not want to just wantonly discard him from the book but do need to have more information to encourage me to put him in. The forename is definitely unusual to the William, John and Thomas forenames that I am finding generally in the 1300s/1400s for the Pencombe family of Herefordshire. 

Perhaps some searching of the archives to continue today with Pencombe. Perhaps getting back to actually writing the book as I have only been blogging my abstract thoughts as they come to me. 

Verified my appointment with the surgeon for cataract surgery - preliminary examination for surgery in late May hopefully. Actually looking forward to this being done and getting back to my books after a couple of months off perhaps. Time will tell. I have no idea. I have never really known anyone who had cataract surgery other than my parents (and my sister but she too is far away and did not really go into details and I like to just follow the flow for such things) and I was here and they were 700 kilometres away during all of that so no really close information.  But it is good to be enthusiastic likely. I have had no actual surgery in my life; just lucky likely and only a couple of procedures other than the delivery of two children. But I really do think people should get their surgeries sooner rather than later if they need them. So all verified and on to the appointment. My eyes are actually my only weak item but I have lived with them for 78.5 years and glasses for 77+ years. Apparently I did not walk free until glasses were put on me when I was just eighteen months. I hung on the furniture, people, the dog whatever to get around before then apparently. I have no idea why glasses suddenly made my world visible/steady enough for me to get up and walk across a room unaided. But I do remember having dizzy spells as a young child sometimes when my lenses were changed and perhaps that was it. But I made up for it as once mobile I had to be followed (the dog was good at that and bringing me back home) as I was on the move. We were inseparable the dog and I apparently and the dog seemed to know I was not like my three older siblings none of whom wore glasses as children because he would hold on to my clothes to take me home again my grandmother said. I have no memory of the dog as he was put down when I was around three years of age. I think he was about about ten years old - a large border collie. I do not remember the touch of his fur even. Seems strange really when he was so much part of my life until I was nearly three. 

On to the Archives and I shall record anything interesting but also have a look at what I have written thus far in this chapter on the de Pencombe family of Herefordshire.  

Just a day of reading and exercise. Tomorrow Blake.

Ancestry matches and Pencombe

 I did work on the Pencombe family in Herefordshire and Devonshire for a few hours pulling out the data and adding it to the chapter. I contemplated ordering one document but did not do so yet. Prepared an interesting table also for the chapter. Then I decided to move to the Ancestry matches that I made up into a chart yesterday. With four people tested there are a lot of matches in four months since I last did the same - 36 matches in total. They tend to be well mixed in the four lines actually so always something interesting to look at for each line. The larger ones tend to be paternal which could be surprising as my father was an only child and we did not have any first cousins. But on my mother's side her brother did not have any children and her father was the only surviving child (although he did have a half-sister (so half second cousins there). I got through all of the matches once and now I just need to check to see if there are any matches less than 20 cM which will not show up in the 4th -6th cousin range. With the use of TIMBER the overall size of the match can be reduced by as much as 50% so I do tend to collect right to the 20 cM and the extras just to see if all of the siblings are matching an individual or just one or two or three. 

Good exercise day and completed everything plus adding in my ten flights of stairs (not continuous as I must go up and down and then up again and down but it does appear to be good exercise). I got the idea from visiting the museum the other weekend. I wasn't tired doing all the stairs but did rather realize how good the exercise was. 

Today finish the ancestry table and think about the Pincombe-Pinkham Newsletter which is due tomorrow; plus write it likely as I have ideas in mind. Then work on the le Blak family chapter. Funny that I am at that point in both books of looking at the mediaeval family period but perhaps not surprising because I am working somewhat in tandem although the two families are considerably different. 

We had our flash freeze and now at -13 celsius after a high yesterday of +14 celsius. Since I did not actually go outside I have not particularly noticed the change except the furnace did not run very often until the freeze came. 

Early morning exercises completed and I have a second cup of tea to drink with my Latin which is next. 

Another day in God's world and the Lenten Readings have been fabulous. They actually talk a lot about the time of Israel in the Bible which was so coincidental I think.

Alexei Navalny rumoured to have died in a harsh cruel prison in Russia

Not the original title of my blog today but watching television while I was running and discovered that Alexei Navalny is rumoured to have died in the harsh cruel prison in which he was forced to live simply for leading the opposition to the Satanic Nazi Putin who has taken his country to war in Ukraine resulting in the deaths of many Ukrainians and many Russians. What a waste of youthful lives that could be giving their country so much more. He was jailed for being extreme; not for any criminal offense simply for being extreme (in western talk that is for simply stating his opinion and campaigning against the Satanic Nazi Putin). What a sad day for Russia. My prayers for his family for whom this is the worst possible outcome for their son, husband and father.

Today begins the transcription of the Inquisition Postmortem for  John Pencombe or de Pencombe of Herefordshire, recorded 37 Edw III in two digital images. Fortunately these are both small as my Latin only goes so far and it will take me a while to transcribe these two documents. I know that John had a son Thomas from the records. I suspect that the John Pencombe found on the Lay Subsidy in 1524 is a  grandson of this Thomas. The  name is unusual and the Visitation of Devon 1620 states that Pyncombe came to North Molton with Lord Zouch near the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. The last place history sees Lord Zouch is the Battle of Bosworth Field 22 Aug 1485 in Leicestershire just south of Market Bosworth. Why was John Pencombe with Lord Zouch? It is a question for the ages surely. Given that the attainment was lifted less than a year after being imposed on John Lord Zouch it is perhaps likely that John was part  of the retinue of John Lord Zouch who stayed with him to the end of the Battle and his reward for helping him was land in North Molton. No idea on that but history has them both in North Molton at the same time just after the beginning of the reign of King Henry VII. 

But first my Latin lessons to get my brain in tune to tackle the Inquisition Postmortem. I think it is in Latin I did not yet look. That would be sort of funny but I need the Latin for many other documents that I have for the Pincombe family of north-west Devon. 

Snow fell; what a treat and about ten centimetres. Already all cleared away and ready for the next snowfall. I do love the snow. I should go skiing but it is minus  six and somehow it is just very nice and warm inside for these 78.5 year old bones that have osteoporosis. 

Teatime and on to the day. Breakfast completed right after the fourty minute run.

Rain beautiful rain

If there is one thing Canada really needs at the moment it is rain particularly in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia where fires are raging. Over 1M hectares have burned in Alberta since this fire season began so fast after the winter snowmelt had begun. Rain is good here as well because the ground is dry in spite of the heavy snowfall last year. The rivers are still high though so lots of water here we just need it to keep falling from the clouds to enrich the land that has lost its snow cover. The sun is baking Canada for sure; climate change affects the northern (and southern but there are fewer of them) areas the most. 

Yesterday I completed the cleaning and preparing the back garden for planting in the morning. Then my daughter moved the garden soil from the big yellow bag and we planted in an area where we are not likely to collect very much carrots, radishes, beets and dill. The rabbits will probably beat us to most of that for sure but it is hidden behind the raspberry bushes so we are less visible and might keep them away from the top of the garden although we will fence that with chicken wire. It does appear that one of the rabbits (perhaps the male) is somewhat tame (a domestic rabbit that has been let free perhaps) and the female rabbit is producing litter after litter! The newborns were in the raspberries yesterday for a while but back safely with the mother once again. Do I mind? Not actually it is funny watching their antics in the yard. Before we mowed yesterday they could run freely all through the deep grass and were less visible but now they will have to be cautious or the hawks will get them as the lawns are now mowed; the bees have so many flowers now that cutting down the dandelions and other wild flowers will not be missed by them plus they are coming to the end of their flowering cycle as well. Today rain and tomorrow the top of the garden will be planted and it is perhaps 50% larger than the bottom portion and we will put in onions (do not need to fence them) and then lettuces, green beans, spinach, herbs - parsley, basil and dill. Then the next big project to prepare the areas for the cherry tomatoes and the green peppers for ourselves and cucumbers at the back for the racoon since that does seem to keep it back there somewhat or it just stops coming because it is eating better elsewhere. Haven't seen it for a few days since the neighbours and ourselves chased it off - perhaps it took the hint that sitting on our bird feeder was not desirable. 

As well I got a start on the Pincombe/Pinkham Newsletter. At the moment I am still toying with the idea that Philip Pynkeham is a brother to John, William and Thomas Pencombe. The spelling is interesting on the 1544 Subsidy. Philip is located in Tawstock which is to the west of North Molton and this is the area (Barnstaple/Bideford) where Pinkham first appears in the records other than this 1544 record. On the 1581 Subsidy the name is recorded as Edward Pencombe in the same area. Perhaps a son of Philip? 

The distance from North Molton to Tawstock (and the main road does flow this way) but there are also back roads with the average distance being 16 miles (25 kilometres). The River Taw has a tributary the River Mole which flows into the Taw River at Barnstaple having traveled from the Exmoor which is located just north of North Molton so the likely means of transportation perhaps in the 1500s. The River Mole (Wikipedia) takes its name from the market towns of North and South Molton and was known as the Nymet. One can see how the movement out of North Molton for the Pencombe family was a logical and gradual one (my line was at Bishops Nympton just to the east of South Molton). 

I am hoping that the document which I ordered from the National Archives (Inquisition Postmortem for John de Pencombe in Herefordshire) might just arrive in the next couple of days as I would like to see which forenames of Pencombe appear in this document. Although it is early in the time period I would really like to look at; it will be interesting to see the document. I continue with my duolingo latin lessons and will try to keep that up every day now. I was working slowly from text books before COVID but this online course is rather interesting. 

The morning is passing quickly and to keep on track must do my breakfast now (but first the second set of jumping jacks!) and then I will be ready for my Latin Lesson at 9:00 a.m.

I have to say that I think Past Governor General David Johnston gave good advice following his appointment as a special rapporteur to examine the need for a public inquiry into foreign influence in our elections. First and foremost he saved us from yet another circus on TV in Ottawa and this one being very problematic because it involves our security arm of the government - CSIS. They are accountable to the public yes but their methods are best kept somewhat private although I do agree that we should receive more information when there is known interference that would not otherwise hinder their investigations. The Conservative party refused to talk to David Johnston which was somewhat of an expected stand given that when they were last in power they did nothing about foreign influence. The NDP want to spend millions of Canadian taxpayer money on an inquiry simply as an election gamble (people might think they are responding and vote for them when they wouldn't otherwise); the money is best spent elsewhere they are the first to complain the government isn't giving enough freebies to the less fortunate amongst us. And so I am quite content that we are not going to waste all of that money on a public inquiry which would create more questions than answers. This is simply because all of the information can not be given to us publicly. I do hope we can move on now. Time for my Latin Lesson.
 

It is fourty eight years

 It is now fourty eight years since we moved to Ottawa. We had two vehicles, Edward drove the van and I drove the car with a trailer on behind. Our baby traveled with me first and everytime we stopped we switched her between vehicles to make the trip a little easier as she was not yet one year old. Mostly she slept but I sang while we drove and likely Edward talked to her when she was awake (but he also sang to her as he loved to sing). She was his joy in life for sure as we headed off to a new job and a new life. I had spent most of the previous six months under a doctor's care as I slowly but steadily moved back into health once again (the recovery would take four years as my life was very busy with a baby and I quickly became exhausted. Amazing that I did all that driving but I was just sitting there directing the car so not a big strain physically for me. The car did all the driving. We stopped every 1.5 hours and it was a seven hour drive but we took around eleven hours with rests.

How the world has changed. Not that much traffic on the 401 as it was a week day. Mostly trucks as I recall but not like now where it is trucks as far as you can see. 416 was just two lanes. The moving van had made good time and arrived just a couple of hours after we did so we were actually settled in on the first day but lots of boxes here and there. But our little one went to sleep in the same crib and in a room that looked pretty much the same (brought the curtains with us) as the room that she had left in the morning. She was content. I slept as long as she did as she easily slept for fourteen hours a night in those days. 

 Spent some time yesterday between cleaning bouts looking at the Discovery database which I will continue today. I have two aims; finding information on the early movement of the Pencombe/Pincombe/Pinkham family out of North Molton into South Molton and further west/east from these two points in Devon and also  the Pencombe family found in Herefordshire. There is a lot of information on Pencombe because it was also the name of a place in Herefordshire. 

Maybe I will spread a little soil and seed some grass seeds today although really want it to be a rainy day or rain coming for that. 

Once again Frank Stronach has put forward a good set of proposals (seven) to bring our country together and forward. It is in the style of fiscal conservatism not seen in our country since the days of Brian Mulroney.  The GST was a great addition to our country as it was literally a tax on those most able to afford it and at 7% it was good for the government coffers (keeping government debt low or not at all). Prime Minister Harper (Conservative) set us on the downward path by reducing it to 5% - a huge mistake. We need money to run the country; maintain the military (the lies against the so-called West continues by the Nazi Putin and his enablers and he has not yet left Ukraine a sovereign country which he attacked) and help the poor. If the present leader of the Conservative party can show that he has the ability to bring the GST back up to 7%  and be the fiscal conservative that Brian Mulroney was then I will listen to him but I do not want to listen to tirades against the present Prime Minister in the personal way that he has been using (it is a waste of my time and the time of all those devoted to good government). Work on the issues. Fiscal conservatism that supports small business (and large too but they can pay their way), properly maintains the military and takes care of the poor is what I believe in. It is what I was taught as a child.

On to the day and breakfast but first my solitaire games. I had this idea in my brain and decided to write it first thing. Of course at 77 I like to think I am very independent but my daughters help me a great deal by our messages and talks at the end of every day. I do not go out very often but when they are here I go out a lot and spend money which is good for the economy. How long I can actually keep this up is an interesting question but I just live day by day in the house I have lived in for 45 years trying to keep it up as best as I can but my daughter helps me a lot (quietly to myself I accept she is my caregiver since we talk every day for an hour although my mind still thinks I am pretty independent) when she stays with me (being a very busy family physician, hospitalist and emergency room doctor keeps my other daughter extremely busy; I am very careful when my other daughter is not here so as not to complicate her life). Plus I actually go out shopping which I still do not enjoy but necessity rules for sure. One wonders if there are hermit genes for I certainly would have them.

John Pincombe (1728 - 1795)

52 Ancestor Challenge - Challenge 8

Blake, King, Coleman, Pearce, Farmer, unknown, Lambden, Sarah (unknown), Knight, Ellis, Knight, Vincent, Butt, Durnford, Arnold, Molton, Cotterel, Bartlett, Alderman, Ann (unknown), Sherwood, unknown, Habberfield, Collings, Rawlings, Tanner, Dove, Morgan, Lywood, Canham, unknown, Peck, Pincombe, Charley, Rowcliffe, Pearse, Rew, Moggridge, Siderfin, Kent, Gray, Hilton, Cobb, Sproxton, Routledge, Tweddle, Routledge, Routledge, (unknown) Buller, unknown, Beard, Hemsley, Welch, Brockhouse, Cheatle, Woodcock, unknown Taylor, unknown, Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, unknown

My choice for the 52 Ancestor Challenge this week is John Pincombe. He was baptized 13 Feb 1728 at Bishops Nympton the son of John Pincombe and Grace Manning. He married Mary Charley 8 Nov 1767 at Bishops Nympton and until I went to the Society of Genealogists in London, UK I was unsure of his death date but there I found an envelope of transcriptions made by the earlier researchers in the Pincombe one name study prior to the bombing of the Exeter Record Office in World War II. What a find that was and the transcription reads:

 This information from the Principal Registry Exeter.

John Pincombe of Bishops Nympton
John Pincombe, proved (at Exeter CC) 7 May 1795

John Pincombe of Bishops Nympton, yeoman
Will dated 14 Jun 1794
To my wife Mary £200 and goods

To my son John P. an estate called Lambescombe in North Molton
on condition he pays his two sisters £20 each in five years 

To my son Robert Pincombe £ 80 when he is 21 and £ 5 yearly until then

To my two sons William and Robert Pincombe half each of 
the copyhold estate called West Wood in Bishops Nympton when
they are 21

To my son Thomas £ 300 when he is 21 and £ 5 a year until then

To my daughter Grace Pincombe £ 110

Residue to my son William Executor

Witnesses W. Bowden, Grace Down

Seal (a stag)

Proved 7 May 1795 by William Pincombe Executor

Because the will was dated I knew he had died after 14 Jun 1794 and been buried before 7 May 1795 which left me with just one burial for John Pincombe which was 9 Aug 1794 at Bishops Nympton.

John and his wife Mary had six children John, William Mary, Grace, Robert and Thomas. Robert was my 3x great grandfather. Mary married George Zeale 20 May 1794 and this explains perhaps why there isn't a bequest to Mary in the will other than payment by one of her brothers. Mary died in childbirth and was buried 28 Mar 1795 at Bishops Nympton. Grace married Richard Headdon 14 Apr 1806 at North Molton and one of her children married John Bond (Ann Headdon married John Bond 13 Apr 1836 at North Molton). Their son John Joseph Bond was a Mormon and he married Mary Jane Blake (daughter of William Blake and Sarah Barrow) and along with their daughter Lucy Ann made the trek to Utah where their daughter Sarah Jane was born 26 Jan 1865 at Kaysville. Descendants of this family continue to live in Utah.

Linking John back to the earlier Pincombe lines in Bishops Nympton proved to be a long task. I transcribed the entire set of parish registers for Bishops Nympton (952 pages in a word document) and then knowing that I had every Pincombe entry extracted them and put the family together. In general it was felt by several researchers known to me that all the Pincombes who lived at Bishops Nympton in the 1700s/1800s were descendant of John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore who had married 25 Sep 1655 at Bishops Nympton. This couple had had six children: William, Johan and Wilmote (twins), John, Thomas and Hugh. John died at the age of 13 years. These lines became quite separated from each other over time including living in different villages so that it became difficult to put them back together. However, I did succeed by purchasing all the parish registers needed.

Hence John was the son of John Pincombe and Grace Manning who had married 20 Mar 1725 at Bishops Nympton. Then that John was the son of William Pincombe and Mary Vicary. This William Pincombe was the eldest son of John Pincombe and Johane Blackmoore. Then that John was the son of William Pincombe and Wilmote (unknown). This William was the first Pincombe born at Bishops Nympton in the Parish Registers and he was the son of Richard Pincombe and Ann (unknown). This Richard was the son of William Pincombe and Emotte Snow although I hedge on it somewhat because there is no mention of Richard's son William in William's will of 1602. Then William was the son of Thomas Pencombe and Johane (unknown). Thomas being the son of (unknown) Pencombe who came to North Molton in 1485 with Lord de la Zouch.

I do want to read the North Molton Manor Books if they have survived to learn more about the line at North Molton but the extant records appear to permit this line as written. Earlier researchers came to a somewhat similar conclusion with regard to the Bishops Nympton family being descendant of the North Molton Pincombe family.

I did transcribe the parish registers at North Molton and marriages, baptisms and burials in the 1500s follow.

Marriages
15 Nov 1539 Margaret Pincumbe married Philip ____ydon
1 Jul 1560 John Pyncombe married Emet Hodge
29 Nov 1561 Ales Pyncombe married William Locke
26 May 1567 Margerett Pyncombe married William Squire
20 Jul 1567 Mary Pyncombe married George Squire

Baptisms and Burials
6 Jun 1543 Agnes Pyncombe daughter of William Pyncombe
8 Dec 1547 Mary Pyncombe daughter of William Pyncombe
8 Jul 1555 Marye Pyncombe daughter of John Pyncombe; buried 7 Dec 1555
5 Apr 1561 Johane Pyncombe daughter of John Pyncombe
18 Jan 1563 Marye Pyncombe daughter of John Pyncombe; buried 3 Feb 1563
29 Jun 1574 Peternell Pyncombe daughter of John Pyncombe
28 May 1592 Phillip Pyncombe son of George Pyncombe
9 Dec 1594 Emott Pyncombe daughter of George and Dorothie Pyncombe
15 Apr 1597 William Pyncombe son of George and Dorothie Pyncombe
9 Nov 1599 Johane Pyncombe daughter of George and Dorothie Pyncombe

18 Feb 1563 Elizabeth Pyncombe wife of William Pyncombe buried
13 Feb 1564 William Pyncombe buried
25 Mar 1565 William Pyncombe buried

 Ancestry of John Pincombe

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. William Robert PINCOMBE (b 11 Jun 1837)- Molland Devon England
5. John PINCOMBE (b 5 Jul 1808)- Bishops Nympton Devon England
6. Robert PINCOMBE (b 4 Oct 1775) - Bishops Nympton Devon England
7. John PINCOMBE (b 13 Feb 1728) - Bishops Nympton Devon England
8. John PNCOMBE (b 12 Jun 1692) - Bishops Nympton Devon England
9. William PINCOMBE (b 18 Oct 1656) - Bishops Nympton Devon England
10. John PINCOMBE (b 19 Jan 1622) - Bishops Nympton Devon England
11. Willyam PINCOMBE (b 23 Mar 1599) - Bishops Nympton Devon England
12. Richarde PINCOMBE (bc 1570) - East Buckland Devon England
13. Willyam PYNCOMBE (bc 1530) - East Buckland Devon England
14. Thomas PENCOMBE (bc 1500) - Filleigh Devon England

Looking at the ancestry of John one notes that my line was at Filleigh and then East Buckland. The parish registers for these two are simply not available prior to 1685 for Filleigh and 1684 for East Buckland. As I glance through the material I notice that there is a South Molton and District Archive: Local History Society and they have a newsletter. I think I should join this group and will look into that.

Who was the Pincombe who came to North Molton in 1485 with Lord de la Zouche. I have found some earlier records. There is one rather interesting entry in the Calendar of Patent Rolls for Thomas Pencombe. The earliest records in North Devon use the Pencombe spelling.

The online repository that has the Calendar of Patent Rolls (http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrolls/)  is a freely searchable set of files made available as a project of Professor G.R. Boynton and the University of Iowa Libraries. It is from the time of Richard II:

1395 20 May Westminster (membrane 5)
Licence, for 100 s. paid in the hanaper by Philip Webbe, chaplain of a
chantry of St. Mary in the parish church of Bromyord, for the alienation
in mortmain by John Falke of a messuage in Bromyord, and by John
Hunte or another there, and by Thomas Pencombe and Robert Stanford
of five messuages and half an acre of meadow in the same place, not held in
chief, to the said chaplain and his successors, in aid of their maintenance.
18 Richard II, volume 5, page 582

Is it significant that this too was a Thomas Pencombe? There is a Bromyard in Herefordshire and ust four miles away is the village of Pencombe. In the Directory of 1851 (E.C. Lascelles) there is not any one of the Pencombe name but there is a farm called Pencombe Court where a farmer William Goode resides. The church there is said to be an ancient stone structure.

Lately I received an email from someone in Sweden who has traced his ancestry back into the 1700s and probably they were on the land back into the 1600s. However, he matched my 5th cousin with his yDNA test. We both found that rather interesting and he wanted to know if at some time there was a Pincombe who had moved to Sweden and since we were talking 1600s I really do not have any ideas on that but did put forward the notion that we might both be descendant of the Vikings! He was writing to my cousin but I have not yet heard back from him. Since I tried to write this cousin many years ago unsuccessfully it would be interesting to see if he will respond now.

This particular email came at a time when I had really set aside the yDNA Pincombe project because of the non match between Pincombe and Pinkham. The two earlier researchers had put these two families together but the yDNA results for Pinkham descendants in the United States was remarkably different from my cousin's results. I think I need to just sit back and wait to see what comes out of this project.

This is my mother's maiden surname and in memory of her I have attempted to carry on her research into her own family line. She knew her line back to John Pincombe and Grace Manning having seen it in a family Bible which has been since lost to time. I never saw that particular Bible. The one that I saw was the property of my great grandfather William Pincombe and contains the only document that is now extant for his marriage to Grace Gray the records having been destroyed when the local church burned to the ground with all the records.

Pincombe one name study

My Pincombe family research has suffered lately due to my intense work on the Blake family. Working two one name studies at the same time has proven to be somewhat difficult although it shouldn't be so. I suspect it is more because I am also wanting to transcribe this backlog of wills that I am finally starting to work through. I do plan to establish a website for the one name study as I have for the Blake one name study.

I have had a few interesting emails from fourth cousins which have concentrated my interest but I would like to deal with Pincombe at arm's length as well without letting my own line influence my thoughts. I have the work of the earlier researchers which linked the Pinkham and Pincombe families of North Devon but yDNA studies have thrown somewhat of a left curve into all of that. I have stood back now from those studies and will wait quite a while before contemplating them with regard to the family. I need to have more people test the Pincombe line and would love it if one of my near cousins from the John Pincombe/Elizabeth Rew (my 2x great grandparents and the emigrant to Canada) line would test and will just have to wait and see if that happens over the next few years. The opinion of the earlier researchers was that there was likely a common ancestor at least that is what I have gleaned from their 14 charts which I am now in possession of and entering into Legacy.

There is one rather interesting entry in the Calendar of Patent Rolls for Thomas Pencombe. The earliest records in North Devon use the Pencombe spelling.

The online repository that has the Calendar of Patent Rolls (http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrolls/)  is a freely searchable set of files made available as a project of Professor G.R. Boynton and the University of Iowa Libraries. Thanks to them for making this set of documents available. 

It is from the time of Richard II:

1395 20 May Westminster (membrane 5)
Licence, for 100 s. paid in the hanaper by Philip Webbe, chaplain of a
chantry of St. Mary in the parish church of Bromyord, for the alienation
in mortmain by John Falke of a messuage in Bromyord, and by John
Hunte or another there, and by Thomas Pencombe and Robert Stanford
of five messuages and half an acre of meadow in the same place, not held in
chief, to the said chaplain and his successors, in aid of their maintenance.
18 Richard II, volume 5, page 582

I had found earlier records that show a Thomas Pencombe at Pembroke in Herefordshire in the 1430s and a Pencombe is known to have been with Lord de la Zouche at Northmolton in 1485 when he received property from Lord de la Zouch at East Buckland and Filleigh. The forename of the Pencombe at Northmolton is not known to me but his descendants are listed in the Visitation of Devon 1620.

Once all of these other wills are accomplished I shall spend more time on the Pincombe family once again. We hope to be in Exeter in 2014 and what wasn't bombed in WWII on the Pincombe family I shall have a look at there. Unfortunately many wills of this family were lost and only on occasion do I find abstracts from them in published books. The Freeholder books have been helpful with this family but in actual fact I knew from my mother the line back to 1655 when John Pincombe married Johane Blackmore. My line has been at Bishops Nympton since the late 1500s.

I would like to look at the Pincombe/Pinkham family though in the same way as the Blake family eventually. No one line should predominate but rather find the deep ancestry of this family although this family is primarily found in the North Devon area after 1485 and in the Pembroke Herefordshire area before 1485. They were either being rewarded for whom they supported at the Battle of Bosworth Field or they were hiding out in the wilds of North Devon :) from the wrath of Henry VII!