Charley family

An interesting set of emails have gone back and forth between another member of the Charley family and myself. This Charley family is mentioned in the published book on the Charley family by Irene H Charley published in 1970 and titled: The Romance of the Charley Family. The crest of the Charley family appears on the front of the book. Chapter 13 talks about the Charley family of Jamaica and this individual is a descendant of that family.

My own line does not appear in the book as such but would possibly be considered to be in the chapter about North Devon although the spelling is Charlie by the priest. He had Mary sign as Mary Pincombe so I shall never know how she spelled her name! unless I am rather lucky.   For those unable to obtain a copy of this particular publication, The Devon family of North Devon is said to be descendant of a Hugh Charley who was of Irish descent. That this Hugh Charley came from Belfast and that they were located in Combe Martin and Kentisbury as yeoman farmers. I have recorded records for the Hugh Charley family at Combe Martin and Kentisbury in another blog:

http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/search/label/Kentisbury

Chapter 10, page 69 begins the chapter on The Charleys of North Devon. Mention is made of a Hugh Charley and his wife Izis and for whom spoons were apparently created with the date 1761 and the initial I.C. They farmed at Combe Martin and Kentisbury. The oldest record that I have for a Charley family at Combe Martin is the baptism of the oldest child of Hugh and Charity Charley named Hugh and this baptism took place 25 Jan 1676. Most of the information is on the Charley family in the 1800s and1900s with a comment that they had been in North Devon for several centuries.

According to the book there is a marriage of Hugh Chorley (did he leave Ulster?) marrying Izis Watts at Bradford 17 Nov 1668. Is he the Hugh Charley found at Combe Martin as a church warden in 1699 (the book hints at that). A silver spoon was handed down in the North Devon family with the initials I.C. 1761.

The book has carefully gathered together a lot of information on the Charley families around the world with a number of genealogical charts. I can not yet place my Mary Charlie/Charley in any of these families although she likely was born in North Devon somewhat closeby to Bishops Nympton where she married John Pincombe in 1767. That she signed the parish register at this time is interesting in itself.

She has signed her name with a clear hand and nicely formed letters.

There are no other Charley/Chorley/Churley/Charlie families in the Bishop Nympton parish records at this time.

It is always nice to hear from possible cousins and I have a match on autosomal DNA with a person who has a Charley in his line. If we are able to find the common ancestor this might lead back to the Charley family at Comb Martin.

Charlie/Charley/Chorley/Churley Family of Bishops Nympton, Kentisbury, Coombe Martin

The last research day for the Charley-Charlie family of Bishops Nympton, Kentisbury, Coombe Martin was 30 Apr 2011 http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2011/04/charley-charlie-family-at-bishops.html shortly before I ceased doing my research process on selected surnames (namely my 4x great grandparents who were known to me). At that time I mentioned the wills that we collected at Kew on our visit there in 2010. I will use this time to transcribe those wills.

I also mentioned the book that I was able to purchase "The Romance of the Charley Family"blogged on 12 Apr 2012:

http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2012/04/romance-of-charley-family-charley.html

and that has been the sum and total of my work on the Charlie/Charley family. Of note, Mary Charlie married John Pincombe 8 Nov 1767 at Bishops Nympton and they were my 4x great grandparents.

Charley-Charlie family at Bishops Nympton, Kentisbury and Arlington

One of my largest brickwalls was the ancestry of Mary Charlie who married John Pincombe 8 Nov 1767 at Bishops Nympton Devon. It remained in place from the beginning of my foray into genealogy just eight years ago until this past year when I began to look around north Devon at possible names that could be confused with Charlie. The priest had just ten years earlier recorded so much detail but the few years around this marriage the details were unfortunately sparse. Searching on Mary Charlie does not yield any entries other than my own. Interestingly my mother was able to trace her ancestry back (from a family Bible she remembered from funerals when she was a child) to John Pincombe and Grace Manning who married 20 Mar 1725 at Bishops Nympton. The Bible recorded the marriage of John Pincombe and Mary Charley and I still have the paper that my mother filled in many years ago with that spelling. Was she just remembering how Charley might be spelled and I am thinking knowing my mother probably not; that was likely the spelling that she had seen. My mother knew quite a bit about her family history on all sides of her family. It is this family lore that I fall back on when I hit a brick wall.

I collected all the Chorley, Churley, Charley (none available for Charley) wills when we visited Kew last year and a quick read does not reveal Mary Charley or Mary Pincombe mentioned. The wills are, primarily, from first sons and the only baptism that would work for Mary Charley thus far is 21 Sep 1735 at Kentisbury and the daughter of Hugh and Mary Charley.

Unfortunately the wills from Kew did not reveal any new information although a couple of them are for the Uffculme Chorley/Churley family. 

A list of wills were also held by the Devon Record Office (destroyed in WWII)

Charley     Escott     Kentisbury     DEV           1806     W    
Charley     Grace     Tawstock     DEV           1772     A    
Charley     Grace     Combemartin      DEV           1843     W    
Charley     Hugh     Kentisbury     DEV           1716     W    
Charley     Hugh     Arlington     DEV           1741     W    
Charley     James     Chittlehampton     DEV           1741     W    
Charley     Joan     North Molton     DEV           1822     W    
Charley     John     Kentisbury     DEV           1682     A    
Charley     John     Kentisbury     DEV           1717     W    
Charley     John     Kentisbury     DEV           1744     W    
Charley     John     Tawstock     DEV           1769     A    
Charley     John     Tawstock     DEV           1772     A    
Charley     John     Kentisbury     DEV           1781     W    
Charley     John     Combemartin      DEV           1835     W    
Charley     John     Combemartin      DEV           1838     W    
Charley     Margaret     Kentisbury     DEV           1756     W        
Charley     Martha     Barum [Barnstaple]     DEV           1747     W    
Charley     Richard     Combemartin     DEV       1857     W        
Charley     Robert     West Buckland     DEV           1812     A    
Charley     Thomas     Tawstock     DEV           1742     W    
Charley     William     Arlington     DEV           1720     A    
Charley     William     Arlington     DEV           1731     A    
Charley or Chailey     John     Kentisbury     DEV           1843     W    
Charly     John     Kentisbury     DEV           1643     A

In general this Charley family is further north or west from Bishops Nympton and I am left to wonder why Mary Charley is at Bishops Nympton. Why do they marry at Bishops Nympton? Being able to solve that mystery would probably also direct me to the correct family line for Mary. John Pincombe died after Mary so that excludes finding anything extra because of widowhood. The John Pincombe/Mary Charley family moved away from Bishops Nympton by the mid 1800s as far as I am able to determine. My line John Pincombe and Elizabeth Rew (descendant of Robert Pincombe (3rd son of John Pincombe and Mary Charley)) moved to Canada along with the only sister Elizabeth married to Richard Elworthy with Thomas, one brother, lost at sea with his family emigrating to Canada. George, another brother, lived near London UK and emigrated to Australia. Robert, the eldest son, emigrated to the United States the earliest of all the family. The youngest two sons remained in England but farmed in Somerset/Gloucestershire area for one and the second ran a milk business first in Birmingham and then returned to Gloucestershire late in life (he did not marry). The youngest brother Philip is the ancestor of many of the Pincombe families living in the Gloucestershire area.

Looking at the list of wills I spot two that may be significant


Charley     Hugh     Kentisbury     DEV           1716     W    
Charley     Hugh     Arlington     DEV           1741     W

Earlier I had found baptisms for the children of Hugh and Mary Charley at Kentisbury and Arlington

1710    11    4    Christening    William    Charley    Hugh    Charley    Mary  Kentisbury
1712    12    4    Christening    Mary    Charley    Hugh    Charley    Mary  Kentisbury
1714    2    26    Christening    John    Charley    Hugh    Charley    Mary  Kentisbury
1735    9    21    Christening    Mary    Charley    Hugh    Charley    Mary  Arlington

The spread between the last two children just seemed to be too great (21 years). Interestingly an unknown Charley married a Mary Charley 8 Apr 1733 at Trentishoe (near Kentisbury). Mary Charley (wife?) was buried in 1733. I am wondering if this child Mary was a daughter of unknown Charley and Mary Charley (son in law and daughter) of Hugh and Mary Charley. 

The father of Hugh Charley was John Charley married to Charity and Hugh was baptized 25 Jan 1676. There are two wills probated for Hugh Charley one in 1716 and one in 1741. This Hugh would have been 40 in 1716 and 65 in 1741. The first three children were baptized in 1710, 1712 and 1714. The marriage of Hugh and Mary Charley is unknown but Hugh was already 34 when the first child was baptized. There could have been other children in particular a Hugh whose will was probated in 1741.

There was a Mary Charley baptized 23 Feb 1719 and daughter of John Charley and Elizabeth (Richards) Charley. She was baptized at Barnstaple and I believe she married John Richards at Barnstaple in 1745. I have eliminated her from consideration.

As well there was a will for a James Charley in 1741 at Chittlehampton (3 miles from Bishops Nympton). 

The actual parentage of Mary Charley is unknown for the moment but the likelihood of her being the daughter of Hugh Charley is strong. I need to research other avenues that might point me to further proof for this linkage. The death of Hugh Charley in 1741 when she was only six years old could well account for her no longer being in Arlington where there was only the one Charley family (her own) and her being present in the Bishops Nympton area to marry John Pincombe. One item that makes me doubt this somewhat is the naming of the sons of John Pincombe and Mary Charley - John was undoubtedly named for his father and grandfather. William is another name in the Pincombe family and the elder brother of John. Robert does not occur in the Pincombe family but Thomas has in the past (four sons in total). There is a William Charley who would have been old enough to be married in 1733 and son of Hugh which brings the scenario of her being a grandchild of Hugh and Mary Charley into focus (and the naming of the second son William).

Next study time I shall look at the Land Records for the Charley family in Devon.

Proving 4x great grandparents

I spent yesterday proving two of my 4x great grandparents. I had so much information on John Pincombe that it took me ages to enter all of it in to his Legacy file. Not so much on his wife Mary Charley (Charlie). Unfortunately the priest at that time had women sign with their new married name so I have no idea on how Mary would have signed her surname. The Charley family was located at Arlington, Kentisbury near Barnstaple and Combe Martin in this time period. The Hugh Charley at Arlington (wife Mary) is the father of the Mary Charley baptized 21 Sep 1735 and this would be a reasonable age for Mary. I do not yet know the connection between this Hugh Charley and the Charley families at Kentisbury and Combe Martin but they are all less than 10 miles from Barnstaple (Arlington is 6 miles, Kentisbury is 8 miles and Combe Martin is 9 miles). They are all in a northeasterly direction from Barnstaple (Bishops Nympton is 14 miles from Bishops Nympton). I have not yet found a Charley family living closer but the priest records that Mary Charley is of the parish (perhaps she was living/staying with a relative). John was 39 when he married and Mary possibly 32 in 1767. They had six children though between 1768 and 1778.

I need to look through all the parish registers to see if I can discover any more information on Mary Charley. She has been my brick wall almost from the very beginning as my mother knew her name from her father. She was my grandfather's grandfather's grandmother. By the time my 2x great grandfather was born both Mary and John had died. His father Robert was 28 when he married and my 2x great grandfather John was 26 when he married. Then my grandfather was 41 when he married thus making quite long generations.

As it turns out all of my grandparents were born in the 1800s - 1872, 1875, 1876 and 1886. My great grandparents were born in 1837, 1839, 1845, 1850, 1850, 1853, 1859, and 1859. My 2x great grandparents were born in 1799, 1801, 1804, 1804, 1805, 1808, 1810, 1820, 1824, 1825, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828, 1830, and 1841. My husband has a 2x great grandparent born in 1764. The bonus is that we are not looking for information that is still private as we know the birth/marriage and death dates of our parents.

I carried on with my proving of 4x great grandparents and started pulling out material on Philip Rowcliffe and Martha Pearse. I have quite a bit on Philip as well with land records but I do not have the marriage lines for Philip and Martha because my South Molton fiche do not do the period past 1754 and they married in 1760 so I will need to locate that record at Salt Lake City. I will complete them today and hopefully move on to John Rew, Sarah Moggridge, Robert Siderfin and Grace Kent. I was trying to do four per day!

This is the day that my daughter gets her first fitting on her wedding dress. The dress is quite lovely and will suit her. My own dress is now complete - I have added carriers for the black velvet ribbon and we will see if she likes the 3 metres or reduce to whatever she does like. I just need to hem it and add a couple of tabs to the neckline and a hook and eye. I am letting it hang though to let the natural folds of the fabric express themselves. I will need to stem out one fold line although it is barely visible now.

I want to sew my new nightdress as well in the next little while. If I am happy with it I will buy another piece of flanellette and do a second one. I am also going to buy a pattern for an 1800s dress of a Scot woman for my Routledge ancestry. I will represent that line when we go to functions that need a costume. I want to make a new costume for my husband as well since I made the other one when I was working and I was not overly pleased with it. I have more time to do a proper job of finishing it.

Back to proving ancestors. This is the slow methodical part as one works their way back in each line. I have no idea how far back I can get except in some of the lines that readily go back into the 1400s others are hopefully stuck in the mid 1700s or even one line (one of my great grandmothers and my mtDNA line!) that is family lore only from the mid 1800s back. My mtDNA matches are from Argyll Scotland though which is very interesting. Hence my interest in doing a dress of a Scot woman which would represent my Routledge ancestry and perhaps others to be found over time.

Chorley, Charley, Churley family

Investigation of the Somerset Protestation Returns and Lay Subsidy 1641-42 revealed the surnames Chorley, Charley and Churley and that they appear to be interchangeable. There are far more Chorley entries in Somerset than any other but Charley is the usual spelling in Devon. There aren't any Charley family members in Devon on the 1641-42 Protestation Returns that I collected but I didn't do all of Devon. I do have the Subsidy Rolls for the 1500s and 1600s in Devon and no Charley families are listed but there is a Robert Chorley and a Joan Chorley at Tiverton in the 1581 Subsidy. In the 1545 Subsidy they are nine members of the Churley family listed (including a widow Joan, John, Edward and William and all are in the Bampton or Tiverton Hundred. This does tend to add credence to the theory that the Charley, Churley and Chorley family are one in the same with the spelling being inconsistent between years. There is a Charley family found at Bampton (descendants of the family at Tiverton perhaps) in the early 1700s in the Freeholder records. The earliest Parish Record at Kentisbury is the baptism of Hugh Charley 25 Jan 1676. Mary Charley baptized 21 Sep 1735 and the daughter of Hugh and Mary Charley is my ancestor. The father of Hugh was John Charley who is a freeholder at Kentisbury Devon (or perhaps a son of John Charley as there is a John Charley baptized at Kentisbury 26 Feb 1680).

Another part of my day yesterday was spent transcribing the Bishops Nympton marriages from 1795 to 1797. Although this is cut and paste for the most part I do not appear to be going quickly! I am finding a number of interesting marriages and so I am into my Legacy files fitting them into their family lines. The witnesses are often very interesting (I could have wished that for John Pincombe and Mary Charlie's marriage but it just wasn't so) for some of these marriages helping me to connect loose ends in some cases. I did have a query about George Spencer a few years back that I could add more details to the answer. Perhaps they will write again to query George Spencer.

Magewike (Magwyck, Madgwick) and Charley Families

I continued pulling information out of available sources on the Magewike family. The Hampshire Lay Subsidy 1586 revealed four individuals with this surname: Alice at Dummer is a widow, Walter also at Dummer. John is at Overtonn and some think this is the father of my Dorothy (b c 1589 Overtonn) and married to William Blake 6 Feb 1606 at Andover. Nicholas (son of John and Mary Magewick) is mentioned at Winchester under landes and it is "the heirs of Nicholas Magewike" (he died in 1564). Robert Magewick is at Alton.

The wills of John (died 1538) and Mary (died 1546) are transcribed on the Strudwicke one name study webpages. Mary Magewick of Totford within the parish of Micheldever in her will of 1546 (probate 9 Apr 1546) mentions her sons Gregory and Nicholas and a daughter Margaret who is married. Wife of Gregory is Marjorye and they have children - one eldest son is mentioned. Both Margaret and Nicholas have children as well. A Raffe Magewick is mentioned. John Madgwick of Northington, Hants in his will of 1538 (probate 6 June 1538) mentions his son Gregory, his daughter Margaret Strodwick (Strudwicke) and his son Nicholas. Also mentioned John Maghwyk and his siblings (no relationship stated).

I also worked on the Charley family of Devon as my John Pincombe married Mary Charlie at Bishops Nympton 8 Nov 1767 and she is one of my brickwalls. The priest has listed both as of this parish. She was not baptized at Bishops Nympton. I extracted all the Charley family records from the Freeholder Books and put them together into families. As I worked away at this and extracted the parish records from the IGI I realized that I had one large family grouping centered at Braunton Hundred (mostly at Kentisbury near Barnstaple) and using the IGI I could relate them father to son.

It is possible that Richard is the father of Mary although no baptism has been found that would fit the dates. Richard is the son of John Charley and Elizabeth Richards (married circa 1694). But also there is a Mary daughter of Hugh Charley and Mary baptized 21 Sep 1735 at Arlington, Devon which would make her 32 when she was married (John was 39) and her last child was born in 1778 when she would have been 43 which is within probability. However, no son in this family was named Hugh - children of John Pincombe and Mary Charley were: John b 1768, William b 1769, Mary b 1771, Grace b 1773, Robert b 1775 (my 3x great grandfather), and Thomas b 1778. Nor was a son called Richard although Robert named his 6th son Richard.

Mary is a late birth for Hugh and Mary (it would appear that Hugh died in 1739 (baptized 1676 so 63 when he died as his son John takes over the freehold) as their other children were baptized in 1710, 1712, and 1714 with a daughter Mary being baptized in 1712. Checking the parish records for Kentisbury would be a good next step as they begin in 1674. There is a Mary Charley married to an unknown Charley 8 Apr 1733 at Trentishoe Devon. John Charley and Elizabeth Richards also had a daughter Mary baptized in 1719 but she would have been 48 in 1767 when John Pincombe and Mary Charlie married so unlikely as the last child of that marriage was baptized in 1778 when she would have been 59.

I think I will purchase Kentisbury and Trentishoe PRs to have a look at them. Hugh Charley and John Charley are brothers and sons of John Charley and Charity and both were baptized at Kentisbury. This Charley family also had freeholds at Coombe Martin which is close to Trentishoe. There is one baptism for a Nancy Charley (daughter of William and Mary Charley) 17 Sep 1744 at Trentishoe. There is a patron entry on the IGI of a marriage about 1834 at Trentishoe between William Charley and Maria Jule. Perhaps the first Mary Charley died in childbirth which may have resulted in Hugh Charley and Charity his wife choosing to name this late child Mary especially as she was baptized in 1735 (after their daughter had died since her husband remarried).