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 branch of the family who emigrated to New Hampshire 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.