All change at the Tavern: re-assessing tree leads to changes

For years I've wondered if you really belonged, Harriet Jones, wife of whip-thong maker Thomas Jones of Deritend, Birmingham. Your grandkids made it into my book (page 207 in fact). And your daughter Harriet Jones Hawkins was the first woman to say NO to plural marriage in a law court in the state of Utah, in 1891. She sounded like she ought to belong.

I have several DNA matches to Harriet's husband, Thomas Sunderland Hawkins, but let's remember he was the plural marrying one, so it's perhaps not surprising that half of Utah claim him as their dad. 

The problem started with Thomas Brasier baptised 1742, a customs and excise man. His entry in the IR27 death duty indexes as 'Branscer' names his wife Elizabeth and Elizabeth's own IR27 entry (1852) (turns out to be their daughter), names Joseph Newey as executor. Dr Taylor kindly sent me a copy of Elizabeth's will dated 1828, and listing five nieces, granddaughter of Thomas: Elizabeth Aston, Hannah Wood, Fanny Flavel, Harriet Newton and Eliza Newton.

These events were in and around Dudley, also Cradley Heath, Stourbridge (Old Swinford), Clent and Sedgley. It took a trip to The Hive Worcester to find Eliza's baptism in the right year as Norton, while Fanny is 1851 is recorded as Flavle and indexed as Flook. But it was Harriet that caused the pain.

For some reason I don't appear to have been very logical about my research, waiting until Nancy Brasier (another unmarried family member)'s will (1863) popped through in September 2018 before getting going in earnest. Nancy had the Druid Tavern in the town.

Also, I quickly decided Harriet Newton was born 1803 in Cradley and had married Thomas whipthong Jones in 1826. At the time I didn't have Harriet's baptism, but it did clash with aunt Elizabeth's will (1828) which declared her unmarried.

It wasn't until 2022 that Worcestershire's brilliant parish registers were uploaded to Ancestry. So today I see that Harriet was actually baptised 1809 in Oldswinford and was thus hardly likely to marry in 1826. Further that others are right that the whipthong maker's wife Harriet 'born 1803 Cradley' was baptised 1803 Deritend the son of a couple from Cradley and environs. 

And further that the marriage of Harriet (as 'Darton') in 1835 Edgbaston to Mr Ward, a japanner in the jewellery quarter looks spot on. With her first children named after sister Hannah and her husband Frederic. There is just the small issue of Harriet Newton baptised 1807 Old Swinford (daughter of Samuel) to eliminate.

I had hoped that the Estate Duty Registers for 1863 would confirm Harriet's last name: but as she got less than £20 from her aunt Nancy's estate the clerks weren't fussed about her last name and it's shown as 'Newton'.

This all absolutely explains why there were never any DNA matches from the whipthong maker's daughter in Utah. It has taken far too long to spot this and indeed to type this up, so I'll press send, and consider any points of clarification or useful images, later.

Also:

Henry Newton baptised 1800 turned out to be the grandfather of Thomas Davies (1861) born to an unmarried couple who himself turned out to be the mysterious 'wire drawer' named on the World War One marriage certificate of a son in Leeds.... whose grandson I had found an identified as 'J.D.' on GEDmatch on I think chromosome 6. It was all very labyrinthine.

William and Hannah Newton turned out to be born 'mother Susanna'. More to follow... 

 

Move over Somerset: Staffordshire is the new kid in town (pt 1)

In my youth it was easier finding out what was happening in horse-drawn Somerset than it was finding out what was happening on ITV. And the former was far more wholesome. I had only to hop up a few stairs above 'Next' and the faded leather-bound volumes in the disused probate registry opened so very easily. No remote control needed.

A gain 'here' equalled a piece of information 'there' as all the families east of the Mendips were connected somehow. You just had to find the right button. At 17 one slightly snowy December, I hopped in my elderly Fiesta and took those ancient addresses and went to visit them. Cousins were still there. Ralph Bush (born 6 November 1900), dairy farmer was still alive, nearly doing the tonne. Extraordinary to think that even the car I was driving has lately turned 50 - on some scrapheap somewhere.

But it all had to end. Reunions and memories and beautiful big trees and photographs, gravestones and stories....

Once the Haine Reunion 2005 had happened in Ohio, it was our swan song. The county had no more left to give. Just roads and endless car-ry traffic-fumed angry London visiting road filled roads. Once-pleasant cottages hard juxta'd onto the endlessly rolling tarmac, sucking in more unhappy Londoners bemoaning the stagnant lonely air. Old family strongholds selling up, and nowhere for anyone to live.

What a relief to escape. I was a genealogical nomad for a while, enjoying the links to Wales, to the Peak District, the Lake District fringes and for a while to Colombia. The joy of studying old maps proving far more reliable than smoky old lorry-belching Somerset. Goodbye old friend!

But then one day, a new county raised its head, and things would never be the same again. 

Wrong trees: what to do

There should be a question mark at the end of the title. This is a problem from a few years ago. It felt remarkably personal when there were enquiries about family history through to email, post or even Ancestry message.

There were only four areas of confusion that I can think of right now:

• Hannah 'Robinson' the wife of William Bagshaw of Eyam - born 1792 Chesterfield. There was no baptism that fitted. Thanks to a timely message from Barrie Robinson in 2014 which showed that the William Bagshaw who married Hannah Robinson was alive and well in Sheffield in 1841. And that left the door open to exploring other options. Ultimately Hannah turned out to be Hannah Gee, with baptism, family background and DNA all happily confirming this, and most online trees now do reflect that.
   
• Elizabeth Marshall wife of William Hugo. Ancestry trees are torn on this one. Most have her as born about 1781 in Egloshayle the daughter of John Marshall and Ann Guard. She is actually (as many trees show) born about 1775 in Bodmin the daughter of John Marshall and Jane Stephens. The key piece of evidence for this is the will of John Marshall of Bodmin.
  
  
• William and Jane Hambly of Redruth, Cornwall. The prevailing mood in the 1990s was that this couple had married in 1753 in Duloe, Cornwall rather than in 1757 in Redruth. Furthermore, nobody had clocked that she was a widow nee Jane Bohemia. Most trees do now recognise this and there is proof in that William jr's will names his half-sister's daughter as a niece.
  
  
• Ruth and Rachel Grist of Hemington, Somerset married George Crees a gardener in Bath in the period around 1820. For a while there was doubt that these two were sisters. This seems to have been resolved. I am sure Crees would have been around at an interesting time in Bath's history.
   
• Thomas Haine born 1822 in West Pennard. Because his first marriage took place in Batcombe, Somerset, archive staff suggested that Thomas might have been born as Thomas Haimes (or similar) in the parish, and until the 1881 census was released showing the correct birthplace, the Batcombe Thomas was thought to be everyone's forebear. In addition the family had wrongly suggested Thomas had a middle name of Talbot, which due to careful tree pruning by the family, has been close to eradicated: although see the next point.
  
  
• Ancestry.com has a weakness for made-up middle names for our forebears. It will unfortunately not challenge these and even encourage their proliferation. It might be possible to challenge this by inserting 'NoMiddle' as the middle name.

It is a relief to know that these are now mostly resolved. Possibly human nature and the Ancestry algorithm eventually favour the correct information: but that is by no means certain.

Counties of interest: where my ancestors were

This quick post shows the counties my ancestors occupied.

Somerset, Cornwall, Glamorganshire, Lancashire, Norfolk, Derbyshire, and Westmorland are the main counties from the last 150 years. Going back to 3xgreat-grandparents, we need to include Kent (birthplace of Maria and the place where her parents later lived), Pembrokeshire and Monmouthshire (birthplaces of my Welsh forebear's parents), Northumberland (birthplace of John), County Durham (home of John and Jane).

Going further back we find Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Cheshire (haunts of my 5xgreat-grandfather Nathaniel), Cumberland (4xgreat-grandmother Jane and husband), Wiltshire (ancestor born there 1660s).

And then there are ancilliary counties of Nottinghamshire (home of James Fox of Gotham widower of Esther), London (where two grandparents are born), (South) Yorkshire, Devon and Suffolk (where ancestral couples marry), Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire (seemingly where two ancestors originate), Carmarthenshire (home of my Mortons), and arguably Breconshire (where another ancestral couple marries) - but that is now part of Powys which I would be uncomfortable shading in given that we're talking just across the border from Glamorgan.

If we take out County Durham, Suffolk, London and Kent (all somewhat questionable as long-term places of origin), it's been pointed out that I'm remarkably "western half of the UK", with Norfolk very much the outlier.

Nottinghamshire was a capricious inclusion: not only did Esther Fox never live here (she also never lived at Bollington near Macclesfield), but a distant uncle John Barton (1770) was publican at the Warren Arms, Stapleford in the county and succeeded there by his son. I don't have much about Esther-not-in-Notts: she has been well blogged but mostly concerning her time not-in-Cheshire here, here and here.

If I was allowed unlimited collateral connections, then Dorset would feature (uncles William Porch Creed married here in 1828 at Melcombe Regis Weymouth and William Speed the same in 1758 at Dorchester).  

Coming from the other direction, the Huttons and the Dibben sisters take care of many/most English counties, while Isabella Kroll's unexpected marriage in Keswick in 1907 knocks out 13 countries in Europe and beyond with surprisingly little effort.

A good place to end this blog post.

 

Connecting in South Wales

My Hunters and Harrises were from Cornwall.

The Ponsfords and Hanneys were from Somerset.

The Cadogans and Francises were from West Wales.

They all connected in the tinplate works and associated industries around the north of Swansea in the mid-1800s.

My grandfather being from Morriston, Swansea, I knew about many of the family connections. But it is only a bit more recently - thanks to some puzzling DNA matches, and dare-I-say to online trees, that the full picture is emerging. Well some more of it at least.

We knew that the Hanney Silver Band popped up twice - once as my grandpa's maternal half-uncles and secondly as marrying his father's cousin Mary Ann Harris.

I was pretty sure that the Cadogans appeared two times, or three depending how you count, as my grandpa's uncle Tom married a Cadogan and then Tom's cousin Francis married Jessie Ponsford Cadogan as his first wife. The two Cadogans being cousins.

I hadn't appreciated that Francis's nephew David, who married a daughter of Sid Turner, had also married into the Ponsfords. As Sid was a maternal cousin of Jessie and her sister Annie. This helped explain why Sid's daughter was able to put me in touch with Jessie and Annie's grandson back in 1993.

Then we come to the DNA. Why on earth were my Hanney half-blood relatives showing up as DNA matches to the descendants of Elizabeth Rodda Harris, who married in 1869 to Samuel Hynam? It turned out that Samuel's aunt Hannah had married in Marksbury to James Hanney senior, progenitor of the clan in Swansea. (It further emerged that one of the couple's grandsons had married Annie Ponsford Cadogan.)

It emerges that the Hanney cousin was connected to Samuel Hynam possibly up to five separate ways.

Examining the wider Hynam tree just now, I discovered two things:

1) that when I rang Miss Hynam in the Swansea phone book in 1992 I had very good odds of reaching the right branch of the family, as the family though large had sons who mostly left the family area

2) that there are some good candidates including a Lily Hynam living in Coventry who might have invited my mother for an ill-fated visit in the late 1950s

I am almost certain that there most be other hidden connections. I remembered almost having to apologise to folk in Swansea for being connected to the Hanneys twice in such a muddling way, but now I see it is par for the course...

The Carpenter of 1839: finding his Nephew's Rolling Pin

Exhibit A: You will possibly have to trust me that this document says 'Guillermo Hunter... Carpenter'. It is from untranscribed Notarial Records now fully indexed on FullText at FamilySearch (2024-5).

The thick ink has bled through the pages and the Spanish (we are in Barranquilla, Colombia) is a bit of a scrawl. The year is 1839, and the offered apprenticeship will expire cuaranta y cinco (1845).

Exhibit B: This next document is both older and younger. It is dated 17 October 1993 and was sent to me by a very helpful correspondent from the entangled town of Morriston in Wales. And contains an unexpected sentence I had never followed up.

So in 1915, Mr Hunter the carpenter, nephew of the preceding chap and my great-great-grandfather, gave a rolling pin as a wedding present to Mr and Mrs Turner, who attended the same Wesley Chapel in Morriston.... whose daughter I happened to be writing to about another matter 80 years later.

O rolling pin, o rolling pin! 

Where might the rolling pin be? It is now of course the 2020s, and I am only now digging. The 'youngest sister' I track to her death in Kettering in 2002, and her husband to 2020 (mid-COVID). They had no children but his will gives two possible leads including a likely niece, for whom I now have an email address.

It is highly possible that the rolling pin and nursing stool may well have been jeté'd, but who knows? A photograph of them would be highly interesting. It is of course absolutely fine if they've long since disappeared, but it won't hurt to ask.

So from 1839 to 1915 to 2002 to now is quite a few hops. But maybe the Carpenter of 1839's nephew still has some of his woodwork in existence this year of 2025? We shall see.

Update: the first enquiree has no knowledge of the nursing stool or rolling pin... 

Full-text searches at FamilySearch: in Colombia, Barranquilla

FamilySearch have recently made full-text searches available on their site. One of my first ports of call was to see what new information there might be about the Hunter brothers, who had left England for Colombia in the 1820s/30s, 40s and 60s. The famous engineers Richard Trevithick and Robert Stephenson were there. And DNA had showed that the eldest brother William had settled in, of all places, Barranquilla, at the mouth of the Magdalena River. (Other brothers followed this great river 400 miles inland to Honda, the 'city of peace'.)

At RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a FullText Search product that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help users find historical records. As it happens Spanish is one of the languages covered.

The full-text searches have helped me piece together the family of my long distant uncle William Hunter (1805). He married in Cornwall, England to Ann Trevithick and had children William (1828), Eliza Jane (1829). William jr was listed in his grandfather Trevithick's will of 1840 so we know he was alive then, and Eliza Jane (and any younger ones) thus probably weren't.

In 1839 his younger brother Hugh Hunter (1808) is living in a house in Barranquilla, Colombia. The entry might relate to their father Hugh (1783), but as this Hugh is still there 1869 I don't think so.

In 1845, the full-text searches show me that William himself was a carpenter in Barranquilla, taking on an apprentice carpenter, Antonio Ferreira. He signs his name Guillermo Hunter. (One possibility is that he died shortly after this: that would account for there being no more kids, though wouldn't explain the family's continued wealth.)

It's not awfully easy to read but this is an abstract of a translation of a transcription of a digital image of a microfilmed image of a (photograph of a) bound original volume of notarial records from Barranquilla, Colombia, dated 1839-1840.

William had remarried to a woman who rejoiced in the name of Maria de Los Santos Palacio, perhaps born 1819. He must have died by 1863 and their only surviving children together were listed in a document of 1863: Isabel [Hunter], Eloisa Hunter, Ana Hunter. Isabel is not listed in a crucial land document of 1883 suggesting that she had died, perhaps without issue. From the 1863 document Isabel appears to be a Hunter, and as we shall see there is really no time for her to be William's stepdaughter.

Before we get to the final list of children, there are a couple of twists in the tale.

1) Who is Maria Hunter born about 1890, who married 23 Jan 1916 at the Lady of the Rosary, Barranquilla, to Eladio Ariza. Firstly I cannot see a marriage record at this church (January marriages are rather rare). Maria is a sponsor at the baptism of Ana Hunter's granddaughter (1914). Her death record gives her parents as Pedro Osio and Ana Hunter, seemingly not a married couple. Pedro was actually a neighbour of the Hunter women and sold his house to them in 1888.

2) In about 1866, William's widow Santos Palacio gives birth to a son, Generoso A Mendoza Borja, who lives to nearly 100 and whose death record states his father was Manuel Borja. In 1888 the young man is now over 21 and of his own free will declares that he has no right whatsoever to the property that his mother gave to his half-sisters Eloisa and Ana Hunter! Pedro Osio features in that document too.

So the combined children of William Hunter (1805) and Maria de Los Santos Palacio (~1819) appear to be:

1. William Hunter (1828), alive 1840. No further mention.
2. Eliza Jane Hunter (1829), seemingly died by 1840.
3. perhaps more Hunter children by first wife, born in Barranquilla? If so it's likely all had died by 1840.
4. Isabel Hunter, perhaps born 1840-1842. Died by 1883, likely with no children.
5. Ana Hunter, perhaps born 1845. She married in 1863 to Mr Mendoza of Caracas, Venezuela but if I'm reading the 1893 document correctly had separated with concerns for her safety by 1875, and returned to Barranquilla. Her daughter Modesta Maria was born in 1876 and the puzzling Maria Hunter in about 1890. She seems to have died the exact day that her property interests pass to Modesta, in 1913, though (if it's her) her age is given as '42'.
6. Eloisa Hunter, perhaps born 1856 though I suspect 1842. Her son and seemingly only child Fernando Silva is born in 1876 and dies a few months before her in 1930. Both their years of birth are reconstructed from the ages at death. I think Eloisa was actually quite a bit older than this, almost certainly older than Ana. This is somewhat of a relief as originally we had no idea if Eloisa was actually a child of William (1828)! Eloisa likely married a cousin (Fernando Silva Palacio) and his age is essentially unknown too, so we cannot use that as a guide.
7. perhaps other Hunter children who die - note that we seem to be saying the last kid was 1845 and then there was a 20 year gap (and new husband) until the next one....! 
8. Generoso A Mendoza Borja, born about 1866 and survives until 1965! Based on these sort of dates, a child born in his sixties could still be alive.

Incidentally one or two of Eloisa Hunter's descendants are DNA matches to myself, and to a few known of the wider Hunter family (in Australia), which is what cottoned me on to the Barranquilla story in the first place.

Maria De Los Santos was a widow in 1863 and 'de Mendoza' (i.e. married to Mendoza) in later records. She was alive in 1883 and likely died by 1886, when her property is described as owned by 'her successors'. Although on reflection that is open to interpretation... say if she transferred the property in anticipation of death, but didn't actually die!

It is still a bit odd that Maria (grandma) sat and watched her daughter marrying a Mendoza in 1863, then promptly (maybe) did the same thing and had a son in her late 40s. While her daughter's marriage foundered and was childless during this epoch.

And it is equally odd that Eloisa went ahead with a transfer of land on 20 Aug 1913, apparently the same day that her sister died. 

But the remaining question though is WHO is Maria Hunter's mother! I see three options. (We know she is stated as 'Ana Hunter'):

• Ana Hunter born about 1845. Given that her mother's son Generoso was born so late in life, it is certainly not impossible that Ana had a child 27 years after her marriage, and didn't bother giving Maria the name Mendoza. Ana had separated long ago from Mendoza and Osio had finished having children (1886). It seems the most likely explanation. She does stop signing herself 'de Mendoza' at some point: likely couldn't be bothered. The age '42' for her death in 1913 would be a ridiculous yet simple clerical error, perhaps from copying up rough notes.

• Ana Hunter born about 1871. This is assuming such a person existed - who died age '42' in 1913. Who is SHE then? Could be the child of Isabel Hunter (then late 20s if living), or of the ghostly William Hunter (1828)? Surely she could not be an older child of Ana Hunter (1845) as that person would have the name Mendoza as Ana's other daughter did. This apocryphal character would be the right kind of age, I suppose, to have a child with Pedro Osio or his son of the same name if living with her aunties. The main problem with this is 'where is the date of death then for Ana (1845)' if not 1913?

• Modesta Maria Mendoza Hunter! born about 1876. This would be a big plot twist, and would imply that the 14 year-old had a child with the neighbour (or his son) AND that the child listed her father correctly (on death certificate) but NOT the mother (putting grandmother Ana instead). I don't see this as very likely. Apart from being contradicted by the evidence (i.e. mother is 'Ana Hunter' not 'Modesta Mendoza') the family seem quite prim and proper, and also not afraid of recording hard facts in writing rather than covering them up. 

The family keep on trading houses into the next generation. The houses were of cane, wood and mud and on calle de Bolivar street, and calle de San Juan. I think they may have all now gone but here is an old photo of calle de San Juan from pepecomenta.com.

Signature of William Hunter (1805) - for many decades we thought we'd lost him, until he turned up as the husband of Maria De Los Santos in Barranquilla in a tree of a DNA match. I think we can safely say that all four Hunter brothers came out to Colombia... and left their bones there.

Note that you would need a FamilySearch login to access these links, and recall that Spanish names do not confirm to American style of naming, e.g. Jackie Kennedy Onassis (aka Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy) would in Spanish naming style be Jacqueline Bouvier Lee, with her mother's surname Lee appearing at the end...

On Finding Dinah... or Dinah Might!

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Hang on isn't that the iconic opening shot of Daphne Du Maurier's novel Rebecca (set in the true residence of beautiful Menabilly, Cornwall?)

What's that got to do with my mother's unexpected grrrrrreat auntie Dinah, born perhaps in 1712? Well everything, as we shall see.

~~~

In the days of Christmas 1998 the newly installed Lady Rashleigh of Menabilly is setting out the enormous tables in the orangery for an intimate but international dining party. 

I, Writer, am galloping down a railway side path in an ugly part of Taunton, bearing extraordinary news from the 17th century, lately just in.

I arriving panting at the station and board it hoping I will not lose my discoveries. Were they real, or just a phantom dream brought on by too much Christmas treats?

The Internet has just reached England. It boarded our shores and one of the first e-mails I fielded from it informed me that my ancestors were James and Miriam who married at Ditcheat Somerset in 1777. Thankyou, internet! I wish I could have managed without you, but we'll accept this one electronic support in our quest to conquer the 1700s unaided. 

Stepping back through the pages of the IGI, in an ancient format called "microfiche", by good fortune Miriam's birthplace had been well catalogued. Her mother's and grandmother's names were found but the trail went cold. We simply couldn't tease out any more on Elizabeth....., mother of Sarah Speed (1722), grandmother of Miriam.

At this point I favoured the open cast mining method of research. Boarding the train I proceeded to empty every single reference to the Speed family onto the metaphorical floor. 

The record office were aghast at someone using their surfaces during the traditionally quiet Betwixtmas season, and I had to wait about three Mars bars before the pile of ribbony papers and parchment emerged from the Strong Room. 

Time had been a faithful guardian and I was now deep in the 1700s. No turning back now. The Speeds of Ansford, Somerset were at my purview.

Like a rocket I was instantly thrust back two further generations. I could feel the G- Force as I struggled to hang on to 1998. I was being pushed deep underwater. 1898..  1798... 1758... the parchment opened at the year 1733.

Edward Murrow, my new ancestor, was dying and he wanted his many scattered lands given to all his female descendants. Not one was to be forgotten. 

His fondness for youngest daughter - due a-childbed any day now- was apparent. He wouldn't live to see her die in that childbed in a matter of a few weeks time. 

He had already lost his middle daughter and the granddaughters he listed made for quite a list. I reached for my pencil: Sarah Speed (tick!), Elizabeth Speed, Dinah Widdows, Martha Widdows, Elizabeth Widdows, Mary Widdows and Grace - daughter of George Dyke.

I could find baptisms for all bar Dinah who OBVIOUSLY was the eldest sibling of those Widdows girls and NOTHING to do with my Sarah or the Dykes, right? Right?

I wasn't getting much of a reply from the papers. The ribbon wrapped around the parchment and I was back in the reading room with moments to go before legging it for the train.

Dinah got forgotten. There was no birth, marriage or death for her, so it stands to reason she basically didn't exist. A genealogical fluke. A flick of the pen made in error, a misunderstanding, mishearing a dying man, forgetful of details, just another inaccurate name in the records?

Undaunted I crossed the to the local library which housed Parson Woodforde's Diaries, 30 years after our man's death. He lived in my ancestral Ansford. Time to opencast  his writings. The young parson was forever doing battle with my forebears it seemed. Sarah, now a widow,  accosted him for a headstone for her late husband. Cousin Martha had been his school mistress and was later murdered by his close friend. Small wonder the parson took his leave of the district and began a new life in Norfolk. 

But before he left he cryptically wrote a note for me. "Ned Dick the carrier is the nephew of Edward Speed."

Ned is Edward Dyke son of our George Dyke and his mysterious wife  Dinah - no marriage found. 

Of course when I sit down with the evidence, our Dinah emerges. She was not the older sister of the 3 Widdows girls. 

She must instead be the child of Elizabeth Murrow 1692 from her unknown marriage to Mr Withers. It's as Mrs Withers that Elizabeth marries at Wells Cathedral in 1719 according to a volume of licences by Jewers.

So she's Dinah Withers, and born 1712 if we work backwards from her age at death. Aged 21 when her aunt dies in childbirth, she is quickly on the scene and marries the grieving widower George Dyke. For many years I'd assumed this was scandalous but now realise it was merely the family looking to resolve a difficult episode. 

(Decades later I find the marriage as Mary Withers in the unexpected parish of Batcombe, thanks, belatedly to the Internet, which arrived very late to this party.)

So she's an aunt, and through her son Ned the carrier (Amazon delivery driver of his day), she creeps socially back up the stations little by little. George apprenticed to a tailor, Charles has his own drapers shop in Lyme Regis, Charles junior runs a military outfitters in Marylebone. Then we thunder ever closer to the aristocracy and to Menabilly. We have a colonel, an ambassadress to Reagan and at last, the Châtelaine of "Manderley", the beloved fictional home of Rebecca, lived in by its author. 

Dinah has taken us here by sheer Genealogical brute force. Is it possible that Dinah has any more surprises? Dinah Might. Dinah does. 

Postscript:

Dinah's other descendants had the Cock at Hemel Hempstead and from them, there is an archdeacon or canon in Leicestershire. 

I never could find Sarah Speed's son John born about 1742, where on earth was he? Turns out,  baptised in nearby Castle Cary with the poor priest - doubtless mesmerised by Sarah's sister - unfortunately recording the infant's mother as Dinah. (Not our diaretic parson who was fending off the rest of the family across the river Brue.)

A woman who we nearly forgot about, but who has reasserted herself onto the family tree.

Thanks for the memories auntie Dinah x