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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Suffolk => England => Suffolk Lookup Requests => Topic started by: jamesct on Tuesday 08 June 21 04:05 BST (UK)
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Hi all,
Could someone please look up a marriage that that took place between James Wright and Susan or Susannah Matthews in 1798, I'd appreciate the date the marriage took place and any other details you can send me.
Many thanks,
JamesCT.
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Hello JamesCT and welcome to RootsChat.
I can't see any obvious marriages that look right at this stage. How is it that you know the year and names? Is there any other information that may help in the search - children, occupation, census details etc? :)
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Hi and thanks for the welcome,
I got the marriage details from Find My Past, to which I don't have a subscription at present. The record on FindMyPast is a transcription only. This is a couple from Steeple Bumpstead in Essex, and they had their children in Grays Thurrock in the same county, so unfortunately those details might not be of much help.
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The date of the marriage is listed as 2 Oct 1798
Kay
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Doesn't help but there is a tree on Ancestry which has a child born of James WRIGHT and Susan MATTHEWS of Grays, Essex, however it has Susan's birth in 1798 and the child (Mary Ann) as being baptised with the name MATHAMS, so is clearly wrong/not yours. Looking on FreeReg I see a number of children baptised between between at least 1807 and 1819 with parents James and Susan(nah) MATHAMS, or variations.
Will keep looking for your couple ...
Modified to add:
Can't see any WRIGHT children baptised in Grays, Essex in this time frame on FreeReg to a James and Susan, can you provide any details of their children please which may help with naming patterns etc.
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Hi Kay, Thanks for supplying the date, that's a great start.
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Hi Maddy,
Yes I saw the baptism for Mary Ann Mathams in Grays a long time ago, years now, and rejected it, given it "should" have been for a Mary Ann Wright anyway. It's an extremely long story, but I've very recently come across a lot of evidence that suggests that James Wright and Susan Matthews both came from Steeple Bumpstead, married in Ipswich, and had their first child, James Wright, in 1800 in Steeple Bumpstead, and then changed their name to Matthews, with them appearing in Goldhanger, Essex in 1804, and thereafter in Grays, where they had the following children under the surname Matthams or variations, as follows:
Child Born Baptized Father Mother
William Byers Matthams 28 August 1807 20 September 1807 James Susannah
Mary Ann Mathams 19 April 1810 17 June 1810 James Susannah
Ruth Mathams 13 February 1814 James Susan
Jonah Matthams 28 April 1816 James Susannah
Ann Mattams 7 March 1819 James Susan
Of the above three sisters, Mary Ann, Ruth and my 3 x Great grandmother, Ann, or Nancy as she was later known, all married under the name Wright, and all in parishes outside, but not far from, Grays. The age and place of birth in later Census and e.g. death records for the three sisters, exactly match the earlier Matthams records, and there is a lot of other evidence, too much to write about here. The Grays curate William Harper, called the Matthews child of another unrelated family Matthams as well. The mystery at the moment was why the family went from Wright in 1800 to Susan's surname Matthews by 1804. The Ancestry tree might be mine, although I think I put Susan's year of birth as being 1778. This has to be my biggest break through, but most unusual family history story. What I'm hoping if someone is able to add any further details to what Kay kindly provided to the Ipswich marriage.
P.S. Nancy married Nathaniel Suckling, she was the only one of the three sisters who had children, 14 in all, and Nancy and Nathaniel left London to live in New Zealand in 1870.
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Oh, I see. What a complicated family and well done in finding them so far!
Will keep looking, very curious now. ;)
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Hi Maddy,
Yes I saw the baptism for Mary Ann Mathams in Grays a long time ago, years now, and rejected it, given it "should" have been for a Mary Ann Wright anyway. It's an extremely long story, but I've very recently come across a lot of evidence that suggests that James Wright and Susan Matthews both came from Steeple Bumpstead, married in Ipswich, and had their first child, James Wright, in 1800 in Steeple Bumpstead, and then changed their name to Matthews, with them appearing in Goldhanger, Essex in 1804, and thereafter in Grays, where they had the following children under the surname Matthams or variations, as follows:
Child Born Baptized Father Mother
William Byers Matthams 28 August 1807 20 September 1807 James Susannah
Mary Ann Mathams 19 April 1810 17 June 1810 James Susannah
Ruth Mathams 13 February 1814 James Susan
Jonah Matthams 28 April 1816 James Susannah
Ann Mattams 7 March 1819 James Susan
Of the above three sisters, Mary Ann, Ruth and my 3 x Great grandmother, Ann, or Nancy as she was later known, all married under the name Wright, and all in parishes outside, but not far from, Grays. The age and place of birth in later Census and e.g. death records for the three sisters, exactly match the earlier Matthams records, and there is a lot of other evidence, too much to write about here. The Grays curate William Harper, called the Matthews child of another unrelated family Matthams as well. The mystery at the moment was why the family went from Wright in 1800 to Susan's surname Matthews by 1804. The Ancestry tree might be mine, although I think I put Susan's year of birth as being 1778. This has to be my biggest break through, but most unusual family history story. What I'm hoping if someone is able to add any further details to what Kay kindly provided to the Ipswich marriage.
P.S. Nancy married Nathaniel Suckling, she was the only one of the three sisters who had children, 14 in all, and Nancy and Nathaniel left London to live in New Zealand in 1870.
Hi James,
Thank you for posting this explanation of the Wright / Mattams / Matthews surname mystery. I am a descendant of Ann (Nancy) Suckling living in New Zealand and was quite stuck due to the family name situation. Her death certificate lists her mother's maiden name as Susan Mattams which makes things even more confusing. She was my 4th great grandmother.
As part of the research you did into this, I was wondering if you came across any more information on her parents James and Susan?
There is a tree on Ancestry.com that lists Susan's parents as William Matthews and Sarah French but cites no sources.
Thanks,
Jason
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Taken from Ipswich St Clements parish register
James Wright of this parish singleman
Susan Matthews of the same singlewoman
Were married in this church by banns 2nd day of October 1798
Both marked X
In presence of Samuel Belgrave (X) and John Planter