RootsChat.Com

Do you have your dna done? I have a profile on Ancestry. Not sure how distant our cousinship would be, but we might match up.

I'm also descended from various Bennetts from this area, among them John Bennett with will 1773, noted above. his Wikitree profile
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bennett-11578

But I am also interested in a Robert Bennett of Shaftesbury born, say, 1590, who married Dorothy Gilbert in Shaftesbury in 1612, probably as JCB says, derived from the same source, the Bennetts of Pythouse. I think he was the father of the Robert Bennett jr. who married a Joan Muncton in 1641, perhaps related to Edith?

forgot to mention, his father William might be the son of another William and his wife Elizabeth Wright. But in any case, you might find it interesting that all these Prices may descend from a silversmith named William Price and his wife Mercy, see quote below.


“While searching for my PRICE ancestors in Chesham, I came upon the marriage of Mercy PRICE to Edward PINCHBECK on 7 April 1751 at St. George’s Chapel, Hyde Park Corner, which has a reputation for performing clandestine marriages. As my 6x great-grandparents were William and Mercy PRICE, I found this interesting; especially as William was variously described as a goldsmith, a silversmith and a jeweller. I had heard of the alloy, a kind of superior brass used to imitate gold, and known as pinchbeck after its inventor, so I wondered if Edward was one of the family. His will gave evidence that he was. His father Christopher had moved from Clerkenwell to ‘the sign of the Astronomico–Musical Clock in Fleet Street, near the Leg Tavern’ in 1721 when Edward was about eight years old. He made and exhibited clocks, which played music and birdsong, and musical automata, as well as more ordinary clocks and watches. He remained in Fleet Street until his death in 1732. The alloy is only heard of after this date, but that is probably because his sons, Christopher and Edward, were brilliant at extravagant advertising, each claiming to sell ‘the true metal’.

Edward continued his father’s business at the Musical Clock, despite being the younger son, probably because he was already married and his wife, Alice, expecting a child. His brother Christopher worked a few doors away and became clockmaker to and a close friend of George III. Edward was born about 1713, receiving adult baptism on 7 April 1738 at the age of 25 at St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West, Fleet Street. He worked as a showman, exhibiting his musical clocks at places such as Bartholomew Fair. After 1740 he called himself a toyman, (a toy then meaning a small personal item). Christopher says that one of his brothers paid a very large sum for an elephant, which then got stuck in a passage at Southwark Fair and died, and so lost all his money. If this sad tale was about Edward, it could explain his change of direction. In 1745 his wife died, having had two sons. William PRICE, silversmith, appears with Edward in the Land Registers in 1747 and 1750. Perhaps they worked together on the ‘toys’. On 23 February 1722/23 in Chesham, William had married Mercy SIMMS, the daughter of John SIMMS, turner, and his wife Mercy (nee SLATER) also of Chesham. William died in 1751 and it says in the registers that his body was ‘brought from London’ to be buried in Chesham on 27 March. His widow married Edward eleven days later; he was 38 and she was about 51. Edward left the Musical Clock in 1758. His later whereabouts are unknown but it appears to have been Chesham. He seems to have taken the PRICE family as his own, witnessed various marriages, and to have done parish duties. This seems to have continued until Mercy’s death aged about 75 years. She was buried on 13 June 1775 and in Chesham five days later he married Elizabeth WARNER (nee PETERS), widow of Robert WARNER, blacksmith of St. Mildred’s, London. Her nephew, James TUFFNELL, is listed in the Posse Comitatus as the owner of Lord’s Mill, Chesham. Edward died in 1785 aged about 72, his will stipulating that he be buried next to Mercy. Elizabeth had already died His own two sons are not mentioned in the will, so presumably they died young. He does name other members of his family: his brothers John and William, son of his brother Christopher. He leaves Hashleigh Wood, Chesham, which had been inherited from Mercy, to his ‘son-in-law’ Edmund, one of William and Mercy’s five sons, who all ended their days in Chesham. Edmund, also a goldsmith, lived in Wood Street in the City. He married his second wife, Iset Lydia HOBBS, when they were in their fifties, both of them dying in 1827 aged 98 and 94 respectively. Her first names were carried on for several generations. The descendants of two other brothers, William, a lace merchant, and Benjamin, a lace pattern-maker, evolved into a large Chesham family of cordwainers, bricklayers, butchers and lacemakers, related to the COOPER, WRIGHT and HARDING families amongst others. As there were not many PRICES in Chesham before William, Edward PINCHBECK’s friend, where did they come from? Lyn Meyer (M254), 49 Lower Broad Street, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1PH. With thanks to Eileen Bartlett for her research on the PRICE family).”

http://www.bucksfhs.org.uk/images/stories/origins/vol27_03.pdf

If it's any help, I have been trying to weed out these Hutchings also. So far this is what I have (minus some from Monksleigh I just added today and haven't update yet. LMK if you happen to spot any obvious errors to sort out.

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SHOW&db=hungerford_2015&recno=38597

The Du Mez version was earlier. Peter "the Czar" Delme 1710-1770 was a wealthy banker and his descendants married into the aristrocracy. It's an unusual name and I suspect all the London Delmes are descended from Peter's grandfather Philippe, who died 1655. He was an important figure in the Walloon church in Kent. There are more Delmes than in the rootsweb chart. On familysearch I see some not mentioned.
https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3Adelme~%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1700-1739~%20%2Brecord_country%3AEngland

It's likely there is a Delme connection on the mother's or grandmother's side. It would help to find the marriage. Maybe they mangled his surname?