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Very many thanks for the replies, your help is very much appreciated.  As most names seem to be earlier than William's birth I don't have any of them in my tree but they will certainly give me new areas to look at.

Phil

I've hit a wall with my 3xGGF William Pursell who was born 1795 in Woughton on the Green, married Hannah Matthews 25 Apr 1817 Slapton.  Many of the trees that are available have his parents as John Pursell and Sarah Rebecca Gawler and this is where my problem is!

A copy of the marriage certificate of John & Sarah that is attached to the trees has them both living in the same London street although John was apparently born in Woughton, both as being unmarried, and both as being of full age.  John is shown as being a mariner, unless he was on the canal barges an unlikely occupation and I would expect him to live on board when in London.  Sarah was born in Surrey, the wedding was in 1846 in Surrey so I would have thought they would have been born about 1824 but as William was first born in 1795 I would have expected his parents to have been born circa 1774.  John died in 1849 apparently in Woughton so unless John & Sarah lived together for most of their lives and decided to marry when in their 70's and then move to Woughton these are not William's parents.

Does anyone have a definitive answer to this?  All I can find is that William's parents were apparently a John Pursell b1772 in Fenny Stratford who married Sarah but nothing else.  So in my view it's extremely unlikely that these are the same John & Sarah.
MTIA
Phil

Hi Christine,
Fascinating and to think that it would appear that its been in the family for at least 350 years.  We breed dogs and would hope to breed out a "defect" in 5 or 6 generations providing we don't double up on it.  Sorry I can't help with any others as I lost touch with my grandfathers siblings families 50 odd years ago.

Our family legends suggest that there is a Bates family crest and that the name Howard is an old family surname, so I would think that Merrick Mead is too recent but then family legends often get confused and mixed but I get the impression that the illegitimacy legend if its true dates back to the 1500's or earlier.  I'm currently stalled with my 9th GGF John Bates who was born 1585 in DP and married a Mary Rutland.

Phil

Hi there, I've just joined the forum and sorry to jump in on your thread but I'm interested in the dyslexia angle.  I'm through the Fenny Stratford/Drayton Parslow Bates' with my GGF being William Kightley Bates b 1856 in Fenny Stratford and his parents were David Bates & Elizabeth Purcell, I imagine that there must be a relationship to William & Arabella as they are all from Fenny Stratford but I don't know how.  The point is that I'm mildly dyslexic but my son is severly dyslexic, problems with short term memory and has just started adult literacy/numeracy classes - is this a Bates curse  .

Strangely, our family legend also talks of an illegitimate link to nobility and also that Howard (my middle name) is a link to an old family surname but yet to find that link.

Phil