Hi Jan et al,
Something else has occurred to me for the first time (I must stop doing this!). It's about the will of William Carver the yeoman labourer who died in Dunton in 1759.
If I understand this correctly, it references two sons John and Peter and the current consensus is that this William Carver is the father of 'Everton John'. A problem here is we do not have this Peter identified but we do know of a John (Everton John). I suggest that William Carver is referring to his grandchildren in the will and not his sons.
I say this because William Carver died in early August 1759 in Dunton. Just three weeks earlier Peter Carver, aged 3, the son of Everton John, dies in Dunton. we have no other known Peter Carver alive at this point. ‘Merrington’ John would have been approximately one year old at his grandfather’s death – assuming his baptism in 1758 was close to his birth.
All the male elder siblings of Peter and John in the summer of 1759 are dead (William died in 1750). Would anything be left to the female siblings? (Elizabeth, Mary and Ann). I suggest not which would explain why they do not appear in William’s will.
William almost certainly would not have had a chance to alter his will in the three weeks between Peter’s death and his own, especially if succumbed to the same illness as Peter. With a contagious disease raging in the village, who would want to see anybody about a new will who was from this village? In this way we can fully account for the ‘missing’ Peter.
On the above basis the will makes absolute sense if William left things to his grandchildren and not his son John. It would all fit. Now, I haven’t seen the will and the probate record. There is so much flying about that I may have missed this suggestion elsewhere – apologies if I have. Do we know when the will was written?
Your witness m’lud...
Neil.
