Kendal Parish Records to buy

[Deborah Boss]

Jill
Have you looked at a2a?  There seem to be some references (Quarter sessions and the like) to Troughton weavers in Kendal and some yeomen too.  I suspect some of these are yours or related at least. 

There is a copy of a 1689 will made by Miles Troughton of Kendal (wife Agnes?)who seems to be leaving his property to his Dowker granddaughters.   You could enquire to see if there are any other Troughton wills.  A couple of timely wills could get you over any gaps in the parish records and be more interesting as well.

There are also some references to Kendal Troughtons serving in the Lancashire militia in 1803/4.

Sorry if you already know all this stuff.
regards
Deborah

[jillruss]

Thanks, Deborah.

No, I didn't already know any of it - so thanks very much. 

I'll take a look on A2A - at least one of my Troughtons was a weaver - I don't know the others' occupations yet. I doubt that they were sufficiently well off to leave wills but it's certainly worth a look. I've already found a shepherd ancestor in Oxfordshire who left a will - not that he had much but I think he was trying to sort out his children who didn't seem to get on with each other!

Jill

[Deborah Boss]

Jill
It may be different in Kendal, but I have lots of wills for Crosby Ravensworth from the 17th century.  Most of the people weren't well off.   The dividing line seems to be more as to whether they were self-employed or not.   They would at least have the tools of their trade to leave.   But even labourers might have debts that they wanted to acknowledge (or call in); or a child they wanted to favour; or they just wanted to talk their way into an afterlife.

regards
Deborah

[jillruss]

Good point.

I haven't found anything on A2A - how have you identified the wills that you've found? I don't suppose there's an online index? That would be too good to be true.

I find Cumbria RO a bit expensive for their research so I should imagine they'd charge for a look up in their will index (assuming they have one).

Jill

[sillgen]

The PRO documentsonline site is always worth a look for wills up to 1858 - though it does not cover all probate areas.
Andrea

[Deborah Boss]

Jill
Do you mean how have I determined the existence of my Crosby Ravensworth wills?  I had intermittent access to a book that listed all Diocese of Carlisle wills between 1650 and 1750 and wrote down the names of the testators, probate date and location of anyone from CR.  Initially, I used that to request wills from Carlisle Record Office.  But then I just started to ask about the existence of wills for a particular person based on their burial date.

I'm assuming that Kendal wills are held at Carlisle but I haven't checked that Kendal is in the Carlisle diocese.

Providing you restrict your request to a particular timeframe, place and surname I think you could probably ask about the existence of wills without incurring any charge.  Why don't you email them and ask?   I think they have a will database/spreadsheet (but not online) so that is not too onerous for them.  Getting the photocopies would then cost money but it's a lot cheaper than travelling there.  My last will request cost me £35 for copies of 22 wills.  That seems like a bargain to me.

As to a2a I just typed Troughton names, or Troughton NEAR40 Kendal into the seach box.  (You can also select NorthWest to reduce hits).
regards
Deborah

  

[jillruss]

Andrea - thanks but if you mean the National Archives site, they don't have much for the North. I've tried searching for Troughton in Kendal - nothing!

Deborah, thanks for the suggestion. I'll try emailing them to enquire about the few Westmoreland ancestors I have who I actually have a burial date for, but I'll be gobsmacked if they don't charge for the answers! 

Still, always worth a try.

Jill

[Deborah Boss]

Jill
I've ordered a ton of stuff from Carlisle so it may be that they're happy to look up some stuff for me knowing that the charge for the lookup can be bundled in with the next copying request.

But I think there's a difference between looking up their holdings and looking up something within their holdings!
regards
Deborah

[Gigi]

Carlisle RO have indexed their wills by name, village and year of death or when will proved. If you telephone the RO they will happily do a search of their index over the phone for you. Ask for Lynda!

Gillian