Medieval Family History - taking the plunge...

[Keith Sherwood]

Right you are, Roger...
And David, I realise now that I was in error imagining that 6s and 8d was a mark.  A mark, as you rightly say, was two thirds of a pound.  The 6s and 8d that my ancestor got in 1595 was a noble - just looked it up, and apparently Henry V111 introduced this gold coin in 1526.
Now THAT would have been an interesting artefact to have been passed down through the family!  But I'm sure  Johanne GURNARDE kept it and maybe spent it on a rainy day...
keith

[mc8]

there is a will for Rabige Gurnarde
Date 02 December 1572 at the national archives-no idea if any link
and also Will of Richard Curdde of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire 18 May 1528
do you want me to get you a copy?
presumably you have this later one
Description Will of Robert Gourner, Yeoman of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire
Date 11 November 1656

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, mc8,
And thanks very much for pointing those out for me!  I hadn't realised the existence of that Rabige Gurnarde will - does it say on TNA where he was from or where he was living?  I'll look that up after I've completed this e-mail and perhaps pay my £3-50 and download it.
I do indeed have a copy of that 1656 Robert GOURNER will, and am aware of the following CRUDDE/CURDDE/CREEDE wills in Ickleton for 1460, 1484 and 1528.
I might as well here list the surnames of the other wills that appear in the slim volume of handwritten (later ones typed out) abstracts of wills that a gentleman whose name I forgot to note down on Friday painstakingly transcribed - in many cases translating from the Latin.
SPALDING in 1476; PYRY in 1484; SMECHURST in 1493; FULSTON in 1493; WARDE in 1495; BREWET in 1498; CAREWE in 1501; CLERKE in 1552; SWANNE in 1558; BLANCKES in 1570 and 1597; BARRET in 1574; CALTON in 1575; PROCTOR (the Ickleton vicar) in 1588; and THURLOWE in 1602...
Those are the early ones out of the list of 20, and I'm already wondering about the correct transcription of Surnames with regard to BARRET or BASSETT (see earlier post on this thread).
So, if any Rootschatters recognise a name variant there that might be their own family name, I could copy out the will when next at the CCRO,
Regards, keith

[mc8]

don't pay! I get them free
I've downloaded the Gurnarde will-pm me and I'll email a copy
Monique

[Redroger]

So far all my names have been conspicious by their absence. Never mind, they were obviously law abiding peasants who had nothing to leave behind. Unlike my father's side, at least two transportations, marriages in the Fleet prison, bastardy orders etc.etc.

[Keith Sherwood]

Monique,
That's an exciting development!  I'll PM you my e-mail address now...
keith

[otters]

I have 2 of my families going way back. One goes back to 1300 the other one to 1024 but I have been very lucky in that they have been titled people.

I started by just putting  a name from my family that I already had into Google and eventually came up with a whole family history on line. One lot were in Peerage.com so it gave me a lot of information. Some were Earls, Viscounts, Lords and Knights. Pity the title hasn't arrived at my house.

The other family have had a lot of information written about them, again some Knights and a lot of Church people including Archdeacons. They also owned land and Manor houses and were close to the Royal families.

A lot of this information was passed on to me through another family member as we share the work.

It has been worth the work involved to find that my families have been so important but it makes me wonder where all of the money and the titles have gone. I do know one branch went to America.

I hope you have some luck in finding your family. Don't give up too easily, it took me a long time but was so worth it.

[Keith Sherwood]

Otters,
Yes, I'm still hanging on to the remote possibility that the College of Arms will come back with a link between my GURNER family and the GURNEY family of East Anglia as I've mentioned earlier in this thread - haven't heard a thing yet, and it's been a few weeks since we sent of the cheque!
Meanwhile, have been reading through a very interesting book called: "Forgotten Families of Suffolk and Essex" by Evelyn Wright that links up some of the most eminent families from the area including the BROOKE's, the BROWNE's, the BULL's, the CAPELL's, the CARY's, the CLOPTON's the DARCY's, the HUNT's, the HARVEY's, the KNIGHTON's, the GAGE's, the MORDAUNT's, to name but a few...
They owned (and still do in some cases) some rather grand homes,
keith

[Redroger]

I have some Harveys in my tree at Bottisham Lode. Any links to see if they are connected please?