Dorset Wills.

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Paul

Thank you for your kind offer

Could you check these please?

GALE Shipton Gorge and Burton Bradstock
STRICKLAND Shipton Gorge and Burton Bradstock
HAWKINS Shipton Gorge and Burton Bradstock

Many thanks

Jan

Hi Jan,

No Gales or Stricklands  from these areas but there is:

Hawkins, Jas, Shepton Gorge 1763
Hawkins, Nicholas, Shepton Gorge 63 1764
Hawkins, John, sen., Shepton Gorge 57 1781

Paul

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Paul

Sorry to make more work for you but could you see if there's anything for the following names please:

Shave
Mear
Wear
Scott

All seem to be from the Hampreston/Longham area.

Thanks very much indeed

Kind regards

Kim

Hi Kim,

No Shaves, Mears or Scotts from these areas.

There is however:

Wear, Edward, Hampreston 27 1731
Weare, Charles, Hampreston 14 1753

Good luck.

Paul

[kaydoubleu27]

Thank you so much Paul, not sure yet if they are 'mine' but at least another clue!

Kind regards

Kim

[janan]

Thank you Paul

As with Kim I have no idea if they are mine but it's another lead

Regards

Jan

[Redroger]

Are there any LUFFMAN wills please?

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Redroger,

Yes, just the one:

Archdeaconry Court

Luffman, Osmond, Blandford 4 1671

I hope it is of use.

Paul

[Redroger]

Thanks Paul, I already have this document; I have transcribed it and it is amazing. Firstly, it is one of the very few items of any description to have survived the devastating fire which ravaged Blandford in 1731. The document has obviously been salvaged from the flames, as there is not a complete line of text in it anywhere. The termination of every line is truncated to a less or greater extent. However I could make sense of it, and it enabled me to track my Luffman forebears from Wiltshire (Teffont Magna) into Dorset, apparently they were curriers, village carriers who moved from place to place. I still have a gap from Osmond's will (1671) to them reappearing at Oborne (1718), and then the probable baptism of my 2great grandfather John Luffman at Henstridge (Somerset) in 1777. I have been trying 13 years to confirm this is the baptism of my ancestor ; I am convinced of the link, but can't prove it. Ideally I was looking for another will.

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Redroger,

There's an interesting passage in the document referring to the state of many of the documents:

When it is considered what vicissitudes the town of Blandford has witnessed, it is astonishing that so many documants are still in existence. Blandford has been consumed by fire, wholly or in part, no less than four times, namely, in 1579, 1677, 1713 an 1731; and in 1644 it was pillaged by the parliamentary forces under Major Sydenham. Again, as late as October, 1831, owing to the great excitement and agitation of the agricultural population of the town and neighboring villages against the employment of machinery on the farms, Blandford was in the hands of a mob for three days. Two of the principal solicitors' offices, namely, those of Mr. George Moore in Salisbury Street and of Mr. S. Smith in the Plocks, were ransacked, and books and papers strewn about the streets. Mr. S. Smith was Registrar of the Court of the ancient Diocese of Bristol at the time, and Wills and other records shared the fate of the books, etc., many now bearing evidence of having been trampled upon and trodden under foot in the mud. It is, therefore, scarcely to be wondered at that gaps and lacunae should occur in the testamentary documents of this Court.

We all must be grateful that so many have survived.

You've done amazingly well to trace the family out of Dorset. My oldest Dorset ancestor, George Stockley b1651(ish), may never reveal his parents. There are too many possibilities, including a 'Stockley' farm in Milton Abbas. I did find the will of his son Simon dated 1733 which was only written because his son John was being 'troublesome'. It doesn't say why but I think I can guess.

Paul

[Redroger]

Girls I would imagine!! That is very useful indeed Paul; I have just checked my copy of the will; it is a single sheet, and unfortunately much of the probatim has been lost, so I cannot say which solicitor had prior custody of it. Thanks again.
Roger