Are all the names listed on one-name websites necessarily interconnected?

[bedfordshire boy]

HI Keith

My understanding is that TNA only has wills that were proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, which would explain why they don't have wills held at Cambridge, which were proved elsewhere

David

[msallen]

From memory an index to the wills proved in Cambridge & Ely makes up a couple of volumes published by the British Record Society. I can't remember which volume numbers they were, but it should be easy to find out then get them on inter-library loan (which is what I did a few years ago).

[Redroger]

Keith, Though I now live in Bournemouth and therefore cannot put a date or time on my next visit, I shall have to visit Lincoln archives in the not too distant future. If you would like to send me a p.m. of your requirements I will do my best to meet it when I next visit Lincoln.
Roger

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, David,
You're quite right about the TNA wills online, and I'd actually forgotten the distinction...I also ought to know exactly which ones they have at the CCRO, but I often discover a volume of wills there that I hadn't realised existed before.
Roger, that's a very kind offer you're making, but I've also been PM-ed (yesterday!) by a fellow Rootschatter who says they only live around the corner from the Lincs Record Office and will pop in there to have a bit of a look for me, possibly by the end of the month.
So I'm a lucky boy!
keith

[Redroger]

OK Keith, PM me if the offer doesn't work out.

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, Everyone,
Well I''m not sure whether the situation is any clearer - more questions than ever being posed now - but thanks to the extremely generous Rootschatter who visited Lincoln Record Office yesterday, I now have the transcript of John DOCKERY's will of 1798.  He was a butcher in Lincoln and left everything to his housekeeper, a Mary KNOWLES.  He refers to his two children as Peregrine DOCKERY (with the name KNOWLES later inserted) and also Susannah DOCKERY.
So, Peregrine and Susannah were either half brother and sister, or perhaps full brother and sister; according to the IGI Peregrine's parents were a William and Mary KNOWLES.   Could this Mary have been widowed and had become John DOCKERY's housekeeper, and then his partner, bringing Peregine along to grow up with John D?  Was she the mother of Susannah, or was Susannah the child of John with a previous wife who had subsequently died?
John DOCKERY refers to his two children as his "natural" children, which rather confuses the issue.  Whatever the truth, there must have been plenty of gossip in late 18thC Lincoln as the meat cleaver rose and fell in the butcher's shop...
Keith

[AngelaR]

Hi Keith

You are SO lucky! Wills like that are a real gift - I just wish enough of my relatives were wealthy enough to leave wills and clarify the murky waters they left behind...

Having said that, the term 'natural' was the standard one used at that period (in polite circles I think) to denote a child born out of wedlock, so your John DOCKERY seems to be clearly admitting that Peregrine and Susannah were both his, regardless of Mary KNOWLES marital status at the time. One of my ancestors had quite an extensive family with a partner she was living with, although not married to, and all the children were baptised under the names of herself and her husband. Whether this was for decency's sake, or that the vicar assumed the children were the husband's, I don't know!

Angela

[Ron Lankshear]

An interesting Will indeed.
are you saying Susannah who marries Ben Crow is John's daughter? Or are there two Susannah which seems more likely. Or was Peregrine hiding the old mans problem? But then why would John reveal all in the Will. Much easier to leave it to his granddaughter.

Natural child to me means "I accept this child as my own biological offspring".  This covers in wedlock and out of wedlock. After all if there was rumour that a child born to his wife was not his then "natural" allows him to say it is. Or he accepts that the housekeeper's child is his.

So Peregrine may have been baptised as son of William KNOWLES but now John DOCKERY says otherwise. Either way Peregrine gets the money and changes his name - who wouldn't

Did I miss something on Susannah I'd need to see all the dates again - is it now that she is Peregrine's mother's daughter and not Peregrine's

[Redroger]

On natural children; In southwest England during the 18th century some vicars would register the surname of the believed father and then score through the name leaving it legible to show that they knew or believed who the father was, the entry would then continue base (son or daughter) of ---. Does anyone know of this happening elsewhere?