Braunton Parish Registers: PARMINTER & KNILL

[CollinEssex]

Is anyone able to check the parish registers for Braunton to see if there are any more details of this marriage please? (Particularly parents’ names)

15th March 1715 in Braunton
Robert (K)Nill to Mary Parminter

Many thanks!

James

[Old Bristolian]

Hi James

For such an early marriage there certainly won't be any further details, apart from the parties names - possibly a parish if either of them was not resident in Braunton.

I will be able to go to Barnstaple to check at the RO there after Christmas, if no-one else can check in the meantime

Steve

[CollinEssex]

Thanks Steve
Thought it was a bit of a long shot but a double check would be great.
J

[Old Bristolian]

Hi James & a Happy New Year

I called in at Barnstaple RO today & checked the marriage. There are no further details to what you already have - I checked the original (on microfilm) to make sure:

March 15 1715/6 Robert Knill and Mary Parminter

I also looked through the  indexed transcriptions, which show the couple had four children baptised in Braunton:
Peter 7 Dec 1716 (died 24 Feb 1726/7, buried 27 Feb 1726/7)
Mary 10 Aug 1719 (dob 22 July 1719)
Susanna 15 Sep 1725
Peter 22 Nov 1729 (dob 4 Nov 1729)

I found a suitable baptism for Robert, assuming he was from Braunton (Knill is a fairly common name in North Devon and there were quite a few families there at this time):

Robert, son John & Mary 28 Aug 1690 (dob 4 Aug 1690)

I also found Mary Parminter's baptism (fairly easy to identify this from the names of her children):

Mary d of Peter and Susanna 4 Feb 1692/3 (dob 31 Dec 1692)

It seems she was the only child they had baptised there. If you like I could try to track the line further back, using the transcriptions - I believe the Braunton registers go back to the 1550s

Steve

[CollinEssex]

Hi Steve and happy New Year to you too.

Thank you so much for the information, good to have things verified like this, and the baptism for Mary Parminter is wonderful. I, and a few other people looking at the same family, had assumed she was a Mary Parminter born in 1705, then we found her marriage and of course she couldn’t be (or else she would have been 10), so we were scuttled and I’d not been able to find another birth on line. But the dates you've got there fit perfectly and clear up that mystery nicely.

If you do ever have time and inclination to see if you can find anything more about her line then please feel free, but only if/when you can of course.

And this piece of news comes hot on the heels of another breakthrough I had only yesterday on my Collins (my name) line, which has now unlocked a path leading back to ancestors of the 15th century. Maybe 2012 will be a lucky year for my research.

Thank you again!

James

[Old Bristolian]

I only get the chance to visit the RO about every two weeks - but I'll follow up the families & see if I can find out more for you

Steve

[Old Bristolian]

Hi James

I checked the Braunton PR transcriptions today & extracted the following:

30 Mar 1692 Marriage Peter Parminter & Susanna GARNIS

Although there are Garnis baptisms listed I couldn't find one for Susanna, but this may be Peter's:

6 Dec 1655 Peter Parminter s of John & Mary (dob 5 Dec)
This would make him 37 on marriage - unusual but not impossible. There was no marriage for this John & Mary in the register, but two possible baptisms for John:
3 Mar 1632/3 John s of Peter & Johan
9 Jul 1637 John s Phillipp & Johan
The first looks most likely because of the name, but the Parminters go back in the parish to the start of the register and Philip had a brother named Peter

regards

Steve

[Old Bristolian]

I thought I'd check back the Knill line as well, if you are happy with the Robert I found (b 1690). This is just an exercise in following back the names in the register indicies and I can't guarantee any of it - its best if you check the register yourself one day:

John & Mary had five other children (all sons):
John (9 Jul 1692) Philip (12 Nov 1694) Thomas (19 Jan 1697/8) Richard (30 Mar 1700) and Lewis (16 May 1704). John is listed as a mariner under some of these baptisms. Marriage:
14 Nov 1689 John Knill & Mary HERSON
13 Aug 1643 John son of Lewes & Elizabeth (nee STOATE) - a possible baptism, although it makes him 46 on marriage
6 Mar 1600/1 Lewis son of Thomas & Tamsin (sometimes Thomasin, nee ALLEN)
20 Sep 1578 Thomas son of Robert Knill (of Lobb - a small hamlet near Braunton). A Robert Knill married an Agnes STEVEN in 1560. As with the Parminters it would be best to check the registers yourself & the surrounding parishes too. As a matter of interest, although Braunton has strong marine links, it also posseses one of the few surviving medieval "great field" systems with land shared in strips between the farming families

Steve

[CollinEssex]

Steve, thank you so much for doing that and taking the time and trouble to send the information over. I will start processing it later. In the meantime I've been using the British newspaper archive site to find all kinds of things about the Knill ancestors in Barnstaple, so that side of the tree is really building up.
Thank you again, very much appreciated.

James