In one of my earliest blog posts, on 3 December 2013 (Who was my 7th Great-grandfather?), I tentatively concluded that a Nicholas Shepheard, who was born about 1636 and died before 1685, was “rightly or wrongly, and until further information comes along” my 7th great-grandfather.
That conclusion was based upon analyses of a fraudulent will
and a will of my 8th great-grandfather dated 1657. The
interpretation was a bit complex and contained more than a few assumptions. On
the face of it, though, it seemed logical.
Well, “further information” has come along. This week I
obtained photos of a 1659 lease document for a property called Notts, now
Woodburn, in Cornwood Parish, Devon, England. This and other documents are
being analyzed to determine when this property came into the possession of
members of my family as part of a review of the construction of the main
residence.
I am writing an article on Master Craftsmen and the house at
Woodburn offers an excellent example of many different building styles in use
over the past several hundred years. But I digress.
The first document I have transcribed pertains to a lease for certain lands in Cornwood to two local gentlemen, one of them being the property named Notts. A section of the lease in part describes the “…Messuage and Tenement commonly called or known by the name of Notts Scituate lying and being in the Parish of Cornwood aforesaid formerly in the Tenure or Possession of one Margaret Shepheard and John Shepheard the Grandfather of him the Said Nicholas Shepheard or one of them Afterwards of Nicholas Shepheard Father of the Said Nicholas Shepheard…”
The Nicholas Shepheard named as a party to the agreement was
my 4th great-grandfather. Parish records are clear that he was born
in 1716 and died in 1786 and was my direct ancestor. It is equally clear that
his father was also Nicholas Shepheard, born around 1675 and died in 1756. His
burial record confirms the year of his death. His birth year cannot be entirely
defined as the parish records older than 1685 were destroyed in a fire that
year. He appears to be the individual named in a 1685 legal case involving a
fraudulent will, at which time he was a minor child.
Margaret Shepheard was the widow of my 8th
great-grandfather, another Nicholas Shepheard. They had sons John, Nicholas,
Samson, Thomas and William. The lease document just obtained states that it was
John who was the direct ancestor.
Serendipity smiled on me again.
Through circumstance and a new look at certain lands in
Cornwood parish, I can now be confident that my Shepheard line is better
defined.
I would also note that the spelling of our surname has been
constant since at least the early 17th century, notwithstanding that
other members of the family have changed their names on occasion over the
decades.
The next challenge is to discover who John’s wife was. There
are some possibilities as recorded in the parish registers: one being a Cathren
Shipperd [sic] buried in 1685. By all accounts John died before the “fire” year
of 1685 and was thus certainly married before that time as well. We do have his
baptism record as shown on the Bishops Transcripts for Cornwood as being 20
June 1633.
The Notts or Woodburn property stayed in the family until
1806 when it was sold by my 4th great-grandfather, Nicholas
Shepheard (yes, another one!). The documents demonstrate that the lands, along
with other properties at Rooke, Cornwood (the “family estate”) were in
possession of family members for likely at least 200 years. In the case of Rooke
it was over 300 years.
This example does show the importance of land records and
wills, especially when BMD data is not available. These types of old documents
often have information about lineage, at times when title records were not
kept.
It also shows that persistence, patience and luck are
important in reconstructing family histories.
