Military References in the Parish Registers

Wars certainly impacted the affairs of many parishes in the past. Often there are glimpses into those conflicts through entries in parish registers.

Between 1643 and 1645 there were 42 entries for soldiers buried in Plympton St Mary. They were very likely killed during the English Civil War which raged in nearby regions. A number of battles involving Royalist and Parliamentarian forces occurred in the region around Plympton St. Mary parish.


1644 April to June burials in Plympton St. Mary parish, Devon - soldiers highlighted

Most of the soldiers were probably from other parts of the country so searches for them in their home parishes would be fruitless. After the war, many individuals may have chosen to stay in the areas in which they served, taking up new occupations. Family historians who have a suspicion an ancestor was a soldier or lost track of someone during times of war might look in the areas where battles were fought to find them – either dead and buried, or married to a local girl.

Below we see some probable casualties from the Franco-English war of the late 1600s. Those killed overseas were probably transported back and buried in a cemetery near the port where the ships landed, one of those being Plympton St. Mary.
 

1689 September and October burials in Plympton St. Mary parish, Devon - soldiers highlighted

Burial images reproduced here are used with the kind permission of the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (PWDRO),  Images were downloaded from FindMyPast , or copied from my own microfiche.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He serves as the Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

Getting to Know the Cornwood Churchwarden

One of the great benefits I have derived from volunteering as the Online Parish Clerk (OPC) for Cornwood and other Devon parishes was in meeting Marilyn Sharp, the Churchwarden for St. Michaels and All Angels Church in Cornwood.

St. Michaels and All Angels Church in Cornwood, Devon, England (photo by Wayne Shepheard, 2004)

From the first time I made contact with her, she has been totally supportive of my goal to learn everything I could find out about the parish where my Shepheard ancestors originated. She willingly shared data she had accumulated about the burials in the church cemetery along with other information about the community and its residents. In my assisting of others researching their families in the area, she has often been able to pass along tidbits about the people and places where they had lived.

In 2004, my wife, Linda, and I had a chance to visit the area. Marilyn, her husband, Bas, and friends, Brenda and Graham Gregory, took a great deal of time out to show us all around the parish, as well as direct us to sites of interest in the surrounding area. I had a chance to see all of the places I had only read about, mostly online, and, most importantly, discover the former homes of many members of my Shepheard ancestors. Many of the residences dated back to the 17^th century. Marilyn’s kind attention made the visit most memorable.

One amusing story happened when we drove out to the original Shepheard estate, called East Rooke. It highlights one aspect of meeting people and doing things on the Internet.

Left: the main house at Rooke, the ancestral home of the Shepheard family in Cornwood, Devon, England; right: Wayne in one of the typical parish lanes; both photos taken in September 2004

In early 2003, just after I became an OPC, I had an email from a school-girl in the area who had found my website.  She was looking for information about the population of Cornwood in the 1800s for a class assignment.  I was able to provide her with the totals from the various censuses between 1841 and 1901 for her report.  Anyway, it turned out that she and her family rented East Rooke, the farm that used to belong to the Shepheard family.  Small world! 

When we went to see the place in the fall of 2004, Marilyn, who was very anxious to give us a proper and friendly introduction to the current resident, approached the girl’s mother and introduced me as “the man who has been talking with your daughter on the internet!”  As you might imagine, Mom was bit taken aback to start with but warmed up once she heard the whole story.

On several occasions, Marilyn has carried messages back and forth between me and the current Vicar. I think, because of her involvement, I have been able to obtain significantly more information about the parish than an OPC might normally get. Many times, as well, she has been able to provide me with some historical perspective on the parish and area families.

We were able to partly return the favour by entertaining Marilyn, Bas, Brenda and Graham for a few days in 2008 – showing them places around Calgary, Alberta, Canada that were very different from the pretty little villages and countryside of Southwest Devon, England.

Left: Graham, Brenda, Bas, Linda, Marilyn and Wayne at the Hoodoos near Drumheller, Alberta, Canada;

Right: Bas, Marilyn, Brenda and Graham at Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada; both photos taken in September 2008

We have become very good friends with Marilyn and Bas over the past decade. We regularly exchange messages, and the inevitable email jokes, and try to keep up with the happenings of our two families.

It is very valuable for family historians to get to know people who live in the areas where their ancestors lived, to get first-hand observations about, and some insight into the history of the locations.

In our case we have been truly blessed with meeting and getting to know the Churchwarden of Cornwood.

Thank you Marilyn, for all your help and for just being you!

Who was my 7th Great-grandfather?

As I discussed in the last blog post here, my 7^th great-granduncle, William Shepheard, attempted to pass off a fraudulent will supposedly written by his brother, Sampson Shepheard, who had died in 1685. In it were named three other siblings then presumably still alive: a brother, Thomas Shepheard; an unmarried sister, Mary; and a married sister, Orange, “late the wife of John Maddicke deceased.” He did not list any other family members, one of whom, my 6^th great-grandfather, Nicholas Shepheard, was ultimately deemed by the court to be the rightful heir to Sampson’s estate.

There is no marriage data for Sampson Shepheard. There is an entry in the Cornwood Parish burial register, for a Samson Shipperd, which is most likely this individual. He was buried on July 4, 1685. At that time he apparently owned property in several jurisdictions, presumably including the lands in Cornwood Parish. The court ruled on the validity of the will on May 6, 1686.

1685 – burial entries for Samson, Margeret and Cathren “Shipperd” in Cornwood parish burial register

The court record stated that William was opposed by Nathaniel Ryder who was acting as a guardian for Nicholas Shepheard, a minor, and nephew of both William and Sampson Shepheard. There is not baptism record for this Nicholas Shepheard, so I did not have a direct piece of information that would indicate who his father, and my 7^th great-grandfather was. Here is how I figured it out.

The father of William and Sampson, Nicholas Shepheard, died in 1657. He left a will, signed on September 21, 1657, in which he named all of his surviving children, listing the daughters and sons in the order of their respective births. His three daughters were Barbarah, Mary and Ornidge. From the bequests stated in the will, Barbarah also appears to have been over 21 and her sisters, 19 and 18, respectively.

Nicholas’ five sons were John, Nicholas, Sampson, Thomas and William. At the time of Nicholas’ death, only John had reached the age of majority – 21 years. Nicholas appeared to be close, possibly 20. The other three were all minors.



1657 – portion of will of Nicholas Shepheard, document number PROB 11/271, The National Archives

The only surviving baptism records were found were for two children, in the Bishops Transcripts for Cornwood parish: John on June 20, 1633 and William on February 19, 1638. Both were recorded as sons of Nicholas Shepheard. Given the dates for these baptisms, I have made the assumption that the Nicholas Shepheard named as the father and the individual who died in 1857 are one and the same.

1633 June 20 – baptism entry for “John sonne of Nicolas Shepheard” in Cornwood Bishops Transcripts

1638 February 19 – baptism entry for “William sonne of Nicolas Shepheard” in Cornwood Bishops Transcripts

From the information in Nicholas’ will, and the two baptism entries, all of the children would probably have been born between 1633 and 1640. The children are assumed to have been born in this order: John – (June) 1633; Barbarah – 1634; Nicholas – late 1636; Sampson – 1636-37; Thomas – 1637-38; William – (February) 1638; Mary 1639; Orrnidge – 1640. In order to fit the four males in between September 1636, which was 21 years before the will was written, and February 1638, the baptism date for William, it seems two of them must have been twins.

While the will itself was deemed to be fraudulent, it could be assumed that the list of surviving siblings William mentioned might be accurate and that John, Barbarah and Nicholas were deceased by 1685. The court documents state that the plaintiff, Nicholas Shepheard, assisted by his guardian Nathaniel Ryder, was a nephew of both William and the deceased Sampson. I concluded that he would not have been the son of Thomas, or Thomas would have been the rightful heir as the next oldest male. Therefore the young Nicholas must have been the son of the other brother, Nicholas, who would then have also been deceased. And he would have been my 7^th great-grandfather.

Rightly or wrongly, and until further information comes along, my family tree now has all of these individuals named Nicholas in my direct Shepheard line:

            Nicholas Shepheard (    -1657)                       8^th great-grandfather

            Nicholas Shepheard (ca1636-bef1685)           7^th great-grandfather

            Nicholas Shepheard (ca1675-1756)                5^th great-grandfather

            Nicholas Shepheard (1716-1786)                   4^th great-grandfather

Each of them has an interesting and unique story. The forename of Nicholas persisted through two more generations.

The baptism and burial images reproduced here are used with the kind permission of the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office,  They were reproduced from my own microfiche of the parish registers. The court documents are the property of The National Archives and published under their Open Government License. Catalogue references for the document is PROB 11/271.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He serves as the Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.