I've been there twice before, and this visit was mainly about trying to learn more about people in various branches of my family tree. I wasn't particularly successful - I guess I've been researching long enough to have found all the "easy" records - but the hunting through the library's holdings is fascinating.
Here's what I did NOT find today:
- Where was my great-great-grandmother Ann OSLAR baptised? Census records say she was born in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, but unlike her brothers and sisters, there is no baptismal record there for Ann.
- Why does William Shelverton BARRET, born in Freckenham, Suffolk in 1801, have Shelverton as his middle name? He's "got to be" related to my 6 times great-grandfather William Shelverton who was buried in Freckenham in 1757, but how?
- Where did my 3 times great-grandmother Leah COMLEY come from? The only baptismal record I can find was for a Leah Comley born in Dauntsey, Wiltshire in 1781, but why was her first child born in Romsey, Hampshire?
However, I did happen upon a couple of unexpected records. Here is a copy of a drawing from the CRESWICK family glory days as Lords of the Manor of Hanham Court, outside Bristol:
And here is a transcript of a census taken in Bristol in 1696 (imagine a census surviving from so long ago):
This census was taken as the basis for a tax to finance a war with France. Our people of interest are in the three rows at the bottom:
- Thomas OPIE (spelled Opey here) and his wife Helen LINDSAY OPIE. They are my 7 times great-grandparents. Helen is the descendant of my one and only line that goes back to medieval times, thanks to the research of others. She is the reason I am connected to William MARSHAL of yesterday's post.
- The children's names doen't exactly match the OPIE children that I have found. Specifically, is the daughter listed as Elienor Opey my ancestor Helen OPIE?
- Their neighbour is Robert LINDSAY (spelled Linsey here). I wonder if this is the Robert LINDSAY of Virginia whose exact connection to Helen LINDSAY's father David LINDSAY is the subject of some dispute.
Anyway, it was a fine day... but it wasn't over yet. I detoured on the way home from the SoG. It was back to the Temple Church for me for a special Evensong at 6:15.
Tomorrow is the 797th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede, and this evening the legal community of the Middle and Inner Temples attended a special service at the church (in full evening dress), along with the general public (in tourist scruffy dress, like me). They at least had reserved seating, though I don't think there is a poor place to sit in the church. Glorious organ music, and of course there was a full men and boys choir singing as only an English choir can.
No sermon, only a brief history of William Marshal's role as a mediator between King John and the Baron's from Robin Griffith-Jones, the Master of the Temple. Marvelous!
These pictures may be too small for you to make out the text properly. Fear not - I'll be switching to scenery tomorrow.
By the way, we are going to see Robin Hood the musical tomorrow around about the time of your sail away. Makes me think of William Hurt as William Marshall with the barons negotiating Magna Carta...
ReplyDeleteMore about Southampton:
The Viking King Canute the Great defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Ethelred the Unready in 1014 and was crowned in Southampton.[13] His fabled attempt to "command" the tide to halt may have taken place in Southampton.
Now playing with the House of Wessex (Aethelred)