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From: "Polly Rubery" <>
Subject: Re: [OEL] Help with a 1598 Leicestershire will
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 10:30:06 +0100
References: <555388.89394.qm@web86512.mail.ird.yahoo.com><002101c78961$f5267600$0302a8c0@LAPTOP>


Hi Garth

I think that the "Lenie" is used as a surname here, not as a diminutive of
the Christian name Leonard.

And yes Alice's will may help with her children, but do you not have her
marriage to William? That should give you her surname at that point in
time, which would (hopefully!) be the same as her children? And this
marriage may well have taken place somewhere else to Hallaton, and quite
recently to the date of the will (ie she may well not have been the mother
of William's children.
Polly
----- Original Message -----
From: "Garth Swanson" <>
To: "mjcl" <>; "Polly Rubery" <>;
"Judith Werner" <>; <>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 7:53 AM
Subject: Re: [OEL] Help with a 1598 Leicestershire will


Thank you for the recent messages.

When I looked at the Hallaton PR a few months ago I could see only the
following with William as father:

William bapt June 1580

Insean(probably misinterpreted) a daughter bapt Aug 1580

Taken with James, Edward and Thomas who are in the will but not in the PR
this makes 5 children.

My first impression of the 5th word line 1 was in fact Lenie. I should have
realised sooner that this could be the familiar name of someone called
Leonard. You will all be aware that there was a Leonard who was William's
brother. The PR data for Hallaton shows that he lived from 1565 to 1624, so
was living when William wrote his will. The PR records that he had two
children Leonard and Elizabeth baptised respectively in 1595 and 1602.

If Alice had earlier children by him, they parted not through death but
through some other arrangement. Of course it might have been a different
Leonard who fathered Alice's children.

An Alice Swanson died at Hallaton in 1627 and left a will. I think this will
help to clarify matters.

It might be worth remarking that Leonard was a relatively uncommon name at
the time but the name appears in 4 successive Swanson generations at
Hallaton and appears elsewhere over 200 years as the family dispersed. It
seems to have been a name that the family wished to preserve. This points to
the possiblity of a Leonard who might have been an uncle of William who
wrote the will and might have fathered Alice's earlier children. I have not
seen him, or for that matter William's father, in the Hallaton PR. The
records commence in 1563!

Thanks to everyone for thinking about this.

Garth


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