• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

cf:awrence Dowse OF LEGBOURNE, ENGLAND his Ancestors, Descendants and Connections . tn England, Massachusetts and Ireland Compiled under the direction of 0 William 'Bradford Homer Vowse 'Boston Privately Printed MDCCCCXXVI TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES OF THIS VOLUME HAVE BEEN PRINTED FROM TYPE AND THE TYPE DISTRIBUTED Contents NoTE ... IX PREFACE . XI DOWSE OF TATHWELL, LITTLE CARLTON, AND LEGBOURNE, co. LINCOLN 3 DYoN OF TATHWELL, LITTLE CARLTON, NoRTH REsToN, AND LEGBOURNE • . • . • . 17 DowsE OF FRIESTON AND BosToN, co. LINCOLN 29 LINDFORD • • . 42 BENNINGTON AND SIBSEY . 44 BASSINGHAM . 48 WILLINGHAM AND HAINTON 49 LINCOLNSHIRE (additional) . 54 HAMPSHIRE AND WILTS 61 EssEx . • . 83 LONDON CHURCH REGISTERS 87 PROBATE RECORDS. 89 DOWSE OF MASSACHUSETTS FIRST GENERATION . 95 SECOND GENERATION. I06 THIRD GENERATION • 130 FOURTH GENERATION 170 FIFTH GENERATION • 179 SIXTH GENERATION . 192 SEVENTH GENERATION . 205 EIGHTH GENERATION. 222 NINTH GENERATION . 234 DOWSE OF IRELAND • . • 241 Additional Pedigrees: FRIARSTOWN, co. CARLOW MISCELLANEOUS . DowsE FAMILIES OF WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND, AND IRELAND, BY EDWARD CECIL DowsE . 275 CoLLINGBOURNE Ducrs, WILTS 277 IRELAND . • . • . 278 Cos. WATERFORD AND KERRY 293 BALLINABARNEY . 295 INDEX . • • • . 301 [v] Illustrations WILLIAM BRADFORD HoMER DowsE . Frontispiece ST. VEDAST CHURCH, TATHWELL, LINCOLNSHIRE • 4 ALL SAINTS CHURCH, LEGBOURNE, LINCOLNSHIRE. 8 LEGBOURNE, LINCOLNSHIRE • • . • • . • • . • 12 T ATHWELL, LINCOLNSHIRE • . 14 CHURCH OF ST. EDITH, LITTLE CARLTON, LINCOLNSHIRE. 16 CHURCH OF ST. EDITH, NORTH RESTON, LINCOLNSHIRE . 20 AGNES DvoN HousE, NoRTH REsToN, LINCOLNSHIRE 22 ST. BOTOLPH CHURCH, BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE • 40 ST. JAMES CHURCH, LOUTH, LINCOLNSHIRE .... 56 STREET IN BROUGHTON, HANTs • • . ••. 68 CHURCH AT BROUGHTON, HANTs . 6g TABLET OF Sir EDMUND DowsE . • . • • • . 70 TABLET OF THOMAS AND BLANCHE (Co'fJert) DowsE 71 STONES OF LAWRENCE DowsE (1613-1692) AND ELIZABETH (Ballard} DowsE (1674-1701) . 94 RELIEF (Dowse) GILL, by JoHN SINGLETON CoPLEY. 1 34 MARGARET TEMPLE, by JOHN H. BLACKBURN .... 164 THOMAS DowsE, by MosEs WIGHT . • . 192 Rev. EDMUND DowsE (1813-1905) . • . 214 PILGRIM CHURCH, SHERBORN, MA.ss. 216 Hon. RICHARD DowsE •...... 252 Genealogical Charts DowsE OF TATHWELL, LITTLE CARLTON AND LEGBOURNE . 4 DYoN OF TATHWELL, LITTLE CARLTON, ETC.. • . • . • . 18 DowsE OF FRIESTON AND BosTON . 30 CLAYMOND OF WYBERTON, FRAMPTON, SKIRBECK AND BOSTON. 35 DowsE OF BENNINGTON AND SrnsEY 45 DOWSE OF WILLINGHAM AND HAINTON 50 DowsE OF HAMPSHIRE AND WILTS . 62 [vii] Note IN THE preparation of this volume, I have made free use of the "Dowse or Dows Family in America" by Azro M. Dows, brought out in 1890, though I have examined or had examined all the original sources from which he obtained his data. I have been constantly at work since 1880 on the Dowse family records, in England and Ireland, but it was not until 1912 that I found trace of Lawrence Dowse in Lincolnshire, Eng­ land, and established the fact that he was born in Legboume in Lincolnshire in 1613, baptized 6 June 1613, and that his ancestor John Dowse of Tathwell, near Legbourne, born in 1480, died in I 541. Lawrence Dowse' s grandmother was Ann Dyon, of a good armorial family; her brother was vicar of North Preston and she was a cousin of Elizabeth Dyon, wife of Sir Robert Mounson, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. I am deeply indebted to Mrs. Suckling of Highwood, Romsey, Hampshire, England for her interest and aid. I also have to thank Mrs. Mary L. Holman and J. Gardner Bartlett for their work. But of all the people whom I have come in contact with in this work, I am under very special obligations to Worth­ ington C. Ford for his careful scrutiny of the whole manuscript and for invaluable aid and work. WILLIAM BRADFORD HoMER DowsE Boston, December, 1926 [ix] Preface WERE genealogy confined to a list of names and the three "accidents" of life - birth, marriage and death - it would be dry indeed and of interest only to the family enumerated in its pages. There is a wider field opened to the study, in tracing contact with public affairs and with historical characters; in describing social customs and relations and in presenting a picture of a class, an occupation, or a region at a particular time and in a particular stage of development. It is permissible to go even further and, where absolute proof is wanting and present indications strong, to frame a hypothesis which will serve as a temporary bridge or ex­ planation until proved or disproved. As the best results may follow a theory in science, so in history and genealogy a theory, partially tested by known facts, may serve to make up for a want of complete proof and point out possible fruitful lines of investi­ gation. In no respect is this better shown than in establishing connection between American and English families, where so often all record and even tradition of origin have passed from memory. In the case of the Dowse family the American line is fully developed. In England extensive search has given lines and con­ nections and brought one line to the ocean's edge under circum­ stances that clearly indicate that a member of that particular generation left England and presumably went to an English colony. Names, time, social position and general characteristics - all unite in indicating the migration to Massachusetts-Bay of Lawrence Dowse of Legbourne, Lincolnshire, and the story is picked up in that Province and carried on with the same associations as were found in the English home. Positive proof in the shape of documents would only confirm what already stood as proven by every test which can be applied. The details will be found in the following pages and are open to the interested who may be tempted to add or take away from their consistent story; but the leading and essential features cannot be changed. Other questions than this link joining the American line to its English origins are suggested. The Randes were a family of Holbeach, co. Lincoln, a place once isolated by the waters of the North Sea, as its name shows. [ xi J .. Xll PREFACE The most distinguished member was Henry Randes, whose father added "alias Holbeach" to his own name and his son, on becoming a Benedictine monk at Crowland, also assumed the name of his . birthplace and is better known as Henry Holbeach than as Henry Randes. At Cambridge, where he used the name Randes, he took B. D. 1526-27, was prior of his Order at Buckingham College, 1535, and became, irregularly but by the King's command, prior of Worcester, 1536. In 153"8 while retaining the office of Prior he was consecrated suffragan, with the title of Bristol to the see of Worcester, of which Hugh Latimer, the martyr, was bishop. In less than two years he became the first dean of the cathedral church at Worcester and in 1544 was appointed Bishop of Rochester. Shortly after the death of Henry VIII he was translated to the see of Lincoln (August, 1547) and died in 1551. Thus he began and ended his life in Lincolnshire. The family remained at Holbeach ·where the Yisitation describes John, a brother of Henry Randes, as "husbandman;" two other brothers - Nicholas and Richard - without named occupations and who died before I 549. All three left descendants. Henry Randes himself, though a priest, took early advantage of per­ mission to the clergy to marry, and by his wife, Joan Manett, left two sons, Thomas of N ettleham and Henry of the Close of Lincoln, and a daughter, Judith. The Randes were found in many localities of Lincolnshire. Near to Holbeach they had homes in Whaplode, Fleet and Crow­ land. To the north of Holbeach the name occurs in the records of Boston, Frieston, Horncastle, Louth and Legboume; and to the northwest in Bucknell, Nettleham and Lincoln. On the northern border of the county Barton upon Humber carries the name. These are the more important places where Rand or Randes - the name was apparently spelled both ways - lived. The incomplete records of the churches and parishes show too many losses to enable a full and definite connection among these families; but the distances from one town to another were not great and the spread of families had been going on for centuries. Enough is known to suggest - even to prove - a wide connection and almost entirely in Lincoln­ shire. Centuries of residing in one locality or in a group of neigh­ boring parishes and towns, wlien removal was discouraged by cost and difficulties attending it, as well as by a disinclination to break old ties, could not but lead to ·wide family connections. The fre­ quent use of the word ''cosen" in old wills and letters, indicating a PREFACE connection which cannot be traced, is evidence of this, and in the century of the first migration to America it·would be quite safe to assume that the possessor of a name out of the usual could claim relationship with all of that name in the county. The Rand or Randes are a case in point. Lawrence Dowse married for a second wife Margery Rand. Little is known of her, save that she was born in England and was the daughter of Robert and Alice (Sharp) Rand. The family name of his first wife - Martha - is not of record. Married in England, she accompanied him in his migration to Massachusetts-Bay and died at Charlestown in 1644. His second marriage probably took place in Charlestown, where his wife resided and to which he re­ moved shortly after the marriage, becoming identified with that place. Margery Rand has left no trace of her origin, but conjec­ ture would first associate her with Lincolnshire and with a possible connection with the Rande or Randes of that county.

Load more

  404

Copy Link