Post by keithj on Jun 4, 2008 7:50:21 GMT
My Peters line appears in Hope parish registers for the first time in 1724, when my ancestor, William, is baptised to William and Margaret. There is only one entry before this but not one I can link to my folks. The family were limers or limemen, which I'm taking as mining, processing and selling lime for plaster and agricultural use.
They were not members of the labouring classes by any stretch of the imagination. They lived at Plas y Bold (now known as Plas y Bwll) between Cymmau and Caergwrle. When the eldest daughter - who never married and I think acted as housekeeper - died in 1786 she left a will. She calls the Squire at Brynyorkin Hall her friend and appoints him executor. She leaves various monetary bequests but also leaves not one but *five* feather beds and bed frames at a time most people's mattresses were stuffed with bracken, chaff or straw. Unfortunately, none of this largess extends to my line since the whole lot of them is cut off with the proverbial shilling!
So we have a moneyed family that arrives in Cymmau township around 1700 out of the blue and builds a highly successful business in lime. You don't just arrive somewhere and start digging because the mineral rights would have been owned by the local grandee family so there must have been negotiations and agreements drawn up before the family even arrived but the question, for me, is where to start looking.
I'd guess the answers lie either at Hawarden Record Office or the Welsh National Archives in Aberystwyth. Both are a long way from Derby so a casual visit is out of the question. Does anyone have any suggestions?
They were not members of the labouring classes by any stretch of the imagination. They lived at Plas y Bold (now known as Plas y Bwll) between Cymmau and Caergwrle. When the eldest daughter - who never married and I think acted as housekeeper - died in 1786 she left a will. She calls the Squire at Brynyorkin Hall her friend and appoints him executor. She leaves various monetary bequests but also leaves not one but *five* feather beds and bed frames at a time most people's mattresses were stuffed with bracken, chaff or straw. Unfortunately, none of this largess extends to my line since the whole lot of them is cut off with the proverbial shilling!
So we have a moneyed family that arrives in Cymmau township around 1700 out of the blue and builds a highly successful business in lime. You don't just arrive somewhere and start digging because the mineral rights would have been owned by the local grandee family so there must have been negotiations and agreements drawn up before the family even arrived but the question, for me, is where to start looking.
I'd guess the answers lie either at Hawarden Record Office or the Welsh National Archives in Aberystwyth. Both are a long way from Derby so a casual visit is out of the question. Does anyone have any suggestions?