Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 15 July 2026 by Allen Gurney

These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.

John Gurney Candidate — London Draper, Old Change (Candidate D)

Alternative-candidate research for John Gurney-1 of Braintree, Massachusetts (G13). This file holds the detailed working research kept out of the main G13 research companion; the published argument is the John Gurney case file §8.4. Standing: ELIMINATED by the 1662 hearth-tax confirmation below.

The Old Change John Gurney (son and executor of Robert Gurney, draper) is documented continuing at St Augustine Watling Street in 1662 (hearth tax: 1 hearth, “poore,” TNA E 179/252/27 rot 21). The colonial John of Braintree was dying at Boston in the same year. They cannot be the same person.

Detailed research follows; the file is preserved as the source-by-source record of how the Candidate D identification was developed and how it was finally eliminated.

This research file holds the depth and detail of the Candidate D investigation, kept out of the main John Gurney case file so that the case file’s Section 8 stays tight. Candidate D is John Gurney, adult son and executor of Robert Gurney, citizen and draper of London / tailor of Old Change, with John made free of the Drapers’ Company by redemption on 11 February 1623/4.

The companion summary lives in research/case-files/john-gurney-case-file-v4.md Section 8.4. Working extracts and transcriptions are in sources/intake/john-gurney-2026May/john-gurney-candidate-d-working-packet-audited-v13.md.

Identity anchor

Robert Gurney died in late September 1625 leaving a will written 18 January 1621/2 and proved at the Archdeaconry Court of London on 23 September 1625 by the oath of John Gurney, son and executor. Robert styled himself “Robert Gurney Citizen and Draper of London” and gave his dwelling in Old Change. Robert left wife Anne use of the two uppermost rooms of his Old Change house while she continued his widow, and gave his son John Gurney the shop, cellar, and hall under the same house plus the residue. Thomas Dunnell, brother-in-law, and Joseph Henscott, stationer and citizen of London, were overseers.[1]

Independent ROLLCO evidence places John Gurney as a new freeman of the Drapers’ Company by redemption on 11 February 1623/4, in the same event row that names Robert Gurney as father of the freeman.[2]

Robert of Old Change: confirmed career 1581-1625

An earlier London Gurney/Gournay mercantile comparator now sits just before Robert’s documented Old Change career. The 1567-1568 London port book indexes Richard Gurney as a haberdasher and points to twelve entries; the selected May-July 1568 extracts show Richard repeatedly importing Danzig/Baltic flax, with additional Spanish iron and eels in the sample.[3] Alfred P. Beaven’s aldermen list then identifies Richard Gourney, Haberdasher, as alderman for Portsoken and Bridge wards, Sheriff in 1589-1590, Auditor in 1587-1589, and Master of the Haberdashers’ Company in 1589-1590 and 1596-1597; he died 5 March 1597, with PCC will 35 Cobham dated 15 October 1596 and proved 8 April 1597.[4] The port-book haberdasher and alderman are a strong working correlation, but neither record identifies Richard as kin to Robert Gourney or to the later Haberdashers’ Gournay charity.

Robert Gourney was admitted to the Drapers’ Company by servitude on 16 December 1581 under master Robert Furnes, already described as “Tailor, Old Change” at his admission.[5] The Boyd’s Inhabitants card for Robert had read the 1581 master as “Robert Mason[?]”; the ROLLCO event detail (DREW4826) corrects the master to Robert Furnes.[5]

ROLLCO records about 14 Drapers’ apprenticeship- or freedom-master events for Robert Gurney between 1597 and 1622. The “Tailor, Old Change” occupation/location appears in DRLL837 (1604), DRHT1669 (1617), and DREW7982 (1622). Two of those events name the apprentice and place of origin:

  • 1617 (DRHT1669): apprentice John Lee, son of Edward Lee yeoman of Shenley, Buckinghamshire; 7-year bond.[6]
  • 1622 (DREW7982): apprentice William Holdsworth, son of William Holdsworth tailor of Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire; 7-year bond.[7]

The 1604 freedom event DRLL837 records Robert Gurney as Witness at the admission of Richard Sebrineke by servitude; the witness role typically marks Robert as Sebrineke’s earlier master.[8]

A 1611 Drapers’ freedom-master event predates Robert’s own 1611 St Magnus marriage to Anne Morris by months and shows the established master functioning continuously across the marriage year.[9]

A 1629 Drapers’ freedom-by-servitude event admitting Marten Backhurst (DREB1311) names Robert Gurney as master without any deceased flag. Cross-checked against the 1625 probate, this is a posthumous master-name record: Backhurst had been bound to Robert before September 1625 and completed servitude in 1629. ROLLCO data conventions do not retrofit a deceased flag onto a master who died during the apprentice’s term, so the 1629 event does not point to a second living Robert Gurney.[10]

John as freeman and master 1623/4 - 1630

The 11 February 1623/4 Drapers’ freedom event (DREW5638) is a single integrated transaction recording John Gurney as new freeman by redemption and Robert Gurney as father of freeman. Neither party has an occupation or location stated in the event record.[2]

On 3 November 1630, John Gurney appeared as a Drapers’ apprenticeship master in event DRLL2060, binding Henry Smith, son of late Thomas Smith yeoman of Kilton, Suffolk, for a 7-year term. John still has no occupation or location stated, but the active master role implies a London tailoring or draper’s business, almost certainly the Old Change premises John inherited under Robert’s 1625 will.[11]

Henry Smith does not appear as a freed Drapers’ Smith between 1635 and 1645 under John Gurney as master or under any other Drapers’ master, and no Turnover event involving any Gurney is recorded in the Drapers’ Company between 1620 and 1670. The apprenticeship trail therefore terminates inconclusively: Smith may have died during apprenticeship, defaulted, completed without paying the freedom fine, or been turned over informally without a recorded event. The silence is not strong enough to prove either continued London residence or emigration by John Gurney.[11]

Freedom by redemption: why not patrimony

The Drapers’ freedom-by-redemption route was the standard pathway for an adult man who had not served a Drapers’ apprenticeship. Robert Gurney had been a Drapers’ freeman since 16 December 1581, so a son born after that date would have been entitled to free patrimony admission. John’s choice of redemption is an anomaly that needs explanation.

Three live readings:

  1. John served an apprenticeship in a different company. A man admitted to one company’s freedom by completing apprenticeship elsewhere typically had to pay redemption to enter the Drapers’. ROLLCO records a John Gurney apprentice bound to the stationer James Boler on 25 March 1613 (STMM8981) with no recorded Stationers’ freedom; if this is the future Candidate D John, the 1623/4 Drapers’ redemption would be the natural consequence of an aborted or completed Stationers’ apprenticeship. This is hypothesis H-D1; it is internally consistent with the choice of Joseph Henscott Stationer as a will overseer in 1625, but the Arber Stationers’ transcript volume 3 raw entry has not yet been checked for a father name that would confirm or kill the link.[12]
  2. John was born before Robert’s December 1581 freedom and was therefore not eligible for patrimony. This would require Candidate D John to be born about 1574-1580 and to be roughly 44-50 in 1623/4, 58-64 in 1638, and 81-87 in 1661 if Boyd’s 1661 poll-tax cue is real. It is biologically possible but does not fit the colonial John’s c.1603 birth deposition.
  3. Procedural choice. Some adult sons paid redemption for speed, formality, or because their patrimony claim was unclear. This is the default reading absent more evidence.

The most economical of these is H-D1; the strongest neutral fallback is reading 3.

1638 St Augustine: parish continuity and Hunscott

The T. C. Dale 1931 transcription of the 1638 London Inhabitants return places one John Gurney at £10 in MS. 67a of the St Augustine parish/rents return, between Christopher Hunlock £2 and George Browne £10. The return is a rents/tithe assessment, not a head-count, with £1,700 total assessed at 2/9 in the pound yielding £233 5s tithe.[13]

On MS. p. 68 of the same return, Joseph Huntscott appears at £12. This is the same Joseph Hunscott who was a documented Stationers’ Company apprenticeship master from 1612 to 1646 and the father of John Hunscott (Stationer freeman 1641), and the same Joseph Hunscot who in 1646 published The Humble Petition and Information of Joseph Hunscot Stationer (Wing H3728). The 1625 will of Robert Gurney named “Joseph Henscott, stationer and citizen of London,” as one of two overseers; the Henscott / Huntscott / Hunscott spellings denote a single person who lived in St Augustine parish at least 1625-1638 and remained an active Stationer until at least 1646.[14][15]

Two corollaries:

  • Parish-network continuity. The Robert Gurney will-overseer network was still in St Augustine in 1638. The most economical reading of the 1638 John Gurney entry is that he was a continuing member of the same parish circle, occupying the Old Change shop premises Robert had left him; the alternative reading (a coincidentally same-named separate John Gurney resident in St Augustine alongside the Hunscott household for the 13 years between probate and the BHO return) is uneconomical.
  • The 1638 John is unlikely to be the Massachusetts John. The colonial John of Braintree is in Weymouth, Massachusetts by June 1641 (General Court fine), with a New England family already including a daughter Mary born about 1628 in England, son Richard about 1630 in England, son John about 1633 in England, and son Peter about 1635 in England. A 1636 arrival window is the conventional reading. A John Gurney still being assessed at £10 rent in St Augustine in 1638 is incompatible with that profile.

1661 poll-tax cue (deferred)

The Boyd’s Inhabitants card for John Gurny of S Augustine carries a partly-legible free-note reading “1661 poll tax [unclear] Old Change”. The most likely underlying record is the 1661 Free and Voluntary Present collection (13 Car. II, royal assent 8 July 1661), with City of London assessments in TNA E179 (especially the E179/253 sequence). If a Gurney entry at Old Change in 1661 can be confirmed at image level, Candidate D is effectively eliminated as the Massachusetts John, who died in Boston about March 1662/3. No online image has yet been located.[16]

A second potentially useful midpoint is the 1640 W. J. Harvey list of Principal Inhabitants of the City of London (Lambeth MS 272), reprinted by the British Library Historical Print Editions in 2011. Full text has not been retrieved online in this pass.[17]

Family reconstruction at St Augustine

The St Augustine Watling Street parish register (LMA P69/AUG) confirms an earlier child sequence to Robert Gurny before his 1611 St Magnus marriage to Anne Morris:[18]

  • John Gurny, son of Robert, baptized 18 February 1595/6, buried 4 February 1599/1600.
  • Marye Gurny / Gorney, daughter of Robert, baptized 12 March 1597/8, buried 25 January 1600/1.
  • Unnamed stillborn son of Robert, buried 8 April 1601.

No replacement-John baptism was found in the supplied St Augustine christening images from 1601 through 1610, and no first-wife burial was found in the supplied St Augustine burial images from 1601 through 1612.[18]

Robert married Anne Morris of St Michael in the Querne by licence at St Magnus the Martyr on 4 April 1611. The original parish entry confirms the marriage but does not state marital status, so does not formally identify Robert as a widower at remarriage.[19]

The earlier-child sequence weakens any assumption that Anne Morris was Candidate D John’s biological mother. Anne was confirmed as Robert’s wife and widow-beneficiary in 1625, but the earliest documented Robert child at St Augustine baptized 1595/6 sits 15 years before the Anne Morris marriage.

Religious-language assessment

Robert’s will preamble commits his soul to Almighty God his creator and to Jesus Christ his only Saviour and Redeemer, by whose mercy and merits the testator believes he has obtained “full and free remission pardon” for all sins, and looks to enjoy “eternal life with others the elect children of god in the kingdom of heaven.” The phrase “elect children of God” is Reformed / Calvinist-compatible vocabulary; the formula is consistent with a godly-Protestant milieu but does not by itself prove Puritan identity, nonconformity, or emigration intent.[1]

No identified Puritan minister, lecturer, named nonconforming associate, Coleman Street-network member, or known New England-connected name appears in Robert’s will or in the Drapers’/Stationers’ records around the Old Change household. The St Stephen Coleman Street parish (the main London emigration hub) does contain a William Gurney + Tamazin family with children Fotheza 1626, Adeall 1628, Susanna 1630, Marke 1636 - none of those names match the colonial John family pattern of Sarah, Mary, Richard, John, Peter, and the family has no demonstrated link to Robert’s household.[20]

Old Change as a textile-trade geography remains a context clue rather than a migration-corridor clue.

Wife and children test

No marriage of Candidate D John to a wife named Mary, and no baptisms of Sarah, Mary, Richard, John, or Peter to a John Gurney + Mary household, have been located in any London parish register, City of London Drapers’ / Stationers’ / Haberdashers’ material, or FamilySearch indexes for the 1620-1641 window. The nearest John Gurney + Mary marriage in the time window is the Eythorne, Kent, marriage of John Gurney + Mary Marsh on 6 November 1632, with a son John baptized at the same Kent parish on 13 May 1638 - a Kent couple who stayed in Kent and whose child-naming sequence (first known child John 1638) is incompatible with the colonial John family (first child Mary about 1628, son John not until about 1633).[21]

No PCC will or administration for Anne Gurney widow has been located in the 1625-1670 window; one potentially relevant Anne-Gurney marriage in the supplied FamilySearch sweep is “An Gurney + George Bucher, 27 April 1640, Essex,” but the indexed entry gives only the bare event with no parish specification and is treated as a low-confidence lead pending image review.[22]

Comparator: Hanging Houghton John Gourney (1647-1654)

A separate John Gourney “gent” of Hanging Houghton, Northamptonshire, appears in ROLLCO records placing his son Charles Gourney as a Drapers’ apprentice in 1654 (DREW4827), and earlier placing a son in a Clothworkers’ apprenticeship in 1647 with the same residence reading. Hanging Houghton was a Montague family seat; this gentry family is geographically and socially distinct from Robert of Old Change. Keep visible as a comparator only.[23]

Working assessment

Candidate D is substantially weakened (not eliminated) as a candidate for John Gurney of Braintree, primarily by post-1625 London continuity evidence:

  • 1630 Drapers’ apprenticeship-master role (binding Henry Smith, 7-year term).
  • 1638 St Augustine £10 rent return, with documented will-network associate Joseph Hunscott still in the same parish.
  • Boyd’s card cue to a 1661 Old Change poll-tax entry (deferred image verification).
  • Absence of any matching wife Mary, child set, Puritan-corridor associate, or Massachusetts bridge record.

The 1604 push-back of Robert’s “Tailor, Old Change” identification to (at the latest) his 1604 Drapers’ witness event, plus the 1581 admission already styled “Tailor, Old Change,” locks the household to Old Change for 44 years (1581-1625). Robert of Old Change was a long-tenured London draper-tailor, not a recent arrival, with documented apprentices drawn from Buckinghamshire (Shenley) and Yorkshire (Sowerby Bridge) - a typical Drapers’ master profile, not a profile suggestive of a migration network.

Strengths of Candidate D as a comparator remain real:

  • Father in textile trade (Drapers’ Company / Old Change / tailor).
  • Adult son of a textile-trade household admitted to the Drapers’ Company in the early 1620s.
  • Plausible c.1600-1604 birth window if the replacement-John reading is correct.
  • Reformed-vocabulary will preamble compatible with godly-Protestant milieu.

But the case for Candidate D being the colonial John depends on (a) wife Mary appearing somewhere in the London record, (b) a 1633-1638 child set matching Sarah, Mary, Richard, John, Peter, and © a clean disappearance of the London John before about 1641. None of those three have been found, and the 1638 BHO and the deferred 1661 cue actively point the other way.

Next steps, ranked by tractability and value

  1. Pull the 1661 Old Change poll-tax record. TNA E179 series, particularly E179/253 fragments for the City. If Ancestry’s London E179 collection covers the relevant ward at image level, this is the cleanest single discriminator. Source tna-e179-1661-london-poll-tax-deferred.
  2. Pull the 1640 W. J. Harvey list of Principal Inhabitants of the City of London for St Augustine entries. The 2011 BL reprint is widely available; check whether Internet Archive or HathiTrust unlocks full text. Source bho-1640-principal-inhabitants-london-deferred.
  3. Pull the Arber Stationers’ Registers volume 3 raw entry for the 25 March 1613 binding of John Gurney to James Boler. A father name would confirm or kill the H-D1 hypothesis. Source arber-stationers-registers-1554-1640-deferred.
  4. Walk the St Augustine Watling Street parish-administrative records (vestry, churchwardens’ accounts, poor and tithe rate books) 1625-1665. LMA P69/AUG. The original lma-st-augustine-watling-register-candidate-d-images source covered baptisms and burials only; the administrative books would directly test post-1625 household continuity.
  5. Walk the Archdeaconry Court of London and Commissary Court of London admon/will indexes 1625-1670 for Anne Gurney widow and any London John Gurney draper/tailor. PCC search came back empty; lesser-court coverage is needed.
  6. Verify the Hanging Houghton John Gourney 1647 and 1654 events in detail to keep the Northamptonshire gentry comparator separated from any Northamptonshire activity associated with Candidate A (Walgrave) and from any later Massachusetts conflation.
  7. Search Stationers’ Court Books for John Gurney 1613-1625 beyond what ROLLCO surfaces (turnover events, registers of testimony, freedom-by-redemption parallel entries). Useful if H-D1 is to be pursued seriously.
  8. Confirm the 27 April 1640 An Gurney + George Bucher Essex marriage at parish-image level - the only plausibly Anne-Morris-aged Anne Gurney marriage indexed in the supplied FS sweep.
  9. Identify James Boler’s parish of business in 1613. Even brief context on Boler (then a young Stationer probably operating at or near Cornhill / St Paul’s) would strengthen or weaken the H-D1 link.

Appendix - Robert Gurney 1625 will, working semi-diplomatic transcription

The will is the controlling primary record for Candidate D. Robert Gurney’s will was written 18 January 1621/2 (Old Style 1621), proved at the Archdeaconry Court of London on 23 September 1625 by John Gurney as son and executor, and survives as an Ancestry-imaged folio supplied by the user as 31787_A002570-00422.jpg. Full transcription with v13 reading conventions preserved ([unclear], [?], and bracketed alternatives marking uncertain readings, lineation regularised for readability):

In the name of God Amen the eighteenth day of January in the yeare of
our Lord god one thousand six hundred twenty and one And in the yeare of
the raigne of our soveraigne Lord James by the grace of God kinge of
England Scotland ffrance and Ireland defender of the faith &c viz
of England ffrance and Ireland the nineteenth And of Scotland the five and fiftieth
I Robert Gurney Citizen and Draper of London being of good health of body and of perfect memory
praise be given to god doe make and declare this my last will and Testament in manner and forme following
that is to say

First and principally I commend and commit my soule and body into the hands of Almighty god my Creator
and of Jesus Christ my only Saviour and redeemer by whose mercy and meritts I doe believe assuredly
to have obteyned full and free remission pardon for all my sinnes and offences whatsoever and to enjoy
eternall life with others the elect children of god in the kingdome of heaven. And my body I will shall
be buried in Christian buriall at the discretion of the overseers of this my last will and Testament
hereunder named.

Item I will and my minde and true meaning is that all my goods chattells and debts
whatsoever which I shall possesse shall at the tyme of my decease be valued and appraised by
indifferent men thereunto to be appointed in that behalfe according to the laudable custome of the
City of London. And after such valuation and appraisement thereof given and bequeathed unto my loving wife
Anne Gurney one full third parte thereof for her full third parte of in and to my said goods and chattells
which she may have or claime of me or to all and every my said goods and chattells by virtue of the said
custome or otherwise howsoever.

One other third parte of my goods and chattells aforesaid I give and
bequeath unto my loving sonne John Gurney for his full third parte and portion to [aforesaid? / be allotted?]
and the other third parte I will shall be payd and discharged the debts funerall expenses and legacies by
me in this my last will and Testament to be paid or given and bequeathed.

Item I will and my
minde is that my aforesaid wife shall during her naturall life she continuing her selfe my widow
and not after my decease marry againe dwell in and have the roome of the two uppermost
roomes in my house in the Old Change wherein I now dwell, if she desire there to have
of the said house soe long continue. But if she shall at any tyme after my decease marry
then my minde and will is that the benefitt which she may claime of in or to the said [house/rooms]
by virtue of this my testament and last will shall cease and that then my said wife shall
thereupon suffer my said sonne John Gurney quietly to enjoy the same.

Item my will and my minde is that my sonne
John Gurney shall have and enjoy to his owne use the shoppe cellar and hall over the same
house [...] and quietly to enjoy the same. Item my will and minde is that my sonne
John Gurney shall have and enjoy to his owne use the shoppe cellar and hall over the same house
[...]
and during all the terme of yeares which shall happen in and to the same house. The summe of all
and singular my goods and chattells whatsoever, my debts being paid and funerall expenses discharged
and all my legacies herein given all satisfied and paid, I give and bequeath to my said loving
sonne John Gurney whom I doe make and ordaine full and sole executor of this my last will
desiring god to blesse him and make him his faithfull servant.

And I doe make overseers
of this my last will my loving and kind friends Thomas Dunnell brother in lawe and Joseph
Henscott Stationer Citizen of London desiring them soe far as in them lyeth to see that
my last will and Testament in every part performed as my trust is in them. And I doe give unto the
said overseers [forty] shillings a peece. In witness whereof to this my last will and
testament I have sett to my hand and seale yeoven the day and yeare first above
written.

The testator’s signature reads Robert Gurney. The witness clause is:

Signed sealed pronounced and declared
the day and yeare first above written
for the Testator's last will and Testament
above said in the presence of me Edward [Romney/Romney?] scr[ivener]
and of me William Lloyd apprentice to scr[ivener]
William Symons[?]

The probate clause is:

Probatum fuit suprascriptum testamentum
apud London vicesimo tertio die Septembris
Anno Domini 1625 [coram ...] Thoma
[Langley?] Surrogato juramento Johannis
Gurney filii et executoris in hujusmodi
testamento nominati [...]

Working translation of the probate clause: “The above-written testament was proved at London on the twenty-third day of September in the year of the Lord 1625, by the oath of John Gurney, son and executor named in this testament.”

Will-clause uncertainty notes

The house-use and shop/cellar/hall passage is the least clean portion of the v13 transcription. The will gives Anne widowhood use of upper rooms in the Old Change house and gives John control or enjoyment of the shop/cellar/hall or lower commercial portion. The image appears to contain repeated or overlapping phrasing about John’s enjoyment of the shop/cellar/hall, which may be legal drafting style or genuine duplication; resolving this requires a higher-resolution image.

High-confidence extracted facts

Fact Reading
Testator Robert Gurney
Civic/company style Citizen and Draper of London
Will date 18 January 1621/2, written as 1621 Old Style
Probate date 23 September 1625
Wife Anne Gurney
Son John Gurney
Executor John Gurney, son
Dwelling/business location Old Change
Business/working premises Shop, cellar, and hall associated with the house
Overseer Thomas Dunnell, brother-in-law
Overseer Joseph Henscott, stationer and citizen of London
Witness Edward Romney, scrivener
Witness William Lloyd, apprentice to the scrivener
Witness William Symons
Religious formula Christ as Saviour and Redeemer; remission of sins by mercy and merits; “elect children of God”; Christian burial

Source ID: acl-robert-gurney-will-1625.

London William Gurney cluster — hearth-tax expansion (1664-1666)

Merry 2010 records the London William Gurney family network continuing into 1664-1666 across at least three households:

  • Walter Gurney, St Margaret’s Westminster, Greene Dragon Court, 1 hearth, 1664 — most plausibly the Walter Gurney son of William in PROB 11/252/152.
  • William Gurny, St Bride Fleet Street, Southside Fleet Street, 7 hearths, 1666 “empty.”
  • William Gurney, St Dunstan in the West, Cock & Key Alley, 3 hearths, 1666.
  • Ann Gurney, St Dunstan in the West, Two Crane Court, 5 hearths, 1666 — possibly Anne (Morris) Gurney, Robert’s widow (Candidate D’s mother), at ~73-80 years of age in 1666, or a widow of the William Gurney barber-chirurgion line, or a separate Ann. Identity not resolved.

The cluster confirms continuing London residence for the William Gurney family network through the year of the Great Fire. Independent of Candidate B; supports the case file’s reading that the William Gurney London household is distinct from Francis Gurney G14’s family.

Cross-references

  • Case-file summary: research/case-files/john-gurney-case-file-v4.md Section 8.4.
  • Research companion: research/people/g13-john-gurney-fact-sheet.research.md (London Drapers’ Old Change discriminator).
  • Place note: research/places/city-of-london.md (St Augustine Watling Street).
  • Validation notes: sources/validations/bho-london-inhabitants-st-augustine-1638.md, sources/validations/rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster.md, sources/validations/rollco-stationers-hunscott-cluster.md, sources/validations/rollco-stationers-gurney-1613-1626.md.

  1. Robert Gurney, citizen and draper of London, will written 18 January 1621/2, proved 23 September 1625, Archdeaconry Court of London; user-supplied image 31787_A002570-00422.jpg; full transcription in sources/intake/john-gurney-2026May/john-gurney-candidate-d-working-packet-audited-v13.md section 8. Source ID: acl-robert-gurney-will-1625. ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DREW5638, freedom by redemption, 11 February 1623/4, new freeman John Gurney, father of freeman Robert Gurney. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Brian Dietz, ed., The Port and Trade of Early Elizabethan London: Documents, London Record Society, vol. 8 (London, 1972), British History Online, index entry for “Gurney, Richard, haberdasher” and selected London Port Book 1567-8 entries 557, 563, 564, 583, 593, and 617, accessed 2026-05-25; Source ID: bho-port-trade-early-elizabethan-london-richard-gurney-1567-8. ↩︎

  4. Alfred P. Beaven, “Chronological list of aldermen: 1501-1600,” in The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III - 1912 (London, 1908), British History Online, Richard Gourney, Haberdasher, 16 January 1589 entry, accessed 2026-05-25; Source ID: bho-beaven-aldermen-richard-gourney-1589-1597. ↩︎

  5. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DREW4826, freedom by servitude, 16 December 1581, new freeman Robert Gourney “Tailor, Old Change”, master Robert Furnes. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DRHT1669, 1617 apprenticeship, master Robert Gurney “tailor, Old Change”, new apprentice John Lee of Shenley Bucks, father Edward Lee yeoman, 7-year bond. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎

  7. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DREW7982, 30 May 1622 apprenticeship, master Robert Gurney tailor, new apprentice William Holdsworth, father William Holdsworth tailor of Sowerby Bridge Yorkshire, 7-year bond. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎

  8. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DRLL837, 1 August 1604 freedom by servitude, new freeman Richard Sebrineke, witness Robert Gurney “Tailor, Old Change”. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎

  9. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DREB6663, 1611 freedom event with Robert Gurney as master. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎

  10. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DREB1311, 14 February 1629 freedom by servitude, new freeman Marten Backhurst, master Robert Gurney (no deceased flag in record; cross-checked against 1625 probate). Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎

  11. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DRLL2060, 3 November 1630 apprenticeship, master John Gurney, new apprentice Henry Smith, father Thomas Smith yeoman (deceased) of Kilton Suffolk, 7-year bond. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎ ↩︎

  12. ROLLCO Stationers’ Company event STMM8981, 25 March 1613 apprenticeship, master James Boler Co Stationer, new apprentice John Gurney, reference ST/1:0812; no father recorded; no subsequent freedom under Boler. Source ID: rollco-stationers-gurney-1613-1626. ↩︎

  13. T. C. Dale, “Inhabitants of London in 1638: St. Augustine,” in The Inhabitants of London in 1638 (Society of Genealogists, 1931), British History Online; John Gurney in MS. 67a at £10 between Christopher Hunlock £2 and George Browne £10; Joseph Huntscott on MS. p. 68 at £12. Source ID: bho-london-inhabitants-st-augustine-1638. ↩︎

  14. ROLLCO Stationers’ Company event corpus for Joseph Hunscott 1612-1646; 14 apprenticeship/freedom events; son John Hunscott admitted Stationer by servitude 1641 with Joseph as father of freeman. Source ID: rollco-stationers-hunscott-cluster. ↩︎

  15. Joseph Hunscot, The Humble Petition and Information of Joseph Hunscot Stationer, To the Honourable Houses of Parliament Assembled (London, 1646); Wing H3728. Source ID: arber-stationers-bsoc-petition-1646-hunscott. ↩︎

  16. The National Archives, Kew, E179 series, City of London assessments under the 1660-1661 Free and Voluntary Present (13 Car. II, royal assent 8 July 1661); specific roll for Castle Baynard ward and St Augustine Watling Street not yet retrieved at image level. Source ID: tna-e179-1661-london-poll-tax-deferred. ↩︎

  17. W. J. Harvey, ed., List of the Principal Inhabitants of the City of London, 1640, from Returns Made by the Aldermen of the Several Wards (London, 1886; reprinted British Library Historical Print Editions, 2011); original Lambeth Palace Library MS. 272. Full text not yet retrieved online. Source ID: bho-1640-principal-inhabitants-london-deferred. ↩︎

  18. Parish register, St Augustine Watling Street, City of London, London Metropolitan Archives P69/AUG; christening images 31281_a101009-00022 through 31281_a101009-00030 (1595-1610) and burial images 31281_a101009-00121 through 31281_a101009-00130 (1599-1612); user-supplied transcriptions in working packet v13 sections 14-17. Source ID: lma-st-augustine-watling-register-candidate-d-images. ↩︎ ↩︎

  19. Parish register, St Magnus the Martyr, City of London, marriage register; user-supplied image 31281_a101911-00014; Robert Gourney of St Augustine in Watling Street married Anne Morris of St Michael in the Querne by licence, 4 April 1611. Source ID: lma-st-magnus-martyr-register-candidate-d-images. ↩︎

  20. FamilySearch indexed entries, England Births and Christenings 1538-1975, William Gurney + Tamazin christenings at St Stephen Coleman Street, London: Fotheza 19 January 1626, Adeall 2 April 1628, Susanna 23 July 1630, Marke 17 January 1636; no Sarah/Mary/Richard/John/Peter set; no demonstrated link to Robert of Old Change. Source ID: fs-england-births-christenings. ↩︎

  21. FamilySearch records search, surname Gurney, given name John, spouse given name Mary, marriage 1620-1640, place London/England, returned 211 hits; no London-parish John Gurney + Mary marriage in window; closest John Gurney + Mary Marsh marriage 6 November 1632 at Eythorne, Kent, with son John baptized Eythorne 13 May 1638. Source ID: fs-england-births-christenings. ↩︎

  22. FamilySearch records search, Anne Gurney 1625-1645 London-area marriages and burials; no clear Anne-of-Robert candidate; weak lead An Gurney + George Bucher marriage 27 April 1640, Essex; PCC Wills 1625-1670 search returned no Anne Gurney match. Source IDs: fs-england-births-christenings, ancestry-pcc-wills-1384-1858 (existing source if applicable). ↩︎

  23. ROLLCO Drapers’ Company event DREW4827, 1654 apprenticeship, new apprentice Charles Gourney, father of apprentice John Gourney “gen, Hanging Holton N’hants”; parallel Clothworkers’ event 1647 with same residence reading. Source ID: rollco-drapers-gurney-old-change-cluster. ↩︎