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 — Others (same-name & low-probability comparators)

Alternative-candidate / same-name comparator research for John Gurney-1 of Braintree, Massachusetts (G13). This file collects the smaller eliminated same-name households, comparator clusters, and the wider Norfolk same-name sweep, kept out of the main G13 research companion so it stays focused on the emigrant and the favored Candidate-B Norfolk identity. The published argument is the John Gurney case file. None of the households below is the emigrant; each is an elimination aid or geographic-plausibility comparator.

Same-name eliminators and comparators (from the G13 origin analysis)

John Gurnell, freeman 1643 — a distinct surname, not John Gurney-1

A separate “John Gurnell” admitted freeman in Massachusetts on 10 May 1643 is not the emigrant John Gurney-1. Because surviving 1600s Massachusetts Gurnell records are sparse, the spelling invites a Gurnell → Gurney reading; that reading does not hold. A 30 July 1675 Dorchester death entry, examined directly, reads “Gurnell” — confirming Gurnell as a real, distinct surname rather than a clerk’s variant of Gurney. The 1643 freeman therefore belongs to that family, not to John Gurney-1, who first appears at Weymouth in June 1641 and is consistently recorded under Gurney/Gurny/Garny variants, never Gurnell.[1]

Child-cluster anchor walk: Richard and Isaac

The colonial John’s distinctive children are Sarah, Mary, Richard, John Jr., Peter, and possibly Isaac. Per user direction Pass 9 favored cluster matching over negative-result elimination by anchoring on the two rarer male names (Richard and Isaac) and looking for any English John Gurney household carrying a son with that name in the right window.

Richard Gurney + father John Gurney, England 1620-1645 (FamilySearch Records, all collections, 388 results filtered to “Principal” baptized child): only one Richard Gurney baptism with father John appears in the English-indexed record set in this window: Richard Gurnie, 15 December 1626, St Peter Hertfordshire, Candidate C’s Richard 1626 Berkhamsted, already eliminated in v24.

Isaac Gurney + father John Gurney, England 1620-1650 (FamilySearch Records, all collections, 287 results): zero “Principal” Isaac Gurney baptisms with father John in England in this window. The Bucks Isaacs (Cublington 1664; Radclive 1710 Isaac Gurney + Mary Kempe marriage; Great Brickhill 1748; Etwall 1745) are all post-window.

The cluster-anchor negative confirms that no English John Gurney household contains Richard, John Jr., Peter, or Isaac in any combination outside the already identified candidates: Candidate A Aylesbury, Candidate C Berkhamsted, Eythorne Kent, Toddington Beds, Denton Norfolk, East Claydon Bucks, and Earsham Norfolk. Per user direction this is not treated as definitive elimination; it is consistent with the colonial John fathering his distinctive children entirely in Massachusetts after his June 1641 emigration.[2]

TNA probate — context records

These are not John Gurney testators, but they help define surrounding family networks and eliminate or weaken alternate clusters:

Name / Record Location Date Significance
Anne Gurney, widow (PROB 11/260/14) Eythorne, Kent Will 20 Nov 1656 Sons Edward, John, William, Thomas; deceased Leonard. Helps confirm Kent as a separate cluster.
Daniel Gurney (PROB 11/347/122) Aylesbury, Bucks Will 1669 Wife Sarah; brother John; also Samuel, Edward, Elizabeth Smith, Hannah. Useful for Bucks cluster reconstruction.
William Gurney (PROB 11/252/152) London Will 20 May 1655 Citizen, perhaps chirurgeon; sons John, Abel, Walter. Possibly same William as St Stephen Coleman Street.
Richard Gurney, labourer (PROB 11/338/493) London Will 1 Mar 1674/5 Martha, Joan, and possibly John among kin. Separate London cluster.
Sir Richard Gurney, knight (PROB 11/201/723) Unknown Mid-17th c. Not Norfolk family; Daniel Gurney appendix says “Gurneys of Kendall.”
Tobias / Edward Gurney (PROB 11/54/173) Unknown 1577 Too early for the emigrant problem; older-generation context only.

Norfolk John Gurney household density (FMP UK Parish Baptisms)

A Findmypast UK Parish Baptisms search restricted to Norfolk for surname Gurney + father John, year 1623-1643, returns 14 results across six distinct Norfolk parishes: Denton (John + Rachell, children Mary 1638, Thomas 1639, Sarah 1644), Hempnall (Anna 1640, Elizabeth 1641), Stanfield (Mary 1634), Norwich St Margaret & St Swithin (a 1630 child), North Runcton (Beniamin 1625, Frances 1628), and Earsham (already case-file eliminated; John + Elizabeth Singler).

None of these Norfolk John Gurney households match the colonial John’s full distinctive children pattern (Sarah + Mary + Richard + John Jr. + Peter + possibly Isaac) by name and date. The density of Norfolk John Gurney households is nevertheless consistent with Candidate B’s geographic plausibility: Norfolk was a Gurney heartland with multiple parish-level Johns in the same decade.[3]

Norfolk Gurney households without a John as father

The Ancestry-published Norfolk Record Office collection covers about three-quarters of Norfolk parishes. A complete walk for surname Gurney plus variants 1615-1645 returns 14 baptisms across ten households whose father is named other than John. They are not candidates for the case file’s §8 elimination table, which is restricted to John Gurney households, but they characterize the broader Norfolk Gurney presence in the same window and provide Candidate B geographic-plausibility context.

The ten non-John households are:

  • Frances Garny at Gillingham (Mary 1624) - identification of Frances Garny vs Francis Gurney G14 (Candidate B’s putative father) is unresolved.
  • Thomas and Susanna Gurney at Horstead (Henricus 1626)
  • Edward and Anne Gurney at Great Yarmouth (Christian 1629, Wm 1631)
  • George and Mary Gurney at Longham (William 1629)
  • Robert Gurney at Saham Toney (Gulielmies 1629)
  • Robert Gurney at Old Hunstanton Saint Mary’s (Johannie 1629)
  • William and Anne Gurney at Cawston (William 1630)
  • William Gurney at Norwich Saint Lawrence (Richard 1630, Martha 1633/4, Margaret 1635; William buried Norwich Saint Lawrence 24 January 1640)
  • Thomas and Elizabeth Gurney at Great Yarmouth (Mary 1632)
  • William and Sarah Gurney at Saxlingham Thorpe and Nethergate (Gulielmus 1635)

Plus the previously noted Earsham John + Elizabeth Singler household and the Denton John/Josiah + Rachell/Rachelle household, whose father identification is unresolved between NRO and FS/FMP. The Norfolk Gurney density remains consistent with Candidate B’s geographic plausibility but does not individually surface a “John Gurney + matching colonial children” cluster.[4]

Protestation Returns 1641–42

County coverage (Gibson & Dell)

County Coverage Implication
London (City) None Francis’s absence there is uninformative
Essex Slight Absence largely meaningless
Norfolk None Cannot test Norfolk directly through this series
Suffolk None Cannot test Suffolk directly through this series
Buckinghamshire Slight Stewkley cluster nevertheless appears reasonably well represented
Kent Substantial Eythorne John is well grounded
Middlesex Near complete Better suburban coverage
Hertfordshire Slight Candidate C cannot be strongly tested here

Buckinghamshire Gurney cluster

Stewkley: Anthony, Robert (x2), Thomas, Walter. Linslade: Ezekiel, Thomas (x2). Ivinghoe: Thomas. Soulbury: Thomas. Marsh Gibbon: Richard. Chedington: Isaac. Mentmore: Thomas. Marsworth: Richard (x2). No John appears anywhere in Buckinghamshire in the working returns set.

Robert Gurney being alive at Stewkley in 1642 also weakens any adoption-style explanation for the absent John.

London entries

  • Abel Gurney at St Pancras Soper Lane — biblical name, possibly the Abel son of William Gurney (PROB 11/252/152).
  • William Gurney at St Stephen Coleman Street — identity not yet certain; possibly the same William named above.

These likely derive from London Metropolitan Archives material rather than Parliamentary Archives City returns.

Sir Richard Gurney, Lord Mayor

Daniel Gurney Appendix LXXXIX states: “Sir Richard Gurney was not related to the Norfolk family.” The 1634 visitation traces him instead to the Gurneys of Kendall. He is therefore irrelevant to the direct-line John problem.

Naming-pattern analysis

Name Norfolk Gurneys (Henry’s 12) Francis’s SBF children Bucks Gurneys Verdict
Sarah None None Sarah 1639 Aylesbury Puritan/biblical; not diagnostic
Mary Mary (d. single) None Mary 1631 Hitcham Very common; weak value
Richard None among 12 None at SBF Richard 1626 (Robert’s son) Could reflect Ryvett influence; not decisive
John None among 12 None at SBF John 1634, 1638 Ubiquitous; not diagnostic
Peter Smallburgh Peter G. 1641 shows the name in a Norfolk Gurney-variant household, though not with father John None None in the Bucks John-household set reviewed here Still distinctive for John-1, but no longer an absolute surname-wide absence

Key naming takeaway: no child named Francis. That remains the strongest naming-pattern argument against Candidate B, though not a dispositive one.

Margaret Rovett / Rybett Ancestry death lead

The Ancestry record URL supplied in the intake redirected to a join/login page in this pass, so no record image or indexed field was verified. Preserve this as an open lead only: the user note says the death was found in John Gurney research, but that the death would normally belong under Margaret Gurney and may or may not be the right candidate. Do not turn this into a fact until the record image or index fields are reviewed directly in Ancestry.[5]

English same-name elimination - St Mary Harrow 1668/9 and St Giles Cripplegate 1640

Two London-area parish-register burial entries reinforce that several English John Gurneys with overlapping wife names continued to live, marry, and bury children in England well after the 1641 Massachusetts emigrant record. Each is a small but real elimination check rather than a candidate for the emigrant.

St Mary, Harrow on the Hill (LMA DRO/003/A/01/005) records two burials in early 1669 (Old Style 1668) under the heading “Buryed 1668”: “Janry 30 - Ann/Anne daughter of John & Mary Gurney of Okington” and “Feby 8 - Isaac son of John & Mary Gurney of Okington.” A John Gurney with a wife named Mary, still parenting and burying children in England in early 1669, cannot be John Gurney-1, who died at Braintree in 1662/3. The “Okington/Oakington” residence is most likely Oakington, Cambridgeshire, but the second-syllable letters are partly obscured. Keep this John & Mary Gurney as a separate English household for any future Mary-named-wife John Gurney work.[6]

St Giles Cripplegate, City of London (LMA P69/GIS/A/002/MS06419/003) records a burial in December 1640: “John sonne of ffrancis Garney Joyner - 15,” indexed as 16 December 1640 with “Mother: Francis Garney.” The index field is almost certainly the father’s name, and “Joyner/Joiner” is the father’s occupation, not part of the surname. This is a London child burial of a John, son of Francis Garney, joiner, in the same St Giles Cripplegate parish where the case file already records a separate Francis B “the laceweaver” Cripplegate cluster active 1638-1640. The trade difference (joiner vs laceweaver) means this Francis Garney is almost certainly a third Cripplegate-area Gurney/Garney, not the same Francis B already eliminated in the case file. Garney sits inside the Gurney/Gurny/Gourney/Garney spelling cluster and should be retained when searching same-name London households.[7]

The Toddington Beds John Gurney + Elizabeth Moreton household has positive English-side death evidence: John Gurney was buried at Toddington in September 1641, three months after the Massachusetts emigrant’s June 1641 Weymouth fine date and twenty-one years before the Massachusetts John’s 1662/3 Braintree death. The Toddington John cannot also be in continuous Massachusetts residence through 1662/3, so the Toddington row is firmly eliminated on death-evidence grounds rather than on the wife-name alone.[8]

Wider Norfolk and same-name Gurney records (comparators)

Same-name Gurney households and Norfolk records that surfaced during the origin campaign. Each is a comparator or elimination aid for the John Gurney problem, not the emigrant himself; full treatment of those with their own subjects lives on the linked subject files.

A Gurney probate inventory at Norwich, c. 1613–1619 — a Gurney decedent inside the origin window. A probate inventory indexed under the extracted name “Septeph Gurney” — almost certainly Stephen Gurney — survives for Norwich, dated 1613–1619.[9] The transcript is a heavily garbled room-by-room household inventory (buttery, pantry, cupboards, beds, “at the Grange,” a long table and forms), so the parish, the exact year, and whether the named Gurney is the decedent or an appraiser are not legible and require an image read. If it is a Gurney decedent’s own inventory it is the first probate of a Gurney of the emigrant’s father/grandfather generation found inside Norfolk, and it nuances the “no Gurney testator in the window” bounding result below — which rests on the Norwich Consistory registered-copy will registers and would not capture an inventory or an Archdeaconry-court estate. Most plausibly a Norwich-city Gurney (cf. the St Peter Parmentergate plebeian line), not yet tied to West Barsham or to Francis G14’s East Dereham household.

The Norwich Consistory Court registered-copy will registers for 1624–1637 (vols 119–130) — not previously mapped to FamilySearch image-group numbers — were resolved from the catalogue (record koha:278818) and swept for Gurn*/Gourn*/Gorn*, and the 1638–1651 volumes re-checked. Across the whole window the Consistory series carries no Gurney testator of its own beyond the already-known John Gurney of Earsham (will 1638, vol. 131–132 = DGS 008076858) — a useful bounding result: a humble Gurney testator in the emigrant’s father’s window is not in the Consistory registers, which redirects the search to the Archdeaconry of Norwich court (the lesser-estate jurisdiction; see leads). Three in-window Gurney sightings surfaced, each named inside another person’s will and each a machine-transcript read with the full-resolution image staged for expert transcription:

  • Clement Gurney, Gent — a testator’s will (NCC regd. wills 1631–32, vol. 124–125, DGS 008076514, ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSN8-YRB3) bequeaths a bond “bearing date the one and twentieth day of November Anno Dm 1622 … wherein [Clement] Gurne[y] Gent [was bound] … in the penal sum of forty pounds.” A gentleman Gurney active c. 1622–31; the forename Clement is rare and recurs nowhere else in FamilySearch full-text before the 19th century, so this register page is its sole witness. An image read confirms “Clement Gurney gent” (high confidence) and the bond — penal sum £40 securing £20, dated 21 November 1622 — which the testator bequeaths to “Clement my sonne.” The testator’s name and parish lie on the will’s opening, not on this continuation page; the full will was traced across three register images and staged as packet 20 (still pending) to recover them, the open crux being whether “Clement my sonne” is “Clement Gurney gent” (so the testator himself a Gurney) or two distinct Clements (L-138).[10]

  • John Gurney’s house, Langley — a 1634 will (NCC regd. wills vol. 127, DGS 008076861, ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSND-T9KS-K) devising meadow “lying in Langley … next unto John Gurney’s house.” An image read confirms “John Gurneys house” as a boundary marker of meadow in/near Langley and Carpsham, and the testator’s wife Marion/Maryon; the beneficiary son’s surname (machine-read “Pagan”) reads on the image closer to Aggas [?] and is unresolved. The testator’s own name and parish are not on this continuation page; “John Gurney” appears only as a property reference, a John Gurney householder at/near Langley (south Norfolk, by Loddon) in 1634, with no further Gurney kin detail. (The will’s opening page — NCC regd. wills vol. 127, DGS 008076861 — would name the testator if this Langley John ever needs placing; low priority, collateral.)[10]

  • Ellingham poor-charity, 1630 — an original will of 1630 (DGS 008076513, ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSN8-YF6X) endowing the poor of Ellingham. An image read resolves this as a false positive: the testator is Robert Webber of Great Ellingham, yeoman (will dated 20 February 1629/30), whose charity clause benefits the churchwardens and poor of Great Ellingham; no Gurney is named — the machine “Gurnent” token is misread charity-clause text. Closed.[10]

Separately, the 1608 Norwich Consistory depositions (DGS 004389252) carry several Gurney deponents whose depositions should state age, residence, and occupation — including a “Robertus Gurney,” a Gurney styled “of London, yeoman” (1605), and a Gurney with a Suffolk tag — read as paleography packet 14. The reads largely could not recover the demographic detail: “Robertus Gurney” appears as a deponent/witness heading (age, residence, and occupation not legibly recovered), and the London-yeoman (1605), Suffolk-tag, and Adams-testator references are present but too faint to name or place; the recurring “Gourn[ed] Cropley” token is confirmed not a person but formulaic Latin court wording (a cleared false positive).[10] Method note: the FamilySearch full-text JSON API caps a single request at ~100 results (count=300 returns empty); the 1624–37 register DGS map is recorded in the FamilySearch FTS skill.[11]

East Dereham — the widow’s tenure begins before October 1636, and the 1697 tenant is Matthew, not Michael. The 1636 card resolves to a court of 10 October 1636 (12 Charles I) at which Hugh Browne, gentleman, surrendered a holding described as “…inter alia ten[ementa] quondam Margarete Gurner vid[uae]” — formerly of Margaret Gurner, widow. No husband, no “nuper uxor,” and no male Gurney predecessor is visible. Two consequences: (1) Margaret was already a widow whose tenure was already a past reference by October 1636 — so the male Gurney whose death made her a widow died well before 1636, plausibly within or just after Francis G14’s documented East Dereham years (c.1608–1618); (2) the Edward-free-bench hypothesis (Edward b. c.1610/11 as the deceased husband) is weakened on chronology — Edward would have been at most ~25 when the tenure was already “quondam”; an older-generation Gurney male (Francis’s contemporary or elder kinsman) now fits better. The 1697 page resolves to 13 May 1697, with a recital of a customary messuage, meadow, and ~5 acres in several pieces “prout nup’ in tenura Mathei Gurney” — Matthew, not the machine-read “Michael,” and his tenure had already ended by that date; the page’s Margaret is Dame Margaret Castleton, not Gurney. The 18th-century “Michael Gurney” recitals in the later English-language entries therefore need re-checking against “Matthew.” The 1662/1665 page could not be securely read (Loveland/Rogers parties visible; the Gurney target is present per the card but visually buried) — unresolved, not negative.[12] A dedicated full-text re-hunt of the 1623–1689 book (DGS 004389483) for any earlier male Gurney before the October 1636 court returned no new candidate — the male whose death widowed Margaret is not surfaced by full-text and remains to be found by a folio-level read of the earlier courts.[13]

A continuing East Dereham copyhold Gurney family runs through the volume: land “late of Margery Gurney” in abuttal recitals (her tenure dating to the 1680s entries in the earlier roll); parcels “in tenura Michaelis [Michael] Gurney” 1697–1758, recited as “late in the Tenure of Michael Gurney” into c.1800; and Richard Gurney from 1703, recited to 1837 — meadow and pasture parcels (typically three roods) near Moorgate Street, East Dereham. Separately, the Norwich banking Gurneys appear as transaction parties: John Gurney of Norwich, merchant, 1756; Joseph Gurney, Richard Hanbury Gurney, and Joseph John Gurney as mortgage parties, 1818–19. Case relevance: a local Gurney copyhold family persisted at East Dereham from at least the 1680s. Whether their holding walks back through the 1623–1689 roll into Francis G14’s residence years — most temptingly through Edward (b. c.1610/11, John’s full brother, fate unknown; see Open Questions) — is now a precise, answerable question, because manorial recitals chain each tenant to the previous one. Alternatively an unrelated East Dereham Gurney family would itself be a material comparator discovery.[14]

The copyhold chain extends back two decades further: Margaret/Margery Gurney’s land appears in entries dated 1662 and 1665 (“land [of] my Margaret Gurney was proved…”; “Margery Gurney or abutt…”), her abuttal recitals run through 1680–1694. (An entry dated 1640 initially carried an apparent Gurney token — machine-read “…in Lewes Withes Gurney and interest as Wagstaffe…” — but the page image, image 1669, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-D1S9-7H8, was downloaded and read directly by Allen: it does not support a Gurney reading. Dead; do not pursue.) The remaining hits are the 19th-century Gurney & Co bank (Samuel Gurney Buxton, Francis Hay Gurney, “Messieurs Gurney and Co,” 1860s–80s) in the Denver portion of the film — not the local family. The succession now reads: [1636 “Margarete Gurner” entry — see the 1636 entry below] → Margaret/Margery Gurney (1662–1694) → Matthew Gurney (1697–1758) → Richard Gurney (1703, recited to 1837) (the 1697 tenant’s forename, machine-read “Michael,” is corrected to Matthew by the expert read of the 1697 admission; but a separate image read of a 1758 recital page genuinely reads “late in the Tenure of Michael Gurney”, so both forms have image support on different pages and the 1697 “Matthew” and 1758 “Michael” are best treated as distinct readings, not one mis-index).[13] A widow holding her late husband’s copyhold by free bench is the classic pattern behind a long female tenure like Margery’s — and Edward Gurney (b. c.1610/11, John’s full brother) would be exactly the right age to be the husband who died by c.1662. Image-read targets, in order: the 1636 entry; the 1662/1665 Margaret entries; and the 1697 admission (which should recite the predecessor).[15]

East Dereham films — nine-variant re-sweep is a clean negative; Gurn* adds a 1636 entry and a field named for the family. Variant queries Gurny, Gurnye, Gurnay, Gournay, Gurnie, Gurnoe, and Garny scored zero on both films; Garney only a 1723–39 card (later roll) and two 19th-century Denver cards; Gourney scored eight cards on the later roll — all Margery/Margaret “Gourney” widow abuttal recitals, 1702–1799 (the known tenure under a fourth spelling); so the earlier roll’s thin yield is a Latin-court-hand transcription limitation, not a spelling artifact. The wildcard Gurn* (wildcards work: ? single character, * root expansion, +term required, "phrase" exact) raised the earlier roll from 9 to 13 cards and the later roll from 19 to 22. New from the wildcard: (1) a card dated 1636 reading “Margarete Gurner” (ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-D1S9-WWM) — the earliest Gurney-family token in the Dereham rolls, a generation before the 1662/1665 Margaret entries and within two decades of Francis G14’s documented East Dereham years; if the 1636 Margarete and the 1662–94 Margery are the same woman or mother and daughter, the copyhold predates 1640, and the free-bench window moves earlier. (2) On the later roll, recitals spanning 1675–1835 of “a certain Croft called Gurneys Croft otherwise Crabb Croft” (arks …6179-KP1, …6179-2XZ, …6179-V9Q) — a parcel that carried the family’s name, place-name evidence of a holding old and distinctive enough to label the land. (3) Two Margerie/Margorie Gurney abuttal cards without displayed years (…D1S9-CYG, …D1S9-7DQ) and a 1680/86/94 card (…D1S9-7CR) filling the recital trail. Also checked: no pre-1623 East Dereham manorial volume exists in Full-Text Search (a global "East Dereham" 1600s probe returns only the two known court films plus Norwich-circuit will registers), and a +Gurn* +Dereham probe surfaced one new volume — Norfolk/Norwich Court Records 1659–1699, with a 1675 entry “…he might by the [leave] of Court endeavor to [engage] Gurney to draw … in the house where now dwelleth in [D]ereham” (ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DT3H-DH) — an unswept film.[16]

The Earsham will is verified with two corrections — the wife is Mary, and son John takes at fourteen. The expert pass confirmed “Eursham” (Earsham) at all three occurrences and corrected the wife’s name from the provisional “Al[ice]” to Mary (legible twice), and the son’s taking age to fourteen (“when he may be capable to take his guardianship”; twenty-one survives only in the contingency clause to brother Lyon). A John Gurney of Norfolk with wife Mary demands a beat of attention given the emigrant’s wife Mary — but the Earsham testator died in 1638 and his son John was under fourteen, so neither is the emigrant (b. c.1607–12); the coincidence is noted and set aside. Corrections applied to the corpus supplement and subject file.[17]

The Earsham family traced forward — a Waveney Gurney network reaching into St Peter Parmentergate. An exact-phrase probe on the rare brother’s name (“Lyon Gurney,” 37 hits) found: Sarah Gurney of Bungay’s nuncupative will, made Sunday 4 June 1710 at the house of her son Lyon Gurney “of the parish of St Peter [Parmentergate] in the City of Norwich”; a 1690s will by a Suffolk-Barsham (Waveney) testator leaving £5 each “to John Gurney, Thomas [& L?i]on Gurney and to Mary Farrow, my Sister Sarah Gurney['s] children”; and an “Earsham, Norfolk. Court Records 1710–1818” film carrying Lyon Gurney entries (unswept). A Waveney-family Gurney resident in the laceweaver Francis B’s own Norwich parish c.1710 is a thread to hold when the Parmentergate Gurneys are next reviewed. Details and footnotes on the Earsham file.

The 1638 Norwich-circuit will is read: John Gurney of Earsham, yeoman — an elimination, and a new Norfolk family. The will flagged in the wills register (images 454–455) was downloaded at full resolution and read: John Gurney of Earsham (“Eursham”), Norfolk, yeoman, made his will 10 August 1638 — wife Al[ice]; son John, a minor (inherits the Earsham messuages, freehold and copyhold, at 21, paying his mother £4 a year); contingent devise to “Lyon Gurney my Brother”; £5 legacies to “ye four sonnes of Rob[er]t Gurney my Brother deceased,” including a William and a Robert; £4 each to the five daughters of John Sou[t]er late of Earsham; executors brother Lyon Gurney and brother-in-law John Youngman of St Andrew’s [Ilketshall St Andrew, across the Waveney]. Case bearing: negative-to-comparator — the testator died in 1638 and his son John was born after c.1617, so neither is the emigrant (b. c.1607–12); but the will documents a previously unlogged yeoman Gurney family in the Waveney valley with a rare, traceable forename (Lyon). Full working transcription at sources/corpus_supplement/ncc-will-1638-john-gurney-earsham-working-transcription.md; subject file research/people/john-gurney-earsham-will-1638.md; page images at sources/media/ncc-will-1638-john-gurney-earsham/_local/. The probate clause (image 456) is the remaining one-image pull.[18]

A 1638 Edmund Gurney witness trace. A +Gurn* +Harpley probe surfaced one further Norwich-register card: a will c.1638 witnessed by “Barbary Walmer, Edmund Gurney, Robert Kirby” (ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39Z-Y5DQ) — Edmund the Divine witnessing a parishioner’s will, joining the 19 June 1643 William Smith of Great Massingham will abstract in which “Edm: Gurnay” and “Ellen Gournay” appear (abstract volume, image 41, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39V-K2LV — not Edmund’s own will; L-6 stays open, with Edmund + Ellen now traced alive June 1643).[19]

Costessey — the “son of John” reading falls; a “John Gurney sen[ior]” (1659) and a “John Gurney, gentleman” (1670s) stand; and a systematic false-positive is identified. The packet reads corrected the file’s headline: the supposed “Johnes Gurnee son of John” is “Johannes Gurne et Johannes Bower” (a 21 January 1674/5 copyhold release), and the 1634 “terra Johis Gurny” (lead L-93’s original target) is a misreading of Jernegan — the manor’s lords — a confusable that likely contaminates other early Costessey cards. What survives: John Gurne’s 1629 orchard presentment (twelve fruit trees planted, precept issued); “John Gurney sen” in an April 1659 court list (the style implying a junior John); and an abuttal “land of John Gurney, gentleman.” Revised analysis on research/people/gurney-family-costessey-manorial.md.[20]

Two more 17th-century Norfolk Gurney families surfaced by Gurn* film sweeps — Cawston and Costessey (subject files created). Cawston 1641–85 (film 004389190, 22 cards): William & Ann Gurney 1648–50, Emme Gurney 1655–95, Agnes Gurney 1659–64, death presentments in the 1640s–60s, an Anne Gurney to 1729 with her land recited in 1757 — see research/people/gurney-family-cawston-manorial.md. Costessey (film 004389191, 24 cards): a John Gurne/Gurnee family c.1600–1675 — John & wife Margaret, mill-meadow abuttals 1619–33, homage service 1651–72, and an apparent “Johnes Gurnee son of John” entry — see research/people/gurney-family-costessey-manorial.md. (The “son of John” reading is superseded by the expert image read above, which finds “Johannes Gurne et Johannes Bower”; the 1634 “terra Johis Gurny” is in fact Jernegan. What survives at Costessey is John Gurne’s 1629 orchard presentment, a “John Gurney sen[ior]” of 1659, and a “John Gurney, gentleman” abuttal.) The surviving Costessey John material sits at the laceweaver Francis B’s documented locus: presumptively a different man under Candidate B, but a possible window into how Francis B came to hold Costessey property.

  • Costessey, Norfolk, manorial records 1633–1635: a probable John Gurney land entry in the 1634 court roll — image located, paleography pending. The page is a Latin court-roll entry headed 1634 (FamilySearch film 004389191 item 4, image 162 of 239, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6PN9-SW7); the flagged line plausibly reads “…terra Joh[ann]is Gurny…” at screen resolution. Resolved (superseded): the expert image read (above) finds this 1634 line is Jernegan — the manor’s lords — a false positive, not a Gurney. Costessey nonetheless remains the laceweaver Francis B’s documented property locus (the two-Francis problem), so the surviving Costessey John Gurney material is either kin of Francis B or a previously unknown Norwich-area John.

  • Norwich Court of Mayoralty 1659–99 triaged (film 004397534, 18 cards): a 1675 petition by [—] Perham “that he might by the [leave] of Court endeavor to [engage] Gurney to draw … in the house where now dwelleth in [He?]reham” — the place reads closer to Heigham (the Norwich suburb) than Dereham, downgrading the Dereham connection; an order of 1690 “that Edmund Gurnee do take care to lay on the Market…”; a marginal “John Gurney 293” by the court of 15 June 1692; a 1694 civic list “Mr Gurner.” Norwich-city, Restoration-era — feeds the plebeian-Norwich frame (Bernau’s “Problem” John, the Maldon file), not the emigrant. Image reads optional.[21]

  • Providence resolved. Sarah Gurney of Providence died 16 April 1714; her will (31 March 1714) names only Field children, and “John Gurney the husband of the above named Sarah Gurney personally appeared before the Town Councill” on 30 April 1714 — the 1695-warned-out stranger survived her, signing and appraising by mark. Full story and extracts on the Providence file and in sources/corpus_supplement/providence-sarah-gurney-will-1714-extracts.md.

Colonial side-files from the same sweeps. The Suffolk court file on Isaac Gurney (no. 792, 25 June 1667) was read in full — committal to Boston prison as “vagabond rogue & of Burglary”; examination before Daniel Gookin, 28 June 1667, confessing three and a half years’ wandering and the Lord’s-day burglary of Golden Moore’s house at Medford; a third paper possibly describing a fire kindled in the prison — now on research/people/isaac-gurney-scituate-boston.md with the Plymouth 1663/4 Scituate arc (whipped for pilfering; returned constable-to-constable), partially resolving lead L-94. The Providence cluster (1695–96 warning-out of a stranger John Gurney; Sarah Gurney’s will proved 30 April 1714, presented by her son Joseph Field) is on research/people/john-and-sarah-gurney-providence-rhode-island.md — read alongside the Quinapaug-near-Providence reframing above and Torrey’s Providence John + Sarah (Thornton) entry. Richard G12’s probate file (inventory, administration bond with the Green/Richards sureties, file no. 1890) went to the G12 companion. Discards from the sweeps: “Elizabeth Gurney 1682” is Henry Garnsey of Dorchester’s widow (Guernsey family, distinct surname); two “At-Gurney” hits are misreads of “Atturney” in unrelated powers of attorney; the Plymouth film’s remaining “Gurn” hits are Gurnet’s Nose, the headland.

  • L-99 deflated by half. The Suffolk Deeds 1678–83 index’s “Gourney, John, 80” is a 1671 recital of “parcels … of John Gourney five acres, of George Aldridge…” — Thayer’s assembled holding again, not a new instrument by Richard G12’s son John. The “Elizabeth, 343” page resists text search (its co-index neighbour “Green, Sarah, 343” supports the née-Green reading); an image-number pull remains. The film’s other thirteen Gurn* hits are the distinct Gurnell of Dorchester family (John Gurnell, tanner, d. by 1681; widow/executrix Jane) — log alongside Garnsey as a confusable surname.[22]

The children-name angle works through documents rather than parish registers — full-text coverage is wills, court books, town books, and manor rolls — so the rare names Peter and Isaac were run as anchors alongside John-form and Gurney-form variants:

  • “Isaac Gurney” — first primary sighting of the uncertain son. Middlesex County court records 1657–1672 (Cambridge sessions) carry an Isaac Gurney in 1666 matters involving theft “from Indian John” and movements around “Blue Hill, Ponkaping” (Ponkapoag — the praying-Indian town in Braintree’s back country); the Suffolk County court file indexes 1670–1679 add a warrant against “Isaac Gurney convicted of breaking into a dwelling house” and a 25 June 1667 warrant “to commit Isaac Gurney to prison in Boston, signed by Daniel Gookin” (files 911 and 792). An Isaac Gurney aged about 23 (if b. c.1643) in trouble with the law in the Braintree orbit is the first primary-record evidence that the traditionally uncertain son existed. The uncommon forename, the age fit, and the location — with no competing colonial Isaac Gurney documented in this generation — make the identification highly probable (confidence calibration confirmed by Allen, 2026-06-09); no record yet states the parentage. Promoted at that confidence to the fact sheet and structured data; image pulls are lead L-94.[23]

  • “John Gurny” — two new colonial records and the Bury thread. Massachusetts military records 1643–1675 hold the petition of John Gurny, Richard Porter, and James Ludden of Weymouth for remission of the gunpowder fines — the petition behind the MBCR 1:331 court action that is John’s first colonial record. Massachusetts Bay Colony military records 1642–1649 carry “John Gurny his byl for 3. 16. 42” — a bill submitted to the colony in the early 1640s; since read at machine-transcript level (see Further primary records above), it is a colony-accounts settlement of unstated nature, not demonstrably tailoring or supply work. On the English side, Bury St Edmunds parish records show “John Gurny son to Thomas” baptized in the 1650s and a wider Gurney presence there 1632–34 (“Juda Gurney”) — context for Banks’s Bury attribution, though Bury is since cleared as the emigrant’s natal origin (the Bury Gurneys are a later Thomas × Lidda Broddish household; see above). The Bucklebury, Berkshire John + Alice (Sawyer) household fills out further (children Ales 1647, Alice 1655, Mary 1663, Henry; wife Alce buried 1665) — a firmly continuing-England comparator.

  • Negatives: “Peter Gurney” 1600s — zero genuine hits anywhere (England or colonies), consistent with Peter’s name entering through Mary’s family and his records living in print sources outside full-text coverage; “John Gurnay” 1600s — zero; “Johes/Johannes Gurney” — the OR-syntax query returned empty and should be re-run as separate queries before being treated as a tested negative.

  • “Francis Gurney” 1600s is dominated by the Maldon borough court books 1662–1697 (Francis of Maldon’s litigation and offices), including a 1689/1697 entry concerning “the children of the said Francis Gurney” — recorded on research/people/francis-gurney-of-maldon.md (lead L-97). No Norfolk-side Francis G14 window hits beyond the Costessey roll above.

English-side new comparators and leads (all Available online — FamilySearch Full-Text, image pulls pending):

  • Norfolk probate 1630–1633: inventory of a John Gurney “late of [Saham?], Norfolk,” deceased c.1630 — a Norfolk John dying before the emigration window (clearance comparator once the parish is read).

  • Bury St Edmunds parish records 1632–1634: 27 Gurney-term matches including “Juda Gurney” — a documented Gurney presence at Bury in the early 1630s, bearing directly on Banks’s Bury St Edmunds attribution and the 1653–56 Bury burial household.

  • Hertfordshire: will/inventory of John Gurney of Puttenham, 1641 (a Herts John dying in England in the emigration year — new clearance candidate); John Gurney appraiser at Great Gaddesden, 1626.

  • Bucklebury, Berkshire: John Gurney + Alice (Sawyer), married c.1637–41, children Elizabeth 1644 and Alice 1646 — continuing-England Berkshire household alongside the Warfield/Sulhamstead rows.

  • Norwich deposition books 1661–1680: a deponent “hired [ground] of one Mr John Gurney since deceased” — a Norwich John Gurney dead by the 1660s–70s; comparator for the Norwich Johns.

  • Minor context: Aylsham manorial 1611–23 John Gurney; Wymondham court roll 1656 John Gurney; Kent oath rolls 1641–42 John Gurney (the Eythorne John, alive in Kent at the Protestation — reinforces that elimination); an Essex list c.1620–23 naming a John Gurney (collection “England. Genealogies/Tax Records 1620–1650,” Willingale Doe area — identify the underlying compilation); Norfolk 1690s probate bonds naming John Gurney of Norwich, cordwainer (Bernau’s “Problem” John — for francis-gurney-of-maldon.md); Maldon borough court books 1674–1764 with Gourney entries (Francis of Maldon’s lawsuits).

  • East Dereham manor court rolls are digitised and full-text searchable — collections “Dereham, Norfolk. Court Records 1623–1689” (bundled with Deopham and Denver) and “Dereham, Norfolk. Court Records 1689–1820.” The combined Gurney+Dereham probe surfaced at least one Gurney entry in the later volume (forename machine-read as “Michie,” needing the image). The 1623–1689 roll sits directly on top of the family’s East Dereham years and could carry Gurney landholding or tenancy succession; a dedicated Gurney-variant sweep inside these collections is the highest-value remaining campaign step (lead L-98).

  • Suffolk MA Deeds 1678–1683 index: “Gourney, John, 80; Elizabeth, 343.” A John Gourney (deed at p. 80) and an Elizabeth Gourney (p. 343) in Boston-registry deeds 1678–83 — the right window and names for Richard G12’s son John and his wife Elizabeth Green. Pull both pages (lead L-99); also noted on the G12 companion.

  • Norfolk wills of the 1690s repeatedly name a John Gourney of Norwich as executor/supervisor — the cordwainer of Bernau’s “Problem,” for the Maldon file’s frame, not this case.

  • Tested negatives and dead probes: “Johes Gurney” and “Johannes Gurney” run separately — zero in the 1600s bucket (clean negatives this time, superseding the suspect OR-query); “Gurnoe” — three hits, all noise (no Yorkshire content; the Ackworth registers are not in full-text coverage); “Garny” — unusable as a probe (swamped by the French notarial word garny, “furnished”); “Gourney” otherwise noise (the Maryland “Gourney Crowe” cluster, French notarial text, and medieval-pedigree print).

Remaining East Dereham / Norfolk probes: image reads of the 1636, 1662/1665, and 1697 entries (lead L-98); a Jno Gurney variant probe; and Norfolk place-filtered sweeps. (The 1640 East Dereham card was image-read and is dead; the staged Dereham, Costessey, and 1557-will packets have since been expert-read — reports at sources/corpus_supplement/paleo-2026-06-packet-*.md.)

L-5 — the Spelman Gurney pedigree is a dispersed manuscript, not online. Daniel Gurney saw the pedigree “amongst the Spelman manuscripts, collected by Dr. Macro, in the possession of Hudson Gurney.” The provenance is now traced end-to-end: Sir Henry Spelman (d. 1641) → Dr Cox Macro (1683–1767) → split in 1820 between Dawson Turner (scientific papers) and Hudson Gurney (historical and literary), kept in the Gurney library at Keswick Hall near Norwich until at least 1891 → dispersed at the Gurney sale, Sotheby’s, 30–31 March 1936, where the Spelman–Macro miscellanies were bought by the Bodleian Library (1936 and 1943), the Folger Shakespeare Library (via Quaritch), the John Rylands Library (via Maggs), and the University of Kansas (Spencer Research Library). The pedigree leaf is not in Norfolk Record Office MS 7197 (Spelman miscellany, which carries only a “Gurney Sale, Sotheby’s, 1936, lot 156” provenance note) nor in Kansas MS E107 (Spelman–Macro miscellany) — both checked directly. Redirected candidate repositories for the pedigree itself: the Bodleian, Folger, Rylands, and Kansas Spelman–Macro volumes, plus the 1936 Sotheby’s sale catalogue (lot list) to identify which buyer took the genealogical lot. Availability: Not online (manuscript; dispersed 1936; no digitised copy confirmed).[24] The concrete documentary vector for how a Gournay pedigree reached Spelman is on the G14 companion: in 1616 Francis G14 took Francis Spelman, son of Sir Henry Spelman of Middleton, Norfolk, knight, as a Merchant Taylors’ apprentice under a heavy £100 bond — a documented master–apprentice tie between the antiquary’s household and Francis Gurney, the natural channel for Bernau’s report that “a Francis Gournay gave Sir Henry Spelman a manuscript pedigree.” The deeper kinship sits on the G17 companion: through the Lovell–Conyers marriages, Anthony G17’s children were first cousins once removed of the antiquary Sir Henry Spelman.

L-6 — Edmund the Divine and Henry G15 wills: probably survive in the Norwich Consistory Court; references not freely online. Edmund Gurney “the Divine” (rector of Edgefield 1614–20, then Harpley) died in 1648 and was buried at St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, on 14 May 1648; his wife was Ellen and his son “Protestant” Gurney predeceased him (d. 1624, monument at Harpley) — so a surviving will would most plausibly pass to collateral kin, which is the L-6 rationale. Henry Gurney G15 died 1615 with probate 1623. Both probates, if extant, sit in the Norwich Consistory Court (NCC) series at the Norfolk Record Office; the authoritative finding aid is the Norfolk Record Society printed index (M. A. Farrow and T. F. Barton, Index of Wills Proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich, 1604–1686, NRS vol. 28), which is not free full-text online (HathiTrust catalogue-only; the Norfolk Record Society still sells it). FamilySearch Full-Text Search does not cleanly surface either will — its “Edmund Gurney” / “Henry Gurney” returns are dominated by the 19th-century Buxton/Gurney banking family. Availability: wills at NRO, images not freely online; next concrete step is a name-search in the NRO online wills index, or the printed NRS index, for the exact NCC register references.[25]

  1. Lucius R. Paige, List of Freemen of Massachusetts, 1630–1691 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1849), John Gurnell, application 10 May 1643, Massachusetts, keyed to Colony Records (C.R.) Vol. II, pp. 27–28; accessed via Ancestry.com, “Massachusetts, U.S., Applications of Freemen, 1630–1691,” collection 4296. The corroborating 30 July 1675 Dorchester death entry reading “Gurnell” was examined directly from the record image; its Dorchester town/vital-record source is not separately registered here. Source ID: paige-list-freemen-massachusetts-1849. ↩︎

  2. FamilySearch Records cluster-anchor searches 2026-05-11; source ID fs-england-births-christenings and ancillary FS collections. ↩︎

  3. Findmypast UK Parish Baptisms search 2026-05-09; FamilySearch Mary Gurney Denton 1638 (FS ID NNDF-V9K); source IDs findmypast-uk-parish-baptisms and fs-england-births-christenings. ↩︎

  4. Ancestry collection 61045, Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812 (in partnership with Norfolk Record Office), walked 2026-05-11. Source ID: ancestry-norfolk-1535-1812. ↩︎

  5. User-supplied Ancestry lead, Margaret Rovett/Rybett, collection 9840 record 18879163. Login-gated in this pass; source ID not assigned pending record review. ↩︎

  6. Parish register, St Mary, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, burials 1668/9, London Metropolitan Archives DRO/003/A/01/005; Ancestry.com collection 1624 record 602728549; user-supplied page-image transcription. Source ID: lma-st-mary-harrow-register-dro003. ↩︎

  7. Parish register, St Giles Cripplegate, City of London, burials 1634-1646, London Metropolitan Archives P69/GIS/A/002/MS06419/003; Ancestry.com collection 1624 record 6607796; user-supplied page-image assessment. Source ID: lma-st-giles-cripplegate-register-p69-gis-a-002. ↩︎

  8. FamilySearch, “England, Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991,” John Gurney burial September 1641, Toddington, Bedfordshire; FamilySearch, “England Marriages, 1538-1973,” John Gurnye / Jn Gurney + Elizabeth / Eliz Moreton marriage 12 October 1624, Toddington, Bedfordshire. Source ID: fs-england-births-christenings. ↩︎

  9. FamilySearch Full-Text Search, “Norwich, Norfolk, England Probate 1613–1619,” record/ark 3:1:S3HT-624X-58, extracted name entity “Septeph Gurney” (probable OCR rendering of Stephen Gurney); England, Norfolk, Legal collection. Machine-transcript level; full-resolution image read pending. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  10. Paleography reads, June 2026, of the three NCC will-register Gurney sightings and the 1608 Norwich depositions. 16a (ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSN8-YRB3): “Clement Gurney gent” and the £40/£20 bond of 21 Nov. 1622 confirmed; testator unidentified on the continuation page (will located across images 363–365 = packet 20, pending). 16b (ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSND-T9KS-K): “John Gurneys house” boundary near Langley/Carpsham and wife Marion/Maryon confirmed; beneficiary son’s surname reads Aggas[?] (machine “Pagan”), unresolved; testator unidentified. 16c (ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSN8-YF6X): false positive — testator is Robert Webber of Great Ellingham, yeoman, will 20 Feb. 1629/30, no Gurney named. Packet 14 (DGS 004389252, arks 3:1:S3HY-696W-*): “Robertus Gurney” confirmed as a deponent/witness heading but age/residence/occupation not legibly recovered; London-yeoman (1605), Suffolk-tag, and Adams-testator references present but unreadable to a name; “Gourn[ed] Cropley” confirmed not a person (formulaic Latin). Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  11. FamilySearch Full-Text Search, Norwich Consistory Court registered-copy will registers, films/DGS resolved from catalogue record koha:278818: 1624–25 (vol. 119–120) = 008470970; 1626 (vol. 121) = 008219670; 1627–28 (vol. 122–123) = 008076511; 1629/1630 original wills = 008076512 / 008076513; 1631–32 (vol. 124–125) = 008076514; 1633 (vol. 126) = 008472222; 1634 (vol. 127) = 008076861; 1635 (vol. 128) = 008472223; 1636 (vol. 129) = 008076860; 1637 (vol. 130) = 008076859. Machine-transcript reads, 2026-06-14; full-resolution images staged in sources/intake/paleography-staging/ (packets 14, 16). Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  12. Expert paleographic reports, 2026-06-11: sources/corpus_supplement/paleo-2026-06-packet-07-east-dereham-margarete-gurner-1636-transcription.md (court 10 Oct. 1636, “quondam Margarete Gurner vid[uae]” in Hugh Browne’s surrender; film 004389483 image 1632); packet-09-east-dereham-michael-gurney-1697-transcription.md (13 May 1697, “prout nup’ in tenura Mathei Gurney”; the page’s Margaret is Castleton); packet-08-...md (1662/1665 page unresolved — courts of 21 July 1662 and 22 Jan. 1665 legible, Gurney target visually buried). Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  13. Paleography/full-text pass, June 2026 (packet 23). A Gurn*/Gourn*/Gorn* re-hunt of the East Dereham 1623–1689 court book (DGS 004389483) for a pre-October-1636 male Gurney surfaced only the already-known 1636/1640/1662/1694 cards — no new earlier male. On the later book (DGS 004389277), an image read of a court dated 31 Aug. 1758 (ark 3:1:S3HT-6179-2PP, image 867) reads a customary messuage and ~21¾ acres in East Dereham “late in the Tenure of Michael Gurney”; master at sources/media/east-dereham-court-books-fts/_local/dereham-1758-michael-gurney-recital-2PP.jpg. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎ ↩︎

  14. FamilySearch Full-Text Search, query “Gurney” scoped to image group (DGS) 004389277, “East Dereham. Court Records 1689–1820,” 19 results reviewed 2026-06-09; snippets at machine-transcript level (Latin entries garbled; the tenure formulas and names Margery/Michael/Richard are consistent across independent entries). Volume entry point: ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6179-KKL. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  15. FamilySearch Full-Text Search, query “Gurney” scoped to image group (DGS) 004389483 (“Deopham. Court Records 1645–1682 | Denver. Court Records 1613–1901 | East Dereham. Court Records 1623–1689”), 9 results reviewed 2026-06-09; machine-transcript level, Latin entries heavily garbled; years as displayed by the result cards. Volume entry point: ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-D1S9-7CR. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  16. FamilySearch Full-Text Search film-scoped queries, 2026-06-10: films 004389483 and 004389277 each swept with Gurny, Gurnye, Gurnay, Gournay, Gurnie, Gurnoe, Garny, Garney, Gourney, and Gurn* (13 and 22 cards respectively, all reviewed); G?rn?* rejected as a probe (≥100 cards, swamped by the common surname Garner). Global probes: +Gurn* +"East Dereham", +Gurn* +Dereham, +Gurn* +Derham, each with the 1600s century filter. Machine-transcript level throughout; years as displayed on result cards. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  17. Expert report packet-02-john-gurney-earsham-will-1638-verification.md: wife Mary (twice legible); son takes at fourteen; “Eursham” verified; no second parish-name. Corrections applied to sources/corpus_supplement/ncc-will-1638-john-gurney-earsham-working-transcription.md. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  18. Will of John Gurney of Earsham, Norfolk, yeoman, 10 Aug. 1638, Norwich-circuit will register p. 168 (FamilySearch film 008076858, images 454–455); read 2026-06-10 from the full-resolution images; the “Earsham” parish reading ~85–90%, corroborated by the executor’s “St Andrews” abode. Full citation apparatus on the subject file and corpus supplement linked in the body. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  19. Norwich-register will witnessed by Edmund Gurney, c.1638, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39Z-Y5DQ (surfaced by +Gurn* +Harpley, 1600s filter); abstract of William Smith of Great Massingham (D: 19 June 1643, P: 19 Aug. 1645, Norwich register “1644-5: 215”) naming Edm: Gurnay and Ellen Gournay, film 008480295, image 41, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39V-K2LV. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  20. Expert reports packet-03 (“Johannes Gurne et Johannes Bower,” 21 Jan. 1674/5; “land of John Gurney, gentleman” abuttal), packet-04 (“John Gurney sen,” April 1659, court of Anthony Dobbs of Marsham, esq.), packet-05 (1634 “Gurny” = Jernegan, false positive), packet-06 (orchard presentment of John Gurne, 14 April 1629; “22 Caroli” rejected), same directory. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  21. Norwich Court of Mayoralty books 1659–1699 (film/DGS 004397534), Gurn* sweep of 18 cards 2026-06-11: 1675 Perham petition at image 527, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DT3H-DH; Edmund Gurnee market order 1690 (ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DT34-44); “John Gurney 293” margin by the 15 June 1692 court (image 861, ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DT3W-VQ); 1694 civic list “Mr Gurner.” Remaining cards are transcription noise. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  22. Suffolk County, Massachusetts Deeds 1678–1683, FamilySearch film 007442497: 1671 Thayer-holding recital at ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9ZS-1SDD; grantor index (image 426) “Gourney, John, 80. Elizabeth, 343.” adjacent to “Green … Sarah, 343”; Gurnell-of-Dorchester deeds passim (Jane Gurnell executrix, 1682). Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  23. FamilySearch Full-Text Search (familysearch.org/search/full-text), query “John Gurney” (exact phrase), Year filter 1600s bucket, 134 results, both pages reviewed 2026-06-09. Century-bucket year filtering reflects OCR-read dates inside documents, so some hits are 18th–20th-century volumes quoting 1600s dates and some genuine 1600s items carry no year; snippets quoted as displayed, OCR-imperfect. Image-level verification pending for every item above. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  24. Provenance per Daniel Gurney, The Record of the House of Gournay (1848); Norfolk Record Office catalogue, “Miscellaneous MSS collections of Sir Henry Spelman” (MS 7197); University of Kansas, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, “Spelman-Macro miscellany” (MS E107); Folger Shakespeare Library “Macro Manuscripts” provenance notes; web research 2026-05-29. Discovery trail; the pedigree leaf’s present shelfmark is unverified. ↩︎

  25. Edmund Gurney biography per Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), “Gurney, Edmund (d. 1648)”; NCC will-index availability per the Norfolk Record Society publications list and HathiTrust catalogue records for the Farrow/Barton indexes; FamilySearch Full-Text Search pass 2026-05-29. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎