These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Finding
Reconstructed family group: Mary, Richard and John Jr. English-born, Sarah doubtful, Peter and Isaac American-born
John Gurney's children are a reconstructed family group, and no single colonial record enumerates them. Three are securely English-born: Mary, born by 1631 and fixed independently by her own 1647 marriage; Richard, about 1630, the direct-line G12; and John Jr., about 1633. Sarah is doubtful on her own account — she is the only member of the roster with no record attesting that she lived, and she is absent from the standard survey of New England marriages before 1700. Peter and Isaac were almost certainly born in New England: England-wide baptism sweeps return no Peter Gurney baptism anywhere in Great Britain between 1627 and 1647 and no Isaac between 1632 and 1652, and both first appear in colonial records. All were born to his first wife Mary. The group is assembled from compiled genealogies (Sprague, the Weymouth town history, Rigler) and per-child primary records.
Date: children born c. 1628 (England) to c. 1643 (Massachusetts)
Why this conclusion
- Supported by Evidence Torrey p. 331 cross-check of the John1 family groupTorrey's family-group page independently corroborates the roster and John1's own dates.
- Synthesized by Analysis Shared matching-criteria profile: tailor, wife Mary, three English-born children, birth c.1602–1608, gone from England by 1641The reconstructed five-child roster is one strand of the shared matching-criteria profile.
- Required by Analysis John named no child Francis — the strongest naming-pattern argument against Candidate BThe absence is read off the reconstructed child roster (Sarah, Mary, Richard, John Jr., Peter).
- Required by Finding John Jr. and Ruth's Mendon household, 1671-1676The household finding rests on the family-group roster's identification of John Jr. as a son of John Gurney-1.
- Required by Finding Peter's King Philip's War service and 1676 deathPeter's identification rests on the family-group roster's identification of Peter as a son of John Gurney-1.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualified by Analysis Isaac (c. 1643) most plausibly John-1's son, by elimination (moderate)Isaac is the uncertain sixth member; the by-elimination identification qualifies the roster's completeness.
Related context
- Context from Analysis Ackworth held at a residual ~3%: the only wife-name match, capped by naming and corridor mismatchesThe colonial John's own five-child roster (Sarah b. c.1628) is what bounds his first marriage to before 1628, capping Ackworth's fit.
- Context from Finding Candidate C is two men: C(i) eliminated on age, C(ii) held at a low probabilityThe elimination turns on comparing the Berkhamsted children against the colonial five-child roster.
Sources
- Chamberlain, George Walter, and Channing Harris Cox, comps. History of Weymouth, Massachusetts. 4 vols. Published by the Weymouth Historical Society (Howard H. Joy, President), under direction of the town. Weymouth, Mass.: Weymouth Historical Society, 1923. Vol. 3 carries the Genealogy of Weymouth families (John Gurney Sr. and Richard Gurney entries)., vol. 3, p. 251, John Gurney family entry
- Rigler, Jean Gurney. The Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius: A Genealogical Dictionary; Some Descendants of Richard Gurney Who Settled at Weymouth, MA before 1656. Rev. and expanded ed. Honolulu, Hawaii: J. G. Rigler, 1994., John Gurney-1 children entry
- Sprague, Waldo Chamberlain. Genealogies of the Families of Braintree, Mass., 1640–1850. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001., p. 695, John Gurney entry (children Sarah, Mary, Richard, John, Peter)
Appears in
- John Gurney fact sheet — Children: the family group of Sarah, Mary, Richard, John Jr., and Peter (plus the uncertain Isaac), all born to first wife Mary.
- John Gurney identity case file — Section 1's baseline fact table and the note following it: Mary, Richard and John Jr. born in England with Sarah possible; Peter and Isaac first appearing in colonial records; Sarah doubtful on her own account.
Topic file location: Family — the children as a family group
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000065 - Graph revision:
381 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000065.json
This is one research item from the John Gurney research graph; the fuller narrative treatment is in the linked topic above and the research library.