Evidence

1638 Earsham will: testator, wife Mary, son John a minor at fourteen, brother Syon/Lyon

John Gurney of Earsham ('Eursham'), Norfolk, yeoman, made his will on 10 August 1638, sick in body, holding messuages, lands, and tenements at Earsham both freehold and copyhold. His wife, Mary, was to hold the estate during their son's minority, then take a 4-pound annual annuity in lieu of dower. Their son, John, a minor, takes the whole estate at fourteen; if he died before twenty-one the estate passed instead to the testator's brother, named in the will's own text as 'Lyon Gurney' but read on a closer paleographic pass as Syon -- the same forename, and the same misreading trap, recurring across this family's later records. A second brother, Robert Gurney, was already dead by 1638, leaving four sons (including a William and a Robert) 5-pound legacies apiece; a brother-in-law, John Youngman of St Andrew's, served as co-executor alongside Syon. The will was proved at Norwich on 26 December 1639.

Confidence: High

Date: will made 10 Aug 1638; proved 26 Dec 1639

Topic file location: Identity — Other Eliminations and Earsham