These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Finding
A Gurney copyhold household existed at East Dereham before Francis Gurney's residence years: the widow Margery Gurney, whose will was proved in the archdeaconry court in 1602-03 and whose former Ellingfield tenancy the manor courts still recited in 1627 and 1636. An established Gurney presence in John's birth parish therefore predates his c. 1609/10 baptism by a generation, though by his boyhood it survived only as a parcel memory.
Why this conclusion
- Supported by Evidence Margery Gurney (indexed "Gurnye"), widow, of East Dereham proved a will in 1602-03 in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk, the humble-estates court - register Liber 35 (Offwood), fo. 191. Her widowhood places a Gurney husband dead in the parish before 1602, years before Francis Gurney's documented residence began. Index-level: the register film is affiliate-restricted, so the will text (which could name her husband and children) is unread.The 1602-03 archdeaconry will of the East Dereham widow is the probate half of the pre-Francis household evidence.
- Supported by Evidence The East Dereham manor courts of 3 April 1627 (folio 25) and 10 October 1636 (folio 132) each recite copyhold land at Ellingfield in East Dereham as formerly of Margery/Margaret Gurney, widow ("terram nuper Margerie Gurney vidue"; "terram quondam Margarete Gurney vidue") - boundary clauses read at full resolution, showing a Gurney copyhold tenancy in the parish that was already a past reference by 1627.The 1627/1636 Ellingfield abuttals independently document the widow's former copyhold at manor-court level.
- Required by Analysis The pre-existing Gurney household at East Dereham is the most economical explanation yet found for why Francis Gurney settled his first family there rather than near the Great Ellingham/West Barsham seats, and it removes any residual oddity in a Gurney child being baptised in that parish. It supplies context, not kinship: whether Margery's household connects to Francis's line is untested (her gated will is the test), and the complete 1585-1650 Norfolk probate census shows hers to be the only unplaced in-window Gurney probate - the whole parish-level probate signal.The why-East-Dereham reading rests on the pre-Francis household finding.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualified by Negative result An expert entry-level walk of the entire surviving East Dereham court book for 1623-1635 found the 3 April 1627 Margery-Gurney abuttal to be the only secure Gurney occurrence - no Gurney admission, surrender, presentment, or homage appearance, and no Rivett or Podmer form anywhere in the book. In John's own boyhood the family's connection to the manor was a remembered parcel, not an active tenancy, and no Rivett fostering household held East Dereham copyhold.By 1623-1635 the Gurney presence was a remembered parcel only - no active tenancy survived into John's boyhood.
Topic file location: Identity — Candidate B: Norfolk parentage
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000209 - Graph revision:
381 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000209.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.