These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Open question
The 28 June 1638 Richard Gurney burial: three readings, and only the register image discriminates
A Richard Gurney was buried at Great Berkhamsted on 28 June 1638, and which Richard he is decides whether the younger John survives as a candidate at all. Three readings are open. He may be the Richard baptised there 15 December 1626 to a father John - in which case the candidate's best name-match child died in England at eleven while the colonial Richard Gurney of Weymouth was alive and a freeman into the 1680s, and the candidate collapses outright. He may be Richarde Gurney baptised 1635 to the neighbouring Thomas household, a three-year-old whose death in a mortality year is equally consistent with the entry. Or he may be an adult Richard of the parish never baptised there, which is the weakest reading, since no Richard Gurney baptism other than 1626 and 1635 appears in the whole run. The index cannot discriminate: the burial transcript carries name, date and place only, with no age and no parent. The register image normally gives 'son of', and it is the discriminator.
Why this conclusion
- Depends on Evidence Great Berkhamsted held four contemporaneous Gurney households, distinguished by the father's forenameOnly the four-household reading of the parish keeps the 1635 Thomas-household Richard in play as an alternative reading of the 1638 burial.
- Required by Open question Four records would settle Berkhamsted, and all four are offline pullsThe register image is the first of the four settling records precisely because the burial reading is open.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualified by Finding Standing: C(i) eliminated on age at about 1 percent, C(ii) held at about 4 percentThe 4 percent is conditional on the June 1638 Richard not being his own son.
Sources
- Hertfordshire Baptisms, parish-register baptism records, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies; served via Findmypast., Richard Gurney 1626 (father John) and Richarde Gurney 1635 (father Thomas); no other Richard Gurney baptism at Berkhamsted in the run
- Hertfordshire Burials, parish-register burial records and images, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies; served via Findmypast. Great Berkhamsted, 28 June 1638 burial entry on viewer page 165 of 175, record GBPRS/HERT/007567815/00277., Transcript GBPRS/D/72723126, Richard Gurney, burial 28 June 1638, Berkhamstead, read 28 July 2026
Appears in
- John Gurney identity case file — Section 11, 'What would change these numbers', makes C(ii)'s row turn on whether the 28 June 1638 burial entry reads 'son of John' or 'son of Thomas'.
Topic file location: Identity — Berkhamsted: Candidates C(i) and C(ii)
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000214 - Graph revision:
381 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000214.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.