Genealogy Chat

You're right I can't be sure, but it's an assumption based on his descendants, but you're right in saying he may have had money.

I downloaded the will and Apollonia was given two thousand pounds from her father William.

Just a thought.

If you are going by the IGI how can you tell what "class" George Dove belongs to?

Even the wealthy and titled tend to be listed under their names only on parish registers.

Sue

For the wills available online go to
http://www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk/

Search under wills and put in Widdrington. 25 appear there and one is the will of The Right Honorable William Lord Widdrington Baron of Blankney 04 May 1695
Others appear to be Blankney Widdringtons too.

It will cost you £3.50 to download any you are interested in.

The Lincolnshire Records Office may have more available but you'd have to contact them to find out how to get copies.



The IGI is very patchy for UK parishes and just because you can't see another Apollonia doesn't mean they don't exist I'm afraid.

Stirnet tends to be fairly accurate though I have found some errors on lines I've looked at in the past.

Sue

I have also looked through the entire list on IGI for Apollonias born around the rough birth date and she is the only one anywhere near Caythorpe.

I have a problem that stirnet.com says Apollonia then (nun), but I don't know about the creditability of this.

Thanks for the links I'm about to look in a second. No I haven't looked wills, how would I be able to find some?

Sounds like the money went with the title and estates!

In that case Apollonia may have been grateful to find a husband.

Sue

I have found some Widdringtons on this site
http://www.genealogics.org/index.php

This is an excellent database but doesn't have every link.

I also looked at a Lincolnshire database and found one Widdrington and a number of Doves
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=linclinks

It may be that George Dove had some money or perhaps it was a love match. I would have thought Apollonia's father or mother (or perhaps a sibling) might have mentioned her in a will. Have you looked at her family wills?

Sue
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Please note: I have no record of their marriage but as they had multiple children, I assume they were.

I was just thinking that her brothers were involved with the Jacobite rising, quote from wikipedia: "He took part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, and with two of his brothers was taken prisoner after the Battle of Preston. He was convicted of high treason and condemned to death but he was reprieved and although his title and estates were forfeited, he was not executed, but was allowed to retire to Bath." I think it is possible this may have influenced Apollonia in some way because a lot of the family's money was gone.

Thanks for your help.

She is the second born of the Widdrington family, she lived at Blankney hall, the hall was a considerable estate but was destroyed in a fire in the 1800s. Her family were strict Catholics. Her father was a baron and she is related to sirs and lords too and eventually royalty. Her father died much before when she would have married, her brother William took over as baron.

I know for certain the man (George Dove) married a woman called Apollonia and they had their children in Caythorpe 13 miles from Blankney.

I think that might depend on how much money there was in the family.

Younger children of wealthy people and nobles tended not to inherit as much as the eldest child (especially the eldest son) and might have ended up marrying someone whose family background was from a lower social class.

One of my family branches went from Royalty in the Middle Ages to ag lab in Victorian times on some lines.

However........marriages were often more contracts between families rather than love matches and I think parents would have encouraged their children to marry well. You only have to read Jane Austin to realise that in Georgian England it was considered really important to try to marry someone with wealth if possible.

Meanwhile the newly rich would have tried to marry off their children to people with titles. My 8x great grandfather was the younger son (by a second wife) of an Earl and he married a woman with no title but who was from a family of rich merchants. He wrote in his memoirs how much he hated her and how peevish she was despite the great favour he'd done her!

If the woman in your family was a wealthy widow and in charge of her own wealth then perhaps she could marry who she liked for love but it would have been less likely as a first marriage I think unless the "lower class" husband had made his fortune somehow.

Sue
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I forgot to add that the woman in my research is of higher class and the man is of the lower class.

I was wondering how common it would be in the early 1700s for a 'common' person to marry someone of higher class status?