G'day Trencrom and 'my dear Cousin'.
This may be a clue of some sort but I will need to 'resurrect' all my written/printed information to check on it.
As posted in another note last night, I intend (work and fire season being forgiving) to try and read through all postings on the Board in the early New Year.
I am not thinking as clearly as I would like at the moment but (may have already been mentioned) I think a collection of all occurrences of the names of Abigail and Hannibal within proximity of Zennor might be useful.
The 1640 mention by John Christopher in his Will is certainly within a 'reasonable' time-frame and should be included in our thinking.
'Abigail', in particular, may point to the name of an (as yet) unknown wife.
- and it 'could' help point to other relationships.
One to throw into the mix from a slightly later period:-
My ancestor, Martine TREWELLA (as per PR) married Alse PHILLIPS at Zennor 10th November 1688.
We know that 'Alse' was daughter of Francis and Jane Phillips from her father's Will.
Between Zenobia and myself (over quite some time) we determined that Martin was the son of Thomas TREWHEELA and Katherine BUSWIN who married at St Erth in 1651.
(Various other Wills have helped sort and support this theory so we believe it is quite sound.)
Look at the 'usual' practices of naming children in those times and it is 'generally' (but not always) found that the first children will be named after the parents and grandparents - thus giving, potentially, six names to choose from (three each for boys and girls).
In the case I am describing we have MARTIN whose parents are determined to be THOMAS and KATHERINE and ALSE whose parents were FRANCIS and JANE.
The list of children for Martin and Alse is:-
William
Thomas
Mary
Martin
Martin
Alice
Jane
Christopher
Catharine
Catherine
The first child was a son who was named WILLIAM.
Then Thomas who can be explained because that was the name of Martin's father.
Then we have MARY.
After this we have Martin (x2) and Alice which are easily explainable, and Jane (probably named after the mother of Alice).
But then we have CHRISTOPHER.
(I should think that may also be suggestive but have not really pursued it as yet.)
The last two (Catharine and Catherine) would appear obviously named after Martin's mother.
BTW - after the Zennor marriage this family all belongs at Towednack.
It should be noted that the name Francis does not appear here
yet it does appear a little later in the family of one of Martin Trewhella's cousins.
Given there were only five sons to Martin and Alse (of the two Martin's one died as an infant) we have something to think about.
And there were only four female names used.
Three of the female names (Alice, Jane and Catherine) account for mother Alice and the two grandmothers, Jane and Catherine.
Of the sons we find only Thomas and Martin as names involved in this family.
Of the remainder we have WILLIAM, MARY and CHRISTOPHER to consider.
None of these names had, to my knowledge, appeared in the Trewhella family West of Redruth prior to this. (A possibly separate family can be documented in the Redruth area back to the mid-1500's but there has yet been found now positive connection.)
So - where did these names come from and why were WILLIAM and MARY, in particular, used as names for the first son and first daughter of Martin and Alse.
The most simple, and obvious, answer must be that they were named for the King and Queen of England.
William of Orange and his wife, Mary, were the Monarchs and, from memory only, William was crowned King somewhere around the time Martin and Alse were married.
CHRISTOPHER - was the name Christopher used because of a connection with the family of that Surname.
I do not think so.
My opinion now is that he was probably named after Christopher TREWHELLA or Christopher COCK who both had dealings around the St Ives and Towednack area but were from the Helston/Wendron area at that time.
A Christopher Trewhella was named in Depositions relating to the Towednack area in about 1688 (have to search for details but believe that one was a deposition regarding one Andrew Rosewall).
My belief, although not yet proved, is that this Christopher Trewhella was a relative and that it was after he that Martin named his son..
Sorry to have drawn this out.
But it may be something worth considering whilst trying to determine the identies for the origins of the names of ABIGAIL and HANNIBAL in the area.
NOW - Zenobia had a query about the parentage of Hannibal Harry I believe. (Not game to switch screens to 'copy and paste' in case I lose all of this.)
I think this was the fellow who was buried at Morvah in 1690 and who had married Jane (unknown) c.1654.
This Hannibal HARRY was the son of Richard HARRY and Jone (nee TREMBATH) and was named in the Will of his grandfather, Maddern TREMBATH in 1616.
Think I had best finish this note now as I still have more to do.
Look forward to responses and feedback.
Ian