Gwavas/Guaveis and Head/Hand...? T

[Mal]

Conundrums...conundrums....!!!!

I have William Pollard of Madron, bapt 1730 marrying Elizabeth Head in 1758. On Rootsweb someone has info indicating Elizabeth Hand and a marriage of 1744. Hmm... could it be possible to marry at 14 years old in the 18th century? Or does this seem to you as it does to me, someone has misread Head for "Hand"- possible given the illegibility of some of the primary sources? Interestingly in 1749 John Pollard marries Margaret Beckerleg, who seems to be the daughter of Barzaillai Beckerleg and, wait for it... Margaret Head. Doesn't this suggest some kind of family relation? I would be interested to know your thoughts on this one.

Margaret Head seems to be the son of John Head and Margaret Guaveis. This last person seems quite interesting. I have her as being born 28th Feb 1696 but baptised the 8th March 1725 at Sennen, recorded as an adult baptism... Why would this be so? Why would she have been baptised at the age of 29? Any ideas, were they Catholics perhaps and thus required a CofE baptism in order to marry in church? I am quite puzzled by this one as I have not come across it before!!!

Furthermore, can we assume Guaveis to be a variant of Gwavas/Guavas. I have a tenuous link between Margaret and Robert Guavas of Paul, born 1666 and then (parents) Gregory Guavas born 1630 married to Jane. Does anyone have any clues about the Gwavas family? I know there is an area of Penzance that is called Gwavas but the name does seem quite unusual.

Thanks in advance!!!!

[Cornish Terrier]

Well Malcom - just where to start.

Might simply try to work in the order you have made your enquiry so it should flow better.

Firstly - I suggest you ignore the Rootsweb reference as far as this discussion is concerned.
Rootsweb, like IGI can be very misleading at times. (I was only looking for something in IGI last night that shows this - I have reference of a Will for one Daniel Davies who died about 1776. He left his bequests to wife Catherine and daughter Elizabeth (now Jennings). I have now found that Daniel DAVIS married Catherine STEVENS in 1770 or 1771 and that Elizabeth was from his first marriage in 1751. IGI shows Daniel DAVIS born 'abt.' 1756 so someone is completely lost!)

Now, before I tell you what I know of William POLLARD.

Were there TWO marriages of a John POLLARD to a Margaret BECKERLEG - My records show that John POLLARD married Margaret BECKERLEG 7th May 1785 at Paul.

This John was the son of the subject of your enquiry.

William POLLARD was baptised at Madron 30th January 1730 s/o John POLLARD and Ann (nee RODDA).
John was baptised at Morvah 10th August 1684 s/o John and his (currently) unknown wife and had siblings Florence, William, John and Jacob that I am aware of.

From the information I have William was the youngest of eight children all of whom were baptised at Madron except Phillis who was baptised at Paul in 1721.

Elizabeth HEAD was baptised 1st January 1732 at Paul (Jelbart Society/IGI) d/o John HEAD and Constance (nee GILBERT).

Interestingly in 1749 John Pollard marries Margaret Beckerleg, who seems to be the daughter of Barzaillai Beckerleg and, wait for it... Margaret Head. Doesn't this suggest some kind of family relation? I would be interested to know your thoughts on this one.

AHA! - now I see the problem with John POLLARD/MargaretBECKERLEG - you seem (I think) to have given the incorrect date.

Barzillai BECKERLEG married Margaret HEAD 19th October 1749 at Paul.

Margaret was the daughter of John HEAD from his FIRST marriage to Margaret GWAVAS.

John and Margaret were married 23rd April 1726 at Sennen and Margaret was buried there 3rd April 1727.

Margaret HEAD baptised 8th March 1725 at Sennen (born 28th February 1696 d/o Robert GWAVAS and Rachel (nee REED).

Robert GWAVAS married Rachel REED, of Sennen, 3rd November 1694 at Paul.

Rachel was the daughter of Tobias REED.

As for the adult baptism - this is something I have seen several times and usually seems to coincide with an impending marriage although I cannot say that I am sure of the reason.

Perhaps more interesting is that two known sisters of Margaret (Jane and Rachel) were baptised at Sennen 22nd March 1717.
Jane was born 9th February 1698.
Rachel was born 28th June 1701.

Now I wonder if this has anything to do with the Quakers.

I would suggest the high likelihood that Rachel Reed's father, Tobias, was the son of George and Ann READ - this was one of the Quaker families of whom you will find information in West Penwith Resources and was discussed in another thread a couple of months ago.

1658: Tobias Read of Sennen son of George & Ann Read to Margaret Thomas
of Market Jew (Marazion) dau of John & Francis Thomas.

The eldest of three daughters I have for Robert and Rachel GWAVAS was named Margaret and I suspect she was named for Rachel's mother.
The next daughter was Jane and she would have been named for Robert's mother.

So were these adult baptisms actually 'second' baptisms because the girls had originally been baptised as Quakers and were not recognised by the Established Church.

Refer to yesterday's discussions re the variations of the name - but I would say that these are all GWAVAS variations.

I have not done much work on the GWAVAS family but I note there are only 74 events for them recorded in IGI.
The bulk of these events are at Penzance and then Paul but there were several entries for Sithney also.

Finally - I should tell you what I know of Constance GILBERT, second wife of John HEAD.

She was baptised 6th March 1697 at Morvah d/o William GILBERT and Elizabeth (nee DAVYE).

William was baptised at Morvah 12th August 1666 s/o William GILBERT and Margaret (nee PENBERTHY).

William was baptised at Morvah 24th September 1630 s/o Thomas and Blanch.

Some of this information was from the Jelbert Society and other from my cousin Nancy in Truro (interested in Pollard and Jeffery amongst others).

The remainder I have worked on myself as further resources/information became available and I am 'reasonably confident' of the whole scenario.

[Mal]

Right, it took me three readings but I think I can see what has happened here!!! This makes my family tree more of a family ivy bush at the moment!!!!

Are we talking about the same John Head, as I understand it the selfsame John Head marries twice, Constance Gilbert and Margaret Gwavas. This would mean that Elizabeth and Margaret Head were half sisiters.

Elizabeth marries William Pollard, Margaret marries Barzallai Beckerleg and their grandchildren, John Pollard and Margaret Beckerleg marry each other? Thus John Pollard and Margaret Beckerleg were sort of cousins?

Another interesting thing is this takes back the line to William Gilbert and Margaret Penberthy from whom another one of my tree, Thomas Gilbert who marries Margaret Pollard Gilbert is descended. They'm all blimmin cousins!!!

Let me know if I have got the right idea as it is all getting just a BIT confusing at this stage!!! LOL!!!

Thanks for the help!!!

[Mal]

Ps Just one extra little question....

Margaret HEAD nee GWAVAS baptised 8th March 1725 daughter of John Head and Margaret Gwavas married 1726? We seem to be a year out or I am being thick.... !!!!

[white]

Hi Malcolm,
Margaret was baptised 3rd.april 1727,
Roy

[Mal]

White--- err wasn't she buried on that date?

[Cornish Terrier]

Margaret GWAVAS was born 28th February 1696.

She was baptised at Sennen 8th March 1725.

She married John HEAD 23rd April 1726.

Her daughter, Margaret, was baptised at Sennen 3rd April 1727.

Margaret HEAD (nee GWAVAS) was buried at Sennen 3rd April 1727.

Does this help?

Also - your understanding of my earlier note is quite correct.

[londoner]

Been looking at Sennen records
Burials 1720 Symon Head
1725 Penelopie Head
would it be unreasonable to suppose that these were the parents of:
Simon m 1711 Grace Betty
Penelope m 1718 Peter Dinnis
Ursula m 1721 William Humphrys (my preferred spelling)
Joseph m 1724 Rebecca Vingoe
John m 1726 Margaret Gwavas

[Cornish Terrier]

Not unreasonable at all.

There is no guarantee that Symon and Penelope were husband and wife, of course, but as a starting point I think the scenario is worth considering.

One interesting question - where did this family come from and how long had they been at Sennen?

There is no-one of that name there in 1641 or during the Hearth Tax years from what I can see and IGI shows the bulk of entries 'up East'.

A check of the 1641 Protestation Returns and the Hearth Tax lists for the area West of the Hayle might prove helpful.
I have all the ProtRets for that area but only a few of the Hearth Tax lists.

Maybe a few of us with interests in the area of Sennen, St Levan etc. should get together and see what we can make of this family.

[londoner]

1545 Subsidy for Sennen has John Hett - intesresting crossover of names - Abraham, Joseph, Simon with the Helston/St Hilary Head families.
but no connection I can find at the moment - any wills?

[Mal]

I am pretty convinced about the Head hypothesis, as usual we need the concrete proof which just ain't there!!! Interesting as it would suggest a lot of other links to Quakers, Vingoes and the families at Paul/Sennen/St just.

[Cornish Terrier]

I have not yet checked for Wills but it is the logical way to go given we have very little prior to 1700 for Sennen/St Levan apart from some Quaker information.

We need to get a look at every Sennen/St Levan Will we can find and gather the information to try and build up a picture of those Parishes.

And we must not forget Wills from other Parishes where people from Sennen and St Levan are mentioned.