These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
This page expands an Evidence link in Origin — traditions: the findings, sources, and qualifications behind the marked passage.
Evidence
American tradition: John Gurney born 29 Sept 1615, Southwark/"Brent" origin
Three American genealogical sources give John Gurney a birth of 29 September 1615 in England: American Biography (1926), locating him "probably from Southwark, near London Bridge"; the Lysander Franklin Gurney sketch (1912, an earlier printing of the same tradition, framing John as John Newgate's apprentice); and a Find a Grave memorial (no. 252975617), locating the birth in the anachronistic modern place name "London Borough of Brent, Greater London" (Brent was created in 1965 and cannot describe a seventeenth-century parish). All three repeat the identical date across compilations a century apart.
Why this conclusion
- Supports Finding Family/compiler memory about John Gurney misattaches real facts, rather than inventing themIllustrates family memory preserving a real biography attached to the wrong man.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualified by Analysis The 1615/Southwark tradition belongs to Newgate's apprentice, not the emigrantThe Newgate-apprentice reading explains the tradition rather than confirming it, and weighs directly against treating it as data about John's own birth or origin.
Related context
- Context from Evidence Find a Grave burial-place lead: Elm Street Cemetery, BraintreeThe same memorial that carries the unreliable birth/origin tradition also supplies a separate, uncorroborated burial-place datum worth checking on its own terms.
Sources
- AccessGenealogy. "Ancestry of Lysander Franklin Gurney." Transcription from Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1912)., AccessGenealogy transcription of Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts (1912): 29 Sept 1615 birth, John as John Newgate's apprentice
- American Biography: A New Cyclopedia. Illustrated vol. 26. New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1926, David Allston Gurney/Gurney family entry, pp. 230-255., vol. 26 (1926), David Allston Gurney/Gurney family entry, pp. 230-255: birth 29 Sept 1615, "probably from Southwark, near London Bridge"
- Find a Grave, memorial 252975617, John Gurney, Elm Street Cemetery, Braintree, Norfolk County, Massachusetts., memorial 252975617: birth 29 Sept 1615, "London Borough of Brent, Greater London, England"; death 16 March 1663 Braintree
Technical details
- Evidence marker:
G13-PM-000067 - Primary research item:
G13-RI-000098 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/marker-bundles/G13-PM-000067.json