These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Finding
Born c.1602-1610 (probably c.1603-08)
John Gurney was born about 1602-1610, most probably about 1604-1608. Three independent estimators of his birth year - his 1652/3 deposition age, the identity work's probable East Dereham baptism (a 'John son of ffrancis Gurnie' about 1609/10), and the bound set by his daughter Mary's 1647 marriage - overlap around 1604-1608, the most probable window, and widen to about 1602-1610 at their possible extremes. A fourth handle, the September 1611 marriage of his probable parents, sits in tension with the baptism reading rather than adding a vote. No colonial record states his birth or age beyond the deposition, and his baptism is not independently fixed apart from the contested Norfolk register reading.
Date: b. c.1602-1610 (probably c.1603-08)
Why this conclusion
- Depends on Finding First wife Mary (maiden name unknown), m. England by mid-1620s, d. Braintree 20 Sep 1661The older end of the birth window rests on John's marriage by the later 1620s, the bound carried on the first-wife finding in the marriages unit (from daughter Mary's 1647 Braintree marriage).
- Supported by Analysis The deposition age is decade-rounded (age heaping)Allowing for decade-rounding widens the deposition into a band that underwrites the birth window rather than a single 1602/3 point.
- Synthesized by Analysis Shared matching-criteria profile: tailor, wife Mary, five named children, birth c.1602–1610, gone from England by 1641The c.1602-1610 birth-window finding is one strand of the shared matching-criteria profile.
- Supported by Evidence 1652/3 'aged 50' depositionThe 1652/3 deposition age is the primary same-person anchor for the birth window and fixes its older end at c.1602/3.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualified by Analysis Reconciling the deposition age and the baptism readingThe reconciliation analysis qualifies the birth window by weighing the deposition age against the younger East Dereham baptism reading and the marriage bound.
- Qualified by Evidence Parents' marriage: Francis Gurney x Margaret Rybett, 1611The 1611 parents' marriage is the softest, latest-pulling handle on the birth window and flags the chronological strain in the East Dereham picture.
Related context
- Context from Analysis The 1615/Southwark tradition belongs to Newgate's apprentice, not the emigrantExplains why the tradition's 1615 birth date conflicts with the deposition-based birth window, rather than adding a competing age vote to it.
Appears in
- John Gurney fact sheet — The published Person vitals give John's birth as about 1607-1612 (the East Dereham-baptism reading), a value inside this finding's window; this finding is the canonical home of the birth-date conclusion the vitals summarise.
Topic file location: Origin — age and baptism
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000070 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000070.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.