These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Finding
Candidate landscape: 45 eliminated, 5 unlikely, Candidate B the sole survivor; probability model external-canonical
Applying the shared matching-criteria profile and elimination scaffold across the full record sweep reduces the field to one surviving named candidate. Of 51 documented same-name English John Gurney households surfaced by the sweeps, three principal alternatives (Candidates A, C, and D) and 45 further households in the same-name clearance sweep are eliminated on structural grounds, and five single-attestation households are held at a low residual rather than eliminated outright. The 1636 Newgate apprentice, already de-conflated from the Braintree emigrant elsewhere in this graph on family-status and chronology grounds, carries no weight in the distribution. Candidate B is the only candidate the profile does not eliminate. The household-by-household enumeration of the cleared field is published in the identity case file at §8 and §8.6, cross-referenced as the master list rather than replicated here; the case file's own probability assessment for Candidate B, including its residual unknown-corridor estimate, is its own argument-specific synthesis and is likewise held external-canonical.
Why this conclusion
- Synthesizes Analysis Shared matching-criteria profile: tailor, wife Mary, five named children, birth c.1602–1610, gone from England by 1641The candidate-landscape outcome is the result of applying the matching-criteria profile.
- Synthesizes Analysis The elimination scaffold: structural grounds, not a blanket same-surname suspicionThe candidate-landscape outcome is the result of applying the elimination scaffold.
- Synthesized by Analysis The identification is reached by elimination and circumstantial fit, and predicts its own thin recordThe candidate-landscape outcome is half of what the identification rests on.
Related context
- Provides context for Negative result Negative: no record states John's English originNo colonial record states John's English origin directly, which is why elimination-by-profile across the full same-name field, rather than a direct record, is the only route to a candidate conclusion.
- Context from Analysis The unknown-corridor residual: eliminating named households does not clear the record's gapsThe candidate-landscape finding clears named households; this analysis states what that leaves uncleared.
Sources
- Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640: A Concise Compendium. 2nd ed. Boston: NEHGS, 2025., p. 158, John Gurney entry, bracketed documentary basis [WJ 2:422; MBCR 1:331; NEHGR 62:94; SPR Case #338; Weymouth Hist 3:251; TAG 10:70-73]
- Findmypast search-results bundle for John Gurney with surname variants (Gurney, Gurny, Gourney, Garney, Garnes, Garneys, Garrne, Gernne, Gerne, Girney, Girny, Guerne, Gourny, Gorme, Grune, Grone, Grine, Grene, Gurnoe), 1620-1680, across the following sets: England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975; England Deaths & Burials 1538-1991; England Marriages 1538-1973; National Burial Index for England & Wales; Bedfordshire Burials; Bedfordshire Baptisms; Bedfordshire Marriages; Buckinghamshire Burial Index; Buckinghamshire Baptism Index; Buckinghamshire Marriage Index; Berkshire Probate Index; Berkshire Baptisms Index; Britain Marriage Licences; Norfolk Burials; Norfolk Baptisms; Norfolk Monumental Inscriptions 1600-1900s Index; Norfolk Wills & Probate; Hertfordshire Banns & Marriages; Hertfordshire Probate Records Index; Yorkshire Burials; Westminster Burials; Northamptonshire And Rutland Probate Index; London Docklands and East End Baptisms., May 2026 supplementary same-name sweep; twelve Gurney surname variants across eighteen English parish, burial, probate, and licence collections
- The National Archives, Kew, Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills and related probate acts referencing Gurney testators or kin 1577-1682: PROB 11/382/271 (John Gurney, merchant, St Botolph without Aldgate, will 23 April 1666); PROB 11/372/123 (John Gurney, yeoman, Winkfield, Berkshire, will 7 November 1682); PROB 11/337/37 (sentence of John Gurney of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, later 17th c.); PROB 11/347/122 (Daniell Gurney of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 1669); PROB 11/260/14 (Anne Gurney, widow of Eythorne, Kent, 20 November 1656, probate 1657/8); PROB 11/338/493 (Richard Gurney, labourer of London, 1 March 1674/5); PROB 11/252/319 (John Gurney, yeoman of East Grinstead, 24 February 1654/5); PROB 11/241/246 and PROB 11/242/723 (John Gurney, shepherd, of East Chilton / East Chiltington, Sussex, mid-1650s); PROB 11/252/152 (William Gurney, sons John, Abell, Walter, London, mid-1650s); PROB 11/335/425 (John Gurney, husbandman, of Albury, Hertfordshire, 1676); PROB 11/201/723 (Sir Richard Gurney, knight, mid-17th c.); PROB 11/54/173 (Tobias Gurney and Edward Gurney, 1577)., Thirteen PCC probate items 1577–1682; seven fix distinct John Gurneys living in England after 1637
Appears in
- John Gurney identity case file — States the candidate-table outcome: Candidates A, C, D eliminated, the same-name clearance sweep eliminated, five single-attestation households held at a low residual, Candidate B the sole survivor.
- John Gurney identity case file — Cross-references the case file's own probability model for Candidate B (external-canonical) without restating its figures.
Topic file location: Identity — candidate overview
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000106 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000106.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.