These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Analysis
Candidate D: the redemption-not-patrimony puzzle, explained by a Stationers' apprenticeship
John's choice of the Drapers' Company redemption route in 1623/4, rather than the patrimony his father's 1581 freedom would ordinarily have earned him, is best explained by a prior apprenticeship in a different livery company: a Stationers' Company record binds a John Gurney apprentice to the stationer James Boler on 25 March 1613, with no later Stationers' freedom recorded under Boler. If this is the same man, an aborted or completed Stationers' term would make the 1623/4 Drapers' redemption the ordinary consequence rather than a puzzle, and the reading sits comfortably beside Robert's own choice of the stationer Joseph Henscott as a 1625 will overseer -- the same Hunscott/Henscott household still resident in St Augustine parish in 1638. No father's name survives on the 1613 binding to confirm the identification outright, so it stays a plausible explanation, not a proven one.
Date: 1613 Stationers' apprenticeship binding to 1623/4 Drapers' redemption
Why this conclusion
- Analyzes Evidence Candidate D: Robert Gurney's 1625 will and the 1623/4 Drapers' freedom by redemptionAnalyzes the redemption-not-patrimony anomaly identified in the identity-anchor item.
Sources
- Hunscot, Joseph. The Humble Petition and Information of Joseph Hunscot Stationer, To the Honourable Houses of Parliament Assembled. London, 1646. Wing H3728., Joseph Hunscot, Humble Petition and Information, 1646, Wing H3728
- Arber, Edward, editor. A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-1640. 5 vols. London: privately printed, 1875-1894., Arber Stationers' Registers transcript, vol. 3 raw entry for the 1613 Boler/Gurney binding -- not yet checked for a father name
- Records of London's Livery Companies Online (ROLLCO), Stationers' Company event records: John Gurney, new apprentice to master James Boler, 25 March 1613 (STMM8981); Robert Gurney, new apprentice to master William Wrench, 2 September 1616 (STMM10464); Robert Gurney, new freeman by servitude, 15 June 1626 (STMM24305)., ROLLCO Stationers' Company event STMM8981, 25 March 1613, apprenticeship, master James Boler, apprentice John Gurney, ST/1:0812
- Records of London's Livery Companies Online (ROLLCO), Stationers' Company event records for Joseph Hunscott (1612-1646) and John Hunscott (1641), captured by surname Hunscott sweep 1600-1660., Joseph Hunscott/Henscott Stationers' Company apprenticeship-master event corpus, 1612-1646
Topic file location: Identity — Candidate D: London Draper, Old Change
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000125 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000125.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.