These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Finding
The jest-book's West Barsham Gurney anecdotes are kin-sourced through the L'Estrange-Lewkenor marriage
The Gurney anecdotes in Sir Nicholas L'Estrange's manuscript jest-book - printed in Thoms's 1839 Anecdotes and Traditions and long treated as detached hearsay - are kin-sourced family testimony. Muskett records that Sir Nicholas L'Estrange, 1st Bt. of Hunstanton (d. 1655), the jest-book's compiler, married Anne Lewkenor of Denham, daughter of Sir Edward Lewkenor II and so niece of Martha (Lewkenor) Gurney and first cousin of Edward Gournay of West Barsham. The compiler's own wife was therefore first cousin to the heir the anecdotes describe, moving them from hearsay to family testimony. The upgrade cuts both ways: it explains 'Frances Hood' as the jest-book's rendering of Edward's wife Frances Hovell, but it also shows that the mistaken 'died in 1614' - which the wills instead place at 1621x1623, the 1614 date belonging to Henry G15's revoked earlier will - was already circulating inside the family.
Date: c.1614-1655 (L'Estrange kin-sourced Gurney anecdotes; jest-book compiled by 1655)
Related context
- Provides context for Evidence West Barsham wardship: Edward Gournay a minor ward to c.1628 (WARD 7 / C 142)Kin-sourced through Anne (Lewkenor) L'Estrange, the jest-book adds family-tradition context to the West Barsham terminal pedigree the wardship records set out - corroborating Edward Gournay's marriage to Frances Hovell while confirming that the erroneous '1614' death for Thomas III circulated as family tradition.
Sources
- Joseph James Muskett, Suffolk Manorial Families, being the County Visitations and other Pedigrees, vol. 2 (Exeter: William Pollard & Co., 1900)., vol. 2, L'Estrange-of-Hunstanton pedigree, printed pp. ~174-176 (Sir Nicholas L'Estrange 1st Bt. m. Anne, dau. of Sir Edward Lewkenor of Denham)
- Thoms, William J., ed. Anecdotes and Traditions, Illustrative of Early English History and Literature, Derived from MS. Sources. Camden Society, old series, vol. 5. London: Printed for the Camden Society by J. B. Nichols and Son, 1839., pp. xviii-xx (Gurney/L'Estrange context) and the L'Estrange jest-book Gurney items (Thomas d. '1614'; Edward m. 'Frances Hood', d. 1641)
Topic file location: Origin — wardship and patronage network
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000187 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000187.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.