12. NICHOLSON-HUNTINGTON

Bray Tree

GEOFFREY NICHOLSON and ELIZABETH HUNTINGTON (12)

 

GEOFFREY NICHOLSON. We find our early Nicholsons in the village of Horkstow, two miles south of the Humber and 3 miles SW of Barton upon Humber.

We have not found Geoffrey’s baptism. There is just one Nicholson family in Horkstow in the previous generation. George Nicholson was having children baptised there from 1562. We have found the baptism of six of his children, and the register is faded, so there were probably others. Geoffrey does not appear among them, but the sixth baptism, in 1568, is for a son of George Nicholson, whose first name cannot be read. There is a good chance that this is Geoffrey (or Gefphrey), but no certainty. He could have come from another parish. On the plus side, Geoffrey named one of his sons George.

There are various spellings of his name. Perhaps the most usual is Gefphrey.

We have not found a marriage for him before 1593, when we find the baptism of his oldest child. Either it is on a page of the Horkstow register now illegible, or in a parish whose records do not go back that far.

We have no information about Geoffrey’s occupation, but Horkstow was an agricultural parish, and most of the inhabitants worked on the land.

Our first certain record is the baptism of his daughter Anne in 1593, towards the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.

We have the baptisms of seven children at St Maurice’s church.

Baptisms. St Maurice, Horkstow.
1592/3 Feb 1  Anne
1594 Aug 25  Agnes
1595  William
1596 Sep 30  Willi
1600 Nov 14  George.

These are followed by a burial.
Burial. St Maurice, Horkstow
1608/9 Margaret wife of Jeffery Nichlson.

Margaret’s death is followed by a marriage in Elsham, 6 miles south of Horkstow.

Marriage. Elsham,
1609 Apr 30  Jefferie Nicholson and Elyzabethe Grander

 

ELIZABETH HUNTINGTON. Elizabeth was a widow when she married Geoffey. Nicholson. On 3 Jun 1605, Elizabeth Huntigton married Martin Grander in Elsham.. His first wife Joan had died in 1604,

What happened before that is unclear. The only baptism we have found is for Elizabeth, daughter of John Huntington, baptised in Broughton by Brigg on 17 Dec 1562. This would make her a little older than Geoffrey, but 48 when she married Maring Grander, unrealistically late,  and rather too old to be having children with Geoffrey Nicholson in 1611 and 1613.

There is a baptism for Elizabeth Hudington in Scotter on 8 Apr 1682. This register does not name the father, probably because it is illegible. The only other instance of this surname in Scotter is the baptism of Marie, daughter of Richarde Huddington, on 9 Dec 1577. She is probably Elizabeth Hudington’s sister. Scotter is 13 miles SW of Elsham.

Rather more promisingly, there was another family of Huddingtons in Cadney, 7 miles south of Elsham. Francis, Anna and Margaret were children of Radulph Huddington, baptised in 1580, 1585 and 1594. Elizabeth may have been another daughter, whose baptism is now illegible. If she was born in the early 1580s, she would have been of a suitable age to marry Martin Grander.

Another possibility is that Elizabeth was herself a widow when she married Martin, but we have found no suitable marriage for this. The most likely scenario is that her maiden name was Huntington, and that her baptism is in a register that has not survived, or one whose pages are partly illegible.

There was just one child from Elizabeth’s marriage to Martin Grander.

Baptism. All Saints, Elsham.
1606 Apr 15  Richard son of Martine Grander

Martin Grander was buried on 11 April 1608.

Geoffrey and Elizabeth Nicholson did not raise a family in Elsham. Following the marriage, there are no subsequent baptism for children of Jeffery Nicholson other than those in Horkstow.

Baptisms. St Maurice, Horkstow.
1610/11 Jan 27  John
1613 Jul 4  Jefphrey

Geoffrey and his children would have seen the building of the Jacobean manor house immediately SW of the church. This was constructed by Sir Thomas Darrell between 1607 and 1620. In Georgian times it was demolished and replaced by Hortkstow Hall further north.

Some years later, there is the  following burial. This may indicate a third marriage for Geoffrey, or a different Jephery Nicholson.

Burial. St Maurice, Horkstow.
1632 Jun 12  Jennet ye wife of Jephery Nicholson.

We have two further burials in Horkstow. Geoffrey did not live quite long enough to see the Civil War.

Burials. St Maurice, Horkstow.
1638 Nov 29  Jephery Nicholson
If we have the right burial, Elizabeth, on the other hand, saw not only they war, but the restoration of the Stuart monarcy.
1664 Apr 28  Elizabeth Nicholson.