5
Alan March’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back many generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from Alan’s as (1)
GEORGE MAPES and JANE BERNARD (10)
GEORGE MAPES. George was born in the Essex village of Great Waltham, NW of Chelmsford, where he raised his family.
Baptism. St Mary and St Lawrence, Great Waltham.
1667 May 1 George son of George and Elizabeth Mapes.
He was the oldest of five, possibly six children.
His mother was Elizabeth Marshall.
His parents married by licence, so the family was probably above the labouring class.
JANE BERNARD. We have found the following baptism in Great Waltham
Baptism. St Mary and St Lawrence, Great Waltham.
1674 Feb 23 Johanna daughter of Thomas and Mary Barnard.
She would have been only 16 when she married. This is considerably younger than usual, but not impossible.
If this is the right baptism, she was the elder of two daughters.
Her mother was Mary Shonk.
The period when the couple were growing up saw the Glorious Revolution. This is the name given to the abdication of the Catholic-leaning James II and his replacement by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband, William of Orange, who ruled jointly with her as William III.
George and Jane married in Barnston, a village 5 miles NW of Great Waltham. We do not know what took them there. It is likely that Jane had been living there before their marriage.
Marriage. St Andrew, Barnston.
1690 Oct7 George Mapes and Jane Bernard, both of Much Waltham .
Much Waltham was another name for Great Waltham.
Baptisms. St Mary and St Lawrence, Great Waltham.
1691 Aug 26 George son of George Mapes jnr and Jane his wife.
1697 Mar 30 Katharine daughter of George Mapes jnr and Jane his wife.
1700 Oct 21 William
1703 born Jan 25, bapt Feb 12 Susanna
1705 Mar 3 Benjamin
For the first two baptisms the father is named as George Mapes junior. For the rest, he is just George Mapes. This may mean that George’s father had died between 1697 and 1700. We have not found his burial.
In 1691, George Mapes of Great Waltham was an executor in the will of J Blatch of Colchester. This is probably the older George, but could be the younger.
In 1708 there is an incomplete record of a burial that could be Jane’s
Burial. St Mary and St Lawrence, Great Waltham.
1708 Sep 2 ? wife of ? Mapes.
If this is Jane’s, she was probably in her thirties.
We have not found a record of George marrying again, Nor have we found George’s burial.
He may have moved to another parish to live with one of his children.
We believe the Mapes to be comfortably off. The Great Waltham burial record show how others went nameless to their graves. They include;
“A strange woman brought into the parish by night.”
“A travelling boy.”
“A travelling woman.”
“A travelling man.”
The parish would have had to pay for a pauper’s funeral. The first one may have been a neighbouring parish off-loading the problem on to someone else under cover of darkness.
NEXT GENERATION: 9. MAPES
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 11. MAPES-MARSHALL