12. DOVE-WILSON

Cory  Tree

 LUKE DOVE and ELIZABETH WILSON (12)

 

LUKE DOVE. Luke was baptised at St Nicholas, Ringwould, on 22 Sep 1583. He was the son of Thomas Dove. We learn from the burial register that his mother’s name was Allice.

His father was a fisherman living in the seaside village of Kingsdown, which was part of Ringwould parish.

Luke was the middle one of seven children, six boys and one girl. None of them died in infancy, suggesting that the family had reasonable income. This is borne out by Thomas’s will.

Luke’s mother died when he was 17. He was already working as a fisherman, helping his father.

Two years later, his father remarried, to Christian Saffery. Luke’s new stepmother was only eight years older than he was.

Two half-sisters were born.

Luke’s father was buried on 6 Nov 1609. Three weeks later, Luke married Elizabeth Wilson.

In his will, Thomas Dove left Luke his sprat net, a joined bedstool, a pair of sheets and £10. The money was to be paid fifteen years later, when his stepmother’s occupancy of the family home ended, or when she died if that was sooner.

 

ELIZABETH WILSON. Elizabeth was the same age as Luke, baptised in Ringwould on 1 Dec 1583. Her father was Henry Wilson and her mother Dorothy Claringboll. Transcribers have had difficulty with her surname, but there is a burial in Ringwould in 1604 for Richard Claringboll, whose name is clearly written. This surname occurs in a number of Kent parishes. Richard may be Elizabeth’s grandfather or uncle.

The Wilsons were a little more numerous in Ringwould than the Doves, but they were still not a large extended family.

Elizabeth was the third of six children. One brother died before she was born. Her younger brother Richard died aged 10.

 

Luke and Elizabeth were born in the reign of Elizabeth I. They were twenty years old when she died. By the time they were married, James I had succeeded to the throne and survived the Gunpowder Plot.

Marriage. Ringwould
1609  Nov 27  Luke Dove and Elizabeth Willson

 

The couple had seven children, three boys and four girls, one of whom was stillborn or died at birth.

Baptisms. St Nicholas, Ringwould.
1611 Oct 6  John
On 12 Nov 1613 there was the burial of a daughter of Luke Dove “not baptized”.
1616 Oct 13  Anne
1619 Sep 30  a son, name illegible
1620 Aug 20  Elizabeth
1622 Nov 24  Dorothie
1626  Oct 22  Nicholas

The couple did not have the chance to extend their family further. On 28 July 1627 we have the burial of Luke Dove householder. He was 43.

Elizabeth must have had a hard time, bringing up her young family without Luke’s income. She may have had help from Luke’s brothers or other fishermen.

 

The church of St Nicholas dates from the 12^th century, though Saxon graves point to there being an earlier wooden church on the site. It stands on high ground, overlooking the English Channel. The Norman building originally had a wooden spire, but by the early 17th century this was in a dangerous condition. In 1627, the year of Luke’s death, the villagers petitioned the archdeacon to demolish the spire and replace it with a flint and brick tower. They requested that they be allowed to keep the lead from the old spire as the cost of the new tower was over £100 and the lead worth £28 which would greatly help with the expenses. The tower was to have pinnacles or ornaments of which only the present cupola remains. For many years the figures 1628 in iron figures were affixed to the tower.[1]

 

Luke died well before the start of the Civil War of the 1640s. Elizabeth outlived him by another 40 years, living through the Civil War, the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell and the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 with Charles II.

Burial. St Nicholas, Ringwould.
1668/9 Feb 26  Eliz Dove wid.

The country was ravaged by plague in the 1660s. Elizabeth may have been a victim, though there are more burials than normal in the previous year.

 

 

[1] https://www.cornilochurches.org.uk/churchhistory.htm
[2] https://www.stnicholascenter.org/media/gazetteer/europe/british-isles/england-uk/south-east/ringwould-js.jpg?fit=max&w=590&or=1