Fay Sampson’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 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)
ROBERT GOODMAN and ELIZABETH FAWKINS (12)
ROBERT GOODMAN. We have not found Robert’s baptism, but we know from his marriage licence that he was the son of John Goodman. He would have been born around 1614-5. [1]
There are baptisms for children of John Goodman in Cranbrook around that time, but this is a long way from Deal and Sandwich. The children do not include Robert.
Robert became a seaman, and was resident in Deal at the time of his marriage.
ELIZABETH FAWKINS. We have not been able to find Elizabeth’s baptism.
There is a plausible parentage for her in Northbourne, 3 miles inland from Deal. In Jan 1698/9 we have the marriage of Edward Feakins and Mary Clement widow. Edward died in 1616 and Widow Fokins in 1632. This would fit with the statement that both Elizabeth’s parents were dead when she married in 1639.
There is a break in the Northbourne baptismal register for the years preceding 1615, when we would expect Elizabeth to be born.
If these are the right origins for her, then she was a late child of her parents’ marriage and her father died while she was still an infant.
The couple were both from Deal, but married in Canterbury. They must have married by licence, because the marriage index gives details which would not normally appear in the parish register at this time.
Marriage. St Mary Magdalen, Canterbury.
1639 Sep 24 Robert Goodman, seaman of Deal, and Elizabeth Fawkins of Deal.
He abt 24, son of John. She abt 24, parents dead.
They set up home in Sandwich.
Baptisms. St Clement, Sandwich.
1641 Jul 25 John
1643 Nov 12 Elizabeth
1646 Jul 9 Robert
Robert senior died between the birth of Robert junior in July 1646 and Elizabeth’s death in Aug 1666. We have not found his burial. The small number of children may mean that he died in the late 1640s.
When we cannot find a seaman’s burial, it is tempting to think that he may have been lost at sea, but it is also possible that his burial is in a part of the register which is missing or illegible.
Elizabeth lived on beyond the Commonwealth period and into the Restoration under Charles II. Then calamity struck the country.
Burial. St Mary the Virgin, Sandwich
1666 Aug 20. Elizabeth Goodman widow
This summer was the height of the Great Plague in Kent. Deal, Sandwich and Dover were among the towns most badly affected. Elizabeth was one of five people buried that day. 68 people were buried in August at St Mary’s alone. There were another 33 at St Peter’s and 25 at St Clement’s. The large number of deaths continued into September.
This was the last epidemic of bubonic plague in England.
[1] BMDs from Findmypast
[2] http://www.openhistorysociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Great-Plague-01.jpg
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