From: RWBennett
To: robertjack@eardley.org
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 12:44 PM
Subject: Eardley family
Dear Robert Jack,
I am having one of my periodic reviews of my work on my genealogy, and hence
taking a closer look at your excellent website. I am surprised that there is
no mention therein of the Kelsall pedigrees.
These pedigrees are contained in a vast manuscript tome in the Staffordshire
Record Office, and appear to have been written by William Kelsall, who I believe
to have been the Vicar (Rector?) of Audley. In the MS, Kelsall compiles pedigrees
of "all the persons which are any whit a near neighbour unto me......".
Kelsall compiled these in about 1705, though there are later additions up to
1725.Some years ago I made a verbatim copy of all those entries for families
in which I am interested, including all the blanks and curious spelling. I attach
a copy of the Eardley section, which I suggest that you post on the website.
The pedigrees have implications for your own family tree, in which you claim
that William Eardley, senior, married Maria Hoult in 1691. This cannot be so,
Maria is not the mother of William junior. Kelsall is quite clear that William
junior was baptised in July 1685, the son of William Eardley and Jane Hilditch.
Kelsall is unlikely to be wrong on this as William was living in the parish
at the time of the compilation of the pedigrees. This would extend your ancestry
back to Richard Eardley of the Pool, who died in 1571. As Jane did not die until
1717, it cannot have been our William who married Maria Hoult.
As we are both descended from John Eardley and Elizabeth Stringer, we are distant
cousins. I was unaware of their son James. His baptism at Whitmore would explain
that. However, there may be a difficulty. James would need to have been born
between Martha (c. Audley 12 Mar 1758), and John (c. Auidley 13 Apr 1760). Either
Martha had a late baptism, or I have transcribed the date wrongly (1758 for
1756), or James was premature, or the John & Elizabeth in Whitmore are a
different family.
You may not be aware that Margaret Audley was descended from the Lords Audley.
I am now satisfied with that descent, though Aleyn Lyell Reade does not draw
that conclusion in his book on Audley pedigrees. The clinching evidence was
a coat of arms on a tomb in Draycott in the Moors. I can now trace that line,
with reasonable assurance, through the Audley and Mortimer families, to pre-conquest
France. Margaret Audley was also a direct descendant of King Edward I.
I gleefully downloaded Sue Parker's work on Eardley CMB, but was disappointed
to find so many omissions. None of the above events is included, so I hope researchers
do not think the listing is exhaustive.
Best wishes,
Roger Bennett
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