Interesting Stories and Notes

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Children of  John Peacock (1766-1829) and Mary Little (1773-1850)

Much of our suppositions concerning these children has been determined by tracing all Peacock families in Matching and a wide area around there.  All the Peacocks in the Matching and the surrounding areas have distinct and complete families.   There are only a few children that are not assigned to parents through the records in the Baptism Registers.

The only positive child of John Peacock and Mary Little in the Baptism Register of St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex is:

Ann, daughter of John & Mary Peacock, was baptised 13.9.1805

However, in the Bishops Transcripts, the entry is recorded as:

Hannah, daughter of John & Mary Peacock, was baptised 15.9.1805

It can be seen that the two entries that refer to the same event have different names and different dates. (Registers all over the country were often badly kept in the 10 years prior to 1812, after which new nation wide Registers were introduced  and registers were well kept). 

The Bishops Transcripts were copies of the registers that were sent of to the Bishop at the end of the year.  Thus the Registers, which were often written by the curate or clerk to the church, were manually transcribed, often by the vicar.  Sometimes the details in the original registers were wrongly  entered, possibly because they were not written at the time of the event, but some days or weeks later.  Sometimes the Vicar would have difficulty reading what exactly was written in the registers, or maybe changed the details to what he thought they should have been.

Children believed to belong to John Peacock (1766-1829) and Mary Little (1773-1850)

Taken from Baptisms

In the Baptism Register of St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex is:

Elizabeth, daughter of John & Ann Peacock was baptised. 22.1.1797.

Although, the above gives the mother as Ann Peacock, we believe that there is a mistake in the register entry and that the mother should be Mary.  

This is confirmed by the marriage register entry when Elizabeth Peacock marries  (see Taken from Marriages below).  Thus this Elizabeth is really the daughter of John and Mary Peacock.

(In addition, there is no record of a John Peacock marrying an Ann, so it is likely that the baptism entry for Elizabeth is one of those annoying incorrect Register entries).  

In the Baptism Register of St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex is:

Mary, was baptised 8/3/1808

(No parents were listed in the Register for this year showing the poor state of recording the entries.  Registers all over the country were often badly kept in the 5 years prior to 1812). 

Taken from Burials

In the Burial Register of St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex is:

Ann Peacock was buried  16/2/1808

However, in the Bishops Transcripts, the entry is recorded as:

Anney Peacock was buried  16/2/1808

The name Anney Peacock suggests that she might be a young person.  No records exist after this date for Ann Peacock, so we believe that this is the Ann Peacock baptised in 1805 above.

In the Burial Register of St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex is:

Mary Peacock  was buried 24/3/1808

This seems to refer to the Mary Peacock baptised 3 week earlier. 

We can not tell whether this young Mary Peacock is the daughter of John Peacock and Mary Little.  However, she dies soon after Ann Peacock, who we know is a daughter of John Peacock and Mary Little.  Since this Mary is unlikely to be a daughter of the other Peacocks in Matching, we are assuming that she is the daughter of John Peacock and Mary Little.

The Burial Register of St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex, has a further entry:

Hannah Peacock, aged 22, of Matching, was buried 28.12.1817   

The death of Hannah Peacock in 1817 at the age of 22 suggests that she was born in 1795.  We have not been able to find a Hannah Peacock being baptised at this time.  We have not found any male Peacock marrying a woman called Hannah. 

Taken from Marriages

The Marriage Register for St Mary the Virgin, Matching, Essex, has the entry:

John Foster was a church official. 

Ann Little was the sister of Mary Little and hence was a witness at her niece's marriage.

Mary Little had sisters named Hannah, Elizabeth and Ann Little, born in that order.  It is possible that the four girls above are named after these sisters and Mary Little herself..

We therefore believe that the four above girls were children of John Peacock and Mary Little.   In addition we are suggesting John is another child

Thus in order of birth they are: 

 See ancestors of John Peacock (1766-?) and Mary Little (1773 - 1850) 

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