During the pandemic I have traveled to 16th century England! The British National Archives lets you download wills for free, and the Gloucestershire Archives let you use ancestry.com.uk for free.
IMPORTANT NEW FINDS
Richard Britton was born in Shepton-Montague, Somerset on 5 Apr 1587
His parents were Thomas Britton and Sibley [aka Sibella?] Marshe, who were married 3 May 1595 in Shepton-Montague
Assuming the 14 Mar 1592 birth record for Thomas son of Thomas Britton in nearby Pitcombe is a brother, this means he has a brother Thomas and also John (and perhaps William -- there is a court record for John's wife stealing some yarn from Thomas' wife and they are listed as brothers. A William shows up getting married in Batcombe in 1629 with a daughter born in 1630; Thomas has a son Thomas -- I think William is likely to be the father of the NY William [and maybe Daniel too], but Thomas is also a possibility. I like William because it looks like he also moved to Marshfield -- see the 5th entry after this)
His family moved to Woolston, North Cadbury prior to 1597 where his father died.
His mother, the widow Sibel Britton married John Carpenter in Batcombe in 1597 -- the marriage record (bishops transcript) specifies widow, and that she was from Woolston in North Cadbury
Richard lived as an adult in Upton Noble -- which tithed with Wanstrowe but whose parish was Batcombe. He had four records there -- mention in Rector Bernard's 1634 lawsuit, 1641 poll tax, 1642 protestation list, and a Bisse v Britton lawsuit (I ordered this from the National Archives and it should arrive shortly)
He and his wife moved to Marshfield, Gloucestershire by 1648 when his wife died (no name given -- arghhh), and then his daughter Sibley died in 1653 and Richard died in 1654.
Richard wrote a will but only included two children -- Cananuiel (mistranscribed as Emmanuel) and Abigail Britton, and mentioned (unnamed) children of Cananuiel and the younger daughter Abigail Duck of Abigail. There is a 1672 lawsuit involving Abigail Duck and (her father) Leonard (I ordered this too -- probably will take another weeks for this)
Please go to my webpage for links to all the original documents -- http://haygenealogy.com/hay/brittontree.html
and email me with more info!!
