Who was Francis Constable's (1592-1647) wife?

Question

Are there any quality sources that show the last name at birth of Francis' wife, Alice. She is listed as Owen or Wentworth, but no sources but a FindAGrave memorial - itself without sources - have been found.

There are numerous profiles for his wife that need to be merged, but without knowing what last name at birth - or perhaps Unknown - merges cannot be completed.

Answer 1

The line of Francis Constable is a bit of a mystery too. It jumps around from Norfolk to Buckinghamshire and London. His father is said to be Sir Robert Constable of either Datchet, Buckinghamshire or of North Pickenham, Norfolk.

So far I have just found self referenced family trees as sources. The Constable family doesn't appear in either the Visitations of Norfolk or Buckinghamshire (as they should do for a knight). Francis himself has an entry in Plomer's  "Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England" but with no family history. 

Comments

Ah, so it's not, thanks Lois and Jo! That information is much better discussed in the biography.

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In the Cius and Gonville book of Cambridge I discovered that my direct ancestor Rev Simon Canham (D1623) was the teacher of Robert Constable of North Pickenham,And it states that they were cousins. Simon was born not far from North Pickenham and many generations of my family were from around Cambridge and various parts of Norfolk especially Walsham of the Willows which is more South. In my tree I have an Alice Constable down as Simon´s mother but have no documents on this. I also have Robert Barker who was James I royal printer who printed the sinners Bible and was put in debtors  prison for his misprints. Its all very mysterious,

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The admissions register of Lincoln's Inn does not show a Robert Constable admitted in 1582. There was a Henry Constable admitted, who may have been mistaken for Robert.

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There was a Robert Constable of Norfolk admitted to Lincoln's Inn 22 Feb 1581/2, but hard to know if he's the same person as Robert Constable of North Pickenham. See the admissions register on the Internet Archive

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Getting off topic again, but there is a lot of information about the Constable family of Norfolk in The Hundred of Launditch and Deanery of Brisley, in the County of Norfolk by George Alfred Cathew.

Starts on p. 255 and then there is an extra section starting p. 430 and the Robert Constable mentioned on p. 431 as uncle of Thomas Constable, the heir, may be the Robert Constable of North Pickenham, father of Francis Constable?  Though of course all the men have the same set of first names and it all gets a bit confusing.

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Thanks John, that book will be really useful as we sort out Francis Constable's ancestors. The uncle referenced on p.431 certainly looks like his father. 

The IPM for Thomas Constable on 4 October 1610, discussed on p. 256, mentions that his brother Robert is deceased, which fits with the 1607 apprenticeship record.

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This is what it states in the Gonville & Ciaus yearbook-

Constable Robert - of North Pickenham Norfolk. Son of Robert Constable mediocris fortunae. School, Saxththorp, four years. At Pembroke  Hall one year. Age 18. Admitted pensioner, Mar, 26. 1574.Surety Mr Stephen Perse, M.A fellow, Assigned a cubicle with his tutor, Ds Canham,B-A 1576-7 . A cousin of Simon Canham of 1573 of Norf. Was admitted at Lincolns Inn, Feb 22 1581-2. A popish recussant family in 1588.

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You are quite right, I was on the wrong page, led astray by the dating.

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Thanks John, that will be quite useful. It's exactly the information I'd been failing to find.

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I have found the Thomas of West Wynch already, but wasn't sure where he fit in.

Answer 2

All of the Virginia Lee resources indicate that her heritage is Unknown.   The ONLY reason they know her name was Alice was due to her will.

As he is in the lineage of US President James Madison, unless someone else comes up with something, the US Presidents Project will take over management of Francis and his wife to assure proper sources are used.

Comments

Having a project take it over would be good, I think. There is certainly no shortage of unsourced material showing his wife's last name at birth was either Owen or Wentworth or Unknown.

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Robin - the England Project will be happy to manage Francis and Alice long-term, if only to sort out the Constable lineage leading up to Francis. Both will need PPP as there is so much weight of unproven/unsourced tales about them out there on the internet. I suggest that all the Alices are merged into an Alice Unknown.

The Wills of both Francis and Alice are in the City of Westminster Archives. If anyone has a link to a verbatim transcription of either, please post it here.

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Hi Robin & Jo, something else must have prompted me to look at this family a few days ago, and although there is primary evidence that Francis Constable had a daughter Anne, I struggled to see anything on her profile that definitely proved she was the wife of Col. Richard Lee?

Perhaps that needs to be investigated as well?

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@John....I stumbled on that myself....I did fix her name, but, I think I did find a source that referred to her as Francis' daughter....

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Could you let me know what that source is if you find it again, please? About 6 months ago I was looking at Francis & I hunted for this source for Anne, but could not find anything. Apparently she was a ward of Sir John Thorowgood or Sir Francis Wyatt (or both according to some accounts.) I could find sources for both of them being responsible for other people’s children, but absolutely nothing re: Anne Constable. It drove me round the bend. Thanks

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OFF SUBJECT response sent by Private message

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This article available on jstor https://www.jstor.org/stable/4245981  is a discussion of Richard Lee and also his wife Anne.