G2G: pre-1500 profile assistance request

Question

Richard Stephens of Wiltshire was certainly born before 1495, at the very latest based on the known birth of a great grandson in 1555. I added a paragraph explaining his latest possible birth year to his bio, but cannot make his birthdate any earlier than 1501 as I am not pre-1500 certified.

Could someone who is certified please adjust his birthdate? Thank you!

Answer 1

Done Ashley. Thanks for sorting out a more appropriate sequence of dates.

Comments

Thank you, Elizabeth!

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Any chance you might do the same for his wife, Margaret? I forgot to mention her in the original request, but the same logic applies.

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Margaret done too now. Cheers!

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Thanks, again. :)

Answer 2

Richard's date of birth can probably be pushed back earlier, to about 1475.

In 1498 Richard Stephens, of Burderop, in the parish of Cheselden, Wilts, husbandman, was a defendant for debt in Common Pleas. 

Wilts. Richard Bond versus John Tutte, of Chilbolton, Hants, husbandman; William Bruer, of Calne, husbandman; Thomas Wylkes, of Elcombe, Wroughton, husbandman; Richard Stephens, of Burderop, Cheselden, husbandman; Richard Rede, of Lydeard, husbandman. Debt.
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT4/H7/CP40no943/bCP40no943dorses/IMG_1499.htm

Quite often in the Visitations they push the status of later members of a family (gentleman/esquire) back to the earliest generations, who were actually husbandmen, yeomen, clothiers, etc.

Comments

That's definitely worth noting. But considering that we don't know Richard's birth family, there's a decent chance that could be his own father or another relative.

I do think his birthdate is likely earlier though. The odds of three men in a row becoming fathers by the age of twenty is probably pretty slim in that time and location.