Disproven Existence Notice: Walter de Raleigh [closed]

Question

The Visitation of Devon has three generations of Walters de Raleigh, the earliest of whom, it is said, died on the Battlefield of Hastings.  What an interesting ancestor to have!

Alas, the more one explores, the less water this story holds.  

The profile now contains the original account from the Visitation, as well as analyses from others documenting why the Visitation account is false.

Therefore I propose that the first Walter and his son be labelled Disproven Existence, and be de-linked from other profiles (the links continue in the Research Notes).  The third Walter's profile needs to remain because there were two brothers Hugh and Richard  who DO exist in the records, and they need a father.

Comments

Well that one certainly wasn't Vivian's finest hour.

The line as he gives it has a number of "improvements" compared to the Chichester book, but not the obvious improvement of losing Beatrice.

I can only think the Chichesters sent him the very latest update of the family pedigree, and he had no choice but to print it verbatim.

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The more I compare Vivian's Visitations to actual records such as wills, the more I'm inclined to consider him a merchant of fantasy.

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Visitations are usually fine for their contemporaries, but once you go a few generations before that, the quality varies from amazing accuracy to fevered delusion. Brushfield quotes a commentator who noted that Raleigh's pedigree got a lot better after he died and wasn't around to make sure it was properly fluffed. I hate to discount vistations entirely though, because I have seen some that are utterly verifiable in primary sources for 5 or 6 generations back. It really just depended on the quality of data that the respondents gave.

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aw gee, Jack.  Does this destroy the tradition of gallantry in the human race?

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No, it just proves that real gallantry is its own reward and nobody documents it!

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Gallantly said, Jack!

Answer 1

Brushfield's "Remarks on the Ancestry of Sir Walter Ralegh" is very useful.

T.N. Brushfield, "Raleghana, Part III: Remarks on the Ancestry of Sir Walter Ralegh, ''Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art'' Vol. 32, The Association, 1900, pp.309-340 [https://books.google.com/books?id=fmRCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA309#v=onepage&f=false Google Books]

Comments

Thanks -- I've already used that second hand, but this gets right back to the source!

Answer 2

Is this ready to be moved into the Disproven Existence project?

Comments

Yes.  Sorry I lost track of it!

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I disconnected the two profiles and added them to the project. Thanks, Jack!