Thomas Buckner (abt. 1562 - aft. 1633)

Born about 1562 in Berkshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Crackplace) Buckner — married 24 Jan 1590 in St. Michaels Cornhill, London, England

Descendants

Died after 1633 after about age 71 in Cumnor, Berkshire, England

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Biography

Christened in Cumnor Parish, Berkshire, England in 10 Dec 1562,^[1] he was the son of John Buckner of Botley and is named in his 1609 will. He apprenticed as a mercer to Hugh Rogers in London and while an apprentice accompanied Rogers and his friend the Renaissance polymath Thomas Harriot to Virginia on the 1585 Grenville expedition.^[2] After returning to England, he was admitted to the Mercers' Company in both London (1588)^[3] and Oxford (1589). Records of the Mercers' Company show a number of apprentices taken up to 1630,^[4] and surviving correspondence of William Trumbull indicates that he was active in the trade.^[5] In 1590/1 Thomas Buckner married Elizabeth Crackplace,^[6] probably the daughter of Cuthbert Crackplace, a London goldsmith.^[7] The last known record of him dates from 1633.^[8]

Christenings of the following children are known from the registers of two London parishes:

1. Thomas Buckner, 1592, St Mary Colechurch (died 1598)
2. John Buckner, 1595, St Mary Colechurch (also became a mercer by patrimony)
3. Anne Buckner, 1598, St Mary Colechurch (died 1599)
4. Thomas Buckner, 1600, St Mary Colechurch (died 1605)
5. Katheryn Buckner, 1602, St Bartholomew Exchange (twin, died 1604)
6. Mary Buckner, 1602, St Bartholomew Exchange (twin)
7. William Buckner, 1605, St Bartholomew Exchange (died 1657, archdeacon of Salisbury)
8. Richard Buckner, 1607, St Bartholomew Exchange (died 1611)
9. Ann Buckner, 1610, St Bartholomew Exchange (died 1611)

Thomas, his son John, and an unnamed wife are mentioned in the 1621 will of Thomas Harriot, who apparently stayed with the Buckners during his final illness. Thomas Buckner was responsible for setting up Harriot's monument in the parish church of St. Christopher Le Stocks, though it was apparently destroyed along with the church during the Great Fire in 1666. St. Christopher Le Stocks borders on St. Bartholomew Exchange, and numerous mentions of Thomas Buckner can be found in records of both parishes.

Research Notes

A common error regarding this Thomas Buckner is the claim that he was born in 1590 and in "Cunmore," Berkshire. This error appears to originate with a 1994 self-published genealogy called Cousins by the dozen: the story of John Buckner "the immigrant" and his antecedents, siblings and descendants,^[9] though this is hard to confirm since copies are difficult to find. It should go without saying that this source seems to have very low reliability. The erroneous birth year may result from some kind of confusion with the date of his marriage. The misspelling of Cumnor as "Cunmore" is frequently a good indicator of the source, as this error has been copied dozens, perhaps hundreds of times on the internet.

An entry in the Calendar of State Papers for Queen Elizabeth's reign mentions as "the late Thos. Buckner" who was a merchant in Rouen around 1602.^[10] This has been attributed to the present Thomas Buckner by some, but obviously he could not be Thomas Buckner who lived past 1633. Further investigation of the source shows that this entry is probably a mistake for "Thomas Bickner", who is mentioned in other records as an English merchant in Rouen.

Thomas was born in 1590. He passed away in 1630.

Sources

1. ↑ Cumnor parish christenings as transcribed by E. LaMar Buckner
2. ↑ Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America, Part II. Edmund Goldsmid, Ed. Retrieved 5-6-2013 from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25645 [Ebook #25645].
3. ↑ The Records of London's Livery Companies Online (ROLLCO), http://www.londonroll.org/home, Retrieved 5/6/2013.
4. ↑ The Records of London's Livery Companies Online (ROLLCO), http://www.londonroll.org/home, Retrieved 5/6/2013.
5. ↑ various, Report on the manuscripts of the Marquess of Downshire, preserved at Easthampstead park, Berks. H. M. Stationery off. (London) , v.3, p. 162, 1924.
6. ↑ London (England). St. Michael, Cornhill (Parish), The Parish Registers of St. Michael, Cornhill, London: Containing the Marriages, Baptisms, and Burials from 1546 to 1754, Mitchell & Hughes, 1882, p. 15 Google Books
7. ↑ If so, christened 16 Nov 1576 in St. Mary Woolnoth, London, see Google Books
8. ↑ Oxfordshire Record Office Gr/II/i/1a,b
9. ↑ M.G. Wright, Cousins by the dozen: the story of John Buckner "the immigrant" and his antecedents, siblings and descendants, (Bowling Green, Virginia: self published, 1994)
10. ↑ Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth, 1601-1603, Public Record Office. Mary Anne E. Green, ed., (London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1870), pp. 275-6 Google Books

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