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Birth and Background
Elizabeth Peard was born on Jan 1st 1707, and baptised at St Peter's Church, Tiverton, on the 17th of the same month.
[1] Her parents were Oliver Peard (a merchant in the textile industry).[2] [3]and Elizabeth (Blagdon) Peard. Her sister Sarah was baptised on the same day, so it is reasonably safe to assume that they were twins.[4] On the scan of the original document one can see that the two baptisms are bracketed together, reading thus:
Elizabeth and Sarah were the youngest of the seven (known) children born to Oliver Peard and his wife. Their siblings were Alice (baptised 1696), Mary (1698), Oliver (1700), John (1703) and another Elizabeth (baptised 1705,[6] died 1706). [7]
It is interesting that on the baptism and burial records of his children, Oliver Peard is given the honorific 'Mr'. On the page recording the baptisms of Elizabeth and her sister Sarah, out of a list of 37 baptisms, only Oliver Peard and one other are given this title. This probably reflects the fact that Oliver was of quite high social standing in the town of Tiverton.
River Exe at Tiverton with St Peter's Church in background. The presence of water was very important for the wool trade |
In The History of Tiverton, in the County of Devon: Book 1, an 1845 book by William Harding, several mentions are made of the Peard family in relation to wool manufacturing.[3] In addition, The Devon Record Office Archive Catalogue lists 49 documents referring to an Oliver Peard of Tiverton, some of which probably refer to his son Oliver (who went on to become Mayor of Tiverton)[8], but the earlier ones probably refer to Elizabeth's father. There are various mentions of the terms 'clothier' and 'merchant' in the search results.[2] Tiverton was quite prosperous in the early C18th due to its substantial wool industry, [9] and it seems that the Peard family were part of this trade.
In 1708, Elizabeth's twin, Sarah, died, aged just 18 months. She was buried on 15 July in St Peter's Church.[10]
Marriage
On April 21 1742 Elizabeth Peard married James Dickinson in St Peter's Church, Tiverton.[11] (See Research Notes). She was 35. James had been married before, but his wife had died in 1741,[12] leaving him with at least one child, Benjamin (b. 1737).[13] Later sources refer to Benjamin as Elizabeth's son,[14] and her brother Oliver's nephew,[15] but the BMD records show that she was in fact his stepmother.
Children?
It is possible that Elizabeth and James may have had a daughter, also named Elizabeth. An Elizabeth Dickenson (sic), father James, was baptised in Tiverton on 24 July 1743, and died on April 4th 1744.[16] The images of the original records, available at Find My Past, both show the name clearly spelt with an 'e', although the baptism transcription records the name as 'Dickerson'. [17][18] Both records confirm the location as St Peter's Church, Tiverton.
I think a son is Benjamin Dickinson born 30 Sept 1737, baptized 14 Oct 1737 at Tiverton, son of James, buried 23 Oct 1806, three times mayor of Tiverton, opened the first bank in Tiverton. The fortune of Oliver Peard 1700 -1764 passed to his sister Mary and then their nephew Benjamin Dickenson.
Death
Elizabeth's marriage to James did not last very long. Five years later, on 26 February 1747, Elizabeth, 'Wife of Mr James Dickinson' was buried at St Peter's, Tiverton.[19] She was 40 years old.
Baptism Records
I have been unable to find a baptism record for Elizabeth and/or Sarah which is not behind a paywall. This may be because the name 'Peard' is unusual and the handwriting in the original record is difficult to decipher, and other transcriptions may therefore be inaccurate.[20] For this reason I have tried searching with wildcards but to no avail.
A record for an older sister born 1705, also named Elizabeth (or Elisabeth), [6] can, however, be found at FamilySearch. This Elizabeth died in 1706, and her burial ('Elizabeth Daughter of Mr Oliver Peard') [7] is recorded at Tiverton on 12 July of that year.[21] The burial, however, is also not recorded at FamilySearch.
I have, in addition, searched on FamilySearch for a few random baptisms recorded on the same page of the original image, and none of these produced baptism results, so I am tempted to assume that this page (or perhaps more of this source, given that the burial has also not been found) has not been transcribed for that particular website.
Research re Marriage
On April 21 1742 an Elizabeth Peard marries a James Dickinson in St Peter's Church, Tiverton. It is quite likely, given the location, that this is our Elizabeth. However, she would have been 35 by this date, which is quite late for a first marriage, and a search on the FamilySearch website results in at least 2 other Elizabeth Peards in Devon who are possible candidates for this marriage. A scan of the original document, available online at Find My Past does not give any additional information which could confirm or refute the theory, since the record simply reads:
However, further research provides quite a lot of circumstantial evidence that this is the correct marriage, including:
Having assessed the evidence currently available to me, I feel that the marriage to James Dickinson is most likely the correct one.
Other Notes:
Points Forward
The South West Heritage Trust Devon Archive holds a large number of records related to the Peard family of Tiverton. If these were ever to be digitised and available online, or if a Wikitree researcher were able to visit either of the locations where the records are kept (Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter & North Devon Record Office, Barnstaple) there might be a wealth of additional information about Elizabeth, her life, and her family.
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Categories: Tiverton, Devon