Coddington: Note on Bridgham and Thomas Benedict of Norwalk
|
|
Benedict Topics
08 Coddington: Note on Bridgham and Thomas Benedict of Norwalk |
 | |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
Benedict Topics Index |
In the April 1957 issue of
The American Genealogist (TAG),
John Insley Coddington, F.A.S.G., presented a lengthy article on
"The Family of Henry Bridgham, etc." to which he appended a brief article
about a reference in the Boyd Marriage Index of Suffolk at the Society of
Genealogists' Library in London. The reference is to the marriage between
John Bridgham and Elizabeth 'Benedick' at Woolpit in Suffolk that reads: were married yt viii th day of September." [ While researching the family in England in 2003, I was able to obtain a photographic copy of the Woolpit Parish Record page containing the above entry. Image is approximately actual size. I have high-lighted the entry for clarity. RAB ] Coddington comments that this is the only Bridgham or Benedict entry at Woolpit. He continues: "We have here, I think, a clue to the true parentage and county of birth of Thomas Benedict, who was born in England in 1617, came to New England about 1638, and settled successively at Southold, Huntington, and Jamaica, Long Island, and at Norwalk Conn., where he died . . ." After reciting the tradition set down by James Benedict in 1755, Coddington provides his analysis, as follows. "Now, Deacon James Benedict was a worthy but muddleheaded old gentleman. There is not the slightest trace of a Benedict family anywhere in any Nottinghamshire records, and we may be quite sure that no Benedict ever lived in that county. On the other hand, Deacon James Benedict's mother was a Gregory, and his maternal ancestors, the Gregory family, did indeed come from Nottinghamshire. This is the explanation of one confusion in the Deacon's recollections. "It seems altogether likely that Deacon James Benedict was also mixed up regarding the step-relationship of his paternal grandparents, Thomas and Mary ('Bridgum') Benedict. No evidence has been found that a man named Benedict married a widow Bridgham (or 'Bridgum' as the Deacon spelled it), but in the Parish Records of Woolpit we have found the marriage of a John Bridgham to Elizabeth Benedict, widow, on 8 Sept. 1629. It seems very likely indeed that we have here the record of marriage of the widowed father of Mary 'Bridgum' to the widowed mother of Thomas Benedict. The additional note in the marriage entry, 'came both out of Norfolke,' is further confirmation to our identification, for Norfolk and London are the only two localities in England where the very rare name of Benedict (probably continental in origin) is to be found in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." |
| |
|
This Update: May 2005 | |
| |
|
| |
|