A Hunlock-Benedict Relationship?
|
|
Benedict Topics
13 A Hunlock-Benedict Relationship? |
 | |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
Benedict Topics Index
|
Important: A major hope and effort of this website is to dispel as many as possible of the erroneous ideas that have gathered around the lives of Thomas and Mary Bridgham Benedict and their English ancestors. One can get the feeling, in looking at the various pertinent databases on the Internet, that Tom and Mary were selected as the objects of a campaign to see how many variations on the facts of their ancestry might be composed. I think the one that I call the Myth of the Three Williams is now reasonably well laid to rest. The other top contender is the Hunlock-Benedict Relationship. This one persists for two reasons: the ambiguous language of the will of Henry Hunlock, and desire of some present-day descendants to have a more grand connection. By this, I refer to the hope, on the part of many, that Henry's will identifies, beyond a doubt, the parents of Thomas Benedict. Unfortunately, it does not. As previously discussed here, Henry Hunlock's will, written in July 1610, names as heirs (among others): "To my loving son Mr. William Benedeke forty shillings to buy him a ring for a remembrance. To my daughter Ann Benedeke twenty pounds, at one and twenty years of age." Henry's son, Henry, was also to receive twenty pounds on reaching majority. (For those unfamiliar with British money before decimalization, one pound equalled 20 shillings, or 240 pence; therefore, Ann and Henry's bequest was each ten times the amount of William's. The will also cites several bequests to others in gold nobles; a noble had the value of 6 shillings, 8 pence.) The bequests to Ann and Henry, Jr. were the largest of the lot by far. The wording of the will tacetly implies that Ann, mentioned as Henry's daughter, must be the young wife of William Benedict; in other words, Ann Benedict (nee Hunlock). If that were the case, why didn't the will spell out that relationship? Other relationships mentioned were very carefully clarified. Wouldn't it have been helpful to read: "To my daughter Ann ... and to her husband, my loving son-in-law William ... etc." We wouldn't be struggling now, 400 years later, to understand the reality of the situation. Unless this was not the situation. Perhaps the relationship was not what it seems. At the center of all this is a woman whom we have not yet met and who, in fact, was already dead when Henry wrote his will. This is Margaret Walker, first wife of Henry Hunlock. Margaret, by her first husband, Nicholas Marsh, had a daughter, Judith Marsh. Judith, we do know for certain, married a William Benedict, a son of George and Jane (Hales) Benedict, and that William, we know, was an administrator of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. Judith and William had one child, Anne Benedict. In a nicely reasoned article titled There Was No Ann Hunloke, appearing in The Benedict Family News, (vol. I, no. 5, Spring 1994), Roberta B. Pierson argues that both Henry Hunlock and Margaret, his wife, were too old at the time of Ann Benedict's birth (about 1590) and are unlikely to have been her parents. On the other hand, 1590 is the approximate date for the birth of daughter Anne to Judith and William Benedict. This Anne was about 20 years of age when Henry Hunlock wrote his will, and as the grand-daughter of his first wife, Margaret (deceased at that point), Anne was therefore Henry's step-grand-daughter, while William Benedict, Anne's father, was his step-son-in-law. As Roberta Pierson points out, Anne's mother Judith had died before the will was written, and Anne would later marry Robert Hagar/Haggar about 1612. There has been no evidence found for a daughter of Henry Hunlock, especially one named Ann Hunlock Benedict. The simplified chart shown here clarifies the relationships. 
So, yes, while there really was a remote Hunlock-Benedict relationship, it had nothing to do with Thomas Benedict, who was born 100 miles to the east and a couple of generations later, the son of an entirely different William Benedict (the grand-nephew of Anne's father). | ||||||||||||||
| |
|
This Update: May 2005 | |
| |
|
| |
|