Am looking for connections (if any) among London Backwell families of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. My ancestor Edward Backwell (c1618-1683), a London alderman, was a goldsmith and banker ruined in 1672 when the Crown defaulted on the huge sums of money he had lent Charles II.

Edward Backwell was born probably in Creslow, Bucks., son of Barnaby Backwell (d. 1644/5, yeoman) and wife Jane Temple (d. 1664/5), both of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. By first wife he had son John Backwell (1654-1708), whom he married to Elizabeth Tyringham, heiress of the Tyringhams of Tyringham, Bucks.; by second wife Mary Leigh, Edward had sons Richard Backwell (c1664-1731, my ancestor), Col. Leigh Backwell (d. 1737) and Barnaby Backwell (both of the latter were unm.).

When Edward Backwell and his elder? brother John Backwell (d. 1703?) made their fortunes as London goldsmiths, a fancy pedigree was "found" for them, including "undoubted" origins in Backwell, Somerset; squires in famous medieval battles, etc. Does anyone have any hints as to the actual ancestry of the yeoman Barnaby Backwell of Leighton Buzzard, Beds., or to that of his wife Jane Temple, named in that "pedigree" as "daughter of John Temple of Burton Dassett, Esq.," but who is nowhere to be found in genealogies of that large and prominent family?