I recently deciphered the will of James GOODERHAM (c.1767-1829) of Great Yarmouth NFK, proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) in 1829. It throws valuable light on the previously unknown ancestry of two GOBBETT branches: one stemming from Robert GOBBETT of Rumburgh SFK and Gillingham NFK (including Daniel of Geldeston NFK and Australia, as expounded in a separate thread last month) and the other from Daniel GOBBETT of Eye SFK (and his son Daniel of Halesworth SFK).
James refers to three sisters of baker Daniel GOBBETT of Eye and shoemaker Robert GOBBETT of Gillingham, who were his "late Mother's Relations":
Mary the wife of Norwich shoemaker Robert EDWARDS;
[Elizabeth] the wife of [Thomas] BEALES [of Great Bircham NFK]; and
[Frances] the wife of [Jonathan] MORRIS "now or lately residing at or near Docking in Norfolk".
Baptisms in the Norfolk parish of Redenhall with Harleston and Wortwell (RHW) identify them as children of a shoemaker named Daniel and his wife Mary:
1745 Nov. 12 Frances GOBBET
1748 July 3 Frances GOBBET (public baptism?)
1749 Dec. 25 Mary GOBBETT
1752 Jan. 27 Elizabeth GOBBET
1755 Daniel GOBBIT (born 15 July; received into church 18 July)
1757 Sept. 1 Robert GOBBET
Some of these details differ from those in the FreeREG database (Archdeacons' Transcripts 1725-1812), which I regard as less reliable than my reports from a professional researcher. There are also discrepancies between the GOODERHAM baptisms in the IGI and the "GOODENHAM" entries in FreeREG, where gaps in the ATs may account for the omission of James, the son of Godfrey and Elizabeth GOODERHAM, who was baptized at RHW on 7 September 1767 according to the IGI. The Bury and Norwich Post announced on Wednesday 15 July 1829 that he had died in Breydon [Water] at Yarmouth on 9 July ("Thursday se'nnight") in his 61st year - "unfortunately drowned by the upsetting of his pleasure boat" - and that a young man named Edward BUTTEFANT had lost his life at the same time.
Assuming that the PCC's registered transcript is a true copy, James signed his will in January 1827, apparently unaware that Daniel and Robert GOBBETT had died in 1823 and their sister Frances in May 1826. Their ages, as stated in the burial registers, suggest that exact dates of birth were not known: Daniel of Eye was said to be 72 in 1823 (b. 1750-51) while Robert of Gillingham was about 10 years older than his "56" years (FreeREG) and widow Frances MORRIS of Docking was under "84" in 1826 (b. 1741-42) unless she had been born well before the marriage of Daniel GOBBET, a shoemaker, and Mary EDWARDS ("both of Redenhall & Single Persons") at Denton NFK in June 1745.
Blind shoemaker Daniel GOBBETT died of smallpox in March 1764 (age not recorded) and his widow Mary didn't last long without him: she was buried at RHW in August 1765, leaving several young children, including John (c.1759-1772) and Susanna (c.1764-1767) in addition to Frances, Mary, Elizabeth, Daniel and Robert, who I imagine were brought up with the GOODERHAM family.
Elizabeth GOBBETT married Godfrey GOODERHAM at RHW in 1756. They were both buried there, Elizabeth in March 1788 aged 62 (b. 1725-26) and Godfrey in February 1812 aged 76 (b. 1735-36). Elizabeth was probably the daughter of Daniel and Susan GOBBET, baptized at RHW in November 1725. An IGI entry based on an LDS Church member's submission indicates that Daniel GOBBET married Susan ALDIS at Redenhall in 1723 but there seems to be no trace of this wedding in the marriage register. No other children of Daniel and Susan are apparent. Two Daniels were buried at RHW soon afterwards, in 1726 and 1728, with no mention of their ages; one of them may have been the father of a Daniel GOBBET baptized there in February 1693/94.
A Susanna GOBBET was buried at RHW in January 1736/37. If she was Susan, née ALDIS, and if her husband survived her, it's not inconceivable that he was the Daniel GOBBET who married Mary EDWARDS at Denton in 1745. That would make his daughter, Mrs Elizabeth GOODERHAM, a half-sister of his younger children. It would also make draper and tailor Daniel GOBBETT of Halesworth (c.1780-1839) a cousin of her children, and that is how he is described in the will of her son James. They may have been first cousins once removed, of course, but the lack of a baptism for Elizabeth's hypothetical brother Daniel increases the likelihood that the Denton register should have recorded her father's status as a widower in 1745.
I've uploaded salient extracts from three GOODERHAM wills to TNA's "Your Archives" website (see
http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=... or
http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=...): James GOODERHAM of Great Yarmouth (PCC 1829), his brother John GOODERHAM of Great Yarmouth (PCC 1830) and their father Godfrey GOODERHAM of Norwich (PCC 1812). Images of the wills of Daniel GOBBETT of Halesworth (Norwich Consistory Court 1839) and James's widow Eleanor GOODERHAM (Archdeaconry of Norwich 1847) are available free of charge from the "Norfolk Sources" website (
http://www.norfolksources.norfolk.gov.uk).
Although it fails to spell out precisely how he was related to his cousin Daniel, James GOODERHAM's will is invaluable for GOBBETT researchers and it could be of interest to local historians too. James entrusted £1000 to be divided after Eleanor's death between two Independent meeting houses in Great Yarmouth and Halesworth, for the benefit of "the poor Members and also the poor hearers" of those churches, at the discretion of the deacons, adding:
"And to the intent that my intentions may not be perverted or forgotten I direct my said Executors to have the substance of my bequest painted on a board in legible characters and affixed against the Walls of the Vestry in the said Meeting Houses respectively as the said Deacons for the time being shall think fit and I also direct that when the said Boards shall be decayed or the Letters thereupon defaced that the same shall from time to time be replaced or restored"
It may sound as if James had been especially concerned about the hard of hearing but I believe that would be a perversion of his intent. In context, I understand that "the poor hearers" meant all the poor people in the congregations who were not full church members.
The GOBBETT family had received his benefaction many years earlier, as advertised in the Ipswich Journal on 30 April 1814:
"JAMES GOODERHAM, Draper and Taylor, respectfully informs his friends, that he has declined business in favour of Mr. DANIEL GOBBETT, for whom he solicits a continuance of that support he has so liberally received, and requests those who stand indebted, to discharge their accounts as early as possible, either to him or Mr. Gobbett, who is duly authorised to receive the same.
Halesworth, April 27, 1814."
This was followed by Daniel's advertisement, touting an assortment of linen and woollen drapery, beds, bedsteads etc., and urgently seeking an apprentice. I think we need look no further for the origin of the middle name bestowed on his son Henry Gooderham GOBBETT (1816-1892).
David Gobbitt