James Smith of Great Torrington
 

appears to have been a regular bluebeard!

When he dies in 1703/4 his wife gets £5, while his children get £50 or more. http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/51...nSearchResults
There appear from this to be only the two: James, the son of Frances, b 1681 and Susan, daughter of Margaret b 1664.

Margaret presumably died in childbed in 1664 - she appears to be buried nearly a fortnight before her daughter is christened.
Another Margaret is buried in 1676
Frances is buried in 1684.

James had land in Somerset and someone in that county has extracted lots of non PCC wills for the Smyths of Great Torrington.

Short of going to the Devon and Somerset ROs, can anyone suggest how I can access:

• Great Torrington marriages in the 1600s- not yet on FMP
• Siraut p 210,211 - extracts of the wills - [Siraut] Siraut, M. (ed). Somerset Wills. Somerset Record Society Vol 89 (2003) - A printed version of a set of abstracts (made before 1942 by A.J. Monday).

There were, of course, several James Smyths in Torrington at the time. One was married to Alce, another to Wilmoth, but I have no idea who my James's presumable fourth wife was.

James, by the way, is variously described as Alderman, Gent, Attorney and Maior.

The FamilySearch catalogue lists film or DGS number 100121339 as Baptisms, marriages, burials, 4014A/PR/1/1, 1616-1733 for Great Torrington, and there is a symbol you can click to view the images, but "These images are viewable: To signed-in members of supporting organizations. (or) When using the site at a family history center". So you should be able to view them on a computer at your local FamilySearch Centre.

https://familysearch.org/search/cata...tory%20Library

Amazon have a couple of copies of the Somerset Wills book listed and the first one is being sold by Oxfam, so although it costs over £30 you could at least look on it as a charity donation:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...7&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Oh, or you can buy it from Somerset Record Society for £15 + P&P:
http://www.westcountrygenealogy.com/...ationslist.htm
I can't see how you buy from them but there are contact details on here:
http://www.westcountrygenealogy.com/.../somrecsoc.htm

I see Oxfam bookshop has it cheaper than Amazon on their own site (£28) and you can cut out the middleman that way:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/books/h...y-hd_100771194

Not sure which would work out cheaper with P & P though.

But buying it from Somerset Record Society is still much cheaper, if it is possible!

The Society of Genealogists has it in their collection, if that's any help:
http://s10312uk.eos-intl.eu/S10312UK...027|1|14954366

Or "buy it now" on eBay for £15 + P&P:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Somerset-W...i:272421301954

Thank you, Kite!
My New Year Resolution was - not to do any family history until I'd written up the old stuff. But this man is variously described as Richard Smyth of Tavistock or John Smyth of Tavistock, and I'm feeling so smug at having found him and KNOWING I have the right man (and his grandfather!) that I may well head off to Kew this Saturday!

More by luck than judgement, I found this index to marriages:

http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/Great...1613-1732.html

It is possible that James' last wife was Thomasine. Meanwhile, of course, his earlier marriages are not recorded.

Thanks to Kite, I had a wonderful time, trawling through will transcripts and browsing the registers.
I remain (relatively!) confident that James was the grandson of Richard d 1631 and probably the son of Richard bur feb 21 1649/50.

I am puzzled by his son James, bp 1681. His will mentions four underage daughters: Elizabeth, Frances, Lavinia and Margaret. He appears to have married late in life c 1725, and his wife, Grace, predeceased him. His will describes him as of St Audrey, Somerset: http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/51...nSearchResults

Lavinia seems to have married William Fellowes in 1765 in London.http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/16...nSearchResults
Elizabeth and Frances married Molesworth brothers in the 1750s: see http://ukga.org/england/Cornwall/visitations/ page 328.

But then who is Dorothy, daughter of James who married Luke Glubb on p 580? They married in 1715? I can't see that she belongs to "my family" as she is not mentioned in either James senior or junior's wills. Any ideas?