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  #11  
Old 29-08-20, 18:33
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Originally Posted by kiterunner View Post
The probate record says he died "on or about 4 September 1856". Is there a story there?
His death notice in the paper (Dorset County Chronicle 11 September 1856) says he did on that date after a short illness at Cowick St St Thomas', Exeter.
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  #12  
Old 30-08-20, 15:35
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The probate record says he died "on or about 4 September 1856". Is there a story there?
Perhaps they couldn't be sure exactly when he died because no-one else was present?
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Old 30-08-20, 18:16
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Perhaps they couldn't be sure exactly when he died because no-one else was present?
More likely, nobody could quite remember the date. They probably thought there was no need to administer his estate until something happened: someone else died, or a property needed to be sold.
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  #14  
Old 09-09-20, 21:07
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Have just received John Norman's will, which isn't of much help in differentiating his wife from anyone else who shared her name - but is of interest in other respects. Firstly, there appears to be nothing in the vagueness of the date at all - the wording "who died on or about" is part of the printed template, apparently not considering the possibility that someone's date of death might be known exactly!

In listing his children, John includes six whom I knew of, one I didn't - and does not mention Robert at all. Either he fell out with his oldest son and wrote him out of the will, or (more likely) I have identified Robert's parents incorrectly and need to be looking for a different John and Sarah Norman. I have nothing definite to connect Robert to the rest of that family, since by 1841 he had married and was living elsewhere.
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  #15  
Old 09-09-20, 22:55
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Sometimes a child was left out of the will because they had already been given their share of the inheritance, maybe on their marriage. Or because they didn't need money and their siblings did.
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  #16  
Old 10-09-20, 00:02
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Thanks Kite. The majority of his estate went to his wife - the children were only given £10 each "to be laid out by them in the purchase of mourning". Perhaps Robert already possessed mourning clothes, so he didn't need to be bequeathed the money for them?
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  #17  
Old 10-09-20, 00:27
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Eureka!! Just been searching Ancestry for Norman births in Exeter, and found this from the register of Bartholomew Street Baptist Church:

June 26 1837

It is hereby certified that Emma, daughter of John Norman of Saint Thomas, in the County of Devon, basket maker, and Sarah his wife who was daughter of Isaac Warren late of Tiverton, Devon, weaver, deceased, was born on the twenty ninth day of May One thousand eight hundred and thirty one, and that Frederic son of John and Sarah Norman was born on the sixteenth day of August One thousand eight hundred and thirty five, both born in the parish of Saint Thomas.

So those trees were correct after all - the Sarah who married John Norman was definitely the daughter of Isaac Warren. I'll keep looking for anything else which may help prove that Robert was the son of that John and Sarah rather than any other couple with the same names!
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  #18  
Old 10-09-20, 00:50
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Hmm... Mary Ann Norman, who was definitely the daughter of John Norman and Sarah Warren as she was mentioned in the will (she predeceased her father, so what would have been her share went to her daughter), was baptised at St Thomas the Apostle, Exeter, on 13th October 1816. Robert Norman, who I think but am not entirely certain was the one who moved to Swansea and therefore my 3g-grandfather, was baptised at St Mary Major, Exeter, on 29th September 1816. It seems unlikely that the same couple would be having two children baptised at different churches within two weeks of each other - but not impossible, if one or both of them were not baptised until they were a few years old, rather than as babies.

There were plenty of other John Normans getting married in Devon at around the right time, two of them to Sarahs: one to Sarah Gill in Seaton and Beer on 12th August 1808, the other to Sarah Alfred in Ashburton on 17th May 1815.
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  #19  
Old 10-09-20, 07:33
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That's typical - solve one bit only for something else to make the scenario less likely!

At marriage, what did Robert say for his father's occupation?

At those baptisms, Robert's father was a carpenter and Mary Ann's father was a basket maker, as you mentioned in post #17.

Mary Ann was baptised from Cowie St and Robert from Milk Street.
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  #20  
Old 10-09-20, 07:42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael View Post
Have just received John Norman's will, which isn't of much help in differentiating his wife from anyone else who shared her name - but is of interest in other respects. Firstly, there appears to be nothing in the vagueness of the date at all - the wording "who died on or about" is part of the printed template, apparently not considering the possibility that someone's date of death might be known exactly!

In listing his children, John includes six whom I knew of, one I didn't - and does not mention Robert at all. Either he fell out with his oldest son and wrote him out of the will, or (more likely) I have identified Robert's parents incorrectly and need to be looking for a different John and Sarah Norman. I have nothing definite to connect Robert to the rest of that family, since by 1841 he had married and was living elsewhere.
Where was your Robert? What was his occupation and did he give Tiverton as a birthplace? Your Exeter baptism has that John Norman as a carpenter.
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