Evening,
I have just completed abstracts for wills of West Felton residents that were proved in the PPC. There are also a number of wills only listed under townships, which I will inspect and complete abstracts for West Felton townships.
Abstracts can be viewed at:
Hi,
On seeing the name Acherley, and seeing your posts regularly on here, I did email a copy of that Thomas Basnett will to you. Maybe it went missing.
Yes West Felton is a bit of a black-hole. I'm not exactly sure what the situation was, but West Felton was obviously part of the Peculiar Manor of Ruyton-of-the-XI-Towns. In the early place indicies to Lichfield probates there is no mention of Westfelton or its townships, but I do have some early 19th C. wills for Feltonians that were proved at Lichfield. There are wills, with abstracts in the catalouge of the Ruyton Preculiar wills at Shropshire Archives, but only something like 1660-1708. Family Search suggests they have later dates, but I cannot find them in the catalouge.
Re. Basnett, I would be interested to hear what the connections are to Atcherley. I have 3 descents from Basnett, but owing, probably in part, to the poor survival of the Ruyton register have few marriages for them. I've collected quite a lot of details - I have all their PCC wills, Ruyton peculiars and I think a few Lichfield ones, plus wills for those of the family who moved further afield. But I haven't yet attempted to put much together.
One thing I have found out about this family though is that they came from Cheshire, likely descendants of one Lawrence Basnett, of Great Budworth, living in the early 1500s. As the coat of arms of this family is identical to that of the Basnett family of Baschurch, which is recorded on a tomb in London.
My earliest confirmed Basnett ancestors are:
My email can be found here:
David
Other possibles:
Hi David
There are two Atcherley-Basnett marriages (one involving a West Felton Basnett, the other a Ruyton Basnett), so at first sight the Basnetts don't appear to feature much in the Atcherley tree. However my Atcherley tree also includes the female lines of descent in which the Atcherley surname is lost (though it often turns up as a middle name in some of those lines, especially the Downes family based at the Argoed in Kinnersley). Following those females lines means quite a few more Basnetts - and several intermarriages between the descendants of the two Atcherley-Basnett couples which makes for quite a few "kissing cousins".
I have produced a chart showing some of the Atcherley / Basnett / Birch / Broughall connections, which ultimately leads to two sibling marriages where the parties were not only 2nd cousins once removed, but also 3rd cousins, and 5th cousins by three different lines of descent from Thomas Atcherley and Sarah Williams. http://www.atcherley.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Kissing-Cousins-3.pdf
If the West Felton and Ruton Basnetts link up somewhere in the early 1600s, that adds another layer of complexity to the chart!
I don't recall receiving the Thomas Basnett will so would appreciate a second attempt on that.
Many thanks,
Steve
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Thanks for this resource David. West Felton is a bit of a genealogical black hole as far as online records go, so anything which helps to shed light on the families who lived there is useful.
Of particular interest to me is the will of Daniel Griffiths (1728), which names Peter Acherley (Atcherley) and Elizabeth Hunphreys - Peter Acherley married an Elizabeth Humphreys in 1726 (at St Alkmund in Shrewsbury even though both were, according the register, "of West Felton"). I know very little about this particular Atcherley family so I would be interested to see what the will says about Peter and Elizabeth.
Also of interest is the will of Thomas Basnett (1722) which names Peter Acherley's brother John along with Mary Acherley, who was John's wife and the testator's daughter. This and some of the other will abstracts should help in untangling the Basnetts of West Felton parish (a family which features heavily in the Atcherley family tree). The Lloyd family was prominent in the parish too, and also had connections with the Basnett and Atcherley families so the abstracts should be of help with them as well.
I look forward to seeing abstracts for the other townships with the parish when you have completed them.
Steve