As part of our One-Name Study, we are keenly interested in establishing the connection between the Emptages of the Isle of Thanet, who were there at least from the 1400s and the Emptages who arrived in the Isle of Sheppey in the early 1700s.

As at March 2015, there are two possible connections; however, it is unfortunate that they both involve a William Emptage. I admit to being slightly jaundiced towards the many William Emptages who feature in our family history, having spent considerable time and effort trying to sort out A Surplus of Williams, the fifteen William Emptages baptised between 1793 and 1838 and yet still be left with an unanswered question.

And so it is with some trepidation that I start on this latest investigation into our William Emptage ancestors. Please bear in mind that our research takes us back to the 1600s and 1700s, long before the days of civil registration and the cenuses. We are reliant on the information contained in the parish registers, which often leaves us with more questions than we started with. However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make the attempt to work things out.
 

1.   William Emptage married Elizabeth Pummey in Minster, Isle of Sheppey, in 1710.

Elizabeth Pummy was the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Pummy. She was baptised on 2nd June 1678, in Minster, Sheppey, so she was approximately 32 when she married.

It is reasonable to assume that Elizabeth’s husband, William Emptage was close in age to Elizabeth. However, if William was a widower, he could have been ten or more years older than her.

I thought there was a will for a William Emptage, yeoman of Minster, Sheppey, probate in 1718 but unfortunately it is only an inventory of his estate, which is unlikely to give us any useful information.

I know from my paternal family history research that, whilst agricultural labourers generally married young, farmers and yeoman often waited until their late twenties or early thirties before doing so, by which time they were established on a farm of their own rather than still working on their parent’s farm.

It was usual to get married in the bride’s home parish and Elizabeth’s home parish was Minster, Isle of Sheppey. After the wedding, couples frequently set up home in the parish of the groom, where he works.

So I thought that it was quite possible that after the wedding, William and Elizabeth Pummey set up home in St Peter in Thanet, where a William and Elizabeth had six children baptised between 1713 and 1725. However, if the will which was probated in 1718 in Queenborough was for Elizabeth Pummey’s husband, it can’t be the same couple.

And indeed, I think this was probably the William Emptage who married Elizabeth Goade of St Peters in Thanet. The marriage was in Canterbury in 1713. See below.

So my early optimism was dashed.
 

2.   William Emptage married Ann Fisher, nee Bassett, in 1746, in Queenborough, Sheppey.

According to Eileen Emptage of Grimsby’s tree, William was born in Queenborough in 1720, married Ann Fisher, and was buried there on 29 October 1762.

There is a transcription reference on Find My Past to the marriage of William to Anne Fisher, 14 October 1746, in the record set ‘Faculty Office Marriage Licences’ and also in ‘Queenborough marriages 1718 – 1760’, Kent marriages record set, though on some transcriptions the bride’s surname is given as illegible.

There is a transcription reference of the burial on Find My Past in the ‘England Deaths and Burials 1538-1991’ record set and also in the ‘Kent Burials’ record set.

All that remains is to find his birth/baptism record.
 

Because of the 1718 date of probate of the will, and given that people at that time were not always sure of their age, we have to wonder if William, born c1720, was actually born a few years before and was the son of William and Elizabeth Pummey. Or whether he came from an entirely different branch of the family.

To establish either or both of these possible connections, we are looking for two Williams, one born c1720 and one born c1678 or earlier.

On the basis that either William may have been named after his father or grandfather, I have looked at every baptism of a William between 1600 and 1730 and produced a list of 17 baptisms of William Emptage in 100 years and two months.

1622: William, father Thomas, baptised St Peter.

1622: William, father Edward, baptised St Nicholas at Wade.

1644: William, parents Jeffery and Ann, bapt St Lawrence in Thanet (Family Search) See below

1654: William, parents John and Ann, baptised St Peter in Thanet. See below

1672: William, parents Richard and Mary, baptised in Eastry (Tyler index)

1674: William, parents John and Benet, baptised Church of St Mary of Charity, Faversham.

1675: William, parents William and Mary, Minster. Buried 5 Jul 1677, Minster in Thanet.

1680: William, father William, bapt in St John’s, Margate. Buried 16 Jul 1682, St John’s.

1682: Will, parents Henry and Mary (?) baptised All Saints, Birchington. Poss burial 1688.

1683: William, parents William and Elizabeth, baptised in St John’s, Margate.

1685: William parents John and Mary, baptised in St Mary the Virgin, Sandwich.

1688: William, father William, baptised in Monks Horton, poss died as name re-used 17 years later

1696: William, parents Thomas and Godly, bapt in St Peter in Thanet. Poss burial 1712

1699: William, baseborn son of Margaret Emptage and William Fuller, bapt in Ash (per Tyler Index)

1700: William, parents Thomas and Anne, baptised in St Mary the Virgin, Minster in Thanet.

1704: William, father William, baptised in Monks Horton

1722: William, parents Thomas and Sarah, Church of Saints Mary and Eanswith, Folkestone (incorrectly transcribed as Faversham on Family Search). Buried 1723, Church of Saints Mary and Eanswith, Folkestone
 

1. Which William was of the right age to marry Elizabeth Pummey, who was baptised in 1678?

If we begin by looking for a prospective husband fairly close to Elizabeth’s age, we find two surviving candidates:

1672: William, parents Richard and Mary, baptised in Eastry (Tyler Index)

1674: William, parents John and Benet, baptised Church of St Mary of Charity, Faversham.

Eastry is near Sandwich and is about 38 miles from Queenborough. Faversham is 15 miles from Queenborough.

To whom might William of Eastry have been married?

In 1713, in Canterbury, there was a marriage of a William Emptage to Elizabeth Goade of St Peters in Thanet and in 1716, in Monkton, near Ramsgate, a William Emptage married Ann Field. Unfortunately, there is no indication of who either of these Williams were.

However, one of them was probably William, baptised in 1683 in St John’s, Margate, the son of William and Elizabeth, grandson of Jeffery and Ann, see below.

The other could have been William of Eastry as I’ve found no other suggestion for him. Eastry is much closer to Monkton (14 miles) and St Peters (12 miles) than it is to Queenborough.
 
 
With regard to William of Faversham, there are three likely marriages, all in the Church of St Mary of Charity, Faversham: to Eliz Amis in 1699, to Eliz Gleadwell in 1702 and to Sarah Marsh in 1730. And a death of a William, buried in the same church in 1735, but no information as to how old he was.

There is no information given on the transcriptions as to whether this was the same William, perhaps widowed twice. And no suitable deaths other than a daughter named Eliz in 1709. It was not unknown for a widower to remarry when he was in his 50s especially if there were children to be looked after.

All things considered, I am inclined towards William of Faversham not being the husband of Elizabeth Pummey.
 

2. Are there any other William Emptages who could have married Elizabeth Pummey in 1710?

1644: William, parents Jeffery and Ann, baptised St Lawrence in Thanet (Family Search)
1680: William, father William, baptised in St John’s, Margate. Buried 16 Jul 1682, St John’s.
1683: William, parents William and Elizabeth, baptised in St John’s, Margate.

Jeffery was possibly the brother of the grandfather of the William baptised in 1654. It is possible that Jeffery’s son William, born in 1644, was the one who married Elizabeth Holland in 1674 in St Lawrence. William and Elizabeth had a daughter Elizabeth, a son William (1680-1682) and another William in 1683.

Was the William born in 1683 the husband of Elizabeth Pummey? In 1710, he would have been 27 to her 32, so five years younger than her. Such an age gap was not unknown, even with the man being younger than the woman. If William was a yeoman, land may have been involved in the marriage agreement.

On the other hand, it is possibly more likely that he was the William who married Elizabeth Goade of St Peter in Thanet, in 1713 or Ann Field in Monkton in 1716. He would have been aged 30 or 33.

William and Elizabeth had children between 1713 and 1725, all baptised in St Peter’s and it is possible that it was this William who was buried there in 1730.

From the Tyler Indexes, we know that the William who married Ann Field in 1716 in Monkton, raised children in the village and that they both died there.

1654: William, parents John and Ann, baptised St Peter in Thanet.

William married Mary Mears, in Minster, Thanet in 1672. Their second son was born in 1674, baptised in 1675 and named William but it seems that he died as an infant in 1677. Mary died in February 1699, and was buried nine days after giving birth to her fourteenth child.

William married Jane Hobday four months later, in St John’s, Margate. He had eight children by her. Jane was a widow when she died in 1737. Therefore, it appears impossible for William, who first married when he was eighteen, to have had a third wife.

William and Jane Hobday and their son John are thought to be the ancestors of five members of Team Emptage.

It appears that William did not give the name William to any of his 22 children other than his second son who died. But could one of William’s grandsons be the husband of Ann Fisher? See the notes on Ancestry.com public trees below.
 

3. Which William Emptage married Ann Fisher, nee Bassett, in 1746, in Queenborough, Sheppey?

From the above list, compiled from Find My Past, Ancestry and Family Search on 12 March 2015, it seems that there is no suitable candidate for the William Emptage who married Ann Fisher in Queenborough in 1746, birth given on Eileen Emptage of Grimsby’s tree as 1720.
 
 
Ancestry.com public member trees

There is a public member tree on Ancestry.com in the name of Findlay. It refers to a third wife for William (baptised 1654), called Elizabeth but with no evidence given for the marriage. And, as William and Mary were married from 1672 until her death in 1699, when he married Jane Hobday, I cannot see how there could have been a third marriage to Elizabeth between 1672 and 1699.

A son named John is said to have been born to William and Elizabeth in 1691 and baptised in 1693 but without any sources given for either entry. There was indeed a John baptised in 1691 but he was the son of William and Mary. The baptism in 1693 was John, the son of Thomas and Godly.

The Findlay tree records John’s son as being the William, born in 1720, who married Ann Fisher. There is no evidence or source given for the birth in 1720 or the marriage to Ann Fisher.

Confusingly, there is a second Findlay tree, owned by the same person, with reference to William Emptage, born in 1722 in Queenborough, baptised in Folkestone on 22 April 1722 to Thomas and Sarah Emptage, and married to Ann Fisher in Queenborough.

Of course, it is not unknown for the birth and baptism to be in different places. The baby may have been taken to the family’s home parish to be baptised. However, as shown on the list above, Thomas and Sarah’s baby William died and was buried in Folkestone the year after he was born.

Including the two Findlay trees, there are 36 trees on Ancestry.com with mention of William Emptage, born 1720 or 1722, married to Ann Fisher in Queenborough. I checked all of them. 36 trees, each with possible references to birth and/or baptism, marriage, death and/or burial.

Only one tree gave a source for the baptism of William but it was the wrong baptism, as above.

Two trees gave sources for the marriage to Ann Fisher, correctly. Two trees gave sources for the burial of William in 1762, correctly.

Four, including one of the Findlay trees, gave the source for William’s death/burial as recorded in the Tyler Index as buried 5 May 1763, entered on the tree as Queenborough, Sheppey.

When linking to the Tyler notebook given as the source, on the same page there is reference to the marriage of William Emptage and Ann Field in 1716, the birth of their children and the death of William and Ann in May 1763 and 1772 respectively. However, not only does the top of the screen say Monkton but when turning back the pages of the Tyler notebook, we arrive at the cover page for the village of Monkton. Monkton is near Ramsgate in Thanet, not Queenborough in Sheppey. Indeed, when checking the Tyler Index catalogue, there is no notebook for Queenborough.

All the remainder of the entries on the 36 trees entered names and dates but simply refer to other Ancestry trees as their source. In other words, one person has entered details and other people have simply replicated them without checking.

I am forced to conclude that none of the owners of the 36 trees practise safe genealogy of the standard adhered to by Team Emptage.

And all of the above is precisely why we on Team Emptage do practise safe genealogy.

 
The result of all that work is that, unfortunately, we are no further forward in establishing the link between the Thanet and Sheppey Emptages. It is time to get the DNA project under way.

This article was written as a result of research by two members of Team Emptage, Joan Leary and Roger Emptage.

Susan Morris

12 March 2015