The Durham Littlefairs before 1700

Early Christening and Marriage Records

Although most of the Ancient Parish Churches were built long before 1500 the earliest church records are in the main in the late 1500 's. The churches that were involved with Littlefair christenings and marriages in the 1500 's had records starting as follows :-

Bisopwearmouth St. Michael 1567 Chester le Street St Mary and St. Cuthbert 1582

Durham St. Giles 1584 Durham St. Nicholas 1540

Gateshead St. Mary 1559 Houghton St Michael and all Angels 1563

Witton Gilbert St Michael and all Angels 1570

The Paul Joiner Marriage Index for County Durham shows the earliest recorded Littlefair marriage to be in 1582. My earliest record is of a Littlefair christening. It's a John Littlephare at Durham St Nicholas Church 1/11/1558 - father a William Littlephare.

Littlefair Families Before 1700

I have examined the data and made a guess at some early Littlefair families. I have included this speculative work in the Before 1700 Section titled Littlefair Data. In most christening entries the fathers name had been quoted and that was helpful. In the odd record where the father 's name had not been quoted I entered the christening into the family listing if the christening fitted into a sequence of christenings and the location was appropriate. I discuss below the pros and cons of the relationships between the people for whom I have data.

I have inserted bold numbers to reference marriages. The first I reference is William (1). We do not have a record of his marriage just a number of sequential christenings that refer to William as father . Note in the list of Miscellaneous christenings a Philip is recorded as the father on early christening records. He may well be a brother of William.

Christopher( Xpofer) at marriage 2 may be either an unrecorded son of William (1) or of one of his brothers? John (3), I suspect, was the one christened by William in 1558. John has christenings at Durham St. Nicholas and Houghton and I debated whether there were two John's or one with two families but the sequence of dates lead me to believe he simply lived somewhere between Durham and Houghton and used both Churches. Elizabeth and John are repeat names but this is not unusual in that infant and child death were common.

We do not seem to have the christening of Richard (4) nor can I guess at it. There of course may be child weddings or late (youth) christenings though the sequences tend to discount the latter. Richards (6) and (7) I think are probably one and the same Richard marrying twice and most likely the Richard Christened by William (1) in 1571, calling children Margaret and Robert after an older sister and brother.

Number 5 is Gulielmus , an early form of William. I cannot trace his ancestry. He might be the son of William (1) as there is no record of William (1) having a son William or possibly he could be one of his brother's sons.

Thomas, marrying at Houghton at number 8 would likely be the one christened by Christopher in 1593 at Bishopwearmouth. I suggest that he may well have had an earlier child called Thomas and probably at Houghton. No such record exists but it was usual for fathers to name a child after themselves and we have a number of suspect first and sometimes second born children not christened.

Edward at 9 would be the son of John (3) christened in 1587. Richard at 10 could be either the son of John (3) or Richard (6) and christened either 1599 or 1610. Anthony at 11 we cannot trace although I suspect William (1) was his grandfather. William had a son called Anthony and one of his sons may well have given a child of theirs that name.

John (12) is possibly the son of Richard (7) christened in 1615. Edward at 14 could either have been the son of Edward (9) or Thomas (8) and christened either 1619 or 1618. Richard, marrying at Brancepeth, number 15 would most likely be the son of Richard (6) and christened 1610.

We are particularly interested in Thomas (13), who married Dorathie Sigsworth. Was Thomas (13) or Thomas (16) the Thomas christened by Richard (7) in 1619? Did Thomas (8) as speculated above father a Thomas? Were Thomas (13) and Thomas (16) one and the same Thomas? (In other words he did'nt die but went off with another woman).

I am going to guess that Thomas (13) was an early son of Thomas (8) possibly born at Houghton. I note that Thomas (13) calls two of his sons George and Edward and this would support this guess as these sons would be named after two of Thomas's brothers, though it does'nt explain the name Ralph. A Ralph had been born in 1584 to a Philip so the name may have been that of some relation.

Could George (17) be a Grandson of the George christened in 1643 by Thomas (13) and Dorathie Sigsworth.The William (18) marrying Ryton would be the one christened to marriage 12 and Robert 19 may well have been his brother christened 1653 though the 1657 christening to marriage the Edward and Elizabeth marriage (14) is equally likely. Robert's wife Elizabeth Wren is recorded as being from Seaton Carew. He may well have met her on his journey from Bishopwearmouth to Stockton.

All my above speculation resulted in a speculative tree that I call Littlefair Roots.

The Later 1600's : Littlefairs on the wane

After the successful family of Edward and Elizabeth (14) which included four males to 1633, there seems to have been only very limited success in raising Littlefair families and then only away from the old centres of population. England suffered the plague in the years up to and particularly bad in 1665. Might this have had it's effect on the old populous centres