Gene Surfing

Adventures in Family History

Farmer Bullshot

Bullshot looking rightFarmer Bullshot was originally part of the National Trust’s online MyFarm project.

Since the premature end of this project he has been avidly investigating his family history, and has created this new blog so he can  share some of the interesting stories he has discovered.

 

Farmer Bullshot does not take himself – or anything else – too seriously, but he does like to get his facts right.

If you find anything that is incorrect, looks wrong or you just want to ask a question, please add a comment to the offending article and he will respond as soon as he has finished doing whatever it is that he does when not playing with his computer.

Chris Sidney 2014

 

 

 

2 responses to “Farmer Bullshot”

  1. Bruce Watson February 5, 2015 at 1:54 pm

    I like your attitude.

    I see that you are having as much fun as me making sense of the Harington family of Kelston and Exton in Tudor times.

    I have seen the suggestion that Hester had an older brother Henry, which would support the suggestion that her mother was the natural child of Henry VIII, this was first advanced by Sir John Harington of Kelston, the godson of Queen Elizabeth.

    I am yet to confirm whether Kelston was purchased or given by Henry VIII.

    I would have expect Hester to inherit Kelston if she lived and married.

    The 1570 grant by Queen Elizabeth of Kelston to her father John Harington suggests that Hester had died.

    The Stepney connection is interesting, perhaps another granddaughter of Alexander Harrington of Stepney was also called Hester?

    The father of Hester, appointed a kinsman, Thomas Harington, Rector of Kelston in 1565 and his two sons were baptised at Kelston.

    The family did stayed in Bath, because construction of the manor at Kelston did not commence until some time between 1567 and 1574 was completed in 1587 by his son John, godson to Queen Elizabeth I.

    Although I can find on images of this “handsome house after a plan of the celebrated architect, James Barozzi, of Vignola.”

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  2. Farmer Bullshot February 5, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    Thanks Bruce, there are certainly a lot of questions still to be answered. I have still to get my hands on a copy of Hester’s will, which is in the Berkshire records office in Reading. This may have a few more clues as to who she actually was.

    I’m not sure all of the properties were given directly to Awdrey “and her heirs” so maybe John H. simply inherited most of the lands on her death, or managed to get QE1 to grant them to him? I’m not sure he actually liked Awdrey all that much so maybe had little regard for Hester?

    But if Hester had died there seems to be no record of the event, and it seems odd that another Hester Harrington was living in Watchfield only a few years after her “death”.

    As for Kelston I have seen conflicting evidence about which properties were granted by the king and which were just bought by Malte:

    In the previous year Malte had purchased the manor of Kelston in Somerset on behalf of himself and Audrey Malte (History of Parliament)

    In 1541 it [Uffington Manor] was purchased by John Malt, the king’s tailor, who demised his farm place here to Oliver Hyde in 1545. Malt left a daughter and heiress Bridget, wife of John Skutt, to whom the manor descended.

    Always more work to do, but it keeps me off the streets.

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