I'm researching my family history and have found a forbear in Devon that MAY have gone by two names. I've found references in family trees to a Mary Carew b. 1750 in St Kew, Cornwall, as a daughter of both John (Jack) and Deborah Carew of St Kew, and of John Hann and Ann Welsman of Sidbury, Devon. I've also found trees in which she is named "Mary Ann Hann", but with EXACTLY the same birthplace and date as Mary Carew.
I'm, particularly interested in this because I believe that Mary Carew/Hann is my great-great-great-great-grandmother. There was certainly evidence a "Mary Carew" born in St Kew in 1750, daughter of John (Jack) and Deborah Carew, but her mother Deborah died when Mary was just three years old. The next reference is to her being married to Henry Cottrell in Devon, though no one has been able to quote an actual marriage certificate. Family reminiscences suggest that they may have married in Exeter, but that could mean any of the nearby villages as well, I guess. In particular, the villages of Sidbury and Uffculme may be candidates.
My theory (as yet completely untested) is that there may have been some connection between the Carew and Hann families, and that when mother Deborah Carew died, Mary was adopted by the Hanns and moved from St Kew to Devon. Family trees which show her as a daughter of John Hann and Ann Welsman certainly fit this theory. Unfortunately, I've not been able to get any clarification from the owners of these trees.
I'm travelling (I'm resident in Auckland, NZ) to the UK in a couple of days, and will be checking out some items in the Devon Archives at Exeter around 9-10 August. The one that intrigues me most is a 1754 "Removal Order" from the parish of Lympstone, where "John Hann and his wife Ann from Sidbury" are presumably sent back to Sidbury to avoid having the Lympstone parish take financial responsibility for them. Some Removal Orders list the children who are also being "removed" along with the parents, and it will be of great interest to see if this is the case here - and whether the child in question is referred to as Mary Hann or Mary Carew.
I'd be delighted if any readers had information about the Carew/Hann families, and especially whether Mary Carew and Mary Hann are one and the same, given they share an exact birth date and birthplace. It's clear that the Hann and Cottrell families had close relations, with several intermarriages between them over the years. And it's also clear that there is some connection between the Cottrells and the Carews. Henry Cottrell and Mary Carew?/Hann?'s children include both a John HANN Cottrell and a Robert CAREW Cottrell (my ggggfather).
Any suggestions readers may have in respect of my research at the Devon archives around 9-10 August would be most welcome - and I'm of course willing to share any of my own research if there is interest - I have a trove of information on the family after their emigration to New Zealand. And if there's a clear explanation for the Mary Carew/Hann conundrum, I'd be ecstatic!
If anyone would like to e-mail me, I can be reached on roger.wilson@hyper.net.nz. Many thanks!
Re: Are Mary Carew and Mary Hann one and the same?
Have you found the marriage of Deborah and John Carew for her maiden name? If that was Hann then there is a possibility of a link. Remember that the records we see are usually baptisms, if you are lucky to see the originals, some have the births as well but not all. There is a difference in the baptism years which is significant, if Mary Carew was adopted by the Hanns, I would expect a "rebaptism" if there is such a thing, after the Carewbaptism, not before.
Re: Are Mary Carew and Mary Hann one and the same?
Thank you for your responses here. I’m in Exeter right now and spent a day at the Tree House and the Record Office seeking to further my understanding - but with little progress alas. My sincere thanks to the staff at the Tree House who spent hours fruitlessly perusing records on my behalf - apart from a hint in a completely separate branch of my family relating to the Rev Job Hupton, a young itinerant preacher whose second marriage was to Elizabeth Gill in Moreton Hampstead, and who went on to become a firebrand Baptist in Norfolk (that’s next week’s research in Norwich).
As regards Mary Carew, yes, I was sloppy in referring to her date as being a “birth” when in fact it was a baptism. The so-called Removal Order” turned out to be not quite that but what I understand to be a precursor - in this case certification from Sidbury Parish that John and Ann Hann were legally settled there, suggesting, I assume, that on the strength of this Lympstone Parish would be able to issue the Removal Order and have them returned to Sidbury. I’d hoped that the document would also name any children with them (and in particular Mary Carew/Hann), but unfortunately it didn’t.
Such are the trials of the researcher - I remain optimistic however that somewhere there is a “smoking gun” that clearly establishes the link, or that someone somewhere will have some family records that clarifies everything. If not now, then next week, or next year, or . . .
Re: Are Mary Carew and Mary Hann one and the same?
Hello, I'm fairly confused by the 'exact birth date' for the two Marys. From the Cornwall OPC database: A John & Deborah CAREW were baptising at St Kew between 1748 and 1753. Children George, 1748; Mary 1750 and Elizabeth 1753 with a Deborah buried there in 1754. What happened to Elizabeth & George? The dates in the records are baptisms, not births. There was a family of CAREWs at nearby Lanteglos, Camelford at this time. Regarding the HANN family of Sidbury - records (FamilySearch) show four children, John 1738; Mary 1742; Rebecca 1745 and Thomas 1747. Only John 1738's record includes a mother's name - Ann. A Joseph HANN, son of John was baptised and buried in Lympstone in 1755. Presumably the removal order was from Sidbury to Lympstone? I can't locate any of the marriages you mention. St Kew to Sidbury is some 90 miles or so. Hope this helps, but probably not!
Re: Are Mary Carew and Mary Hann one and the same?
Yes, there are links between the Hann and Cottrell families over a number of generations. My own forebears include the son of Henry Cottrell and Mary Carew (Hann?), named Robert Carew Cottrell - and his son John Hann Cottrell (who shares his name with his uncle, Henry’s brother). The existence of both the Carew and Hann names in the names of Henry and Mary’s children is intriguing . . . but without hard evidence anything more is just speculation.
Re: Are Mary Carew and Mary Hann one and the same?
Did you look at the name index in the record office? What about wills? are there any Cottrell/Carew ones? Could Mary Hann have married a Carew and been widowed before she married Henry, or as you have not found a marriage, is the husband still alive? I had one where a couple were living as man and wife for years, then when her husband died they married. Good luck.
