John Durman (β 1721-05-29 – ⊥ 1799-08-11) and Sarah Holloway (c.1720 – ⊥ 1785-01-10) were my 6th-great-grandparents, being the parents of Isabella, mother of the immigrant Thomas Godbehere. They lived and were buried in North Stoneham, England. There is some oddity about the chronology of their marriage, which is recorded after their oldest children were born.
Sarah had a son George Cox, presumed to be from an earlier marriage of which no record is found. After her death, John remarried widow Sarah Street (maiden name unknown) on 1786-11-24. She also predeceased him, in 1797.
The long will of their son Richard, dated 1830, which directs the dispensation of his considerable estate, including to nieces and nephews, is an important document for laying out this family.
A John Durman is baptized in North Stoneham in 1721, the son of George Durman and Rebecca Kelsey. This by itself is a sensible candidate to be the John who started having children in North Stoneham in 1745. However, while I have searched numerous records and wills, the evidence identifying them is only circumstantial and a bit of process of elimination.
The baptized John is known to be alive in 1751, when he is mentioned in the will of his father, called George Durman of North Stoneham. Many children in the past died young, a possibility this reference excludes. John was also the executor of his father’s will, suggesting he lived in the area, likely still in North Stoneham.
Searching for any other John Durman in North Stoneham turned up only one confounding one: a John Durman of North Stoneham, husbandman, son of Mary Durman died intestate in 1768. However, this appears to be the John Durman who married Martha Orpwood in North Stoneham in 1767, and died in 1826 recorded age 86 (the will of John Durman yeoman dated 1823, proved 1826, lists known children by Martha), and so could not reasonably have been the John born in 1721, nor his son (below) born in 1753.
We would have to posit a fourth, mystery John Durman in North Stoneham for this identification to be wrong.
Finally, John and Sarah’s first child was named Isabella Rebecca, which (under this hypothesis) combined her parents’ mothers’ names.
Sarah was the daughter of Richard Holloway and Isabella Randall. She is named in her father’s will as the wife of John Durman, but no baptism was found, possibly due to a gap in the registers. A George Durman was a witness to said will, adding to the above evidence.
These are the known children of John and Sarah, all baptized in North Stoneham:
Sarah, William, and Ann are mentioned in Richard’s will, a helpful source for finding their children. Isabella had died by then, and John may have as well. John’s known surviving daughter Rebecca seems to be the Rebecca Durman who married William Coward in 1805 and who Richard gives a half-sized bequest to. Also half-bequested to is Sarah Anne, wife of William Betteridge, daughter of Sarah above. (Her sister Sophia got a full share.) Oddly, all other nephew and niece relationships are explicitly stated yet these two are not.
Richards’s will refers to his “half brother” George Cox. Presumably, Sarah had a prior marriage, but I can find no record of such or of George’s birth. George is mentioned in Sarah’s father’s will as a grandson (without further details).
John Durman and Sarah Cox both of North Stoneham were married in Southwick on 1751-11-26. It is almost inconceivable that this could be a different John and Sarah of North Stoneham, especially with the appearance of the name Cox. However, this marriage is after three of their children were born, which suggests they were living as a couple for several years before marrying. Yet Sarah’s father’s 1749 will refers to them as married, and anyway such an arrangement would be quite unusual at this time. Perhaps they belatedly married far from home discreetly, having given the public appearance of marriage before this. Other possibilities are that they had had a marriage but for some reason it wasn’t legally recorded and had to be redone, or that the 1751 record is simply in error and the marriage was earlier.