Robert Williams

[Cody]

I am researching information on my ancestor Robert Williams. Robert was born in Norwich, England July 24, 1607, baptized on December 11, 1608 and married on December 11, 1628. Robert then sailed to Boston, MA on the ship Rose in 1637. My understanding is that he may have been baptized and married at The Minster Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth. I have been told that all the records for the church are held at the Norfolk Record Office. Just wondering if that is true or are there other resources for that. I would also like to eventually find out maybe what house or street Robert grew up on, if possible. Thanks Cody

[Jan1954]

Hello Cody,

What are your sources for Robert's birth and christening, please, as a parent should have been recorded if they were obtained from parish records. You also may find this page from GENUKI helpful.

[Cody]

My sources for Robert's info are from, History of the First Church of Roxbury Massachusetts by Walter Eliot Thwing, werelate.org, History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts now called The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts by Oliver Ayer Roberts, The Genealogy and History of the Family of Williams in America, more particulary of the descendants of Robert Williams by Stephen Williams, M.D., among others. Thanks for your help.

[Cody]

I was also told by the NRO

Genealogy Enquiries:
No records are held in the Minster.
Baptismal, Marriage and Burial Registers:

These registers are not held in the church. Many of these records were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. Copies of these registers are found in the Norfolk Record Office:

Norfolk Record Office
The Archive Centre
Martineau Lane
Norwich
NR1 2DQ

Telephone: 01603 222599
Fax: 01603 761885
E-mail: norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk

Parish Magazine:

The Parish Magazine dating from 1866 is held in the archive at Great Yarmouth Library.

Great Yarmouth Library
Tolhouse Street,
GREAT YARMOUTH.
NR30 2SH
Telephone:- 01493 844551/842279
Fax:- 01493 857628
Email:- yarmouth.lib@norfolk.gov.uk

Churchyards and Cemeteries

The churchyard with its two accompanying council graveyards in Kitchener Road are hugh and in parts overgrown. There is not a good record of where to find the people buried there. A transcription of monumental inscriptions in St Nicholas' churchyard is held by Great Yarmouth Library: this includes many headstones that have since been cleared away.

The Market Gates Cemetery was used mainly by Nonconformists. There is a copy of the burial register for the period 1828 to 1864 on microfilm at the Norfolk Record Office.

Burial registers for cemeteries in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Caister-On-Sea are on fiche at the Norfolk Record Office down to 1987. The original registers are at Great Yarmouth Town Hall.

[Coromandel]

Robert was born in Norwich, England July 24, 1607, baptized on December 11, 1608 and married on December 11, 1628. Robert then sailed to Boston, MA on the ship Rose in 1637. My understanding is that he may have been baptized and married at The Minster Church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth.

'Robt Wilyams [son] of Steven & Marg[are]t' was one of five people baptised on 11 December 1608 at St Nicholas, (Great) Yarmouth.

You can see a scan of the original baptism register on FamilySearch, here.

P.S. Hello Cody and welcome to the forum! I have some ancestors from Great Yarmouth too and have visited St Nicholas' church, which was rebuilt after the bombing.

[Coromandel]

The marriages for 1628-9 are on images 177-178 in the same register mentioned in post #5. I cannot see Robert Williams' marriage there. According to

http://
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mroman/williams.htm

(quoting 'Robert Williams of Roxbury 1607-1693', a 1934 book by Harrison Williams) Robert was apprenticed as a cordwainer in Norwich in 1623, until 1630, when he became a freeman. Perhaps it is more likely that he married in Norwich? There were many different parishes in that city. He and his wife Elizabeth had four children ('Samuel, John, Elizabeth and Debra') by April 1637 when they were 'desirous to passe to Boston in New England to Inhabit'. Some online trees claim Elizabeth's maiden name was Stalham but no-one seems to have been able to find a marriage.

[Cody]

Thank you so much for your help. I would love to come to England and walk the streets that Robert did. I would love to find a house or street that he he may have lived in, but that will have to wait for I have one in college.