Sarah PEARSON, born Knaresborough

[Paul Marshall]

The Knaresbro' registers, as I understand, are still at Knaresbro' ... you will have to get in touch with the verger there.

[janbooth]

I definitely think the witness names are Saml PEARSON, Frances PEARSON & Robert WRAY, so in theory the PEARSON's could be her parents, siblings or cousins. As you have a subscription to FMP, you can access the Marriage announcement by looking in their Newspaper section under Tresham's name. I too saw the baptismal record of Sarah Elgie PEARSON and did try to follow through to see if I could find any more info on her but with little success. Whitby is a fair way from Knaresborough but our ancestors did travel so it is a possibility to bear in mind. However, Paul's suggestion in the post above is a good one. In the past I have obtained information from the current incumbent of churches who still hold the parish records I was interested in, often for a small donation, and I have always found them very helpful. Good luck.

Janet

[arthurk]

The Knaresbro' registers, as I understand, are still at Knaresbro' ... you will have to get in touch with the verger there.

I found this marriage at Ancestry in the West Yorkshire PR collection, indexed as Christ Church, Harrogate (aka Bilton with Harrogate), and although it was in the parish of Knaresborough, it had its own registers which unlike the Knaresborough ones have been deposited in an archive.

What was new to me today was to learn that the parish registers and bishops transcripts for Harrogate are kept at West Yorkshire Archives in Leeds, as I would have expected them to be at Northallerton and the Borthwick respectively. This has implications for where they can be found online.

I'm not sure where you got that information from ?

Just to be clear, what I discovered related to Christ Church, Harrogate only. I was assuming it might apply to other churches in the town, but haven't checked this out. The information for Christ Church can be found at Genuki:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS...istchurch.html
and is confirmed by checking the WYAS catalogue (https://catalogue.wyjs.org.uk/Default.aspx?):
PRs - finding number RDP32
BTs - finding number "R D/RR/144" (note space after first R).

Arthur

[arthurk]

London courts? Anyway, I now have subscriptions at Ancestry and FindMyPast and have not found the Bond and Allegation records I seek at either site (and already mentioned what happened at Borthwick).

I've done a bit more digging, but not come up with anything else, I'm afraid. As far as I can tell, the index to Yorkshire marriage licences held at the Borthwick, and online at FindMyPast, includes all the courts - the main diocesan ones and the smaller ones ("peculiars") that had jurisdiction over just one or two parishes. There was one of these courts in Knaresborough, so if there were any licences issued there, I would expect them to be included in the index. Maybe it would be worth trying again with more variant spellings?

The London court that might have issued a licence would have been the Faculty Office. Their index is also at FindMyPast, but again using standard spellings I didn't get anywhere.

You'll see from the page in the register that Harrogate at that time was in the Diocese of Chester (confusing, isn't it!) - the Archdeaconry of Richmond was originally part of the Diocese of Chester, but was transferred to the new Diocese of Ripon in 1836. The Archdeaconry of Richmond records have mostly ended up at West Yorkshire Archives in Leeds, which probably explains why the Harrogate BTs are there. WYAS have a collection of Richmond Archdeaconry probate records, so I wondered if they might have some marriage licences as well, but I haven't found any evidence of this.

Going on from this, I wondered if there might be anything in the Chester Diocesan marriage licences (at FindMyPast, part of their Cheshire Collection), but again nothing.

Sorry I can't help more at present,

Arthur

[sleuthjan]

Thanks - you're all very helpful. So I hope I am understanding this info correctly. So should I contact Christ Church (would need contact info - do one of you have?) or I should go to the link Arthur posted for the West Yorkshire Archives catalogue and look there?

[sleuthjan]

Thank you Arthur. It is very confusing so I appreciate that you looked about. Sarah's name isn't often mis-spelled (other than surname could appear as Pierson - rare). But the Rev. Tresham D. Gregg, well you wouldn't believe how badly that has been transcribed in a wide variety of ways - ha, ha. But my basic searches at FMP were not very productive either - though I did find a lot of newspaper items about Samuel Pearson. Whether or not he was Sarah's father (which I expect he probably was), he was probably a maltster/wine and spirit merchant - of a place called "Hart's Horns" in Knaresborough. It seems he suffered bankruptcy in 1837 - but there also appeared to be a lot of other local businesses having that trouble as well. Don't know if England or just Knaresborough was having economic difficulties. Anyway, it's all interesting and I hope I can learn more at FMP.

[arthurk]

Thanks - you're all very helpful. So I hope I am understanding this info correctly. So should I contact Christ Church (would need contact info - do one of you have?) or I should go to the link Arthur posted for the West Yorkshire Archives catalogue and look there?

Well I'd say go to WYAS - but then I would, wouldn't I?

You've seen the PR at Ancestry (part of the WYAS collection there); the BT is at WYAS as well, but not online. I haven't managed to find the marriage licence, but if anyone else can find it, hopefully they'll tell you where it is as well! I don't think the church would be able to help you, as they seem not to have any of the older records now.

Arthur

[sleuthjan]

Thanks Arthur. I will give it a go!

[sleuthjan]

Hello all. I wound up buying a 30 minute search at West Yorkshire Archive Service (that seems to be all they are currently offering) but don't know if it will prove worthwhile, i.e., if they will have the relevant record there. We will see.

However, my contact to the Borthwick Institute last week yielded a useful reply. They thought the marriage bonds and allegations record for Sarah Pearson and the Rev. T. D. Gregg would be located in the diocese of Cheshire Record Office and I could visit that website: archives.cheshire.gov.uk and make inquiry there. So I have emailed them in hopes they will have the record.

Borthwick was very helpful and attached a link to a whole information sheet about marrying by license: marriage bonds and allegations. They said that after 1823 marriage bonds were no longer made but that allegations were made after this date. And if either party was under the age of 21 a marriage license would be required and parental permission - so this confirms to me the likelihood that Sarah's father signed that license - maybe her mother as well.

So I thought I would pass along this info for anyone's future reference. Fingers crossed now that the record I've been looking for will be located. Thanks to all for your assistance! I will post again when I have answers.

[sleuthjan]

Too funny! Cheshire Record Office referred me to Borthwick! And then got a reply from WYAS - they said they don't have that record and refunded my money - nice - and also suggested contacting Cheshire Record Office. Well, perhaps no-one has this record.

However, I do now know the identity of Sarah Pearson's father. He was definitely Samuel Pearson. I found a website with a book entitled "The Clergy of the Church of Ireland 1000-2000, Messengers, Watchmen and Stewards." (Editors T. C. Barnard and W. G. Neely - and pages about the Greggs written by John Crawford). Mr. Crawford wrote, in reference to the Rev. Tresham Dames Gregg, that his wife was Sarah Pearson, daughter of Samuel Pearson of Pannal Hall. Well, I know that is in the Knaresborough area but now my challenge will be to find out more about Samuel and who his wife and parents were, etc. And what was Pannal Hall? But I'm on the trail! If anyone knows anything interesting, please let me know.