I'm trying to sort out a family legend and find whether it's true or not. There was a building firm in Chertsey from around 1800 to the 1950s called Thomas Knight & Sons (based in Station Road). I've traced them back to the marriage of Thomas Knight (stone mason) to Sarah Basset in Chertsey in 1795. A later settlement examination (1804) implies that Thomas was apprenticed to a John Hames, surveyor of Stamford, Lincs for seven years from 15 years ago (1789). If the dates are accurate he would still have been an apprentice when he married so I suspect the apprenticeship started slightly earlier. The marriage register records him as "of Stamford", implying he may have achieved settlement there (presumably by completing his apprenticeship) by 1795. I've found no record of Thomas Knight being born in Chertsey in the 1770s, and though I have found a Knight family in the Stamford area about that time I have no evidence to link them. There is no family legend of a link to Stamford. Photographs from the 1920s show the phrase "established 1700" on one of the company's trucks. Although this could be a red herring it makes me think there could have been stone masons in the family some generations back from Thomas. A family legend records that the family originally lived in Battersea, presumably in the 1700s (this was mentioned in a 20th century family obituary in the Surrey Herald). I've not been able to find any evidence of this yet (I've tried the IGI and WSFHS baptism index CD), and wondered if any other list members could suggest possible routes to prove or disprove this legend. All suggestions welcomed! Bob