This is of great interest to me as I have some Huett/Hewett ancestors from Eccles in the same time frame. One of them , Elizabeth , married a James Stafford. These Staffords are from the Wirksworth area, and although not 'gentle' were 'kin' , even closely related to the Staffords of Botham, although the kinship is impossible to ascertain, despite Ince's pedigrees, or perhaps in spite of!. Certainly the Staffords of Botham in surviving wills seem to show a marked preference for my Staffords. Peter In a message dated 14/07/2016 09:50:05 GMT Daylight Time, gen-medieval@rootsweb.com writes: ** can anyone help resolve a conundrum? *** Dr John Hewett is described by Wikipedia as a chaplain to Charles I. He campaigned for the restitution of the monarchy and was executed by Cromwell in 1658. He is an ancestor for many Americans through his son Rev John Huett jnr. The wikipedia page references a local history website which relies mainly on “Notes and Queries” (23 Nov 1861) which states that Hewett was the fourth of seven sons of Thomas Hewett, gentleman, born at Eccles near Manchester in 1614. No source is given for this statement, other than the back of a portrait in Cheshire with no obvious provenance link. It states that John had sons John and Charles, the latter apparently having died before 1658. The parish registers of Eccles show a John Huit (father not specified) but there is a child of a Thomas Huit the next month. Venn shows that Dr John matriculated sizar from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1633, which is consistent with a birth in 1614. An earlier “Notes and Queries” (Nov 1859) gives an alternative birth date of 1604, based on an entry in the register of the Merchant Taylors School. That reference is to a John Huit, son of John, citizen and merchant taylor, and so is probably not the fellow we are looking for. Familiae Minorum Gentium (by the antiquarian Joseph Hunter, published Harleian Society 1894-96) says he was the son of William Hewet of Eccles Lancashire (and … Cook of Worsely) and grandson of Thomas Hewet of London, who was the brother of Sir William Hewet (Lord Mayor of London 1559). This pedigree is described as “not to be depended upon” and “wants much examination” . While there was a William Hewet in the right location in the chart, he died in 1607 with just one son William who is accounted for. A clue to this mystery is that John Hewett's descendants inherited the Shireoaks estate which is on the corner of Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. This had been acquired by the Thomas Hewet mentioned in Familiae Minorum Gentium. Thomas died in 1575 leaving Shireoaks as a life interest to his wife and then to his son and heir Henry and his heirs forever. Thomas' other son William just got money – his descendants were the Hewetts of Stretton and they didn't inherit Shireoaks, which says that Dr John must have been a descendant of Henry. Henry died in 1598 leaving sons Thomas, Henry, John and Benjamin, all minors. Henry's wife Marie subsequently married Anthony Moseley of Manchester which may be where Eccles comes in, if she brought up the children there. She died in 1609 so it's unclear why the family would be in Eccles after that, unless waiting for Shireoaks Hall to be built (finished 1613?). John son of Henry, who might have been born around 1595, is a candidate to be our Dr John. The primary difficult with this identification is the Cambridge graduation in 1633, but perhaps that is a later attribution to someone with the same name. Dr John married Ellin Skinner in 1636 which does seem compatible with a 1633 graduation. (Of the other sons of Henry, Thomas matriculated at Oriel College Oxford in 1606 aged 19 and went to Gray's Inn, Henry to Oriel matriculated in 1606 aged 17 then to Inner Temple, Benjamin not shown in Oxford Alumni but went to Gray's Inn in 1616. This information implies a birth year for John of 1590-96.) An alternative possibility would be that son Thomas who was born about 1586 had a son John in 1614. He might have been “of Eccles” before he inherited Shireoaks; at some point he married Elizabeth Wrottesley, of a Staffordshire family. However Thomas' will of 1659 shows no signs of a recently executed son John with descendants, but it does mention a nephew Charles which is consistent with the main argument if Dr John's son Charles were still alive when the will was made. The universe might come back into alignment if John the son of Henry were born around 1590, lived with the family in Eccles, and himself had a son John there in 1614. The reference to nephew Charles in the 1659 will would technically be to a nephew's son, but that's hardly an obstacle. Or perhaps Henry son of Henry had a son John, which works nearly as well. I have no way of resolving these possibilities. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GEN-MEDIEVAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message