Nothing like a "spicey" character to get interest flowing! I hope you can find more about your Hannah Wood! Carolyn -----Original Message----- From: leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Eileen Stonely Phelps Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 5:04 PM To: Leicestershire List Subject: [LEI] Newbold Verdon resources for Hannah WOOD born about 1757 Hannah WOOD may be an ancestor of mine. Her son John WOOD had a daughter Ann WOOD, who may be the Ann WOOD who married my 3rd great-grandfather, John STONELY. The only "proof" I have so far is that I haven't found any other contenders with the same names in the limited marriage records I've looked at. I'm curious about Hannah because her "interesting" behavior makes me wonder if there are further records about her. She seems to have been the unmarried mother of five children: Thomas WOOD (chr 1 Aug 1779), John WOOD (chr 15 Jul 1781), Mary WOOD (chr 10 Oct 1784), Dorothy Manesfield WOOD (chr 5 Oct 1788), and Richard WOOD (chr 5 Jun 1792). All of these children were christened in Newbold Verdon. I would think it was unusual to think that her behavior/situation would not have been discussed in the parish. How did she support five illegitimate children without a husband? Was she a well-paid prostitute, a 'kept woman?' If neither, then the parish would have had to support her, wouldn't they? She was probably born in Newbold Verdon, or she would have been given a removal order, I should think. I did find something that might be related to that. In "Settlement certificates, examinations and removal orders (1596 to 1863) appertaining to Nottinghamshire" Brit Book: 942.52, D25n, v.43, there is a Hannah Wood, alias COOPER, indexed as having been given a Removal Order from Mansfield to Calverton in 1830. (Note that this is not a removal order to Newbold Verdon, so the two Hannah WOODs may not be the same woman.) Child #4, Dorothy, has a middle name of Manesfield and this removal order indicates that the Hannah concerned was removed from Mansfield. A coincidence? Perhaps. This "removed" Hannah was probably not born in Mansfield or she couldn't have been removed, could she? So was she native to Calverton? And why did she call herself COOPER? My REAL question is this: I have heard of such a thing as "parish chest papers." Does anyone know whether there are any surviving documents other than the parish registers for Newbold Verdon? If so, where would they be? Eileen Stonely Phelps in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message