Dear Listers, I have had such fun with your advices sent per this list. So far I have come up with some interesting co-incidences but so far have not been able to make the connection to prove or disprove the family legend. Browsing some of your hints I came across mention of Boxgrove which reminded me I had been sent a Will for a Ralph Palmer of Boxgrove. The sender felt the names of his children fitted those the College of Arms had sent connected to William Palmer of Stoughton died 1601. Mentioned in Ralph's Will was a Shirley. Now I knew that a Shirley had married into the Palmer family of Wingham, so I decided to look at the pedigrees for Shirley of Isfield (Palmers of Wingham) and Shirley of Wiston, Sussex (Parham). To confuse matters even more John Shirley of Ishfield marries Jane Shirley of Wiston and it is their daughter Elizabeth Shirley who marries Thomas Palmer of Wingham. What did I find? They are connected! Thanks to the map of lower West Sussex, I find that all the places mentioned in my search are within a short distance from each other and show the probable migration of the family especially of cadet branches. William Palmer of Stoughton (1601) was a yeoman, his son John willed land to his second son William. Why was the first passed over? Maybe he had died. Some of the family end up in Westbourne but Nicholas asks to be buried in Stoughton. I have learnt not to think of Stoughton as a village, but see on the map it covers a fair area which at one place borders Westbourne. The Will of Raffe Palmer of Boxgrove 1552 mentions his sons Robert, John, George, Rychard, Walter, William and Philip. A Thomas Palmer is baptised at Boxgrove 1575 and has among the sponsors Sir Thomas Shirley. I then looked at the pedigrees for the families Shirley of Wiston, Isfield and Preston and found that Ralf Shirley son of Ralph Shirley of Staunton Harold had a son Ralph who inherited many estates in Sussex. This Ralph mentions his godchild Rauffe Palmer in his Will of 1510. Lefayre Palmer