Friday, 8 December 2006

William Dolman 1803 Cherhill

Dear Andy

I confirm that we have now carried out the following searches for you.


1) Review

I note that you are wanting to find the origins of William DOLMAN.
We have a record of his marriage, as follows:

DATE: 03 APR 1823 PLACE: Cherhill
GROOM: DOLMAN William
BRIDE: POTTOW Ann

Our Wiltshire Marriage Index does usually record ancillary information if it
is given in the registers, but in this case, there does not appear to be
anything further about this couple.

I also checked for a Marriage Licence Bond for this couple, but there does
not appear to be any surviving document for this.


2) 1851 census

I checked for William in the 1851 census, and found his household as
follows:

THE PARISH OF: Cherhill ENUMHOUSE: 0038
SURNAME : DOLMAN FORENAME: William
AGE : 48 RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF HOUSE: Head
BORN : Cherhill IN THE COUNTY OF: Wilts

SURNAME : DOLMAN FORENAME: Ann
AGE : 48 RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF HOUSE: Wife
BORN : Cherhill IN THE COUNTY OF: Wilts

SURNAME : DOLMAN FORENAME: Jhon
AGE : 19 RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF HOUSE: Son
BORN : Cherhill IN THE COUNTY OF: Wilts

SURNAME : DOLMAN FORENAME: George
AGE : 15 RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF HOUSE: Son
BORN : Cherhill IN THE COUNTY OF: Wilts

SURNAME : DOLMAN FORENAME: Clare
AGE : 11 RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF HOUSE: Son
BORN : Cherhill IN THE COUNTY OF: Wilts

SURNAME : DOLMAN FORENAME: Hugh
AGE : 08 RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF HOUSE: Son
BORN : Cherhill IN THE COUNTY OF: Wilts

So he does seem to have been born in Cherhill.
However, that doesn't mean that he was baptised there, or indeed anywhere at
all.

I therefore think that we need to double-check the obvious place (Cherhill)
before we go off blindly searching other places.


3) Baptisms search

Robert Marsh therefore extracted all the DOLMAN entries in Cherhill around
this time, which he says are as follows:

CHERHILL
Parish Baptisms
Started search 1789
1789 Dec 20 - Mary, dau of James & Betty DOLMAN
1790 Nov 07 - Catharine, dau of Isaac & Molly DOLMAN
1792 May 27 - James, son of William & Elizabeth DOLMAN
1792 Dec 25 - James, son of James & Elizabeth DOLMAN
1795 Apr 05 - Ann, dau of James & Bety DOLMAN
1795 Nov 15 - Isaac, son of Isaac & Mary DOLMAN
1795 Nov 15 - Rebekah, dau of Isaac & Mary DOLMAN
1799 Nov 17 - William, son of William & Betty DOLMAN
1801 Mar 01 - Jane, dau of Isaac & Mary DOLMAN
1805 Dec 25 - Edward, son of Isaac & Mary DOLMAN
1805 Dec 25 - John, son of Isaac & Mary DOLMAN
Stopped search 1810

So we do have quite a few couples here, who could be potential parents for
your William:

James and Elizabeth/Betty
Isaac and Mary
William and Elizabeth

However, I find it strange that after a concentrated burst of children,
there are then no further ones between 1805 and 1810.


4) Marriage search

I checked our Wiltshire Marriage Index for marriages of the above 3 couples,
in case there was mention of a link with another parish.
I was able to find these three, as follows:

DATE: 03 SEP 1789 PLACE: Cherhill
GROOM: DOLMAN James of this parish
BRIDE: WILTSHIRE Elizabeth of this parish

DATE: 04 JAN 1790 PLACE: Cherhill
GROOM: DOLMAN Isaac of this parish
BRIDE: RAWLINGS Mary of this parish

DATE: 08 NOV 1787 PLACE: Cherhill
GROOM: DOLMAN William of this parish
BRIDE: BULLOCK Elizabeth of this parish

So all of these appear to we well settled in Cherhill, and no other clues as
to other places.

In case that none of the above couples were the parents of your William, I
also checked for other DOLMAN male marriages between 1785 and 1810, and
noted these:

11 JLY 1785 at Steeple Ashton
22 DEC 1787 at Maiden Bradley
06 APR 1788 at Chippenham
27 MAY 1792 at Lacock, groom of Compton Bassett
28 MAR 1796 at Longbridge Deverill
22 SEP 1801 at Longbridge Deverill
04 DEC 1809 at Devizes St John
14 OCT 1804 at Calne

We could investigate these further if you wish.


5) IGI entries

I note your comment about the IGI entry from 1799.
As you will see, this does appear in the Parish Baptisms, so that's ok.
It's a bit early to be your William though, and if (as you say) he died,
then that does discount him.
We can check the burials if you wish, to confirm this is the case, let me
know if you want this done.

I do also note a couple of contributors have entered William DOLMAN 'about
1803 at Cherhill'.
Which means that others have looked for this baptism, and failed to find it.

I did also note from the IGI, the following entries:

William DOLMAN 03 SEP 1802 - Calne, Wiltshire, son of William & Elizabeth
William DOLMAN 28 DEC 1803 - Calne, Wiltshire, son of Walter & Ann.

So there are also a couple of other nearby possibilities, providing that
these can be verified from the Parish Registers at Calne.


6) Further searches

To try and resolve this problem, I would suggest the following

a) Get copy of marriage entry for William DOLMAN in 1823.
The witnesses names may give us some clues.

b) Check the Cherhill registers for 1805-1810, in case there has been an
error in the White Horse index.





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