Swindon in the Past Lane

Now you might think I had better things to do on a Bank Holiday Monday - but I spent it sorting out the Dore family. I don't mean I popped round to their house and threw about accusations until they all argued and fell out with one another. No, I spent most of the day, well to be honest all the day, comparing gravestone inscriptions, census returns and wills until I managed to create order out of chaos. And given the odd mis-transcribed date I think I can now safely say I've got them all sorted. As you've already seen their father William's Will included personal items such as beds and bedding, a mahogany tea table and his old Chestnut Hackney which he stated should not be sold or disposed of but be kept so long as it shall live. His son John was brief and to the point - he left everything in equal proportions to his two spinster sisters Sarah and Mary. But it was Anne's Will that tied in all the strands and helped me locate everyone. William and Sarah D...

William Dore was the first in an auctioneering family dynasty that spanned nearly 100 years and three generations. Christened at St Mary's Church, Lydiard Tregoze in 1749, the son of Peter and Jone Dore, William married local girl Sarah Hedges and produced a large family. William fulfilled his parish responsibilities as tenant and rate payer, and clocked up an impressive 13 years service as churchwarden with Jacob Matthews of Toothill, retiring in 1812, possibly due to ill health or just general infirmity. A long time tenant of Lord Bolingbroke, William paid rates on Wick Farm and additional land called Prinnels, Blacklands and Greendown between 1806 and his death in 1815. He wrote his will in the month before he died and what I find particularly interesting are the personal bequests William makes to his family. Beds and bedding continue to be an important and valuable item of household furnishing and are handed down to his daughters. I would love to be able to identify the...