Who are Richard's real parents

Here is a good example of why you really should follow the first point in the Genealogical Proof Standard – doing a “reasonably exhaustive search for all information that is or may be pertinent to the identity, relationship, event or situation in question.”(1)

I traced online of my ancestral lines back to Henry Corden, baptized 1 December 1688 in Heanor, Derbyshire, the son of Richard Corden and Ann Neild.

Initially, upon looking at the parish registers of Heanor in Derbyshire, I had assumed that the Richard Corden who married Anne Neild in 1664 was the Richard baptized in 1629, the son of Henry^* & Mary Knight because it seemed more likely that someone baptized in 1629 would marry in 1664 than someone born in 1605 (which the next oldest Richard Corden was).

However, that changed when I saw the will of Richard, husband of Anne Neild, dated 1673. It mentions his sons Henry and Samuell (he had also had a daughter, Dorothy, who died before him), his wife, Anne, and importantly, his brother Thomas and sister Alese [Alice]. He appoints Roger Neild (who he calls his uncle) and George Brentnall (who he calls my father) and Rob. Brentnall as overseers of his will.

The will of Richard Corden, 1673

Henry and Mary Knight (married 1626), usually considered the parents of Richard who married Anne Neild, had only three known children: Mary (1628-1648), Richard (1629-) & Elizabeth (1632-), so it would appear that the Richard who died in 1673 could not have been the son of Henry, born 1629, even though his age at the time of the marriage to Anne would have seemed to make this a reasonable contender.

There was an earlier Richard Corden, who had the following children: an unnamed son in 1599/00, Richard in 1605, Thomas 1607/08, Alles 1611/12, Tace or Face (or Faith) 1613-1621, Joseph 1616, Robert 1620-1622, and William 1621/22. The eldest unnamed son was probably Henry who married Mary Knight.

The baptisms of Richard, Thomas, Tace and Joseph name Margaret as the wife of Richard. The only likely marriage for a Richard Corden and a Margaret I have found is the marriage to Margaret Wright on 20 Jun 1603 in the parish of Greasley in Nottinghamshire. Greasley is about 4 ½ miles from Heanor, and walking between them today would take about 1 hour 40 minutes according to Google maps. If this is the correct marriage, then it was probably Richard’s second marriage, which would explain the long gap between the birth of the first son in 1599/1600 and Richard junior in 1605. There is a marriage of Richard Corden and Ales [Alice] Dixey or Dirsey in Heanor in Jun 1599, but there is no burial there which looks like the correct person. Nonetheless this is probably his first marriage and she is probably the mother of Henry.

I assume that Roger Neild is a relation of Richard’s wife, Ann Neild. I have not yet worked out the connection to George Brentnall. The only vague idea I have is that perhaps George took the children in when Richard senior and his wife both died in 1622, leaving children aged about 22, 17, 15, 11, 6 and 1.

Without having checked this will I would still have been (incorrectly) believing that Henry's father, Richard, was born in 1629 to Henry, rather than in 1605 to another Richard.  

* There is a website, https://boydhouse.com, which lists the parents of the Richard baptized in 1629 as George & Mary Knyght, George being from Stanley, Derbyshire. The Heanor parish register clearly has the father in this baptism, and the groom in the marriage, as Henry, so the website is incorrect as naming him George.

 

(1). Christine Rose, Genealogical Proof Standard: Building a Solid Case (San Jose, California: CR Publications, 2005), p. 2.