William Eva (b 1804 Camborne)
Sidwell Eva (b 1806, m Richard Rule 1826
Camborne)
Rose's will (see below) suggests
that three children of Henry and Eva were alive in 1802. This
would be Jenefer, Catherine and Henry.
Email re Sidwell Bennets parents from
Tony Bennett (April 2009)
I had Christopher
Bennett and Margaret Hary as Sidwell's parents, based on
information in the LDS. However, while the LDS is a wonderful
recource, occasionally it is innaccurate, as Tony points out.
It is best to quote his email.
You've
probably seen the various Christophers around who might have
been the father of Sidwell. The LDS submission has
Christopher and Margaret Harry as her parents. But the
children attributed to them don't all appear to belong to
them. There is only one marriage in the Camborne and
surrounding area of a Christopher Bennetts and a Margaret at
the right time - that's the 1762 marriage you have.
The LDS submission has their children as:
Ann 11 Sep 1763
Christopher 30 Jan 1766
Sidwell 1 Nov 1768 - this is
an error as the actual baptism is 10 Jan 1768
Ann 16 Mar 1771
Elizabeth 25 Sep 1774.
All perfectly plausible - the gaps
are ok. Looking at the Camborne OPC trancsriptions
online we can start unravelling it though.
Ann
11 Sep 1763 - fine. The register gives her mother's
name as Margaret.
Christopher 30 Jan 1766 -
the register doesn't give the mother's name, but young
Christopher is buried aged 5 in 1771 and on that occasion
his mother is named. So he's fine too.
The other three - no mother's name
given. There is no burial recorded for Ann (b 1763)
which indicates that the later Ann (1771) belongs to another
couple.
Then I found there are other
children of Christopher and Margaret, baptised away from
Camborne. As I mentioned before, there is only the one
possible marriage so this must be the same couple. The
children are:
Elizabeth
4 Apr 1768 Phillack
Francis 26 Oct 1770 Phillack
(unnamed son) 28 Nov 1773
Phillack
Christopher 5 Apr 1777
Crowan.
If these are the children of
Christopher Bennetts and Margaret Harry - and I think they
must be - then the last three attributed to them in Camborne
(with the possible exception of Elizabeth) cannot be.
And I discount Elizabeth as she is too close to the unnamed
son in 1773 (besides, she fits somewhere else). (Comment LR:
Phillack is 5 miles west of Cambourne and Crowan 3 miles
south, so the geography fits)
This means that Sidwell belongs
to a different Christopher. The question is, which
one? As you say, Sidwell is a very unusual
name. A Sidwell Bennetts is baptised in 1823 to
Christopher Bennetts and Ann Carthew. This
Christopher is one of another very difficult group of
contemporary Christophers, but I think he is the son of
Christopher Bennetts and Rose Michell, who were married in
Camborne on 3 May 1767. He was baptised on 20 July
1777 in Camborne. Christopher and Rose, his parents,
had a number of children, not all of whom have the
mother's name in the baptism register so we have that
problem again. However, the first child where the
mother's name does appear in the register is Richard on 11
Jun 1769. This is a long time after their marriage,
and Sidwell (10 Jan 1768) fits into the gap
perfectly. And this would explain the 1823 Sidwell
who would have been named by Christopher after his sister.
Returning to "which
Christopher" - I have changed my mind from time to time
about this, but the appearance of Francis, son of
Christopher and Margaret, helps me to conclude that that
Christopher is the one (there is only one) who is the son
of Francis (baptised 26 Dec 1730). But that doesn't
help you very much as you want the Christopher who is
Sidwell's father. This is very difficult! You
mentioned on your webpage that there are a lot of
candidates. By elimination I have worked out that
the most likely one from the Christophers baptised in
Camborne is Christopher son of Richard, baptised 13 Aug
1720. This makes him rather old to be marrying in
1767! But it isn't impossible and I've tied off most
of the other Christophers. He is also the only one
in Camborne whose father is Richard (and his eldest son is
Richard).
But this is -
obviously! - a bit speculative. I fear that most of
18thC genealogy involves a fair amount of guesswork.
One thing that puzzles me still is that there is a burial
of a Sidwell Bennats, widow, in Camborne on 3 Mar
1759. Could this be Christopher's mother?? But
try as I might, I can find no marriage to a Sidwell by any
male Bennetts in Cornwall. So that's a
mystery. Even the identity of Richard, father of the
1720 Christopher, is elusive - if Sidwell isn't his
mother, then the most likely candidate married in 1723,
three years after Christopher was baptised and no other
marriage appears in the records. The more I think
about this the more I dislike it! An older Richard
(baptised 1 Jan 1686/87, buried 20 Jan 1734/35) could be
our man and may well have married Sidwell - an unrecorded
marriage, or maybe one in a nearby parish whose marriage
records have not survived, eg, Redruth which is very
patchy before 1717.
One final thing, I
am like all Camborne Bennetts descended from Edward, born
about 1607. If you look at my Ancestry database you
can see where they connect - well, most of them anyway!
As a conclusion, we can put down Tony's suggestion of
Christopher (b 1720, father Richard) as a 50% chance. But it
is time to call a halt at that point? No.
An email from Ross Williams in 2021 confirms Tony Bennett's
work. Quoting
(Tony Bennet) comes down on the side of Christopher Bennetts,
son of Christopher and Rose, probably being Sidwell’s parents.
I think I have
proof of that in Rose’s Will .
Rose died in July 1803
and mentions bequests to Sidwell, and to Sidwell and
Henry’s children, in her Will viz.
"First I give to my Son
Richard and to my Daughter Sidwel the Wife of Henry
Eva One Shilling each and also to my three Grand
Children the children of my said Son Richard and to my
three Grandchildren the Children of the said Henry Eva the
sum of Twenty Shillings each..
More stuff from Ross is on Christopher and Rose's Page