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| St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow, Essex - East end cc-by-sa/2.0 - © John Salmon - geograph.org.uk/p/1304107 |
Daniel Hockley (bap. 21 Jan 1760 at St Mary's, Great Dunmow), Bachelor, of this Parish, son of Robert Hockley and Mary Watts, and Sarah Turner, Spinster, of the same [Parish] were married by John Howlett, Vicar, at St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow, on 7 Jun 1786. The transcription of the parish register names the witnesses as James Button and Isabella Bird.
This couple had one daughter, Sally Hockley b. 7 Dec 1787, bap. 23 Dec 1787 in Great Dunmow, at 16 days old, who married Thomas Staines in 1812, and, because two of their daughters, Sarah Staines and Ann Staines, later married Henry Wilton, elder brother of my 3x great-grandfather, Richard Wilton, one way or another, I'm related to this Daniel Hockley.
This Daniel and Sarah Hockley are also reputed to have been the parents of this Daniel Hockley, but I'm just not buying it. There are no records I can find to substantiate this, and therefore seems (unless anyone can provide evidence to the contrary), merely an assumption based on his name. And it will probably be unpopular to say this, but this Hockley line are firmly of the "middling sort": merchants, artisans and tradesmen, living in the centre of Great Dunmow. The later Daniel Hockley was a Labourer, who arrived in the rural outskirts of Dunmow from Broxted. They're from two very different classes.
There was a burial of a Daniel Hockley, who died aged 56 (right sort of age, computes to an estimated birth year of 1761), in 1817, however, upon further investigation, that burial turned out to be in Thaxted. It could relate, but it's too much of a stretch to accept, because I cannot place him in Thaxted and, even if he died there, one would expect him to be brought back to Dunmow for burial. Others have ascribed a death in 1843. The deceased in this case was aged around 77, computing to a birth around 1766 and the burial was in High Roding. This 1843 death can be immediately refuted though, because the record, in Essex Monumental Inscriptions, shows that particular Daniel Hockley is buried with a wife named Elizabeth. Therefore, at the moment, I cannot, with any confidence, say when this Daniel Hockley died.
What I can say is that there are a LOT of people named Daniel Hockley. They may all be related, but it is absolutely not safe to assume that they are.
There's also a death of Sarah Hockley, age estimated as 80, who died in 1838 S Quarter in DUNMOW UNION Volume 12 Page 53 and was buried on 14 Jul 1838 at St Mary the Virgin, Little Dunmow, which I feel could relate, but again, my confidence is not now high on this. With only one child, it's possible that either one or both of them died shortly after Sally was born. Then either could have remarried. It just isn't possible [yet] to be absolutely certain.