Many thanks to Varla Jane Owens Wright for this submission.

What follows is a very brief summary of the three earliest Hurt generations so far located in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, submitted by Varla Jane Owens Wright. About her research on these early Hurts, she says, “At this point, we’re relying almost entirely on wills. I have not yet completed “translating” the wills of William and his brother Nicholas, as they are very difficult to read. I hope to get them done soon, but I have scanned them for names and relationships, which are easier to decipher than many of the other words. It is very frustrating to find Ralph listed in the index, and then not locate him in the microfilm of the wills. I went through the whole series page by page – twice. He just isn’t there. Apparently his will went astray. I hope it will turn up of be drawn to someone’s attention in one of those serendipitous events that occur so often in this line of work.”

July 10, 1998 – update on will of Ralph Hurt:
This past month, I located the address of the original repository of the wills from Ashbourn, Derbyshire, England at the Lichfield Record Repository. I sent an inquiry and just received a letter from them. While the May 6, 1539 will of our ancestor, Ralph Hurt(b. abt 1485, married Alice Harris) is listed in a number of indexes and in the court docket, it has not survived the passage of time and is no longer in existence. The will once existed and was indexed in their collection, but sometime in the past century it was badly damaged and disintegrated. The 1534-1540 Act Book of the Lichfield Consistory Court, pg. 63b, which was recorded at the time the will was probated, names Ralph’s son, Robert, as the executor. The two names and the 6 May 1539 date are all the information that particular entry provides. I suppose it is rather amazing that we have as much on these folks as we do.

Early Hurt Families in the Ashbourne Area of Derbyshire, England

The earliest known Hurt ancestor is given as Raphe/Ralfe Hurte of Ashbourne who, according to the Windsor Herald, married Emmet, daughter of Richard Carter, around 1454. This couple had two known sons; Thomas b. abt. 1459 of Ashbourne-in-ye-Peake, Derbyshire, and Roger, who left a will dated 11 Sept. 1522 and probated 22 Oct 1523. Roger apparently had no wife or children and left everthing to his godchildren and friends. [FHL# 95288 – document $ 43].

Thomas had four sons, as reported in records currently available:

1. William, b. about 1460 of Ashbourne, Derbyshire and Matfield, Staffordshire, d. 1520
2. Lawrence, b. about 1472, of Stanton, Staffordshire, d. 1550
3. Ralfe, b. about 1485, lived at Ashbourne, d. 1539
4. Nicholas, b. about 1487, possibly lived at Brailsforth, Derbyshire, d. 1559

No daughters are listed on any available documents nor has any document been found that gives the name of his wife or the wives of Lawrence and Nicholas. All three younger brothers are named in the will of the eldest, William, dated 30 Sep. 1520 and probated 30 Oct 1520 at the Episcopal Consistory Court of Litchfield [FHL# 95406].

Lawrence appears to have been living at Edalston, Staffordshire at the time of his death. His will was probated from Stanton 17 Apr 1550. [FHL# 95289] He did not name a wife or any children, but did name his younger (and at that time, only living) brother, Nicholas. Nicholas appears to be the one whose will was probated from Brailsforth, Derbyshire 6 Apr 1559.

The third son of Thomas, Ralfe Hurt of Ashbourne (1485-1539), married Alice Harris, as reported in the pedigree of his descendant William Hurt of Dover and Kent in the 1619 Visitation of Kent and also in the “Pedigree of the Hurts of Bristol” compiled by the Windsor Herald in 1819 from the records of the College of Arms in London. He wrote a will in 1530 which was probated 6 May 1539 in the Episcopal Consistory Court of Litchfield and appears listed in the index to those wills. However, it is no longer found among those wills as currently microfilmed.

Ralph is shown on a pedigree chart published in 1881 in the Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeology and Natural History Society, Vol. 3, pg. 6. [FHL# 1696504 item 3 as being the ancestor of the Hurts of Bristol. (His father, Thomas, and brothers William and Nicholas are also listed on this chart, which is primarily concerned with the progeny of Nicholas).

Records show that William, Ralph and Nicholas have a large number of descendants.

Some Info on Varla’s Trip to England for Bristol research re: Hurt Family Residences, 2000

During the month of June 2000, my husband and I spent two weeks in England and Wales on a research trip. Our first stop was in Bristol, where we spent several days walking through the old part of the city and visiting the old churches and Hurt family home sites there. Due to pedestrianisation of a large part of the old city, it is easier to walk to most locations, and the Old City is a very small area of the current metropolis. Old streets are blocked off and no vehicle traffic is allowed. Many of the pre-1700’s buildings were pulled down and replaced by Victorian or Edwardian structures, but a few do remain.

Most of the churches attended by Hurt ancestors are still standing but no longer used as active places of worship. All Saints is now a school. St. Nicholas is used for several non-religious purposes, including a tourist information center. St. Mary le Port is a burned-out shell, but scheduled for restoration. We were able to photograph most of the churches, and so located the sites of the houses from their descriptions.

During a visit to the Bristol Record Office, recently relocated to an old, refurbished tobacco warehouse down on the river harbor, I was able to handle and read old land records written on velum (tanned calfskin) with the wax seals still attached by leather strips to the bottom of the documents. I wore surgical gloves to handle them.

Bristol Homes of the Hurt Family

The Hurt family occupied some houses in Cock Lane on both the east and west sides of the lane. This street has been renamed several times through the years since the 1600s; Foster Lane, Hardwellus Lane, St. Martin’s Lane and Symonns Lane. It ran between Corn Street and St. Nicholas Street and parallel to All Saints Lane.

In 1553, when it was called Symonns Lane, one such residence was a tenement with a cellar below and a hall above. At that time it was granted by Hugh Partridge to Thomas Kelke. By 1598, it was in the possession of Ralphe Hurte, who conveyed it to Thomas and Jenkyn Vawer in 1609 as part of the marriage settlement of Roger Hurt to Margaret Vawer. In 1613, it was sold by the Vawers (a Welsh merchant family prominent in Bristol at that time) and Margaret, Roger’s widow to George Holmes and Oliver Snell.

Another house on Cock Lane was in a 1625 tenement abutting the Coopers’ Hall. This belonged to Thomas and Roger Hurt and was leased to John and Edith Bird who lived there. The property had a bridged passageway extending over the lane and connecting to a storehouse used by Thomas Hurte prior to the issuing of the lease. Both the tenement and the storehouse were leased together by Thomas Hurt to William Wyatt in 1642, and then sold to him. A later Wyatt family member sold it in 1652.

In Broad Street, two new shops were built around 1571, which were adjacent to the west end of Christchurch. By 1577, the one next to the church door was leased by the church wardens of Christchurch to Thomas Hurte. By 1634, this lease had passed to a Joyce Bottomley.

On the east side of High Street, a precious tenement of the Corporation was sold in fee farm to Roger Philpott alias Myllar (Ralphe Hurte’s father-in-law) in 1551. This was in the tenure of Mr. Millarde in 1556-57. In 1557, it was repossessed for some reason not given, and resold again in fee farm to Ralphe Hurte in 1582, who leased it to an Erasmus Wright. It was held by Ralphe Hurte in 1609. By 1627, his son, Thomas Hurte was in possession of the building. By 1671, it was owned by a spinster, Ann Hurt and leased to/occupied by John Hickes.

By the way, Roger Philpott alias Myllarde, a grocer, also had his name spelled as Fylpott when he leased a shop near the south door of Christchurch in Wine Street in 1530, which from 1567 was leased to his son, Nicholas Philpott. This Nicholas Philpott alias Myllard, also a grocer, was living in 1568 in the house next door to the repossessed one mentioned above. It was eleven feet wide and one hundred seven feet I length — a typical size for a town house (called a burgage plot) of that time.

A William Hurt occupied a house in Mary le Port Street in 1680, but the relationship of this William and that of Ann, the spinster, to our immigrant ancestor has not yet been determined.

Varla Wright
VARLAJW@aol.com