Do the world a favor and switch to Mozilla Firefox, a web standards compliant browser.Early Hurts in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England
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.