♀Joanna (surname unknown)

Joanna is said to have lived in the manor of Taunton, in Somerset, England, in the sixteenth century, and to have married Richard Trott, a landholder there. She would be the eleventh great-grandmother of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through her son Robert Trott (buried 1599).

Her surname is not known. They are said to have had five children: two sons named John, one buried at Pitminster on 16 October 1544 and the other living until about 1595, and Robert, William and Tamsen. In 1571 and 1572 Richard’s holdings at South Trendle and Otterford passed to Robert and John on condition that neither man sell or surrender any part of them to anyone but a person of the surname Trott. Richard was buried at Pitminster on 14 November 1570. Treat suggests that she was perhaps the Joanna Trott buried at Otterford in August 1577, but the Otterford register transcription gives “Grace Tratt, widow” for a burial on 9 August 1577; another transcription gives Joane.

Notes

Sources

Her name and her children come from The Treat Family (1893), by John Harvey Treat, which prints the Pitminster and Otterford parish registers and extracts from the Taunton manor registers. Treat gives her only as Joanna, with no surname, and says she was “perhaps” the Joanna Trott buried at Otterford in 1577; the Otterford register transcription on FreeREG gives that burial as “Grace Tratt, widow”, on 9 August 1577, and another transcription gives Joane.

Her name and her marriage

The name Joanna comes from Treat, who prints the marriage with no surname and says she was “perhaps” the Joanna Trott buried at Otterford on 14 August 1577. Treat cites no record that names Richard’s wife, so the name and the marriage rest on his account. The Otterford burial is transcribed on FreeREG as “Grace Tratt, widow”, on 9 August 1577, and another transcription gives Joane. The name Grace does not match Joanna, so the burial does not settle who she was.