♀Margaret (surname unknown)

Margaret (living 1593) was a woman of Kingston upon Thames, in Surrey, England, who married first Thomas Adnett and then, most likely, John Mochett. Her surname is not known. She was probably the eleventh great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her daughter Mary Adnett, who married Robert Chelsham. She outlived both husbands, and in 1593 a lay subsidy^W list names her as “Margaret Mochett widow”.

Between 1548 and 1554 she and Thomas were parties to a lawsuit over land in Kingston and Surbiton. Thomas and Margaret had two daughters, Mary and Agnes. After Thomas’s death Margaret most likely married John Mochett, a woollen draper of Kingston. His will, dated 11 December 1579 and proved on 13 February 1579/80, names his wife, written Margarett in the will, as one of his executors, and leaves a Kingston house, then in Robert Chelsham’s tenure, jointly to John Gilpin and Robert Chelsham. Mary married Robert Chelsham, a beer brewer, and Agnes married John Gilpin, a tailor. A deed of 1617 named Mary, whom a second marriage had made Mary Tiffyn, and Agnes Gilpin as her daughters and co-heirs.

Notes

Sources

What is known of Margaret comes from Robert Battle and Henry B. Hoff’s study of the English ancestry of Rodolphus Elmes in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2022), which cites the lawsuit, John Mochett’s will, the 1593 lay subsidy and a deed of 1617 now in the Surrey History Centre. The article also writes her second husband’s name as Mudgett.

Her daughters

A Kingston deed of 27 August 1586 describes Mary and Agnes as the “daughters and heirs” of an Adnett “late of Kingston”, leaving his first name blank; the 1617 deed is the one that names Margaret as their mother.

John Mochett’s will

The will of John Mochett, woollen draper of Kingston upon Thames, is in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury records at The National Archives. It is dated 11 December 1579 and was proved on 13 February 1579/80. It names his wife, written Margarett, as one of his executors, and devises a house in Robert Chelsham’s tenure at Kingston jointly to John Gilpin and Robert Chelsham, their heirs and assigns. The article spells the second husband’s name Mudgett; the will spells it Mochett.

The will does not call John Gilpin or Robert Chelsham sons-in-law. The tie between the two men and the Adnett sisters rests on the 1586 deed. That the testator’s wife was the widow of Thomas Adnett rests on the 2022 article.