♂Thomas Doggett

Thomas Doggett (christened 18 January 1572/3 – died 1621) was a man of Horsmonden, in Kent, where he was christened, raised his children and made the will that was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W in 1621. He was the eleventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Mary Doggett (christened 1600).

Horsmonden

Thomas is said to have been christened at Horsmonden on 18 January 1572/3, a son of Roberte Doggett and Dennice Aparke, who had married in the parish in 1566. His children Elizabeth, Mary and Thomas are said to have been christened at Horsmonden on 10 July 1597, 21 September 1600 and 19 October 1606, and Isabell was probably their mother.

His will

Thomas was still “of Horsmonden in the Countie of Kent” when he made his will. He left ten shillings to the poor of the parish, threescore pounds to his son Thomas, then fourteen, thirty pounds to his daughter Mary, then twenty, and five pounds each to two grandchildren, Elizabeth and Marye Willard. The residue of his goods went to “Isabell my lovinge wife”, whom he made sole executrix, on condition that she make certain payments. The will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 26 July 1621, and he most likely died that spring or summer.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his daughter Mary, who is said to have married George Lewis at Horsmonden on 1 November 1624 and went with him to Plymouth Colony^W in the 1630s, and then through her son James Lewis (1631–1713) and James’s daughter Sarah Lewis (1661–1732). They meet again in Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908), whose parents, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), were both descended from Thomas Doggett. From Wesley the descent to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs as one, through George Wesley Blanchard (1868–1939) and Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975).

Notes

Mary Doggett’s father

Older Barnstable genealogies gave George Lewis’s wife as Sarah Jenkins. In 1997 Gordon Lewis Remington showed, in The American Genealogist (volume 72, pages 321 to 328), that “the wife of George Lewis was not Sarah Jenkins, as many sources had claimed, but was Mary Doggett, daughter of Thomas Doggett of Horsmonden, Kent.” Mary’s christening at Horsmonden in 1600, to a father written Thomas Doggete, and the bequest to “Mary my daughter” in the 1621 will fit that identification.

Christening date

An index of the Horsmonden register gives his christening, to a father written Roberte Doggete, as 18 January 1572/3. Remington’s article is quoted as giving 23 January 1572/3.

The will

The will is in the registers of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, indexed under the name “Thome Doggett” of Horsmonden, proved 26 July 1621. Remington’s abstract of it, as quoted, dates it 2 May 1621, describes Mary as unmarried and under twenty-one, and names a son-in-law, William Willard.

Sources

The christenings of Thomas and his three children, his parents’ marriage at Horsmonden on 20 July 1566, and Mary’s marriage to George Lewis, written George Leweis and Mary Doggat, are from an index of the English parish registers. The ages given for Thomas and Mary in 1621 follow from those christening dates.