This week's rabbit hole is to try to find the parents of Elizabeth (or Betty) Noad in or around Trowbridge, Wiltshire. She is probably my 4th great-grandmother, the mother of John Rich (1790-1868) of Trowbridge and Hilperton, who married Rebecca Hill (1790-1863) in 1815 in Hilperton, Wiltshire.
1) What do I know based on the available records?
* A baptism record for John Rich is in the Trowbridge parish registers, baptized 14 November 1790, the son of William and Betty Rich:
The source citation for this record is:
"Wiltshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812," indexed database with record images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), Trowbridge, St. James with St. Stephen > Parish Registers > 1761-1812, image 62 of 318, John Rich baptism entry, 14 November 1790.
* I easily found the marriage of William Rich and Betty Noad in the Trowbridge parish records:
The source citation for this record is:
"Wiltshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1916," indexed database with record images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), Trowbridge St. James with St. Stephen > Parish Registers > 1782-1801, page 275, William Rich and Betty Noad marriage entry, 27 January 1788.
I noted that William Rich was a bachelor, and Betty Noad was a spinster. Both signed with a mark. One witness was a John Noad with a fairly distinctive hand.
* In the marriage register, there are Banns for three weeks in November 1787 for William Rich and Elizabeth Noad that is, without doubt, the same couple:
The source citation for this record is:
"Wiltshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1916," indexed database with record images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), Trowbridge St. James with St. Stephen > Parish Registers > 1782-1801, page 53, William Rich and Elizabeth Noad marriage banns entry, 4, 11 and 18 November 1787.
2) I have some questions to answer. Who are the parents of Elizabeth/Betty Noad? When and where was she born? Was Trowbridge her parish church? My hypothesis is that she was born between 1760 and 1770 in Wiltshire.
I started the search for her birth and parentage by searching the Wiltshire parish records for baptisms of a Elizabeth or Betty Noad in Wiltshire in that time frame. There were no entries. Expanding the search to 1755 to 1775, resulted in one entry in 1773 in Sutton Veny, Wiltshire to James and Mary Noat, and one entry in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1775 to William and Mary Noad. Elizabeth/Betty would have been age 14 or age 12 at her marriage to William Rich, who was probably born in about 1766.
3) Plan B. Who had Noad children in Wiltshire in 1750-1770?
Having struck out with the obvious plan A, plan B is to figure out which Noad parents were having children baptized in or around Trowbridge in the 1750 to 1770 time frame. This was a bit more fruitful, ad I have collected them into families:
a) John and Christian (--?--) Noad of Trowbridge:
* Jane Noad, baptized 5 June 1759
* Thomas Noad, baptized 5 June 1759
* Rebecca Noad, baptized 5 June 1759, buried 15 August 1759.
* Stephen Noad, baptized 26 December 1760
* William Noad, baptized 4 April 1763
* A John Noad was buried 19 February 1764. Was it the father of this group of children?
* Christian Noad, widow of John Noad, was buried 15 June 1806.
b) William and Grace (Crabb) Noad of Trowbridge:
* William Noad, baptized 8 April 1751
* Grace Noad, baptized 20 Feb 1757
* Richard Noad, baptized 13 April 1760
* Phebe Noad, baptized 16 May 1762
* John Noad, baptized 3 October 1764
* Sarah Noad, baptized 5 February 1769
* Grace Noad, wife of William, buried 22 January 1769
c) Oliver and Mary (--?--) Noad, of North Wraxall, Wiltshire:
* John Noad, baptized 11 June 1760
* Isaac Noad, baptized 23 August 1763
d) James and Ann (--?--) Noad, of West Kington, Wiltshire:
* James Noad, baptized 16 January 1760
* Isaac Noad, baptized 23 January 1763
e) Rid and Mary (--?--) Noad of Chilton Follat, Wiltshire:
* John Noad, baptized 14 February 1756
f) Henry and Mary (--?--) Noad of Swindon, Wiltshire:
* Henry Noad, baptized 9 April 1765
* Mary Noad, baptized 7 June 1768
g) John and Elizabeth (--?--) Noad of Swindon, Wiltshire:
Only 21 of them in seven families. I'm glad the surname wasn't Rich or Richman or something more common!
There were other burials in West Kington and Swindon for names not baptized or named as parents in the baptism records.
Not much to go on yet - no Elizabeth/Betty Noad baptisms, but there are at least two families in Trowbridge that had children between 1750 and 1770. John Noad, the father of the a) set of children, likely died in 1764, which means that they had no children born after 1764. It is possible that Elizabeth/Betty Noad was the daughter of William and Grace Noad of Trowbridge.
4) Plan C. Who married in the 1770 to 1800 time frame and might be a sibling of Elizabeth/Betty?
I searched the Noad listings in the Wiltshire Marriages and Banns, 1754-1916 collection on Ancestry and found:
a) In Trowbridge:
* William Noad married Ann Jenkins, 13 February 1781.
* John Noad and Mary Powell, 7 May 1786.
* William Noad and Sarah Roper, 22 July 1787.
* Betty Noad and William Rich, 27 January 1788.
b) In Swindon:
* William Noad and Mary Parsons, 4 February 1770.
* Henry Noad and Anne Balson, 9 August 1772.
* John Noad and Ann Batson/Balson, 28 May 1772.
* Richard Noad and Jane Lester, 11 March 1790.
c) There are several in other towns.
5) What else is there?
a) Probate records. Especially for Trowbridge and Swindon families.
b) What other records?
c) Is there a record for John Noad with the same hand as in the marriage record?
d) Online family trees.
e) Trowbridge is in the western part of Wiltshire, and is relatively near the eastern part of Somerset, and there may be Noad families in Somerset in this time frame.
6) I am not ready to draw a conclusion to this problem because I don't have enough data. I've spent a good 10 to 12 hours working on this in the last three weeks.
7) If a Genea-Musings reader has suggestions, I would love to hear them! Please leave a comment or send me an email.
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