Well,you did arsk :)
 

Right, hopefully some of you wont remember how often I tried to find this - but the marriage of Edward Horstead and Elizabeth Selby is the bane of my life. Well, that and their birth places and of course their ancestry.

They are my GGPx4 - I can stand in front of their headstones at the church in Ketteringham, Norfolk, just down the way from where I live (which for the uninitiated was a total surprise as I was born in Docklands and moved here in 1987.

But the facts are Edward birth year is 1735 - he died in 1827 (good ages my Horsteads). Elizabeth Selby born 1741 died 1826.

Earliest record I have is a settlement certificate dated 1768 (possibly 1763 - smudged) where they move about a mile from Ketteringham to the next village, Carleton. First known child, Thomas born about 1765 - no place known. Other children born Ketteringham, Norfolk.

Now, there are clutches of Horstead/Hosted/Hostead/Horsted in the Aylsham area of Norfolk, about 20 north of Ketteringham. There are clutches in the Glapthorn area of Northamptonshire and some in Yorkshire (and some odd groups in sussex/kent) But I cannot find a substantial bunch of them before the say 18th century.

Where did they come from? Is there name totally changed? Not Horstead or Hosted but maybe Orstead or something? Dont know. But there is a John Horstade about 8 miles from Ketteringham marrying a Bridget Pilgrim in - going on memory - about 1730 and I toyed with them being Edwards parents.

SO, any new angles would be appreciated. Neither can I find any Selby families in the Norfolk area in the 18th century, apart from the mention of two on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. There are though, Selbys in the Northamptonshire area.

Can anyone suggest anything? Why no sign of the name before the 1730ish era. How did they suddenly turn up in Norfolk and how are the Norfolk bunch related/if at all with the Northampton lot? I cant imagine ever solving this one, but things do happen sometimes dont they :) Many thanks guys.

Hello Heather!!!

When the clerks didn't have parents names to enter in the burial records, I have found they will sometimes put birthplace. Tiny Norfolk village and they bury an old man, native of Coventry in the late 1700s.

If you have two surnames, both more common in Northamptonshire than Norfolk, I wouldn't say it was unreasonable to explore that county.

Do I take it that you know spouse maiden name from the burial of a child?

I was also about to ask how you knew Elizabeth's maiden name, Heather.

I'm not familiar with Norfolk research but I think there are a few on here who are.

Hi, oh, I think it was mentioned on some of the kids' baptisms. Nope, Ive found it now (so long since I did these people) Its actually on her burial.

RegisterNumber 55
BurialDate 14 Jun 1826
Forename Elizabeth
Relationship Wife
Rel1MaleForename Edward
Rel1FemaleForename
Rel1Surname SELBY
Surname HORSTEAD
Age 85
Abode
Notes Late Selby Spinster

I have some Northants discs, and I've had a quick look for a marriage, but I can't see anything.

It's probably irrelevant (or you may already have seen it), but I've found a reference in the Bury and Norwich Post in 1824 to an Edward Horstead, alias James Howard, charged with stealing a watch in Heigham. Your Edward would have been a good age by then, though, so I assume the person concerned is one of his sons or another relative. Might be interesting to know where the alias came from, though.

Hi Mary, Id seen that, he was transported. But Ive no idea what line he is from. Possibly the lot from the aylsham area. Hadnt seen the alias though. There were some Horsteads in the Heigham area - a John who was the cousin that my James went down to London with in the 1830sm they would be grandsons of Edward. It was a lovely little village then, now its just part of the city of Norwich. Thanks for the alias and for trying northants :(

I have marriage, baptism and burial discs, and I can't see a likely baptism for either of them, or a marriage. My discs start in 1700, so I don't know if there were any Horsteads in Northants before that.

Settlement cert means they were quite convinced about his place of settlement. So he was either born in area or earning good money.

Is he appearing in churchwarden accounts or manorial docs? (I do know these records are time consuming to look at, but you don't have so far to travel to look at them as some of us do!)

He is said to be a husbandman on the settlement cert. But Ive seen the actual registers of Ketteringham, I mean the real original ones :) still in the church coffer and no sign of them before that date, no sign of Thomas's birth either. The mob over in Northampton also seem not to appear until mid 18th century. Its peculiar how both lots seem to appear from nowhere.

I think I tried all other records, which is how I found the settlement cert. Horstead descendants appear in the Victorian Miniature Book but that again is later and also in the Lord Boileau's diary, but only as the farm steward. Im not the best at looking at records to be honest though :) But Id have thought something or someone with that name would have jumped out prior to the mid 1700s :( There is a clutch in the 17th century in York. Im just wondering if they are immigrants, may be from scandanavia around that time.

It looks as though the surname originates from the placename Horstead. There are a few people called "de Horsted(e)" going back quite a way in Norfolk, and that presumably morphed into the surname Horstead.

http://nrocat.norfolk.gov.uk/DServe/...qCmd=Index.tcl