Corneliuses. Cornelii. Either way, I have a few. More than you’d think. And to the surprise of nobody, they are confusing the heck out of me.

Let me explain.

We all know that I love a strange name when it appears – even more so when it crops up repeatedly. So when I came across a raft of baptisms all to a Cornelius Holborow (of course) then how could I resist?!

I’ve had a few emails over the last couple of weeks all regarding the Holborows – but two different lines. One was concerned with the line that lived in Derry Hill in Wiltshire and was connected to Bowood and beyond, and one that lay in the heart of Bristol with – as it likely turns out – ties back to Wiltshire. So this post is kind of dedicated to the senders of those emails: Alan and Donna.

Our first Cornelius is found in the will of a John Holbrough of Chippenham.

In his will of 1685 he lists his eight children: Anne, John, Elizabeth, Mary, Edward, Katherine, Jane and Cornelius. They all receive five shillings each: the rest goes to John’s wife, Katherine. Cornelius is made the sole executor of his father’s will. Does this mean he is the eldest, or the youngest, or just the one who was more ‘sensible’?

I have been able to find baptisms for the first five of their children between 1656 and 1664. Katherine, Jane and Cornleius remain a bit of a mystery. Anne was baptised in Hullavington, the remainder all in Chippenham. This would – to me – imply a link to the Holborows of Luckington as the villages are only around 6 miles apart. If this is the case, then John may well be the son of a John and Elizabeth and born in Luckington around 1628. This would fit nicely if the 3 baptism-less children (Katherine, Jane and Cornelius) were baptised before Anne and the others, giving approximate dates of 1650, 1652 and 1654.

Another reason for thinking that this John was the son of John was that John (senior) also had a son called Lawrence. Lawrence stayed in Luckington, and he married twice. With his second wife (also a Katherine), he had four children. The two boys were Cornelius (b. 1665) and Israel (b. 1669).

The reason I mentioned Israel was because he also had a son he named Cornelius!

Sadly this little lad didn’t live very long: his burial took place in February 1710 when he was around 7 or 8.

There is also a marriage that is recorded in the Luckington parish records as having taken place “out of the parish”. That is between Cornelius Holbrough and Anne Jones who married 21 January 1694 in Cherington, Gloucestershire. Anne was likely a widow as she is listed as “Mrs Anne Jones” in the Cherington parish register.

This marriage was likely followed by the birth of a daughter, Anne, who was baptised in Luckington the following year.

This ends the parts that I am certain of! To recap, we have two (presumed … likely) cousins, Cornelius son of John and Cornelius son of Lawrence. One of them marries Anne Jones and has a daughter in Luckington, likely the Cornelius son of Lawrence based on geography. This is the last I can find of any Cornelius Holborow in Wiltshire. No more marriages, no baptisms, no burials.

Of the children of John of Chippenham, the only one I can definitively state stayed put is Edward. His will of 1720 in which he describes himself as a “dyer and victualler of Chippenham, mentions his wife, Elizabeth, his brother Cornelius, sisters Ann and Mary, as well as a “cozen” Catherine Bull and another “cozen” Mathew Lovegrow. There is also a bequest made to Ann, the wife of Anthony Cole/Gale “of Pellierton Lucas”. Which is not a place I have ever heard of. There is a hamlet in Wiltshire called Tytherton Lucas, but it most definitely does not say that from what I can make of it …! (I’m also not convinced that is a double l either as they look to be different letters. It could be a -th- making it Petherton which is at least more in the realm of ‘Tytherton’.

You would like to think a Mathew Lovegrow/Lovegrove would leap out of the records. Sadly not. At least not in Wiltshire. Berkshire? They are everywhere. There is one instance of a Matthew Lovegrove marrying in Salisbury in 1746. That is it. Also, Catherine Bull is at the other end of the spectrum: far too common. Is she a married Bull or a single Bull? Even Ann and Anthony Cole/Gale seem to be MIA.

But I am drifting away from my Cornellians. So enter, stage left … Holiday Holborow alias Hollyday Holbrow. Yes. An excellent name, even if it isn’t Cornelius. He makes a will on 3 June 1747, stating that he is a mariner of the City of Bristol, and that he is of the ship Namur. He makes one Susanna Edgar, widow, of Woolwich, Kent, the sole beneficiary and executrix of his estate. The will is proved in court on 1 February 1749. Whether this ship was the HMS Namur that foundered and sank off the coast of India near Fort St David I don’t know.

Is this the same person as Hollyday Holborrow who is baptised in Bristol in 1716, the son of John and Mary Holborrow? The church was the Church of Saint Michael on the Mount Without (“without” meaning that it was outside of the original city walls). Further children of John and Mary were George (b. and d. 1715), Mary (b. 1713) and Elizabeth (b. 1717). The registers also tell of a number of other Holborrow baptisms: children belonging to one Cornelius Holborrow and his wife, Ann. These are named as James (b. 1702), Mary (b, 1706) and Joseph (b. and d. 1709). But who is this Cornelius? From where did he spring?! Well currently there’s nothing in the records that is screaming at me. The only Holborow (ish) will in Bristol is that of a Radulph Holbrough of 1621 (a rabbit hole for a very different day!). Even across Gloucestershire a Holborow with a will is a rare thing indeed. There are no likely burials for Cornelius (or John, for that matter) in Bristol. Nor any obvious extended family lines. Apart from one. Cornelius’ son, James, seems to have a at least one son baptised in a non-conformist congregation, a Presbyterian church known as Lewin’s Mead Society of Protestant Dissenters. This is the only Holborow entry in their registers.

In fact, that baptism is the last we see or hear of any of the two Holborow families in Bristol. And the last we see of any Cornelius Holborow. Anywhere.

Originally I thought that this Bristol Cornelius having children with his wife, Ann, was the same as the one from Luckington who married Anne Jones, and this could still be the case. However, the Chippenham Cornelius could have married an Ann and both he and his brother, John, could also have moved down the A4 to Bristol. They don’t show up in any Wiltshire records. Which leads to one question: what happened to these Bristol Holborows? Another question is are the Bristol John and Cornelius brothers (both the sons of John and Katherine), or cousins (John the son of John; Cornelius the son of Lawrence)?

There is a John Holbrow who dies in Bristol in 1724 and is recorded in the interrment records of Broadmead Baptist Church, about a 4 minute walk away from Lewin’s Mead. Could this be John of Chippenham? It would make him around 65 at time of death which feels correct.

Who (and where) are you people?!?!

Of course, all of this theorising could be absolutely undone by the finding of just one record.

Like the marriage of a John Holbro to an Elizabeth Holyday in Bristol in 1677, meaning that John-father-of Hollyday is likely the son of this John and not the son of Chippenham John, although Chippenham John could be the one named in this marriage as his baptism was in 1659. Close, but still do-able, especially if he had a delayed baptism. If the parents of Hollyday were the John and Mary (nee George) who married in Bristol in 1705, then there is space for a couple of births before the first recorded one found so far in 1713, and feasibly another John is likely. That all makes sense. Trust me.

The fun thing is, I’ve just found a heck load more family lines in Bristol under the spelling of Holb(o)rough. Which hasn’t given me any concrete lines downwards. A couple of possible deaths. A whole heap of new questions. And a brand spanking new Ethelbert. And a Nimrod.

I think Cornelius has broken my brain.