Purkiss / Jobson Family

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Welcome to the website of my ancestors. It covers the Purkis(s) and associated families (the Paternal side), the Jobson family and associated families (the Maternal side) plus many connected families. By connected I mean through marriage. Via these relationships or connections it covers main members of the peerage of the United Kingdom and many other European countries. Both paternal and maternal lines are descended from the Plantagenets.

There were two family stories which turned out to be basically true, one with regard to the maternal side; where the use of the last first name Stirling comes from the elopement of the gardener and the daughter of the house at which he worked. On the Paternal side the story that we were related to Percy Bysshe Shelley and there was a connection to Nell Gwynn.

The name Stirling had been known to have been used for at least 4 generations at time of starting research, it is now 35 years later that figure is known to be 8 generations and still being used. It has never been a hyphenated surname Stirling-Jobson but has always been the last first name plus Jobson as a surname. The marriage which was the root of the story was found quite early in research being Christopher Jobson marrying Isabella Stirling in Ilderton, Northumberland just south of the Scottish border on 4th July 1795. It appears not so much an elopement but rather she was 8 months pregnant with the gardeners child. In this action she was disowned by her family and not mentioned at all in the Stirling family trees (clan records etc.) she was however found via birth records and the will of her maternal grandmother. Whilst the Stirling family may have disowned her, there are signs that her mothers family, the Selby's did not.

Thomas Stirling ancestors are proving difficult to trace due to the common name. There are at least 10 possible births and no way of tracing which is relevant. The Jobson's also have the same problem, however the Selby's are very well documented with their connections to the Collingwood's, the Grey's, the Percy's and many other land owning families of Northumberland. Via these families many descendances from the Plantagenet Kings have been found. Also it has been discovered that Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, of Trafalgar fame, is a second cousin seven times removed.

The Purkiss ancestors have been traced back to 16th century in Shudy Camps in Cambridgeshire, however other ancestor families go back much further; If we follow Purkiss/Finch/Pickard we get to Sussex. Follow it further; Pickard/Garard/Holcombe/Holman we were at a dead end until a marriage was discovered fairly recently John Holman to Helen Shelley, and when that Helen Shelley's parents were discovered to be John Shelley and Helen Bysshe. The poets connection was obvious and did not require much further investigation. Percy Bysshe Shelley is 3rd cousin five times removed. The connection to Nel Gwynn was found by my computer from a combination of both Purkiss and Jobson records and is obscure. Percy Bysshe Shelley's son's (Percy Florence Shelley) wife's (Jane Sheville Gibson) first husband's (Charles Robert St John) Grandmother's (Lady Diana Spencer) second husband's (Topham Beauclerk) Great Grandparents were Charles II and Nel Gwynn. As I said obscure! The Shelley line can be traced back to the Howard's, Dukes of Norfolk and back to the Plantagenets. Thus my late parents became 18th cousins a fact they never knew.

We now move on to a very interest property connection. Ightham Mote in Kent's first known owner was Sir Thomas Cawne (1335-1372), he is my 18th Great Grandfather on my fathers side via the Shelleys. It stayed in the paternal family until Richard Haute who was attainted (1483) but unusually not executed, the property passing to the Crown. It was passed back to the Haute family in 1487 but lost by Edward Haute (my 1st Cousin 16 times removed). It remained unconnected until Sir William Selby purchased it in 1591 with help of a mortgage provided by Sir Francis Walsingham (Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster). What did he have to agree to , was he a new recruted spy? Sir William is my 8th Cousin 11 times removed but on my mothers side. It passed down the Selby line getting more remote until 1845, when it passes by will for some unknown reason to Prideaux John Selby my 1st cousin 6 times removed then to his daughter Lewis Marianne Selby, finally being sold on her death in 1890 and passing out of the family. So for 454 years of its 705 years existence it was owned by relations. Lewis Marianne Selby is, I believe the most interesting character in the whole history; she can be connected to stories containing connections to the Battle of Waterloo, Battle of Isandlwana at which the British had their worst defeat of the Zulu war, an unsolved murder (or was it unsolved, the police didn't think so after an innocent person was hung for another murder he certainly didn't commit), Swallows and Amazons and author Arthur Ransome, the renaming of the Royal Family to Windsor, the failure to give refuge to Tsar of Russia's family which I believe in hindsight was a great mistake, "Bloody Bognor", a promenade concert and a very upset Lady Diana Spencer!

Access to the records is by password only at present. This may be changed in the future when all living persons have been identified.

This of course is an ongoing investigation and as such records change. Investigations started about 35 years ago and then involved much travelling. It is so much easier now.

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