I first started my Budd Family history in 2007. That’s approaching 9 years of research. All along, where William Budd came from has been a total mystery.
I think I’ve solved it.
As always, the small but focused community of researchers have helped enormously. I was particularly intrigued by a theory put forward by the authoritative Margaret Rose, who posited that the witness to William Hayward Budd’s marriage (William H was William snr’s eldest son), Thomas Budd, was not WH’s brother (Thomas Hayward), but possibly William Snr’s brother. Margaret’s rationale was that the signature of the witness did not match that of TH Budd. That takes some spotting, given the flowery signatures that were so common at that time (1798), and to me, frankly, all look to be by the same hand.
That got me thinking.
My own contribution to the puzzle (see earlier post on William Budd’s lineage 15 Aug 2015) was that when William married Ann Hayward, they were first to be found in the London borough of Southwark. Their first child, predictably called William, sadly died an infant and was buried there aged 5 months in July 1776. My theory was that it was no coincidence that there was a Samuel Budd (married to Anne Dredge) in the same parish at that time. Seemed too good to be coincidental – so here was another relative, perhaps a brother or a cousin?
To cut a long story short, it would appear that both theories are correct. Through building a number of ‘what might be’ family trees, eventually the connections can be made. What makes it hard, and therefore explains why it’s been so elusive until now, is that the common connection between Thomas (signatory to William Hayward’s wedding), Samuel (in Southwark at the time of the birth of William and Ann’s first child) and William himself can only be determined by tracing back 2 earlier generations – to their commonly shared Grandparents.
Here’s how it looks:
And here’s that all-important signature of ‘Uncle Thomas’.
I have to admit I’m just a little excited so I’m dashing this off perhaps sooner than I should. For those who will be keen to fact-check (and I hope you will!), the common thread is Quainton, Buckinghamshire. That’s where the Budd’s came from – about 35 miles North West of Uxbridge.
By reference to the chart above, you can see Samuel, living in Southwark when the sick infant William Hayward was born, is William’s cousin, and that Thomas, as Margaret Rose suspected, is William’s brother and witnesses (the second-born William Hayward) William Hayward’s marriage, as WH’s uncle.
It works. Perfectly.
I need to get the records, but I think we have it.
Readers, let me know what you think.
Budd Family Tree 