Differentiating Dafts

Reading Philip Eley’s letter in your October issue, differentiating between Junior/ Senior and Elder reminded me of an even more extreme situation that I came across in the village of Hickling, Nottinghamshire.

The Daft family on my maternal line was well represented in Hickling in the 17th century. The Protestation Return of 1642 includes 23 males from the family, many of whom share the same first name. There were six Georges, for example, but helpfully they have been identified as “George at the Bridge”, “at the Weir”, “at the Dovecoat”, “at the Hall” and “at the Town End”. Leaving just one reference to “George” with no further definition – everyone in the village must have known who he was. The three Richards are similarly located, as are two of the four Williams. You just have to guess at the three Johns and three Thomases that are not defined, in addition to “John the Elder” or “Thomas the Elder”. Laurie Parsons

Editor replies: I love Protestation Returns. I tried looking on bit.ly/protestationreturns (the star site in our September issue), but unfortunately they haven’t uploaded Hickling yet.