Genealogy Forum UK

Hello everyone,
I have been searching and searching for the will of John Chivers and his wife Mary.
who lived in or around West Challow in Berkshire in the 1700s. He was the father of my husbands 5 x great grandfather James Chivers born 1742 West Challow. James married 1n 1769 and lived in Harwell with his wife Sarah nee Blake. James siblings were:
Mary Chivers. Christening: 08 APR 1739 West Challow
RACHEL CHIVERS Christening: 25 JAN 1740 West Challow,
SUSANNAH CHIVERS Christening: 17 MAR 1744 West Challow
SAMUEL CHIVERS Christening: 30 JAN 1736 West Challow

Any information at all would be fantastic. Thank you, Sara.

Sara, have you tried searching the National Archives? There are a few John Chivers listed here:-

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/ ... ateTo=1780

If John was a learned man, you can try searching the Cambridge Alumni.

HTH from Linell.

These are the 5 in the PCC wills

John Chivers Victualler Westminster, Middlesex 17 September 1789 13 February 1779
John Chivers Esquire Stapleton, Gloucestershire 22 April 1808 29 December 1807
John Chivers - 5 October 1824 27 February 1813
John Chivers Gentleman Southampton 6 September 1839 25 February 1833
John Chivers Gentleman Lowerford Magna, Wiltshire 12 December 1857 5 October 1853

One Mary Chivers

Mary Chivers Stoak Newington, Middlesex 14 February 1744 28 December 1721

I would look in the Church Records, especially the Churchwarden or Bishop transcripts.

Not everybodies will is listed in the PCC and many can be found in the Parish Chest.

Hi Linell, thank you for your help, sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Best wishes, Sara.

Is this completed now?
Jo

Hi Joe, I would like to leave it open in case someone comes up with information. I have searched the archives but nothing is showing. Although I have John's son James and his grandson Jame's wills, they are not showing on the search either? Best wishes, Sara.

moving this to Brick walls

Thank you, it certainly has hit a brick wall!!! Sara.

Hi, sorry about your brickwall!

Does the will for james say where it was proved? The documents online search will only find wills which were proved at Canterbury - these would be wills from that area plus those around the country which involved property in more than one administration district (if I remember correctly).

So if John left property in one district then his will (if there was one) should have been proved in the local diocese. According to http://www.berksfhs.org.uk/genuki/BRK/#Probate this should be the Salisbury Diocese which can be searched online here: http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/heritage/
Already it is getting confusing since that is the Wiltshire County archives, and you may not have thought to look there. I can see some items on there - search for Chivers, John and see if any of the dates or places look likely. The dates are probably probate dates and so could be a while (years even) after the actual death.

West Challow is near wantage and it seems that some of the Wantage wills are kept at the Bodlian in Oxford (Wantage being a peculiar court for a while). The court of the archdeacon of Berkshire is a posibility too. On Genuki it says "Berkshire FHS in partnership with BRO, Berkshire Record Society and Oxfordshire FHS is involved in a project to index all probate documents of the Berkshire Archdeaconry for period 1508 to 1858. The first part of this work is expected to be published in 2011. " I suppose your wills would not be included in the first part though!

You could try contacting the BRO http://www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk/ if you haven't already done that, and ask for their advice of where to look. Berkshire Family History Society might be able to help too. They have a disc including burial at West Challow up to 1820, I do'nt know if it would be worth looking there to get a death date?

Hope some of this is of use

Hi, thank you so much for the information. I will try all you suggest, hopefully I will crack it. Thanks again, Ray.

Is this still a Brickwall, or have you solved it?

Unless otherwise advised this will be moved to the Brickwalls Archived section
within 24 hours

Hi, no I haven't, wish I could. Thank you.