GRAHAM OF CROSBY-ON-EDEN
In the 1731 administration record for John Bewley, one of the parties with his widow Ann was John Storrah (Storrow) of Great Corby.[1] A John Storrow married a Mary Graham at Crosby-on-Eden in 1714, which suggested the possibility that Ann and Mary were sisters. The probate records of John Graham and his widow Ann confirm that they were the parents of Mary and Ann.
The will of John Graham of High Crosby, written in 1717, mentions “my Daughter Anne”, “my son Jon Storrow”, “my Daughter Mary wife of [th]e said Jon Storrow” and “Anne Grahame my wife”. The parties on the associated bond include the testator’s widow Ann Graham of High Crosby and John Storrow of Great Corby.[2]
The 1725 will of Ann Graham, widow, mentions “my daughter Mary”, “my son in law John Storrah” and “my Daughter Ann Graham”. In the bond, the daughter Ann’s residence is given as Raughton, which was the residence of John Bewley who she married the next year.[3]
Ann (Graham) Bewley was stated to be aged eighty-three at her burial in February 1776, giving a date of birth around 1692. Abstracts of the Crosby-on-Eden parish registers and bishop’s transcripts give three dates for baptisms of Ann Graham in that period, the father in each case being John. The dates are 16 May 1692, 15 March 1693 and 11 February 1694.[4] It is possible that the first child died and the second entry was a burial rather than a baptism but I have not yet seen the original entries.
My matrilineal ancestry goes through Ann, wife of John Graham. Genetic testing shows my mtDNA haplogroup to be V10a+16261.[5]
I welcome comments on this page. My e-mail address is on my home page.
GRAHAM
JOHN GRAHAM of High Crosby, Crosby-on-Eden, Cumberland, yeoman, was buried on 4 December 1720 at Crosby-on-Eden.[6] He married ANN.[7] She died in December 1725.[8]
Children of John and Ann
Graham:
i MARY GRAHAM; m 22 Apr 1714,
Crosby-on-Eden, JOHN STORROW.[9]
ii ANN GRAHAM, b ca 1692,[10]
bur 12 Feb 1776, Dalston;[11] m
31 Jul 1726, Dalston, JOHN BEWLEY[12]
(see here).
[1] Cumbria Archives, PROB/1731/WINV552.
[2] Cumbria Archives, PROB/1720/WINVX41.
[3] Cumbria Archives, PROB/1725/WINVX47.
[4] England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975 (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[5] Result from FamilyTreeDNA.
[6] England, Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 (www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J8CD-T8Q); Cumbria Archives, PROB/1720/WINVX41.
[7] Cumbria Archives, PROB/1720/WINVX41. Ann’s parentage is not known but parties in the probate records for John and Ann suggest Cowen and Dalton as possibly being connected families.
[8] Cumbria Archives, PROB/1725/WINVX47. Abstracts of the Crosby-on-Eden parish registers show the burial of Ann Graham on 25 Dec 1725. However, Ann’s will (dated 3 Dec 1725) was proved on 8 Dec 1725 and the inventory after death was taken on 6 Dec 1725.
[9] W.P.W. Phillimore and C.W. Ruston-Harrison, eds, Cumberland Parish Registers: Marriages, vol. 2 (London, 1912), 62.
[11] James Wilson, ed., The Parish Registers of Dalston, 2 vols (Dalston, 1893-95), 2:272. The marriage bond for Ann’s daughter Mary Bewley and John Robinson in July 1749 noted that Mary’s father was dead but that her mother consented to the marriage. An Ann Bewley married Thomas Dixon at Dalston on 18 Feb 1731, but from the order of the entries, this appears to be 1730/31, when John Bewley was still living, rather than 1731/32, so it would not be a remarriage of Ann (Graham) Bewley some months after John’s death.