People search
(married name will be ignored if broad check is ticked;
a broad check includes a search for nicknames, married names and other alternative names)Where were they from?
Search for places, see all people in the tree with events in that place, and (where added) see places marked on a map with photos, links and other information about the location.
Matthew GOTHAM
1779 - Yes, date unknown
Has 12 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
-
Name Matthew GOTHAM Relationship 
with Teresa Ann GOATHAM Baptised 18 Apr 1779 St. Mary the Virgin Church, Wolborough, Devon, England 
- From PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 2014)
"Day of the Month: 18 Baptized Matthew Son of William & Mary Gotheam" (under headings '1779 continued' and 'April')
Gender Male POW 6 Nov 1797 Taken prisoner from the ship Heart of Oak - There are three records concerning Matthew Gotham (or two Matthew Gothams) being taken prisoner in 1797. My suspicion at present is that there was one Matthew, with an error in one of the records.
One records him being taken prisoner from Brig Hartlypool on 6 Oct 1797. This is in a list of prisoners in the depot of Guise, on 14 June 1798. The other records prisoners in the prison at Valenciennes. This records Matthew as having been taken from the ship Hart of Oak by Cherback on 6 Nov 1797, being carried into Bordaux and arriving at Valenciennes on 2 Oct 1798. It does not note where Matthew had been for the approximately 11 months between arriving at Bordeaux and arriving at Valenciennes. It seems quite possible he was at Guise in June 1798.
The third record shows that he landed at Dover on 7 July 1799, having come from Valenciennes, and belonging to the ship Heart of Oak.
It seems to me probable that there is an error, in recording the date and vessel from which he was taken in the Guise list of prisoners.
I don't know what records survive, it would clearly add weight to my theory if it is known that prisoners were transferred between Guise and Valenciennes; is there evidence where those who arrived at Valenciennes on 2 Oct 1798 had previously been held?
Can I find muster rolls for the brig Hartlypool for shortly before 6 Oct 1797? - if Matthew was not on it he cannot have been taken from it.
Part of my reason for thinking there was just one Matthew taken POW is that I don't know of another Matthew who I think likely to have been in the navy at this time.
POW Est 10 Nov 1797 Bordeaux, France Landed in France POW 14 Jun 1798 Guise, France POW 2 Oct 1798 Valenciennes, France Arrived at Valenciennes POW 7 Jul 1799 Dover, Kent, England Landed back in England Occupation Mariner Died Yes, date unknown Siblings2 brothers and 2 sisters Patriarch & Matriarch 
Andrew GOTHAM, b. Est 1585, (probably), Abbotskerswell, Devon, England, bur. 10 Mar 1673/74, St. Mary the Virgin Church, Wolborough, Devon, England (Age ~ 89 years) (3 x Great Grandfather) 
Elizabeth WARD, bap. 10 Mar 1716/17, All Saints’ Church, Highweek, Devon, England, d. Yes, date unknown (Grandmother) Person ID I300667 All | All in the Goatham / Gotham One-Name Study , All subjects of the Goatham / Gotham One-Name Study Last Modified 1 Oct 2024
Father William GOTHAM, bap. 14 Oct 1750, St. Bartholomew’s Church, East Ogwell, Devon, England , bur. 10 Jun 1808, St. Andrew’s Church, Ipplepen, Devon, England (Age ~ 57 years) Mother Mary RENDLE, bap. 9 Dec 1746, St. Bartholomew’s Church, East Ogwell, Devon, England , bur. 1 Apr 1816, St. Andrew’s Church, Ipplepen, Devon, England (Age ~ 69 years) Married 17 Dec 1775 St. Bartholomew’s Church, East Ogwell, Devon, England - PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 13 Nov 2014)
"Banns of Marriage between William Gotham Sojr: & Mary Rendle of this Parish were publish'd on three several Sundays wthout Contradiction
No. 89
William Gotham a sojour
and Mary Rendle of this
Parish were
Married in this Church by Banns
this seventeenth Day of December in the Year One Thousand Seven
Hundred and seventy five by me Thos. Prout Rector
This Marriage was solemnized between Us The mark X of Wm. Gotham, The mark \\ of Mary Rendle
In the Presence of John Jinny(?), John Knatman"
Proof Argument That is was William son of Matthew and Jane who married Mary RENDLE - William, son of Matthew and Jane, came from East Ogwell and yet the PR entry for this marriage shows William described as a sojourner. So was it this William? I believe it was. I would suggest that he had moved away and then briefly back to the parish before his marriage. The first 4 children from this marriage were baptised in Wolborough (Newton Abbot) and so it is reasonable to suppose that William had found work there, married a bride from his home parish, and then settled with her near / in Wolborough, possibly later moving to Ipplepen Parish. It is possible they lived in Ipplepen Parish the whole time; the baptism of their first child although in Wolborough records them as of Ipplepen, although this was not subsequently noted.
The names that William who married Mary Rendle gave his sons does suggest he was the son of Matthew and Jane; assuming he was, he named his first son Matthew, like his father and a brother, the second, William, like himself, and the third Thomas, like his other brother.
Proof Argument That the children shown were all offspring of this William and Mary - Were all the children the offspring of this couple? A William Gotham was baptised in Ipplepen in 1768; clearly he could not have been the William who married Mary Rendle, but he would have been old enough to have had a son Thomas baptised in 1790 and / or could have been the William buried in Ipplepen in 1808.
With no signs of a marriage of another William that I know of, I think Thomas was the son of this William (from East Ogwell) and Mary.
Widow Mary buried in Ipplepen in 1816 was born about 1746 - early enough that it was very unlikely she was the wife of the William baptised in 1768. In addition, William and Mary disappear from East Ogwell and must have gone somewhere, and an Elizabeth who fits as their daughter married in Ipplepen. The best evidence that they moved to Ipplepen may be that Matthew, the mariner who fits as their son, is shown first as of East Ogwell and then later as of Ipplepen in crew lists (the ages given in the different references suggest they are to the same Matthew). Whilst that makes Thomas being their son more likely it does not confirm it.
More evidence can be found by looking at the family of William bap 1768. It is clear that he was the son of John and Elizabeth née Pinson. He was probably the 2nd cousin once removed of the William who married Mary Rendle. However, he had no brother Matthew nor any close Gotham relation with that name, a name far less common that William / John / Thomas. Yet the Thomas bap in 1790 after naming a son William (like his father) and another Thomas (his own name) gave his third son the name Matthew. In addition, one of Thomas' sons married Eliza Simcock, sister of Elizabeth Simcock who married one of the sons of William, son of William and Mary née Rendle. Both were living in large towns, about 50 miles apart so the chance of these marriages happening by chance must be vanishingly small. It is surely far more likely that the two Gothams would have married the Simcock sisters if they were 1st cousins and not 4th cousins?
Family ID F300234 Family Group Page | Family Chart
- From PR entry (image on FMP, viewed 2014)