I’ve always wondered why there are no other records of Phillip Babb (1) of the Isles of Shoals in Dartmouth, Devon, England. He seems to have appeared and gotten married, but never seems to have made a home there. No records of his children exist or his life afterwards.
Today I’ve found the answer to at least part of the question of why he married in Dartmouth when he didn’t seem to live there. To tell the story we need to travel back in time a bit.
Cover Image: Dartmouth Town Square
Our journey starts 22 years ago at the 2001 Babb Reunion in Portsmouth, NH/York County, ME. Our soon to be President of the Babb Family Association, Judy Babb, had a conversation with the librarian of the York County, ME genealogical library and she surfaced a document that was previously unknown to our Association.
It was an unpublished set of family group sheets written by a noted Genealogist, Charles E. Banks (1854-1931) who was one of the patriarchs of genealogical scholarship. During his lifetime, he was widely acknowledged to be one of the leading authorities on northern New England families. His two-volume “History of York, Maine” (a third volume was in preparation at the time of his death) is still the starting point on its subject.
The following record is from this unpublished third volume of the “History of York, Maine”. It was found by our soon to be President of the Babb Family Association.
Charles was not a contemporary of William Babb who is the father in the Family Group Sheet. Yet, in a day long before the advent of the Internet he somehow made a connection back to England that had somehow eluded a large number of Babb researchers, including the founder of the Babb Family Association, Jean A. Sargent.
William Babb is the grandson of Phillip Babb (1) of the Isles of Shoals. Near the top right corner of the page, in what appears to have been written at a different time, Banks identified the location of Phillip’s marriage in England on 19 May 1629 in Townstall & Dartmouth, Devon.
The document was met with great excitement. Yet, we didn’t exactly know where to take it from there. The Internet was in its infancy and very few records were available.
Once back home I started combing the microfilm of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT and was able to locate the record he mentions, but with some slightly different coordinates. The areas are just a kilometer or so apart. This indicates that Banks didn’t have access to the original record or he would have noted the location differently. However, he left no notes to clue us in on where he obtained this information. We have not yet located that source information, which perhaps was part of a family Bible record. We can’t say for sure at this time.
At the next Reunion, in 2004, we weighed the available evidence and decided that the preponderance of information meant that this was our Phillip Babb of the Isles of Shoals.
To date, nothing has come to light that challenges that assumption. It is much to the contrary. The information we have since acquired has only reinforced our belief.
The Solution
The solution boils down to an old genealogical maxim that I’ve held true for more than 20 years. Fathers don’t let their daughters move away before they are married. The answer to this and another question about the Shapleigh family connection lay in a document collected in 1620 during the Visitation by the crown to assure proper use of Arms.
By the way, this is the exact Visitation that rejected the proposed Babb Arms of Doddiscombsleigh and Totnes.
The answer appears to lie in the power and influence that the Plumleigh family exerted. They were power brokers of the 17th Century dynamics of Dartmouth, Devon. The Plumleight family is a distinguished family of Dartmouth in Devon1. The surname has many variations including Plumley, Plumbley, Plumbleigh, Plomley, Plombley, Plumblie1 and even Plumbly2. These variations would occur even in references to the same person1.
Enter Phillip Babb
Enter a strong, handsome larger than life Mariner by the name of Phillip Babb, who swept Marie Plumlie, the daughter of the Mayor of Dartmouth off her feet. They were married in the family church of St. Saviour in Dartmouth, Devon, England in 1629.
From that date forward, no record of them seemed to exist. Except that it was hiding in plain sight.
The 1620 Visitation
The results of the 1620 Visitation of Devon yielded these results for the Plumleigh family tree:
We can know that it leaves out certain portions of the tree, namely the female children of John Plumley & Margaret Towes. It only covers the sons, only one of which has a Baptism record on file. They are at the bottom of the page. What does shine through is that John and Margaret along with their son Anthonie/Anthony are included as rightful heirs to the family arms.
Fortunately, the Church of England recorded the births of the girls, including Marie that would eventually marry Phillip Babb. The reasoning is simple. The bride’s family pays for the wedding, and they are power brokers of this place.
On a personal note, I have personally visited this place about a dozen years ago (2009) and stood against its massive 11th Century door trying to turn the lock. The green doors you see behind me are the modern church doors which protect the ancient one I am standing next to.
Below are some other photos of this most sacred place for the descendants of Phillip Babb (1) of the Isles of Shoals. My apologies for the poor quality, but digital cameras weren’t so good at the time:
Sources:
Charles Edward Banks: Great Genealogist & Great Man – Genealogical.com
3 responses to “Why did Phillip (1) marry in Dartmouth?”
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This is awesome! I wish I had this info when Cheri took me on a tour of the same places a few years after you were there. 🤩
[…] is more to learn from this same record that I mentioned in my last post Why did Phillip (1) marry in Dartmouth? In addition to unveiling the Plumlie/Plumleigh history the record also establishes a connection to […]