Today I revisit a family that was instrumental in helping unlock the distant secrets of the Lions of the Sea. In Elizabeth A.S. Babb’s treatise titles Babbs Come to America she struggled to understand the difficult to read writing that involved a Babb by the name of Matterwell. We still don’t have the correct spelling of his name, but we are getting closer!
The prospective grandmother of Matterwell had the similarly spelled and difficult to read given name of Peterwell.
Today, while looking at an unrelated topic, I shifted the sort order in Family Tree Maker from Last, First Name to First Last Name. Just a couple of rows apart were two entries that were too closely related to ignore.
I had a listing for an Administration for a Petronell Babbe from Bishopsteignton that was dated 1602. This sent me back to look through what I had already written on this subject only to find that this was as precise a connection as was possible given the early date of these two records.
Merging Petronell with Peterwell allowed me to make an assumed connection to Matterwell (Materwell). This is the link that Elizabeth was trying to make 3 decades ago and it is yet another confirmation of my motto that “We can’t know anything, until we know everything.” As is the case with any such project the more you learn the more you realize how much more you need to know. I’m just pleased to make this connection for Elizabeth!
So, with this connection Matterwell (aka Materwell) should be renamed as Maternell. I have no idea why they would have chosen this name, but it’s obscure nature has provided this connection we may not have been able to make otherwise.
For the record, Maternell appears to be the son of John who is the only known offspring of Robert & Petronell Babb. They can be found under the tree name Devon Pedigree (Bishopsteignton 1581).
I should mention here that Petronell’s Administration was lost to the Nazi Blitz of the Exeter Public Records Office in WWII. The lists are from a “Calendar” (list) of estate records that was assembled prior to WWII and kept in another location.