MURCOTT FAMILY HISTORY

I came to Warwick to search records at the County Record Office and visit any people or churches that relate to the family. Most parish records are online.

At the record offices I found memorial inscriptions and a very large 1731 marriage agreement. It was about four A4 pages wide and over 2 pages deep. The base of it had the seals of each of the people who signed it. I had to be very careful handling it as the paper was so stiff and had been folded up nearly 300 years.

An 8^th cousin, Jane Dyer, came up to Warwick from Oxfordshire to meet with me. Our 6^th great grandfathers were brothers so she has done a lot of research on that side of the family. Our 7^th great grandparents were William MURCOTT and Elizabeth GRESWOLD who married in 1686. We must have many 8^th cousins.

Elizabeth McIntyre decided in the 1990's to research the history of the house she lives in. She discovered Umbers and Garlicks who had married Murcotts so she researched all these families. None of them her relations. To make sense of it all she started with Henry Murcott who was born in 1507 and created a descendancy chart for him. It takes up fifteen A3 pages. She has also written a couple of books with all the data she has gathered. “The Murcotts of Warwickshire” and “John Joseph Murcott, recluse of Whitnash, 1818-1894”. I was able to get these on a CD.

There were three churches my direct ancestors have been involved with since the early 1600's. St. Mary Warwick, Kenilworth and Cubbington.

St Mary's was just a short walk from where I was staying. My third great-grandparents Thomas MURCOTT and Sarah BALL were married here in 1828.

I caught the bus to Kenilworth. Visited the church and cemetery where three generations of MURCOTT's worshiped. There I found the tombstone of Thomas MURCOTT who died in 1879 and his second wife Jane.

Elizabeth drove me to Cubbington to see the church where seven generations of Murcotts have been christened, married or buried. There was a large tombstone belonging to several of the family. In this church the cartouche to Abraham MURCOTT, a captain in the Royal Navy was erected. This is a wooden carving with his name and the year 1702. It is there because he was presumed to have died in a big storm off the Scilly Isles. However he was the captain of the ship Granado in 1707 and Elizabeth has copies of two wills written by him.

Abraham Murcott Cartouche

Murcott tomb at Cubbington

I have received too much material to record it all while I am here. MURCOTT's will keep me busy for a long time.