The Importance of Checking It Twice!

I have had a dull sadness permeating everything I have done since we celebrated Grandpa Baron's 94th birthday on Saturday August 10th. The sadness relates to a discovery that my sister-in-law and I made on the afternoon before the party!  Over the previous few days I had located online the Will of a John Baron who was the Chaplain aboard H M Ships "Fame", "York" and "Antelope" and I was excited that Robyn was coming for dinner as I thought her legal brain might be able to help me to transcribe this document to unlock a little more of the family story of the Barons.

For many years Auntie Sybil and Uncle Bill had travelled backwards and forwards to Britain and each time, upon their return, I would receive a delightful letter full to overflowing with small titbits gleaned about the Barons during their travels. Sybil had based her research starting point on some details about a Rev John Baron that she had found on one of her early trips. This secondary source material, she had found and recorded long hand, was the Alumni Oxonienses which records a John Baron, son of James, a gentleman of Lostwithiel, Cornwall, who entered Exeter College, Oxford, on 8 April, 1802, aged 19. According to this entry John Baron went on to Cambridge University (Jesus) and became the vicar of Lostwithiel, 1807-16, 'and of Walsall'. Because the family stories very clearly tell us that our Rev. John Baron was the Vicar of Walsall and because we hold an original baptism certificate for his son Henry William Baron which clearly states that he was baptised at St Matthew's, Walsall, in 1835, there was no reason to believe that the Alumni Oxoienses was inaccurate in any way. So it was that Auntie Sybil began a lengthy and consistent search for the Barons of Lostwithiel. And there certainly is a plethora of material about this family!!

The finding of an almost illegible Will dated 1 March 1804 for the Reverend John Baron, Clerk meant that I now had a chance to see the names of his children, as stated by him, and what he had left them at his passing!

What Robyn and I found, as we laboriously deciphered very early 19th century writing and old fashioned words, was certainly not what I had hoped for.  This was a Rev. John Baron who had died at sea while on board the ship "Antelope"; this was a Rev John Baron who died on the 9 August 1816; this was a John Baron, son of James Baron of Lostwithiel, who had not yet married and whose Will left everything to his mother except for a few small items such as his fishing rod and some books to his brother and some money to his unmarried sisters.

Hence the reason for my sadness -- it would seem that Sybil who had visited Lostwithiel in search of her forbears, who had laboriously transcribed material on this family and who had firmly believed that in Lostwithiel she had found her people was wrong! -- for here, in 2013, I had proven a long held suspicion of mine, that this Lostwithiel family was not the one with whom we are all linked! 
What this means, of course, is that all family history detectives and those involved in understanding history of any kind, need to be sure to examine all evidence and check out every lead until the evidence leads to incontrovertible proof one way or the other. I guess that is what Auntie Sybil's contribution to the family story is, with her years of work on the early Barons. . . but it still seems so sad to me that her work led to disproving the Lostwithiel connection!  
In Auntie Sybil's memory and in memory of all her work on the family history of the Baron family, I will continue to seek the Barons who came before the Rev John Baron who was never the Vicar of Lostwithiel but certainly was the Vicar of Walsall in Staffordshire!!
Grandpa's 94th birthday was certainly a fun gathering of the family even if he "didn't want a party!" We enjoyed the chance to be together and to hear about the recent travels of two brothers, to hear stories of the grandchildren based overseas and to celebrate family in the here and now!! Thanks to all the 2013 Barons for the laughter and fine food. . .