In the previous article I discussed the Tunwells, mainly, in Great Shelford. With the assistance of many – Maureen Allen, Helen Harwood, Paul & Lesley Gates and John Maris, I’ve started to push the Tunwells back to their roots in Fulbourn and have been able to add close to 50 early Tunwells from Fulbourn to my Tree back to my 14th Great Grandfather, John Tonewelle[1] (~~1400 – )
Much of the original research on the Tunwells in Great Shelford was done by Alan Bullwinkle. Maureen sent me a follow-up article by the late Barbara Lamble of Australia written in 1995 tracing the Tunwells back to Fulbourn. While extremely helpful, it is somewhat sketchy and speculative, since she was looking at the times before accurate(?) Parish Registers. She has relied mainly on a wide variety of Tunwell wills – most of which in their original are beyond me to decipher! Thankfully, Paul and Lesley Gates just transcribed the detailed wills of Thomas 2 Tunwell (1560) and John 3 Tunwell (1621)
The Fulbourn Parish Records really begin only about 1560 or so. So, in tracing the Tunwells back we are reasonably solid back to Thomas 3[2] Tunwell (1573 – 1629) who married Elizabeth Martin. From the baptismal records, we know his father was John 3 Tunwell (no mother recorded).
There were, however, 18 children born between 1566 and 1595 whose father was recorded as John Tunwell (no mother recorded). Fortunately, Fulbourn was somewhat unique in that it had two parishes[3] – St. Vigor and All Saints, and about half were christened in St Vigor and the rest in All Saints. This suggests at least two John Tunwell families.
St. Vigor, Fulbourn http://www.druidic.org/camchurch/churches/fulbournevigor.htm
We also have the marriage record of a John Tunwell to Elizabeth Hancock 24 Jan 1562[4] Many trees I’ve reviewed have the John Tunwell, the one with the 1621 will and children Maude, etc. married to Elizabeth Hancock(e). But, Barbara has a John 3 Tunwell, the one with the 1621 will, married to Joan Bunt, and children listed as in the will … Maude, … our Richard etc. She has the other, her John 4, married to Elizabeth Hancock, with children, John 5, … Jeremy. I now believe she is correct.
I found a marriage record in Fulbourn having a Marie Tonwell d/o Elizabeth (widow) marrying George Foster. I believe that this Elizabeth is Elizabeth Hancock and she must have married John 4. Note: John 4 died in 1594! John 3 lived until 1618 (See his will proved in 1621).
Thus there were two Johns – possibly cousins – living in Fulbourn in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Barbara calls them John 3 and John 4 and they most likely shared a grandfather, possibly John 2 Tunwell (~1440 – ).
For quite a while, I was confused by Barbara’s trees. I could never find her John 5, until I realized that the published version I have has been truncated on publication (or reproduction) and John 5 who married Agnes (Ann) has been omitted from the left of her Chart 2.
So, Barbara’s research has allowed us to push back the Tunwell line in Fulbourn at least into the 1400s, and with her other discoveries, possibly back to Adam de Tonewelle (~~1280 – ) who she discovered in the Fines of 1316.
[1] http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/6471844/person/6998442782
[2] I am using Barbara’s numbers to distinguish among the various Thomas’s and Johns.
[3] See: Fulbourn in Wikipedia
[4] See: Fulbourn Marriage PR’s
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