The spelling of the surname of my Stoney ancestors from Kettlewell, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, changes over time, from the earliest available parish registers and transcripts online from 1600, to the 1800s. My earliest known ancestor in this line is Jonathan Stoney/Stona, my 7xgreat-grandfather, born around 1667 (baptism not found, but marriage of 1702 is online).
I wondered if these name variations coincided with changes in those completing – or copying – the Parish Registers (vicars, curates, churchwardens). So who were they, and when? And how does that correlate with different spellings?
The earliest Stoney baptisms of interest for Kettlewell at FindMyPast
are for the year 1600, as are the earliest burials. The Registers then suffer a
gap until 1631 and again after 1639.
Between 1600-1608, the surname is mainly written (and
transcribed in Bishops’ Transcripts) as:
·
Baptisms: Staney, Stoney
·
Burials: Staney, Stoney, Stanay
At this time, CCEd | Clergy
of the Church of England Database (theclergydatabase.org.uk) shows
that the incumbent at Kettlewell was Edmundus Thatham, appointed in 1594 but died
in 1604.
The next vicar was Henricus Motley. He was Vicar of
Kettlewell from March 1604, after Thatham’s death, until his own demise in
1632.
During this time, there is only one record of interest
available: the marriage of Mark Strayker and Agnes Stanay in May 1631.
The Bishop’s Transcript – the only online record – shows the vicar’s signature
as Rich: Tenant Vicar.
He took over the living on Motley’s death in May 1632. The transcript presumably was therefore made after Motley’s death.
One of the churchwardens at the time was Christopher Ripley, likely an ancestor of Elizabeth Ripley, born around 1678, who married Jonathan Stona in 1702 (my 7xgreat grandparents).
The ‘Stoney’ records in the Registers of Kettlewell (or
transcripts thereof) next available online are baptisms from 1636-1639,
marriages 1635-1636 and just one burial in 1636. In all of these, the surname
is spelt Stanay.
Tenant was a Cambridge man (Conville and Caius) ordained in
1614. In 1619 he became Rector of nearby Burnsall. Five years later, he is
granted dispensation by the King to hold the Vicarage of Kettlewell and Mediety
of the Rectory of Burnsall on 4 May 1632, following Motley’s death. By 1637,
the copies of the Register are signed by Thomas Motley, Curate (a relative of
Henry, perhaps?) – but whether they were written contemporarily or much later
is not clear.
The Registers suffer another gap between 1639 and 1662. The first records from 1662 for baptisms, marriages and burials all spell the surname Stanay. This persists until 1668, when ‘Stoney’ appears for the first time in this period, with the baptism of Martinus Stoney in 1675; the marriage of Elizabetha Stoney (to Robertus Ripley) in February 1669 and the burial of Richardus Stoney in the same year.
It is not clear from CCED:
Browse Locations (theclergydatabase.org.uk) exactly when Tenant’s time at
Kettlewell ended. It suggests that Thomas Motley held the vicarage of
Kettlewell from 1670, but he signs the Bishop’s Transcripts of 1665 - 1669,
supported by another Ripley churchwarden – this time Thomas, who may be the
father of Elizabeth Ripley, baptised ten years later.
His designation here is ‘Minister’, rather than ‘curate’ of the 1630s, so perhaps he had still not yet been granted the living.
The
remaining available records (which also feature gaps in years) through the
1670s-1690s tend to use the spelling Stoney or Staney. The
exception is the marriage license for Mary Stonah of Kettlewell to John
Shackleton of Keighley in 1672, but this would not have been written by the
Vicar, but by representatives of the Archbishop of York.
Baptisms at Kettlewell between 1702-1722 all use the name Stona
(as do marriages 1702-1711 and burials 1702-1734). When Thomas Stoney
married Frances Widdows in 1707, his name on the marriage license is Stona,
while in Boyd’s marriage index it is shown as Stoney.
Between 1699-1741, the incumbent was Henricus (Henry) Birch.
He signs the Bishop’s Transcripts during this period, including this, in 1719:
In 1741, John Currer was appointed Vicar of Kettlewell. An Oxford man (Brasenose) he was ordained in 1726, when he was appointed Curate of Kettlewell, so he had already been serving the parishioners of Kettlewell for fifteen years by the time he took over the living. He died in 1760, having served the parish for 34 years. The surname Stoney was used consistently on baptisms between 1743-1760, on marriages between 1743-1759 and burials 1741-1759. There were, however, occasions in 1755 when the name is written Stona:
- · The marriage of Mary Stona to Leonard Calvert (where the name is first written Stona, and then Stonay by her signature)
- · The burial of Jonathan Stona (also written Stone in one transcript)
Following Currer’s death in September 1760, a new Vicar was
appointed, who had a familiar name: William Tenant, possibly a relative of the
earlier incumbent, Richard Tenant. He was Vicar until 1786, and the few records
available during his incumbency mainly used the spelling Stoney, with
one exception:
- · Baptism in 1776 of William natural son of Mary Stoney (in the register) and of Mary Stonah (Bishops’ Transcript) – my 3xgreat grandfather
It seems then that the variation in spelling of the surname Stoney
is broadly related to the different styles of the vicars (and other incumbents)
of the time and, probably, the fact that surnames did not become ‘standardised’
until well into the 19th century, as literacy increased. In earlier
centuries, names were often written as they were heard, and subject to
variations in accents as much as anything.
For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view
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