Re: Duck Family - Whitby, Yorkshire

Hi Janet

All my DUCKs are from Whitby in late 1700's and first half of 1800's.

Sorry I can't help, however I'll attach an e-mail conversation I had with a Duck contact which may give a little more info.

Regards
Jonathan

Have a good leave.The name Duck derives from a Scandinavian word (variously rendered Dook, Dowk...) meaning to crouch (as in duck out of the way of something) and was therefore a nickname for a hunchback.Somewhere back in the Viking era when Whitby was invaded by rampant pillagers, one of them had a hump...I don't know if he rang the church bells in his spare time :)
Steve



Gosh, Steve, thank you for this generous reply! Certainly given me food for thought.

I shall endeavour to reconfigure the contents of my online family tree and (hope this is not 'too large an ask',,, as we say in this neck of the woods) grant you access with a request to let me know if I got it right.

Possibly contact you again when I'm back from annual leave - as I said to Diane Moody, "right now I feel like the character in Kipling's "Elephant's Child" who was 'dragged through a bush backwards'"!

Most grateful for the information

I've noticed, since paying attention to the Duck line that the name lends itself to the occasional amusing phrase like "my duck hunt", or "my ducks are not in that row" etc

Be in touch later

Thank you

Jonathan
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Duck
To: Jonathan Gale
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 4:33 AM
Subject: Re: Duck Family - Yorkshire


Jonathan:
Thanks for this, though it is a tough one.I have been looking at this family for quite some time and am still not sure I have this sorted out but I will tell you what I think and you can take it from there and either confirm or deny what I have.


I agree on all counts about the Thomas IV who married Hannah.I do not know and cannot find Hannah's name nor the date for their marriage, but have also checked marriages for Thomases to Anns, since Hannah is sometimes the same as Ann to deaf priests.No luck.Obviously the marriage was around 1730 and the regularity with which they had children suggests that it was probably 1731/2.Since Thomas was (if I am right) one of a family of shipwrights and mariners, he may have been married in another port such as Scarborough or Hull, but that is just a guess.He left a will and in case you don't have it I will attach it to this email. It confirms a lot of detail in the tree.Sadly the grandson Thomas named in eh will was killed in Demerara, West Indies, in 1802 (information derived from the headstone for Thomas and Hannah)


Thomas III who married Jane Sedman:
I also have attributed the birth of Ann (28 Jun 1701) to this marriage, making the production of children an almost annual event up to 1703.There is a problem here, though, in that Jane was buried in Whitby 25 December 1703, presumably from post partum complications of the birth of Sedman Duck who was born 19 December 1703.Thus Jane was not the mother of Thomas b 1709, but here is how I think it goes: Sedman later became known as Simon and was the Simon Duck who was killed in 1754 "thrown over the bridge by Thomas Anderson" as his burial record has it.Sedman was baptized Sedman rather than Thomas (the usual tradition for the first son of this family in each generation) because of the circumstances of his birth and mother's death.Thomas his father then remarried UNKNOWN and had Jane (31 Aug 1707, named in memory of his first wife) and Thomas (Bap 2 Oct 1709) and possibly others (probably Mary, later Witham, bap 14 Nov 1714), but I have not found a record of the presumed second marriage.


Thomas II, his father married Dorothy [Storm] in Whitby 18 Nov 1679 ( which case Thomas III was not the one born in 1673)and Dorothy may be the Dorothy D Widow who died 13 Mar 1728 and Thomas the Thomas Duck sailor of Whitby who was buried 18 March 1719/20 in Whitby.I believe, but cannot verify, that he is not the "Thomas D Junior" mentioned in records of births around 1703+, and not the same as the "Thomas D Senior" who drowned in 1684 (since the one here, whom I call Thomas II apparently had more children after that date), but that said (at the time) senior Thomas was his father and that he is the father of the junior Thomas noted in the records. However I have so far failed to find a record of the attributed birth or baptism of either himself or his putative son Thomas, items necessary to verify this hypothesis.But it looks as though he was known as Thomas Junior for part of his life (till 1684) and then Thomas Senior for the rest of it.


As you can see, there are some problems here but there are several Thomases who fit this tree if one uses some imagination.There was a "Thomas base son of Thomas" who was born at a time that would fit in with some of the above; there wasThomas of Scarborough who married Eliza Ford of Scalby just about right to be Thomas 0 in the above sequence, and so forth, and there are entries for deaths of Thomases which I have not connected to births of Thomases still free floating in my data base.So all is not lost.It would be really important to find out whether Thomas III remarried, otherwise the rest of the conjectured ascending tree does not work.


Steve











At 11:48 PM 1/7/2002, you wrote:
Hi Steve

Judith Pitchforth has suggested I contact you with regard to research I'm doing on my Duck forebears. I wonder if you can assist me?

I'm looking for the forebears of Thomas Duck m. ?

He was the father of Thomas Duck b.1673 Whitby d.18/03/1720 Whitby who married Jane Sedman b.1677 Whitby.

They had 3 children of which I'm aware:
Thomas Duck b.25/09/1709 Whitby d.6/3/1780 Whitby
Elizabeth Duck b.17/9/1699 Whitby d.6/11/1701 Whitby
Sedman Duck b.19/12/1703 Whitby

The above Thomas married Hannah ? and they had 10 children - all of whom were born in Whitby:
Thomas Duck 1733
Mary Duck 1735 m.Henry Harland
Elizabeth Duck 1735 m. Henry Rowland
James Duck 1736
Hannah Duck b.8/6/1740 m. Isaac Gale b.1738
Thomas Duck 1743
Christopher Duck 1745
Ann Duck 1747 m. Samuel Lyth
Sarah Duck 1749
Jane Duck m. James Carlill

Any assistance would be gratefully received

Jonathan Gale
New Zealand

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