FIRST DRAFT -- WARD FAMILY HISTORY -- (1990)
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CHAPTER THREE
THE WARD AND BLACKWELL FAMILIES
OF OXFORDSHIRE
Who was William Ward, and why did he leave England? We know what the parish
records tell us of who he was and when he was born, and we can guess at his
circumstances. It was a bad time and place to grow up poor and in the wrong religion.
The villages were small; the entire population was small. The people worked
predominantly in agriculture. Most worked on land they leased or rented from the
manorial landowners, or from yeoman freeholders. Their health was generally good, by
the standards of the time. They were well-fed except in times of economic or natural
disaster. Many of the average citizens could read and write, having had some years of
schooling at the local grammar school. There was a sense of pride in being an
Englishman, a sense of order and place at the beginning of the 17th Century. All this
would come crashing down with the Civil War.
England was in turmoil during the period of his youth. For a hundred years there had
been religious strife between the Puritans, the Catholics, and the Established
(Protestant) Church. This, combined with political competition between the Royalist
and the Parliamentarian parties, culminated in 1642 in the English Civil War. Much of
the fighting occurred in the county of Oxfordshire. During most of the 1640's the King,
in effective exile from London, kept his court and military headquarters in Oxford city.
This was only ten miles from where young William lived, and growing up in such
circumstances must have affected his outlook.
Even after the King was executed in 1649, and the Parliamentary party took over,
English civilian life remained confused and stressful. The Parliamentarians were often
Puritans, and the religious and political issues of the day were thorougly intertangled.
The Commonwealth, under Cromwell and his son, lasted until 1660, when Charles II
returned to England and the Royal house was restored. William Ward had already left
England by then, and had started a family in Connecticut.
This is not a history book. You can get the flavor of the times in the PBS television
series (imported from England) "By the Sword Divided." A book which covers the
same issues is Ollard's This War Without an Enemy1 . (This volume also has excellent
period illustrations.) For further background on the events leading up the war, and
including much on the religious and political reasons for it, read Bridenbaugh'sVexed
and Troubled Englishmen.2 For the family history you are reading, it is enough to note
the war, and to describe its divisive effect on families and its destructive effect on
the local economies.
The Puritans won the civil war, but in a real sense they lost the aftermath. They were
not a group that compromised readily, and they were forced to compromise with the
Presbyterians from Scotland and the non-religious party of the Parliamentary
politicians. The Parliamentary party sought primarily to limit the King's powers and to
keep him from selling England to its enemies, and it was through their ranks that
Oliver Cromwell advanced to become their chief general and eventually the world's
first modern dictator. Cromwell took over by force of leadership and ruled, eventually,
by military might. He never claimed the kingship, and when he died, government by
his son lasted only a little while. Tired of rule by major generals and Puritan divines,
the people invited the old dynasty back in.
But things were never quite the same again. The final legacy of Cromwell was the
"glorious revolution" of 1688-90; in this period the people of England cancelled the
employment contract of King James II and replaced him with someone they thought
they would like better. As part of his contract the new King promised that he would not
be quite as high-handed as his predecessor. He would not lead them into the arms of
the Papacy. He could no longer claim to be absolutely superior to the populace.
Meanwhile, the American colonies were undergoing political upheavals of their own.
They had survived general neglect during the war, and benefitted from Cromwell's
policies during the Commonwealth. Now the restored King took control and sent royal
governors in to bring them to heel. This restoration of English control was going on
during the time William Ward was becoming a leading citizen of Middletown. It is
from this era we get stories of Charters hidden in oak trees, and unpopular governors
treating the colonies like private baronies. And it was in this era that the events began
which led ultimately to our rebellion against the distant King.
William's father seems to have had little money or property. William, as the youngest
son, could have expected to inherit little of what little there was. There was no
financial reason to remain in England.
William was probably born, or became, a Puritan. In Connecticut he participated in the
activities of Middletown's Congregational Church; this was the established church of
the Puritans in America. In England he would have found himself growing up in the
middle of the intrigues of Puritan and Parliament versus the King and the Established
(Anglican) Church. [The fact that William's "bible" includes the Book of Common
Prayer makes this interpretation uncertain, since many of the Puritans held this book
to be improper.]
We do not have a personal letter from William Ward, the emigrant, detailing why he
left England. (Some emigrants wrote exactly this kind of letter to friends back home or
in other colonies). The only things we do have that we know he wrote are the notes in
his Bible, and his will3. Based on this will, surviving records from England and
Connecticut, and a few educated guesses, we can say a number of things about his early
life.
William Ward saw few prospects in his native village. He may have had to leave town
in a hurry, for political and/or religious reasons. The new colonies would have seemed
a safe hiding place and a potential utopiaQa place where he could make his fortune
and live out his life free from class and religious distinctions. We can read the parish
records and find the following:
FIRST GENERATION OF WARDS OF NORTH LEIGH
1618 Thomas Warde marries Dorothie Blackwell. These are the parents of William
Ward, the emigrant. Dorothie was the daughter of John and Amye Blackwell. John
Blackwell died in 1617, leaving a will (see Chapter Three). He held the lease on a
yardland (about 30 acres) in the village lands of North Leigh, as a tenant of the
Perrott family, owners of the Manor.
Through John Blackwell we can trace the family back at least as early as the 1500's.
1620 Eleanor Ward, daughter of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized.
1621 (_________) Ward, daughter of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized. (First name
not given.)
1622 (_________) Ward, daughter of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized. I do not
know why no names are given in the parish register for these two children. The listing
is simply for a daughter in each case. There are no corresponding burial listings. The
children may have been stillborn, or died before christening, but in that case the
registers usually would have made some comment to that effect. However, see Frances
and Elizabeth Warde, below.
1624 Thomas Warde, son of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized. [died 1687?]
1627 John Ward, son of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized. [buried 1700]
1630 Edward Ward, son of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized.
1632 William Ward, son of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized. William Ward is the
emigrant to Connecticut. His name is variously spelled with or without the final "e".
1635 Susan Ward, daughter of Thomas and Dorothie, is baptized. Last child born to the
immediate family of Thomas and Dorothie.
1643 Frances Ward, daughter of Thomas, is buried. It is possible that she was one of the
unnamed daughters above.
1679 Thomas Ward is buried. I assume that this is Thomas Warde, the elder. The
burial of one or more of the Thomas Wardes may still be an unsettled question. There
is no date listed for the burial of Dorothie Warde.
1697 Elizabeth Ward is buried. Possibly the second unnamed daughter of Thomas
Warde, Sr.
1700 John Ward is buried. There is no indication that John ever married. A John
Warde, thought by some genealogists to have been a brother of William, is said to have
lived in Rowley, Massachusetts before both moved to Middletown. He may be this
same John who died in 1700. This would mean that he had returned to England at
some point in the late 1600's. This was a reasonably common occurance among the
colonists, but seems unlikely in this case.
1705 Edward Ward is buried. I assume this is the Edward born in 1630, married in 1699.
However, the evidence for this is scanty and the uncle and nephew may need to be
interchanged.
Further generations of Wards in England are discussed in Chapter Six and Appendix
Eight. Other notes with discussion of possible interpretations:
1677 Anne Ward, wife of Thomas, is buried. I assume she was the wife of Thomas
Ward, Jr. See Chapter Six.
1682 Elizabeth Ward marries Thomas Harris of Charlbury. Probably the Elizabeth,
daughter of Thomas Jr., born in 1652. An alternative reading is that this Elizabeth was
one of the unnamed daughters born to Thomas Sr. in 1620 or 1621, and this is less
likely.
OTHER WARDS IN NORTH LEIGH -- RELATIONSHIP NOT KNOWN
1582 Elizabeth Warde marries John Kent. The Kents held land in North Leigh during
the latter half of the 16th century. The final "e" is generally not significant, except
that it was less used in the more Eastern counties, and most people had dropped it by
the end of the 17th century. Elizabeth Warde is probably from a nearby village; however,
I have not been able to identify which one. It is quite possible that she was related
to the family we are tracing.
1609 William Warde marries Joan Bathe. This William may be related to Thomas
Warde, the father of the William who emigrated. Joan Bathe seems to be the daughter
of Vincent Bathe, of Cassington, a nearby village.
Alternatively, there was a Joan, daughter of Vincent Bath, born in Kirtlington in
1601; but this seems too early. However: Vincent Bath married, 1581, Francis or Frises
Bath. They had children Richard, 1593, Francys, 1595, and Edward, 1598.4
1611 William Ward, son of William and Joan is baptized. This is the only known child
of William and Joan.
1707 Joane Warde, widow, is buried. See below. I consider it unlikely that this is the
woman who married William in 1609; she would have to have been 115 years old at
her death. There are presumably missing death and marriage notices relevant here. She
may have been the widow of one of the Thomas Wards listed below, or of one of his
brothers. Or, she may have been a daughter of William and Joane, or of one of the
Thomas Wards.
It would be nice to know, for a start, how many Thomas Wardes there were, and whom
they married. The people of this period did have some mobility, and could easily move
between nearby villages. While the distances moved were not great, the loss of records
over the years, and the questionable completeness of those records that do exist, make
detailed determinations highly improbable. The family seems to have disappeared in
the North Leigh area by the 1740's, but probable descendants can be traced in the local
area at least up to the 1850's (see Chapter Six).
We can guess that the Elizabeth Warde who married John Kent in 1582 was a resident
of a nearby town. There was no shortage of Ward families nearby. She MAY have been
a member of the family which eventually moved into North Leigh; at this time I have
no way of knowing. The Kent family had been in North Leigh for at least the previous
twenty years; they appear in the manorial tenants' list analyzed in an article in
OXONIENSIA5. It was a reasonably common practice for a bride and groom from
different villages to be married in the church of the village of the bride. I assume this
defined the bride's family as the one putting on the wedding festivities. Some parish
registers indicate when the marriage participant is from another village; some do not;
and some are quite inconsistent. The absence of such a notation here does not prove
anything.
The William Warde who married Joan Bathe in 1609 may represent a similar situation,
except that here neither seems to have been born in North Leigh. Bathe is a relatively
uncommon name, but there are many of that name in the neighboring village of
Cassington. Records there indicate the birth of a Joane, daughter of Vincent, in
[[_____]]; this would make her the right age to be the one who married William
Warde. William may have been living in or near North Leigh, or he may have been
working there at the time and arranged to work there after his marriage. Within two
years they had a son, William; from that point they disappear from the parish register.
William Ward is shown as a signatory to the Protestation Oath in 1642, but is not listed
in the Hearth Tax of 1665.6 The only further associated entry in the parish register is
the death of Joane Warde, widow, in 1707. While it is tempting to assign this Joane as
the wife of that William, both her necessary age at death (115-120 years), and the
absence of any further notes on William or his son, make it most probable that William
and Joane Warde left North Leigh some time after 1642. I have looked for a likely
continuation of the family, but have not found it in nearby towns or villages;
identification further away would have to be considered tenuous at best. If this Joane
(bur. 1707) is not the widow of this William, then identifying who she was becomes
unlikely.
With the marriage of Thomas Warde and Dorothie Blackwell in 1618 we come to the
parents of the William Warde who emigrated and began the Ward family in America. I
have not, as yet, found the birth record for Thomas Warde, his father. What I have
found is a number of possible Wardes named Thomas, but none of the nearby ones
were born in the right period and none of the ones of the right age were born near
North Leigh. If he had been born in North Leigh, the parish record should have listed
him.
Since we believe that Thomas moved into North Leigh from somewhere else, the
questions become ones of when he moved to the village, and how far did he come? All
we know for certain is that he had taken up residency by 1618 or shortly thereafter. It
is possible that he had moved there as a child, apprenticed to a craftsman or hired out
to a farmer. He may have been working as a servant in the manor hall. In any of these
cases, he would have had opportunity to meet Dorothie Blackwell in town, on a market
day or in church. It is worth noting that Dorothie's father had died shortly before her
marriage, and that she was presumably living with her brothers. (For more about the
Blackwells see Chapter 3.)
If Thomas was living in some other village than North Leigh, then his opportunities to
meet Dorothie would have been limited mostly to church, or to market days and
holiday festivities. A courtship of this kind would have to take place within walking
distance, so it is likely that he was born in one of the villages within a short distance
of North Leigh.
We have no record of his birth. This is not that surprising, since the records for that
area are not complete. While the town of Whitney has parish registers beginning in
1551, and Hanborough's begin in 1560, the records for Combe begin only in 1646 and for
Cogges in 1653. Furthermore, in other sources I have found the names of people who
are known to have been living in a town or village, but who do not show up in the
parish register. For example, a Thomas Warde, shoemaker, served as wardsman in
Witney in 1578., but is not mentioned at all in the Witney parish register. The Witney
parish registers are extant from 1551, so we must make the assumption that his birth
and burial records are listed, if at all, in the registers for some other locality--
perhaps one like Cogges for which the earliest volumes have disappeared. It seems likely
that he lived in Witney for some period, but did not marry there or had no children
during this time. That is, nothing happened to him or his family which would merit a
notation in the parish register.
EARLIER REFERENCES TO WARDES IN THE NORTH LEIGH REGION
Since it appears that the family moved into the area from some other locality, we wish
to find some still-earlier ancestors who can be identified with them. So far I have not
been able to do so with any level of certainty, but I hope that further research in
places like the Public Record Office will fill in the gaps.
What we know about the situation is as follows:
1. John Ward alias Clarke filed his will in 1545, in the village of Cogges. I have no
indication of what the alias refers to (stepson, godson, changed for purposes of
adoption--all were common reasons to use this form). He refers to his wife Alis, and to
his god-daughter Agnes Bryan, but no other Wards (or Clarkes, for that matter) are
named. Cogges is the village just to the west of North Leigh.
2. Anne Warde, daughter of Thomas Warde, was born in nearby Glympton in 1618. No
other Wards are listed at all. Our Thomas was married in 1618, and that was also the
year that his daughter Eleanor was born, so this is presumably another Thomas Ward.
Unless, of course, one of the records refers to the old style of dating and one of them
to the new.
3. Numerous Wards are known to have lived in the nearby village of (Long) Combe,
but none of them are recorded before 1636, when Richard Ward filed his will. The
parish registers date only from 1646; the earlier volumes have disappeared. Richard
refers in his will to his sister Joane (married to _____ Davis) and his sister's son and
daughter; to his brother George, and to his brother's son Rychard; and to his brothers
John and Edward Warde. There seem to be no Thomas or William Wards among
them. These Wards may have come from Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire; a family
of Wards had lived there from at least the 1550's, and they are mentioned in the will of
John Ward of Long Combe (died 1650).7
4. The town of Witney had many Wards during the late 16th and throughout the 17th
and 18th centuries. One of them, a shoemaker named Thomas Ward, was sworn as a
wardsman in 1578. The Witney parish register, dating from 1551, does not mention this
person at all, and I think it likely that he was living in a nearby village. The register
does include notes on a George Ward, a tinker, who was cited for unpaid debts in 1584,
1586, and 1587,8 and had children James (1592) and Margaret (1594).9 None of the given
names of the family lines of Thomas or William include a George, a James, or a
Margaret, so it is unlikely that there is any close connection. I have no other references
to Wards in Witney before 1626.
5. The militia Musters of 1542-5 list a Thomas Ward for South Leigh (which is only a
few miles south of North Leigh's town center. They also include a "Thomas Wad" in
Bampton, and a John Warde for Headington (near Oxford). There is no listing for a
Ward from Witney. This does not mean there was no one in Witney named Ward, but
only that no adult Ward was mustered during that period. However, the parish
registers (see paragraph above) list no Wards before 1592.
I believe that the Thomas Ward of South Leigh in 1542-45 is the father of the man, who
became a wardsman in Witney in 1578. His grandson or great-grandson moved to
North Leigh in or before 1618. So far he is the likeliest candidate for general ancestor
to the Wards, but I have no detailed proof as yet. His relationship--if any--to George
is also unknown.
OTHER NOTES
None of the Wards of North Leigh are listed in the Hearth Tax returns from 1665,
unless it is in the entries for Stanton Harcourt. These include both a William and a
Francis Ward (William paid no tax, due to his poverty). The parish of Cogges was
included under Stanton Harcourt until 1653, and it is possible that there was some
confusion regarding their home village if they lived in a house near the parish
boundaries. The Stanton Harcourt parish register begins in 1568, and includes no
baptisms of anyone named Ward before 1700. The Stanton Harcourt Hearth Tax list10
and other tax records11 include also a Thomas Wood and John Wood, and confusion of
these names is a possibility. However, it should be noted that the Wood family goes
back many years in Stanton Harcourt, and is definitely not the same as the Wardes.
The matter of wives and widows is also complex. We have notations of five women
who married Wardes (also see Chapter Six):
Anne, wife of Thomas, died 1677
Mary Warde, widow, died 1685
Dorothie Warde, wife of Thomas Sr., died (____)?
Joane Warde, widow, died 1707
(_____) Warde, wife of Thomas, died 1730.
I'm not completely certain how to associate them with their respective husbands, and
we may never be able to fill in the unknown data indicated by parentheses and
underlines.
FAMILY CHART SUMMARY
The following section covers the first generations of the Ward family in the standard
format of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS). The first
generations have a purely numeric entry in the left-hand margin. Some letter/number
codes are for computer use and will eventually be sorted and replaced by numbers.
Underlined names in this section are in my direct line. See Chart 3a for the chart of the
family in the North Leigh region.
E. JOHN WARD alias CLARKE of Cogges, Oxfordshire, England. Born possibly circa.
1480; will recorded 1545. Married ALIS [------] (still alive in 1545). Had god-daughter
Agnes Bryan. Possibly the father or grandfather of Thomas Warde, below [E].
D. THOMAS WARDE (?), of South Leigh, Oxfordshire, England. Alive 1542-45. Born
probably before 1525.
Children, surname Ward:
C. i. THOMAS (?)
C. THOMAS WARDE (?), of South Leigh or Cogges. Presumed born circa 1550.
Shoemaker in Witney in 1578.
Children, surname Ward:
B. i. THOMAS (?)
B. THOMAS WARD (?), of South Leigh or Cogges. Presumed born circa 1570.
Children, surname Ward:
i. WILLIAM (?), born ca. 1590 or before; died sometime after 1611; married,
9 October 1609, at North Leigh, JOAN BATHE, probably daughter of Vincent Bathe of
Kirtlington, Oxfordshire. One known child, son William, born 21 December 1611.
A. ii. THOMAS
ALL OF THE ABOVE MUST BE CONSIDERED SPECULATIVE
A. THOMAS WARD, of North Leigh, born ca. 1600 or before; died probably 27 April,
1679; married, 1 June 1618, DOROTHIE BLACKWELL, daughter of John and Amye
Blackwell of North Leigh. (See below, and Appendix Eight on the Blackwell family).
Children, surname Ward:
i. ELEANOR, bapt. 21 October 1618
ii. [______], (female), bapt. 2 April 1620
iii. [______], (female), bapt. 3 March 1621
MM1. iv. THOMAS
v. JOHN, bapt. 2 December 1627
vi. EDWARD, bapt. 31 January 1630; buried (probably) 17 September 1675
1. vii. WILLIAM, emigrant to America
viii. SUSAN, bapt. 20 (?) June 1635
MM1. THOMAS WARD, of North Leigh, Oxfordshire. Brother of the emigrant. See
Chapter Six for discussion of Thomas and all of the family that remained in England.
1. (ENSIGN) WILLIAM WARD, of North Leigh, Oxfordshire, and Middletown,
Connecticut, born 16 August 1632, in North Leigh; died 28 March 1690, in Middletown;
married (first wife), 8 June 1658, SARAH PHELPS (born 1636 (?); died 9 July 1659);
married (second wife), 28 March 1660, PHEBE FENNER, (chr. 5 January 1634; died 1
September 1691).
William Ward emigrated to America in the early or middle 1650's. In the following
chapter I talk about what he found there and how he and his family prospered.
THE BLACKWELL FAMILY OF OXFORDSHIRE
We can trace the Blackwell family back one generation earlier and forward at least one.
In the parish register for North Leigh, we find the following information:
1600 Baptism of Thomas Blackwell, son of John and Amye
1602 Baptism of William Blackwell, son of John and Amye
1617 Burial of John Blackwell
1618 Marriage of Dorothie Blackwell and Thomas Warde
1629 Baptism of William Blakwell, son of Thomas and [______]
1629 Burial of William Blakwell, son of Thomas and [______]
1630 Baptism of Jane Blakwell, daughter of William and [______]
1633 Baptism of William Blackwell, son of William and [______]
1634 Marriage of Anne Blackwell and Hardwick Carpenter by banns
1642 Baptism of Thomas Blackwell, son of William and [______]
1642 Burial of Thomas Blackwell, son of William and [______]
1642 Baptism of Presilla Blackwell, daughter of Thomas and [______]
1659 Burial of Thomas Blakwell
1678 Burial of Thomas Blackwell
1679 Mariage of widow [______] Blackwell, of Northleigh, and William Compton of
North Leigh.
1680 Burial of William Blackwell
1681 Burial of Priscilla Blackwell, widow
1689 Burial of Jane Blackwell of Charlebury
John Blackwell
John Blackwell died in 1617, leaving a will. He held the lease on a yardland (about 30
acres) in the village lands of North Leigh, as a tenant of the Perrotts. See note 5.
John and Amye Blackwell had at least three children, Thomas and William, who are
named here, and Dorothie. It is likely that Anne Blackwell was also a child of theirs.
Thomas married Priscilla [------] and had children William (who died in infancy), and
Presilla. William married [------] and had children Jane (died unmarried at age 59),
William, and Thomas (who died in infancy).
John Blackwell's 1617 will exists and will some day be included in this section.
B. JOHN BLACKWELL, of North Leigh, Oxfordshire, born probably about 1570; buried 7
December 1617; married (somewhere other than North Leigh) AMYE [------]. Probably
moved to North Leigh about 1599.
Children, surname Blackwell:
A. i. DOROTHIE, probably born 1595-1598
LL1 ii. THOMAS, bapt. 20 April 1600
LL2 iii. WILLIAM, bapt. 7 December 1602
LL3. iv. ANNE, bapt. probably about 1604-8
A. DOROTHIE BLACKWELL, probably born 1595-1598; married, 1 June 1618, in North
Leigh, Oxfordshire, THOMAS WARD. See above.
LL1. THOMAS BLACKWELL, baptized 20 April 1600; buried 27 December 1659 or 22
November 1678; married Presilla [------], died 5 July 1681.
Children, surname Blackwell:
LL4. i. WILLIAM, bapt. 29 March 1629; buried 23 May 1629
LL5. ii. PRESILLA, bapt. 2 July 1642
LL2. WILLIAM BLACKWELL, baptized 7 December 1602; buried 30 January 1680;
married [------].
Children, surname Blackwell:
LL6. i. JANE, bapt. 17 January 1630; probably did not marry; lived in Charlbury;
was buried in North Leigh, 9 December 1689
LL7. ii. WILLIAM, bapt. 1 September 1633
LL8. iii. THOMAS, bapt. 14 March 1642; buried 12 May 1642
LL3. ANNE BLACKWELL, baptized circa 1604-8, married by banns, 15 January 1634,
Hardwick Carpenter. Children not yet traced.
It is not yet clear when Thomas Blackwell, son of John, died; there were two Thomas
Blackwells who died, in 1659 and 1678 respectively. The first may have been a brother of
the elder John. On the other hand, Thomas' firstborn son was probably named Thomas,
and we have no record of one by that name; it is possible that the one who died in 1678
(or even 1659) was that son.
I don't know who the widow Blackwell was who married William Compton in 1679. If
it was Presilla, widow of Thomas, then the register would probably have listed her as
Presilla Compton when she died in 1681. Perhaps William Compton died very quickly,
or perhaps the marriage was annulled for some reason. More work is needed.
ENDNOTES
1 Ollard, Richard, This War Without An Enemy, Atheneum, New York, 1976.
2 Bridenbaugh, Carl, Vexed and Troubled Englishmen 1590-1642, Oxford University Press,
New York, 1968.
3 Mainwaring, op.cit.
4 see LibV8p19; from IGI for Oxfordshire, I believe
5 Schumer, B. "An Elizabethan Survey of North Leigh, Oxfordshire" in Oxoniensia for
1975, p. 309 ff.
6 Publications of the Oxfordshire Record Society: Vol XX (19YY), p. ZZ
7 Original will Ms. 71/3/5 at the Oxfordshire County Record Office; 1650.
8 Calendar of the Court Books of the Borough of Witney 1538-1610, Oxfordshire Record
Society, Volume 54, pages 106 and others.
9 Witney parish register at OCRO
10 ORS Vol XX (op. cit.)
11 E179/xx/xx at Public Record Office