After an email introduction to another descendant of Ed Elmer in conversation with other members of our small research group, one of the crew provided a document that put Ed Elmer in a line of Elmers from Quinton, near Northampton.
I’m still a poor reader, so I jumped over all the information on the page. I went down to the location at the bottom and started looking at maps and searching for Elmer records at various sites for those people.
Here is the text on that page:
2022 Searches
I looked for Puritan influence around Northampton and found a blog referencing a book written in 1979 that makes Northampton seem to be an active place for Puritans. https://edintone.com/centre-for-the-nations/puritan-influence-in-northants/
In the searches I have available, there are Elmers living around Quinton (and Northampton) in Ed’s time. At Freereg.org.uk I found Elmers from 1500 to 1630 in surrounding towns like Piddington and Great Doddington and Broughton and Denton. I also found them in a Northamptonshire search at ancestry.
https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/62b8a2b5f493fdc4c213b91c?locale=en
Looking at secondary names from the document, I found that there were Berrils in Denton and a Mary Elmer who married a Hopkins (instead of Hodskin…maybe Hodgkins?) in Piddington…and possibly a record for an Ellinour Elmer in Piddington. Here are some indexes I copied:
Mary ELMER
Thomas HOPKINS Marriage 25 Jun 1604 Northamptonshire Piddington : St John the Baptist : Parish RegisterEllin ELLINER Baptism 24 Apr 1597 Northamptonshire Piddington : St John the Baptist : Parish Register
Then I looked for Vudgles Olcott and found an interesting correspondence between two genealogists with differing trees for Ed Elmer. The excerpt I’m attaching is from a man named Phillips who is giving the research he paid for (in the 50’s) for records of the family of Ed Elmer. I believe his argument is with the person who name is attached to the archive of documents (Margaret Bready). Margaret is proposing a connection to Bishop John Aylmer and Mr. Phillips is disputing that with his sources for Quinton Northamptonshire.
Here is the URL for those documents: https://archive.org/details/margaretbreadygebrea_10
Mr. Phillips says that Vudgles is actually Douglas and married an Olcott. I could not find Olcotts in my Northampton search, but they could also be Alcotts, Wolcotts…etc. There were Olcotts in Hartford Connecticut listed along with Ed Elmer so I may just be searching in the wrong area or for the wrong name. Some information on Thomas Olcott from Hartford also lists the name as Alcock. There are many records for Alcocks in towns near Quinton.
Here is the bit on Douglas Olcott:
I’ll attach page 205 to 217 of the pdf which lists various attempts of Mr. Phillips to copy down what he has for Ed from his hired researcher.
I did poke around quite a bit searching for Elmers. I found an Edward Elmer that I thought was compelling, baptized in Broughton in 1593, but I think he was buried in 1594. I can verify that several of the Elmers I found had a father named Edward, but I think he lined up best with one of the older Edwards in Mr. Phillips list.
Northampton records office records of Edward Elmer of Quinton:
http://nro.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110168201
Settlement on the marriage of Richard Stanton
23rd Sept 1653
(son of Richard Stanton and Patience his wife of Duston) and Isabel Elmer (daughter of Edward Elmer of Quinton). Seven lands of arable dispersed in the open fields of Duston. (A few details).
I’m going to put a note here that Isabel is not a name listed in the lineage document above that kicked off this particular search.
I didn’t find a lot of Quinton records in my free searches. There are apparently Quinton parish records available digitally at FamilySearch centers. The irony to me is that I found an Edward from Quinton in 2017 and socked notes away on him.
Previous Research into Ed Elmer and Elmers in Northamptonshire in 2017
Quinton:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3706633
Jeremy Stephens, clerk v. Robt. Meeres, D.D., and his wife Elizabeth, John Dolbin, Edward Elmer.: Rectory and parsonage of Quinton, in the county of Northampton. Tithes.: Northampton.
Date: 15 Chas 1
I had previous poor luck ordering records from the national archives, but I could try again with this single record for Edward Elmer in Quinton. I’m guessing that this record is for 1640 if it’s in the 15th year of the reign of Charles 1. Our Edward would have been in North America at this point, but I’m not sure exactly what is in the document. A Tithe was a payment of crops..etc to support the church.
Peterborough:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D882011
Will of William Ellmer or Elmer, Chandler of Peterborough, Northamptonshire.
Date: 12 August 1630
I purchased William’s will. There were no Edward Elmers listed.
Great Doddington:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D774951
Will of John Ellmer, Yeoman of Great Doddington, Northamptonshire
Date: 1653
No Edwards listed.