This page summarizes other information in the possible background of ‘Bozeat John’.

OTHER CANDIDATES

If he is not the John baptized in Glapthorn in 1766 then where else could Bozeat John have come from? Stemming from Mears Ashby in the late 1600s there was a Dobbs family in Rothwell in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Reconstructing them from the registers is difficult though suggesting that the registers are far from a complete record of christenings and they may have been involved in the Independent Church there the records of which are not all available.

From marriages in the county around the time he was born the following are possible parents of Bozeat John.

Thomas who married Ann Dunmore at Rothwell in 1750

• Edward who married Elizabeth Bollard at Harrington in 1758 and who had three children at least at Rothwell
• John of Rothwell who married Sarah Homan of Weekly, 1761
• Thomas who married Elizabeth Dunmore in 1764
• Phillip of Rothwell who married Mary Bradshaw of Guilsborough in 1766

These are the only other marriages in Northamptonshire so far found that seem likely to be linked. Apart from Edward we don’t know about any children from the others as they have not yet been traced.

There was also a marriage in Stilton, Hunts, of Thomas Dobbs and Ann Tuck in January 1760. But there are no subsequent christenings at Stilton.

SOME CONCLUSIONS

The two branches around Oundle and Whiston each go back over 600 years and appear to be independent of each other. At least one of them must be a red herring in the search for Bozeat John. It is unclear where the Mears Ashby line sprang from. Was it another separate line, did it stem from Rushden or come out of Bozeat/Whiston?

Is it just coincidence that a surname present in Bozeat until the mid 1600s occurs again there 140 years later? Apart from the Mears Ashby clan no groupings of Dobbs families have been found in that part of Northants in the 1700s. Even though under-recording of baptisms was a problem in the 1700s we would expect to see some in the area but if they existed then they have so far escaped detection. From where we know Dobbs to have been living around 1760 he could have originated from Rothwell, Brigstock or Glapthorn or some other place not yet found.

ROTHWELL DOBBS

This branch appears to stem from Thomas son of Tobias Dobb of Mears Ashby. Thomas Dobbs of Orton, yeoman, died in 1703 and his will identified five children; Margaret who married Simon Eady of Woodford, Thomas, John, Elizabeth christened 1660 at Loddington and who married Stephen Worlidge, and William christened 1665 at Loddington. His son John was executor to the will and he was probably the eldest.

Thomas’s wife Elizabeth died in 1709/10 at Woodford (Eadys lived at Woodford) and her will identifies several unnamed children of her son Thomas, three unnamed children of her son William and three unnamed children of her son John. These children and grandchildren have not been traced.

One explanation for the difficulty in piecing together the Rothwell branch could lie in the presence of the Independent Church at Rothwell. The records of this church remain with it, but from what is known it ranked Dobbs’s among its congregation. The first church book (a transcript of which is available) mentions William Dobbs of Orton in 1677. In 1681/2 John Dobbs son of William of Orton and Elizabeth Mun are mentioned as giving a good account ‘of God’s work upon their hearts before the congregation’. We then see a John Dobbs being ‘cast out’ sometime before 1686.

In 1690 Joseph Dobbs had withdrawn from communion but was later reconciled. Also in 1690 Thomas Dobbs renewed the covenant and was received again. In 1691 Elizabeth Dobbs was accepted in the church. There then follows many mentions of ‘Brother Dobbs’ and clearly the church elders were not happy with him. In 1692 officers’ wives were ordered to go to Brother Dobbs’ wife. Soon after, Brother Dobbs gave ‘noe satisfaction as to his wifes grave’. In November that year he was ‘complained of’ for marrying. The following January he was charged with “slanderous and reproachful expressions whereafter testifying no repentance. Admonished”. But he later “testified repentance for his evils”. 

Then there is another reference to his wife and he is ordered to attend the next church meeting. The book then notes about his crimes, “viz: his going to and promising marriage to one whilst an unbeliever and his withdrawing communion, his despising of the authority of Christ in his house”. They lost patience with him, charged him with lying and cut him off from the church.

A church meeting of 1^st April 1700 agreed to send Brother Cave to see “Sister Elizabeth Dobbs regarding whether she is satisfied of the godliness of that man which she intends to marry”. It seems she was because on 2^nd June that year Brother Cave was despatched to “deliver the first admonition to Sister Dobbs for marrying a carnall man”. That’s the last we see of them in the first church book (up to 1708) and the others are not available at the NRO. If they do exist then they seem a promising line of enquiry.