Robert GRIGSON Reymerston NFK [22687]

  General Notes:

Richard Grigson writes in 2024

"It has always been accepted as a given that: Henry Payne and wife Anne Alston had a daughter, also Anne, who married Robert Grigson. This derives from the Visitation of Suffolk commentary to which my great great grandfather (a keen genealogist and cleric) provided input. One of our advantages over our predecessors is easier access to a more holistic data set and he was apparently unaware of Anne Alston's previous marriage to William Wells...

As per your site, William Wells died in 1636 and Henry Payne in 1639. Any Payne children must therefore have been born within that rather narrow window, rendering it impossible for a daughter Anne to be marrying Robert Grigson in 1641.

Moreover your contemporary court case transcript Bright v Alston (of 1646) states that after Wells died, Anne married Mr Payne and had "one son now living". No mention of any daughter.

The simplest solution is usually the best, and I suspect that we are dealing here with just one person. After a short marriage to William Wells and an even shorter marriage to Henry Payne, with young children in tow but still young herself, Anne marries Robert Grigson as her third husband. We know his wife died in 1684, which fits neatly with Anne Alston's birth in 1607.

I may, or may not, be able to find conclusive proof in various Court Book entries, but thought this might be of interest in the meantime!

All best wishes,
Richard Grigson

This view has been adopted.

Robert married Anne ALSTON [2984] [MRIN: 13042], daughter of Edward ALSTON of Boxford [2971] and Anne ARDLEY [2974]. (Anne ALSTON [2984] was baptised on 15 Oct 1607 in Boxford SFK and died in 1684 in Morley NFK.)