A Family Historian’s Nightmare

I’ve traced my Commons/Common line for a hundred years in Tower Hamlets from Albert Edward Common (Why Chris Locke?) to the marriage of John Common and Mary Oldfield on 27th July 1806 at St John of Wapping Parish Church.¹ By various pieces of evidence I have identified the groom as John Common baptised 30 Aug 1779 at St Helen’s Longhorsley Northumberland.²

The Ruins of St Helen's Church, Longhorsley, photographed by Sue Law 27th June 2019

In 2009 I ordered the FHL film covering the Longhorsley registers. Using these I was able to track the Common line back to the marriage of William Common and Isabel Robson on 9th June 1719.³ During this time the family married into other local families, especially the Robsons, Hills and Prudlocks.

Unfortunately on page 2 of the first register is written:

“This oldest Register, belonging to this Parish was falling to Pieces for want of attention & was given by the Vicar abt 1761 to an illiterate Parish Clerk to revew. The Clerk copied only such names as he himself could decypher & burnt the Original Register imagining it of no use which is the reason of this being so imperfect.

The above is from the report of several responsible Persons who remember the circumstance inserted by me March 8, 1803,
Richd. Oliphant, Curate.”

Just to make things worse the extant Bishop’s transcripts for Longhorsley only start in 1769.⁴

One fairly solid brick wall, though I think I may be lucky with the Commons, as the records seem to indicate that William was the first Common to move to Longhorsley.

A Common family headstone in St Helen's graveyard, photographed by Sue Law 27th June 2019

  Sources

1. St John of Wapping (Wapping, Middlesex, England), "London Metropolitan Archives P93/JN2/018, Register of Marriages 1803-1812," page 38, marriage of John Common & Mary Oldfield, 27 Jul 1806; LMA microfilms X089/160, London Metropolitan Archives, London.
2. St Helen (Longhorsley, Northumberland, England), "Northumberland Archives EP 145/1, General Register 1667-1670; 1695-1723," page 46, baptism of John Common, 30 Aug 1779; FHL microfilm 252593, item 1.
3. St Helen (Longhorsley, Northumberland, England), "Northumberland Archives EP 145/1, General Register 1667-1670; 1695-1723," FHL microfilm 252593
4. Holdings of Bishop’s Transcripts from St Helen’s Longhorsley, Durham University Library Special Collections Catalogue GB-0033-DDR/EA, Durham Diocesan Records: episcopal administration,  (http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ark/32150_s1gf06g2666.xml#DDR-EA-PBT-2-t, Accessed 21st February 2020)