The Rymill Family History and Family Tree

William Rymill born about 1737

What do we know of my earliest Rymill ancestor, my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather? Not a great deal, sadly.

My earliest-known namesake was probably born around 1737 +/- 5 years. The extreme possible ranges for his birth year (assuming he was roughly the same age as his wife) would have been around 1743 at the latest and 1714 at the latest, however, I favour a birth of 1737.

He was likely to have been born in Deddington, Oxfordshire and probably lived his entire life in that tiny village. In this town, or nearby, he met a woman called Mary Phillips and they married in Deddington on 15th November 1756. This is taken from an LDS website entry and the fact there is no other likely candidate marriage of a William and Mary around the right time. It is worth noting that the name of my oldest ancestor on this marriage record is spelt 'William Rymell'.

The year of marriage suggests that there may have been a daughter born first, who may or may not have survived infancy, or possibly another son who perhaps did not survive. The reasoning being that first-born sons were usually named after their father, and had there been a surviving son born in 1757 then he would have been called William after his father.

In January of 1759 Mary gave birth to their son, who they named William Rymill. The fact that this child bore the name of the father suggests he was their first born, or certainly their first born son.

This information for these parents comes from a birth record on the LDS website batch #C033422 for dates 1669-1812 and he is picked as the appropriate match based on his place of birth being Deddington. It is worth mentioning that there are other similarly-named men in close geographical and chronological proximity with different parents.

There was a William Rymell was born in Deddington 1757 with no further information available from the LDS, but also a William Rimill born 16 Feb 1759 in Great Tew to Richard Rimil and Catherine. By reference to the page on the geography of the Rymill family, you can see that Great Tew is only 5 miles from Deddington, thus being almost as a good a candidate to be the right father of the next known generation: William Rymill born 1759 who married Elizabeth Hawkins.

As to the question of who might William born about 1737's parents might be, there are handful of candidates who can be ruled out because their marriages came a little after 1759, which makes them unlikely to be the father of a baby born in that year.

There was a LDS record submitted in 1991 which seems to confirm my preferred dates almost exactly: William Rymell born 1737 of Deddington, marries 'about 1758'.

However, there is a record of greater substance viz:

William Rimel - born 19th November 1738, Great Tew
Father: Richard Rimell
Mother: Elizabeth

It does, however, seem likely that the above child died, due to the following entry:

William Rimel - born 25th December 1739, Great Tew
Father: Richard Rimell
Mother: Elizabeth

This second child of the same name is a strong indication that the earlier child died and the name was recycled.

There was a William Rymell born 29th Oct 1731 in Bletchington (9 miles from Deddington) to parents Isaac Rymell and Mary, and also a William Rymill born about 1731 in Dedding, about whom we have no further information.

Only some more detailed information from the parish records could hope to clear up this question.