Family:Thomas Foord and Mary Alchorn (1)

Potential for Confusion

There were 3 families named Thomas and Mary Foord/Ford in or near Isfield in the early to mid 18th century.

• Thomas Foord and Mary Alchorn were the oldest of these three. They were married in Isfield and appear to have had all their children baptized in Isfield.
• Thomas Foord and Mary Weller were next. They were both from Ringmer, but married in Wartling parish (some 15 miles distant) - possibly because Mary was about 6 months pregnant at the time of their marriage. They returned to Ringmer, where all their known children were baptized.
• Thomas Foord and Mary Durant, married in Withyham in 1741, appear to be the third couple. Mary was from Isfield, and this couple appears to have moved to Isfield by 1748, when their daughter Lucy was baptized in Isfield. There are no baptisms for Foord children between 1741 and 1748 in Withyham, so they may have lived elsewhere in the meantime. It is not certain where Thomas was from, as, with the exception of their marriage, the name "Foord/Ford" does not appear in the Withyham parish records within several years of their marriage.

Baptisms at this time identified the names of both parents, but not the maiden name of the mother. This causes some uncertainty in assigning children to the correct family. The children baptized in Ringmer were most likely the children of Thomas Foord and Mary Weller, although many trees place their son John (husband of Jude Taylor) in the Thomas Foord and Mary Alchorn family. This confusion could be the result of using typed parish transcripts that incorrectly assigned many Isfield baptisms to Ringmer, making it difficult to sort out which children belonged to which family.

The Isfield children are more difficult to assign, since there is no significant gap in their baptisms. The Thomas Foord who married Mary Alchorn is likely the Thomas Foord who died in 1745, so children baptized after 1746 could not be his. However, children baptized before 1746 are not necessarily members of this family. Since there is no immediate death record for the Thomas Foord baptized 27 Oct 1745 and another Thomas was baptized 9 Dec 1753, it is assumed that the former belongs to the Thomas and Mary (Alchorn) Foord family and the latter to the Thomas and Mary (Durant) Foord family. (Another possibility is that the 27 Oct 1745 baptism is an erroneous duplicate of the 14 Oct 1744 baptism, which would allow the Thomas baptized 1744 and/or the William baptized 1742 to be children of Thomas and Mary (Durant) Foord. But without evidence to the contrary, the parish record should be assumed to be correct.)

Many trees make no distinction between the two Isfield families, assigning all children to Thomas Foord and Mary Alchorn, and Mary Durant's probable burial date to Mary Alchorn. This is unrealistic, as it means Mary Alchorn would have been having children well into her fifties and even after sixty.

1. ↑ Isfield, in East Sussex, England. Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1936.

   'Aug 12 [1725] Thomas Foord & Mary Alchorn both of this Parish were married.'