Alice Boys

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2003-05/...

The only certain thing about this question is the need for additional research. I have recently submitted an article to The Augustan Society on the arms to which Captain Thomas Stockett and his brothers of Maryland would have been entitled. We are still trying to get a drawing of the arms for the article. Hopefully, it will be published in the near future. The Harman descent to the Stockett brothers is as follows:

• 1. John (MP), son of Richard Somer of Canterbury, Kent married Alice Harman (she married 2nd John Boys)
• 2. Elizabeth Somer married John Ashton, Judge of the Court of Augmentations
• 3. Elizabeth Ashton married John Aylesworth, M.P.
• 4. Walter Aylesworth md. Joan Stockett
• 5. Frances Stockett married Thomas Stockett
• 6. The 4 Stockett brothers who came to Maryland + one daughter, Joan

Elizabeth Ashton and Elizabeth Somer were both armorial heiresses and their arms were correctly quartered with the Aylesworth arms. So far, I have been unable to identify the father of Alice Harman, but assuming that John Ashton correctly and legally used the quartering she would also have been an armorial heiress. In that case, she would have had to be a grand-daughter of Henry Harman (daughter of a son who had no male issue or possibly a daughter of one of Henry's brothers. One of the problems with the theory that Mary was a daughter of Edward IV is the time frame. If Henry VII did not acquire the power to grant a daughter of Edward IV in marriage until he ascended the throne or married, then the time frame for Henry Harman to have so many of his children by Mary is very tight. In Henry Harman's will is the following provision: "And wheras of late after the death of Elizabeth Elham, daughter of John Elham, the sonne of Henry Elham, londes , woodes, and tenements, etc. descended to Elizabeth Spark, Alice Harman, and Beatrice Harman, my doughters, ****"" To me, this indicates the probability that those three women were the daughters of the first marriage (Douglas disagrees as to the degree of probability) for the reasons that 1. The daughter, Anne, is not included and 2. the wording of the phrase suggests that the title was derived by descent from Henry Elham. I think that if the will of Henry Elham is found (as yet I have not had the opportunity to look for it) it very likely has a bequest of a life estate to Elizabeth daughter of John Elham with a remainder to her issue and if no issue than to some other designated issue from her siblings or from John's siblings and that these 3 daughters constitute those heirs.

Another set of clues, which I have not as yet followed up are to property in Lincolnshire. John Somer apparently died rather young and left only daughters of whom Elizabeth was apparently the eldest. While the biography of Somer in The History of Parliament shows a connection to Sandwich, Kent, and has references from his will to "Hennyswell" and "Fyglisham" with no county indicated, I have discovered from litigation over these properties, that the places are actually Hemswell and Fillingham in Lincolnshire The will of Richard Somer clearly indicates that his family originated from Hemswell, but the property in Fillingham was definitely derived from the Harman family a life estate having been given to John Somer and Alice Harman with the remainder having been given to them by Thomas Goldsmith (a legatee in Henry Harman's will) and Henry Harman (no date is given, but it is likely that the donor was the son of Henry, the clerk. If anyone is interested in following this! further, contact me off the list. Jim