James and Martha Vousden - back to Goudhurst

On 2 September I wrote about James and Martha Vousden in Saskatchewan, Canada (1901 census). I had obtained a copy of their marriage certificate and then I sent for James' birth certificate, confident that he would fit into the main body of Vousdens from Goudhurst.

And indeed this is the case. The copy certificate of James's birth (26 July 1847) names his parents as William Vousden and Sarah Presnail, both of whom were already in my extended family tree. William and Sarah married 25 June 1834 at Brenchley. William was the son of William Vousden and Judith Sills, this William was the son of Richard and Mary (Jarrett).

Richard was born in Goudhurst in 1735 and he married Mary in Brenchley on 15 April 1759. I believe this is the first Vousden marriage at Brenchley, and the first Vousden baptisms at Brenchley follow soon after.

Richard's brother Thomas, and his wife Sarah (Borman), are my 5 x great grandparents. Thomas and Richard were sons of John and Sarah (Wousley) who married at All Saints, Maidstone on 20 November 1733. The parish register describes both my 6x great grandparents as being "of Goudhurst".

I have traced them back to the 1500s in Goudhurst, a further five generations with reasonable surety - all John Vousdens! We do seem to have been a little short of imagination when it came to naming children.