On this day, 377 years ago, Ralph Dayton’s eldest son Ralph obtained a marriage license. Ralph’s estimated age in this record has caused doubt and bewilderment for genealogists through the years because it places his birth too early for the 1617 marriage of his parents.
Dayton, Ralph of Ashford, cordwainer…about 22 or 23 at his own govt., and Susan Burr of Walmer, v, 21 and upwards, whose parents are dead. At S. Margaret’s, Cant. Robert Goldhatch of Ashford, husb., bonds Nov 27, 1639.
Some genealogists have felt the need to change the marriage year for Ralph’s parents to 1616 in order to adjust for the discrepancy. We believe there is no need for this adjustment since Ralph Junior’s baptism record is June of 1618, suggesting his birth occurred one year after the marriage of his parents.
Almost 30 years later Robert, a yeoman of Ashford, named Ralph Junior his executor. In the February 1668/69 will of Robert Goldhatch, he left, “to cousin Ralph Dayton, mess & land in Ashford & elsewhere…and residue.” The word mess here meant everything on the land except the land.
Ralph Junior remained in Ashford, at the St. Mary the Virgin parish where his two marriages, the deaths of both his wives and his own death on February 10, 1705/06 can be found in the parish registry.
Dayton Ancestry 