Will Search/Newspaper Article

[PonnyP]

I have been trying to locate the will of John Hirons of Wardington Oxfordshire. I believe that he died in 1803 and was buried in Wardington. I cannot find the will online and Oxfordshire Record Office (OXHIST) advise that they do not have it.
However, I have found a related newspaper article (attached) and presume that some paperwork must exist related to the Royal Licence, which may in turn lead to the will, but have no idea where to search.
I have tried the National Archives online without success, but may just have entered the wrong search criteria. Does anyone have any thoughts or guidance please?

 

[Katie Bee]

There is some information on the College of Arms website
"As well as being responsible for the granting of new coats of arms, the College maintains registers of arms, pedigrees, genealogies, Royal Licences, changes of name, and flags."
they have a Contact Us Page for queries relating to family history Etc.
Good luck

 

[PonnyP]

Thank you, I will look at your suggestions

 

[Stuart]

There is a will of John Hirons of Wardington on FindMyPast. It was proved in 1804, and refers to his daughter Elizabeth Brewerton, which sound right. I can't see anything abut her children taking the name Hirons, but it's long and I've only had a quick look.

PS: yes, there is a bit about the Brewerton and Gibbard heirs adopting the name Hirons - page 4.
PPS: oddly, all 83 of the Hirons wills in FMP's Oxfordshire index are listed as "Hiorns"!

 

[Pauline]

Yes, I’ve just been looking at that will too. The name is given as Hirons on the cover of the will, so I’m not sure how it got indexed as Hiorns.

 

[Stuart]

Surprisingly, Hiorns is not just a typo - searching on just that surname in FMP gives about 3,000 hits, against 10,000 for Hirons. But I guess most of those Oxfordshire wills are really Hirons, so to enter all 83 as Hiorns wants explaining. My guess is data entry software that prefills fields from the last time, combined with some of them really being Hiorns so it's not glaringly wrong.

 

[Pauline]

Given that the RO could not find the will, maybe the error is not just at FMP? Unless they used the FMP index to search for it!

 

[Stuart]

Looking at the range of spellings in this set of wills - Hiron/Hirons/Hyron/Hyrons/Hiorn/Hiorns/Hyorn/Hyorns - I think they are all really the same name. One family would use one spelling for choice, but then so would any one clerk. I can imagine an Oxfordshire accent that would make the -ro- and -or- versions sound the same.

And I guess the indexers may have chosen one variant as standard - but chose Hiorns, which is wrong for this family.

 

[PonnyP]

Thanks for the help, problem solved.

 

[Pauline]

I submitted corrections at FMP, but since the RO couldn’t find the will for you, it might be helpful if you get back to them and let them know that it appears they do have it, possibly indexed as Hiorns. It might save other researchers having similar problems. The archive references for the wills (original and registered copy) are Pec.16.1; Pec.57/1/34.

I’m not sure who did the online index - it first appeared on the British Origins website around 2010, with images following quite a while later after some delay. FMP then “inherited” the dataset when they took over British Origins a year or so later, so they may have had no hand in the way the wills were indexed.

 

[PonnyP]

Thanks Pauline, good suggestion, I will contact them.

 

[peter]

I can imagine an Oxfordshire accent that would make the -ro- and -or- versions sound the same.

The 'r' was possibly silent - even today most people would pronounce the words 'ion' and 'iron' similarly.