Elizabeth Goldfinch (c.1685 to 1739)

Elizabeth Complyn née Goldfinch was a four times great-grandmother of Sidney Parsons who was the grandfather of the author of this web page.

The surviving records of Elizabeth’s early life are incomplete but some details can be pieced together from the fragementary remains of parish registers and surviving wills and other legal documents relating to her family. By the last quarter of the 17^th century when Elizabeth was born the Goldfinch family had already been farming in Compton, a small village just to the south west of the city of Winchester, for several generations. They were tenants of Compton Farm, the largest farm in the village, and they lived in the manor house.

Elizabeth father’s name was Richard Goldfinch. (There was a family tradition that the eldest son should be called Richard.) Elizabeth’s mother’s name is not known.

The story of the Goldfinch family can be found at mdash; The Goldfinch family of Compton.

Elizabeth was married at All Saints Church in Compton on the 29^th of November 1709 to John Complyn. At the time, John was living in North Baddesley, a village some miles south west of Compton and within a reasonable travelling distance of Southampton and Romsey, but he had been born in Morestead, about two miles from Compton, and his family still lived there.

Elizabeth and John began their married life in North Baddesley and had four children there: Elizabeth, Margaret, Anne and John. But by 1717, when their son Richard was born, they had moved to Morestead.

North Baddesley is underlined in red on the map. Compton is marked with a red C and Morestead with a red M.

While living in Morestead Elizabeth and John had five more children: Robert, Mary, William, Charles and Thomas.

In 1722 Elizabeth and John’s son Robert died. He was only two years old.

Their daughter Mary, who married John Newlyn and lived for most of her married life in Compton, was a direct ancestor of Sidney Parsons and the author of this web page.

Elizabeth died at a relatively early age in May 1729. Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, had probably left home by then but her husband John would have been left with their other eight surviving young children to look after.

She was buried in Morestead on the 14^th of May 1729.

To read about Elizabeth’s children click on the following link — The Children of Elizabeth Goldfinch and John Complyn

Return to Sidney Parsons’ Ancestors

You are free to make use of the information in these web pages in any way that you wish but please be aware that the author, Mike Parsons, is unable to accept respsonsibility for any errors or omissions.

Mike can be contacted at parsonspublic@gmail.com

The information in these web pages comes from a number of sources including: Hampshire County Records Office, Somerset Heritage Centre; Dorset County Records Office; Southampton City Archives; the General Register Office; several on-line newspaper archives; several on-line transcriptions of Parish Register Entries; and several on-line indexes of births, marriages and deaths. The research has also been guided at times by the published work of others, both on-line and in the form of printed books, and by information from personal correspondence with other researchers, for all of which thanks are given. However, all of the information in these web pages has been independently verified by the author from original sources, facimile copies, or, in the case of a few parish register entries, transcriptions published by on-line genealogy sites. The author is aware that some other researchers have in some cases drawn different conclusions and have published information which is at variance from that shown in these web pages.