Relationship to: Steve Wakely of NSW Australia - Paternal 17th Century Ancestor

Forenames : ABRAHAM

Date of Birth:1611

Place of Birth : Whitechurch Canonicorum?

Date of Death: Unknown

Father's Name: Thomas Wakely alias Rockett

Mother's Name: Joane Wolmington

Married (Spouse):Mary ???

Date married: c 1640

Place married: ?Thorncombe

Place of Death:? Hawkchurch

Issue:

1. Isaac Wakely, b c.1640

2. Abraham, b: c. 1640; d: 1704 Chard

3. Martha, married John Turner, Chardstock 1679

4. Rubeth (?Elizabeth); b 1643 and d 1655 Thorncombe

5. Thomas, b: 1647 Chardstock; buried there 1688

6. John, b: 1649 Chardstock; wife Joan; son John

7. Mathew, b: 1653 Thorncombe

8. Jacob, b: 1655 Thorncombe

Siblings:

1.John, b: 1602 at Chardstock; heir to grandfather's Chackridge lands in Phillyholme; father of John who married Jean Warry of Chard and had son John (b.Wakely alias Rocket)

2.Thomas, b: 1604 at Chardstock; Ist wife a Pysing; second wife = Marjarie Pinney d. of Robert Pinney of Hawkchurch; used Wakely and Rocket names; died 1672

3.Robert, b: 1607, mentioned in grandfather's will; Commissary of Commonwealth garrison of Weymouth in Civil War; married Elizabeth Derby of Dorchester; had at least 12 children including Thomas, Joseph, Samuel and Robert; normally used name Wakely.

4.William,(3rd of name), b: l61l at Whitchurch Canonicorum

5.Stephen, b: 1613 at Whitchurch Canonicorum. Wakely to start with, later Wakely alias Rockett.

6.Joane, b: 1615 Whitchurch Canonicorum; buried Thorncombe 1620

7.Mary,

8.Edward, b: 1621 BA Oxford in 1642

9.Elizabeth, buried Thorncombe 1623

Other information:

With Abraham we see another swing of the pendulum from Rockett to Wakely. He was christened Rockett in 1611 in Whitchurch Canonicorum but was recorded as Wakely in parish registers at least from 1643, when he baptised a daughter. he was then of Thorncombe - as to be expected given his father had taken over the family lands there at the beginning of tho 1620's.

Abraham's next two children were christened in Chardstock - his mother's parish but the register makes it clear he was a Thorncombe man. In the 1650's he reappears in the Thorncombe registers - perhaps because of family property re-arrangements after his father's death.

There is no record either of his marriage or his burial in any surviving register. It is likely he married c1640 in Thorncombe but the register from 1640 to 1643 is missing. It is possible he may have been buried in Hawkchurch but once again the registers for that parish are missing up to 1663.

Abraham's elder brother John lived long enough to sire a son, also John, thus securing the handing down of the Chackridge estate along with one parcel of the Thorncombe lands brought by his grandfather. John left his brother Thomas forty pence - probably just enough for Thomas to buy himself a small luxury in memory of John.

Thomas himself had married well and was a county figure of sufficient importance to be invited by local gentry in Somerset to settle property disputes and be called 'gent'.

Abraham's brother Robert was a major local figure on the Commonwealth side in the Civil War like his uncle Nicholas, and received a fairly substantial share of the Wakely inheritance as did his other brother Edward. We can assume that Abraham being older than Edward received his share too.

Seventeenth century wills for John of Chackridge and his descendants show them staying with the name Rockett - although they occasionally use the name Wakely or Wakely alias Rockett in parish registers. Thomas and Robert stuck to Wakely but Edward was usually a Rockett. It appears that some more or less real Rocketts were around - this contention was supported by mid-seventeenth century Hawkchurch wills and by two other things. One; a Chancery suit between them and the Rockett alias Wakelys over their lease of Chackridge lands - Wakelys wanted them back. Two; deeds of the period show Rockett alias Wakelys seal their documents with the crest of a trippant stag whilst Rocketts use a coat of arms which contain a roquette in a French escutcheon. A roqustte is the French name for the kind of blunted lance used in jousts. The Rocketts it appears were almost certainly religious refugees from Normandy - conveniently placed on the main roads inland from Lyme Regis on the coast were the first known Rockett centres of Axminster and Marshwood!