The English ancestry of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct ...

Reinold and Matthew Marvin 21
In the Introductory Note we gave 1485 as the probable
year of birth of the first from whom we could trace the
direct line of our descent, but there appear to be some
reasons for believing that the Ramsey Marvins came from
the Ipswich families mentioned above, and we shall begin
the Record there.
FIRST GENERATION.
1 Roger 1 Mervyn, of St. Stephen's Parish, Ipswich, in the
County of Suffolk, was born certainly as early as 1430, since
he left a son who was old enough to be his executor in 1475.
His wife was Matilda , who survived him, and was
associated with her son as executrix of her husband's Will.
This Will is recorded at Ipswich ; * it is written in Latin,
much abbreviated, as already mentioned ; an abstract is given
below. It fixes the date of his death exactly, for it was
made " the Sunday after the Feast of the Nativity of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, 1475." This festival, one of the "black-
letter days " of the Anglican Church, occurs 8 September,
which fell on Friday in 1475 ; " the Sunday after " was there-
fore 10 September, and as that is the date of probate, the
Will appears to have been proved on the very day it was
drawn.
At that period " the goods of a deceased person were dis-
tributed, or his Will proved f in the court of the 'ordinary'
ecclesiastical judge, usually the Bishop of the Diocese ; this
was done because a part of the goods went by custom to the
* Suffolk Wills, Vol. II (1458-77), p. 289. t Chambers, s. v. Ecclesiastical Courts.