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

6 Foreword
lieved would lead to definite knowledge, and at our request he
made a visit to the old Churches of St. Michael at Ramsey, and St.
Mary at Great Bentley, Essex. At last our hopes were realized ;
on the Registers of the latter Parish he found the long sought
Records which he personally transcribed. By his thoughtfulness I
also obtained photographic views of the " Green " and the ancient
Church of St. Mary, at Great Bentley. Returning to London, he
was furnished by Mr. Henry F. Waters, who has done so much for
New England Genealogy, with brief abstracts of two Wills of the
English Marvins, clearly connected with our ancestral line ; with
these hints, a search at Somerset House, London, and among the
Suffolk Wills recorded at Ipswich, brought many others to light,
which I have since had copied from the originals, and have printed
them in this volume, usually in full, and always exactly following
the quaint old spelling.
I have thought this story of the way in which Mr. Appleton's
clue led to such satisfactory results would not be without interest,
and have therefore given it at some length ; the official sources
from which this record is made establish the line to the family of
the great-grandfather of the emigrants and the English homes
beyond question ; with a fair degree of probability they show us
their kindred, and perhaps the direct line, two generations earlier.
It will also be seen that we have been able to give by means of
one of the Wills the exact location of the homestead and lands of
the father of Reinold and Matthew.
It seemed to me that the descendants of those settlers at Hart-
ford who chanced to read these pages would be interested to know
something of the old homes of their forefathers, the " Green
where they played, the Churches where they worshipped, and the
priests who ministered to them ; I have therefore gleaned from
various sources such descriptions as were attainable, reference to
which will be found in the Notes. The reproductions of the photo-
graphs are now for the first time printed. The two maps have
"