Early Life
Thomas Gunton was born c. 1580
1; the names of his parents are not clear. It seems likely
2 to me that Thomas had a sister named Bennett (d. ~1655) who married John Lord (d. 1655), and a brother William (d. 1659) who married Margaret ___.
Career
According to his will, Thomas was a saymaker, a common occupation in
Sudbury.
Family Life
Thomas married at least once, to
Anne ___ (possibly Lord or Allen)3,5. Unfortunately there are no extant marriage records to prove this marriage. They likely married around 1600-1605
1.
Thomas had the following children
3,4:
- Thomas, eldest son, who married Anne Gunton, probably a cousin
- William
- Anne, possibly married Robert Gardiner but was widowed by 1653
- Elizabeth, married to Thomas Martin
- Mary, married to John Blower
Death
Thomas died probably in 1648 (his will, dated 16 March 1643) was proved on the 10
th of December 1648).
Footnotes
[2] Discovery has wills for a William Gunton, saymaker, of Sudbury who died 1659 and another William Gunton who died in 1671. The latter had a daughter Francis (though she is un-named in his will) who married John Parish in 1653. The will for Bennet Lord (nee Gunton), dated Sept. 1653, mentions 'Francis Gunton, daughter of my cousin William Gunton'. The will of John Lord, who married Bennet Gunton, mentions a 'William Gunton the elder'. I think that Thomas, Bennet and William were all siblings; Thomas and William became saymakers and Bennet married John Lord. William (who died in 1659) had a namesake son William (who died in 1671). Thus Francis Gunton would have been the child of Bennet's nephew William junior, son of William the elder.
[1] We know that Thomas' daughter
Mary married John Blower in 1633, meaning she would have been born around 1610, which in turn implies that
Thomas Gunton was born around 1580.
[3] In her will, Anne refers to "my sister' Ann Allen and 'my brother' William Allen. One option is her maternal surname was Allen, and William was her brother and Ann her sister-in-law. Alternatively, Ann was her sister and married a William Allen. This latter option would imply that there were two girls called 'Anne' in the same family, which seems unlikely, unless they had different parents.
[4] Per his will, dated 1643, Thomas had the following children who were alive at that date:
- Thomas, eldest son, who married Anne Gunton, probably a cousin
- William
- Anne
- Elizabeth, married to Thomas Martin
- ___, married to John Blower
The will of Thomas's wife Anne (dated 1653) mentions the following children:
- William
- Anne, widow
- Elizabeth, married to Thomas Martyn
- Mary, wife of John Blower
- ___, wife of William Burton
The fact that Anne does not mention sons Thomas or William could suggest that they were Thomas senior's children by a previous marriage. Though it might just be that because they were sons, they had already inherited from their father and so Anne was only concerned with her daughters.
[5] The will of
John Lord of Sudbury, written in 1640, suggests that Thomas Gunton had married John Lord's sister (name unknown). Specifically, the will implies that Thomas, William, Anne and Elizabeth were all children of his sister. It appears that John Lord himself married Bennett Gunton; her
own will (dated 26 Sept 1653) mentions "Francis Gunton daughter of my cousin William" - here she is perhaps referring to her nephew William, son of Thomas as listed in Family Life above. Bennett would have been related to William by marriage (her sister-in-law Anne would have been William's mother) but may also have been related by blood if, for instance, she (Bennett) was the sister of Thomas Gunton of this page.
Abt 1580 - Abt 1648 (~ 68 years)
