My ancestor Samuel Hodges of Pluckley & Egerton, Kent was incredibly interesting. His 1776 Will indicated his son ‘Thomas’ had been missing for some time. In the spirit of fairness, Samuel directed that the &300.00 bequeathed to Thomas would be held in trust by ‘John Hope’. It really struck me that John Hope was most likely a relative of Samuel. By digging deeper into this, it turned out Samuel’s wife ‘Mary’ was also a ‘Hope’ and not ‘Holmes’ as their 1730 marriage suggested. The entry of Mary ‘Holmes’ might have been a clerics error or was Samuel hiding the fact he was 12 years older than his bride and also her cousin? (Samuel Hodges will be featured in more blogs going forward).
