Benjamin Austen

1591 - Bef 1638  (~ 47 years)

• Name	Benjamin Austen
  Christening	16 May 1591	Horsmonden, Kent, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	Bef 27 Aug 1638	Horsmonden, Kent, England
  Person ID	I4926	Petersen-de Lanskoy
  Last Modified	27 May 2021

  
  

  Father	John Austen,   c. 26 Apr 1560, Goudhurst, Kent, England bur. 5/05 Mar 1620/1, Horsmonden, Kent, England (Age ~ 60 years)
  Mother	Joane Berry,   b. 14 Feb 1565, Midley, Kent, England d. 9 Dec 1604, Horsmonden, Kent, England (Age 39 years)
  Marriage	14 Sep 1584	Lydd, Kent, England
  Family ID	F2219	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Marjorie Chepfield   bur. 27 Aug 1638, Horsmonden, Kent, England
  Marriage	5 May 1617	Horsmonden, Kent, England
  Children	1. John Austen,   c. 19/19 Mar 1617/8, Horsmonden, Kent, England   2. John Austen,   c. 25 Mar 1620, Horsmonden, Kent, England bur. 13 May 1689, Brenchley, Kent, England (Age ~ 69 years)   3. Mary Austen,   c. 1/01 Feb 1627/8, Horsmonden, Kent, England
  Family ID	F2214	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	28 May 2021

  
  

• Notes

  RESEARCH_NOTES: 1. CAUTION: John Austin is most probably the son of Benjamin Austin of Horsmonden. Which Benjamin is a bit complicated. There are at least two if not three Benjamin Austins in Hormonsden that overlap. There are no wills to help sort out family relationships. Here is my analysis: The earliest Benjamin (#1) is found in a marriage to Elizabeth Bysshope (Bishop) on 11 Oct 1596 in Horsmonden and is most likely the one chr. 21 Mar 1572 to Roberte Austin in Horsmonden. From this marriage there are at least six children chr. or buried in Horsmonden up to the time when Benjamin's wife Elizabeth dies and is buried 20 Apr 1614 in Horsmonden. At this point things get a bit more complicated. There are two marriages occuring soon after Elizabeth's death in 1614 where the groom is Benjamin Austin. The first is to Jone Stringer 24 Oct 1614 in nearby Brenchley; Jone was chr. in Brenchley 4 Apr 1585 in Brenchley. The second is to Margerie Chepfield 5 May 1617 in Horsmonden whose chr. is undetermined but her burial is recorded 27 Aug 1638 in Horsmonden as "Margery Austen wid." We also have a second Benjamin (#2) entering the picture who is chr. 16 May 1591 in Horsmonden to John Austin. Also there is a possibly a third Benjamin (#3) who is buried 21 Jul 1614 in Horsmonden; there is no other Benjamin chr. in Horsemonden unless this one predates the commencement of the parish register and is older than Benj. #1 and #2. Now our John Austin enters the picture; however, there are three of them that show up in quick succession in Horsmonden all with a father name Benjamin Austin with no mother noted. Their christening dates are 22 Oct 1615, 19 Mar 1617/18, and 25 Mar 1620. There are no John Austens shown in the burial record in this period except for one who is buried 5 Mar 1620/1 and named as "John Austen Sen." which would make him too old to be one of these three young Johns especially since the children are normally noted as being the son of someone in the parish record. It would have been helpful to find each sequential John succeeding another John who had just died. The parish register may be deficient in record keeping, but from my review it seems relatively thorough. There is no easy resolution. My inclination is that Benj. #1 remarried to Jone Stringer in 1614 since the marriage is within six months of Benj.'s first wife's death. Also she is six years older then Benj. #2 which makes a marriage to Benj. #2 less likely. Since there is no immediate death shown for Jone, I assume she lived longer than 1617. That would leave Benj. #2 marrying Margerie in 1617. Benj. #3 is still unaccounted for and for now I assume he is not one of the other two Benjamins. This leaves us with the problem of the three Johns. The first one chr. in 1615 would most likely belong to Benj. #1 and Jone his second wife. The last one chr. 1620 would most likely belong the Benj. 2 and Margerie. The middle John chr. 1618 could work in either of the two marriages timewise -- so he is a flip of the coin. If he goes with Jone, then that means the first John must have died even though there is no burial record to support that conclusion. Likewise, if the middle John is the first John born to Margerie, then he died within two years of birth which again is not supported by a burial record. I am more inclined to go with the second scenario because if not then it would mean that Marjorie went three years after marriage before having a first child, which was not the norm. There is one more question that needs to be considered. Which of the two Johns is our John -- Jone's son chr. 1615 or Margerie's chr. 1620? We know that our John married in Jane James in 1647 and that she was chr. in 1623. This again is not certain, but I favor the 1620 James. As one can tell, I have made many assumptions and there are other ways to constitute the above data -- maybe future research may more fully resolve this question.