What
became of the “Visitation” Family?
John Sharrock, who was surely the provider of the
information for the 1620 Visitation of Cornwall, had three sons who all seem to
have moved away from Cornwall.
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John
Sharrock, born 1589, the eldest
son, largely disappears although he is mentioned in the 1640 will of his
youngest brother, Matthew. He had at least three daughters.
Robert
Sharrock, born 1596, the
“middle” son, went to Oxford University and then into the Chuch.
After University, his initial “livings” were centred on four
parishes in Buckinghamshire. He and his wife, Judith, had a large family most
of whom were baptised at Drayton Parslow.
There
were al least six sons and two daughters. Among the sons were Robert and Edmund who, both, went into
the Church, after Oxford University.
Robert is to be found in the Dictionary of National Biography and he
collaborated with Robert Boyle (of Boyle’s Law). He later, 1684, became
Archdeacon of Winchester creating a connection with Hampshire that lasted a
long time. So much so that a much later Robert Sharrock, born 1725, lived for
over fifty years in Gateley, Norfolk, and after dying in 1803, had his body
brought back to East Meon in Hampshire.
The
Church at Gateley has three very impressive memorials to the later Robert
Sharrock and his two wives.
There
was also a daughter, Christian, born 1625, who, in 1655, married William
Addington. They became the Great Grandparents of Henry Addington the 1st
Viscount Sidmouth. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to
1804.
Matthew Sharrock,
born circa 1605, the youngest son, went into trade and became a Vintner. He
married Phillipa Cossens from Truro and they had two sons, Matthew and Robert,
as well as two daughters, Elizabeth and Matilda, that survived to be mentioned
in their Father’s will. Three of their children were baptised at St.
Lawrence Jewry in London. Matthew died in 1640 and, possibly, the family
returned to Cornwall for in the 1660 Poll Tax for the Hundred of Kerrier are
listed Eliza and Matilda Sherrock.