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The Ancestry of Francis Galton

35

John Braine, b. 24-/5/1684; Mary Braine (b. ?

), dau.

of John and Margaret Braine, late of Ratcliffe, Stepney, married 11/7/1707 John Mifrord of London.

The sons we -have not been able to trace further. It is noteworthy that Robert Barclay of Ury must have married Elizabeth Braine when his brother David was only 14 years of age, and accordingly it is unlikely that David was the link which brought Robert to seek a wife in commercial circles in East London. His father, the Apologist, made several visits to London, and was in touch with Friends in London ; one of these visits in April, 1683, was to place his son Robert at school in Theobalds, 12 miles from London; or the link with the Braines may have been through the latter's maternal grandfather, the merchant Mollison' of Aberdeen, who would probably have business connections with Wapping, then almost the port of London.

Another strenuous Quaker, was Jaspar Batt. He came originally from Street in Somersetshire, and must have beer! among the earliest converts to the doctrines of George Fox. As early as 1657 he had his goods seized, and in the same year he was fined for refusing to take an oath. In 1660 he was sent to prison ; in 1663 we find him in Ilchester gaol, from which he wrote a ' letter with Matthew Perin, who was his daughter Edith Batt's second husband. In 1667 Batt was imprisoned in Taunton Castle ; in 1678 others were fined for listening to his preaching. In 1683 he was arrested for preaching, and later in the same year he was again seized and put in prison. In a letter to George Fox, 1683, he describes how his " dear wife " and he lay on the boards of the floor because they cannot " with safety receive or keep any goods or bedding in our house," owing to repeated distraints. In 1684 he was again before the court ; in 1685 he was in trouble about tithes, and in 1686 we learn that he had already spent 2 years 4 months and 19 days in gaol for his conscience' sake. It might be supposed that Edith Batt's experience of her fathers difficulties might have prevented her selecting a mate of like stubbornness ! On the contrary she found in Robert Button a husband who had spent no less than eight years of his previous life (1664-1672) in gaol for conscience' sake'.

1 Gilbert Mollison was brother to the famous Colonel Mollison, who signalised himself in the defence of Candia besieged by the Turks.

Besse's Sufferings of the People called Quakers, Vol. ii, pp. 42-4. He was discharged from the county gaol for Wiltshire in 1672 with Walter Penn.

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