5 Feb 2026

Sometimes you discover evidence that makes you re-evaluate your interpretation of the past. Today was one of those days.

As I mentioned last time I’ve been cataloguing the images of Suffolk parish registers, adding citations to the appropriate events in Gramps. Today I was tackling the parish of Spexhall. This is where I believed my ancestor Robert Martin baptised several of his children with his first wife Mary Fisher (not my ancestor).

He married Mary Fisher on 26 May 1785 in Cratfield, a parish just a couple of miles away from Spexhall. He was a singleman, she a spinster. Their first child, conveniently named Mary Fisher Martin, was baptised there on 8 Dec 1785.

The family then appear to have moved to Spexhall. Their first child baptised there was Robert Francis Martin on 3 Jan 1787. The baptism entry reads “Robert Francis son of Robert and Mary his wife (late Mary Fisher Spinster) an infant” leaving no doubt that this is Robert Martin and Mary Fisher. They proceed to baptise a further four children until Mary dies in 1793. Her burial entry reads “Mary wife of Robert Martin of this parish aged 32 years”.

Now, this is where I previously believed that Robert married my ancestor Ann Chatten. I have them marrying five year later on 28 May 1798 back in the parish of Cratfield, he a widower, she a singlewoman. They went on to have seven children, all baptised in Cratfield, including my great-great-great grandmother Mary Ann Martin.

This was all neat and I was very happy with the sequence of events… Robert met Mary in Cratfield, they moved to Spexhall where Mary died, then he moved back to Cratfield to marry Ann.

The fly in the ointment came today when I noticed the appearance of some baptisms in Spexhall of the children of Robert Martin and his wife Jane, late Reynolds. This includes the curiously named Meyter Reynolds Martin in 1801 and George Martin in 1805. There was also the burial of their son, Robert George Martin in 1803 and a burial of Francis Martin on 2 Jan 1803 whose entry reads “Francis son of Robt Martin and Mary (his late) wife”. This was probably Robert Francis, the son of Robert and Mary Fisher, who had been baptised in 1797.

I wasn’t sure whether this was a different Robert Martin or not. The burial of Francis in Spexhall while my Robert was baptising children in Cratfield (including one, John, on 24 Jan 1803 just three weeks later) suggests that this is the same Robert who married Mary Fisher. But perhaps it really is a different Robert who happened to move to Spexhall with his wife.

I looked for the marriage between Robert and Jane Reynolds and found it in Lakenham, near Norwich on 27 Nov 1800:

Here Robert is described as a widower of Spexhall!

So I have two Robert Martins, both widowers, marrying after the death of Mary Fisher.

Luckily, I now have the images from the parish registers of Suffolk so I can look at the actual marriage to Mary Fisher in Cratfield:

And I can compare it with the marriage to my ancestor, Ann Chatten, also in Cratfield:

The first thing I noticed is that in the first marriage, to Mary Fisher, and the marriage to Jane Reynolds, Robert could sign his name. The Robert who married Ann Chatten could not sign. So this is pretty conclusive evidence that my previous interpretation of the records was wrong.

So, instead, the interpretation has to be:

1. A Robert Martin married Mary Fisher in Cratfield, they moved to Spexhall to have children, where Mary died, then he married Jane Reynolds in Lakenham, returned to Spexhall and continued to have children.
2. My ancestor Robert Martin married an unknown woman, then married Ann Chatten in Cratfield, going on to have seven children with her.

It means my tree is sadly less rich, but more accurate. I will also have to review the baptism I have for Robert (12 Mar 1760 in the parish of Redenhall with Harleston just over the border in Norfolk) to determine which Robert it belongs to.

One final thing to note is that I have a DNA match of my aunt’s connected to Robert and Mary Fisher. The match is only 8cM and they would be my aunt’s half 4th cousin 2x removed. Almost certainly now this person is related via another Suffolk connection.

Interestingly I have six DNA matches traced back to Robert and Ann Chatten, but only this one to Robert and Mary Fisher. I do recall thinking this was a little unusual, but put it down to the children or grandchildren of that marriage dying out. Now I have a better explanation.