Written by Ian Davis. Last updated 25 March 2026.

This question concerns William Tew (?–1812).

Links

• Ancestry: William Tew
• FamilySearch: William Tew (note: contains many obvious errors)

Related question: What was the maiden name of Corbett Tew’s wife Sarah (?-1789)?

Background

William Tew married Ann Hinson at Shalstone in 1786 and died in 1812. No baptismal record for him has been found. A birth range of roughly 1750 to 1768 can be inferred from the marriage, with a date toward the earlier end more consistent with the ages of his children.

The question is whether he was the son of Corbett Tew (died 1794) and his wife Sarah (thought to be called Sarah Allen). Corbett and Sarah’s known Shalstone baptisms are Corbett (1755) (known as Corby), Mary (1757), Ann (1765), and Thomas (1769).

No marriage record for Corbett and Sarah has been found; they had presumably settled in Shalstone before 1755, having married elsewhere. If William was their eldest child, he would have been born before the move.

Discussion

No record directly names Corbett and Sarah as William’s parents. The case rests on circumstantial evidence: William is the only adult Tew of his generation present in Shalstone who is not accounted for among their known children; his children’s names (Corbet, Anne, Sarah, Thomas) fit the grandparental naming pattern for both sides of the family; and the 1798 Posse Comitatus lists him in Shalstone alongside Corbey (Corbet’s known son) and what appear to be other members of the same family.

Naming of William’s children

William’s children’s names fit the grandparental naming pattern for both sides of the family: his first son Corbett (father’s father), his first daughter Anne (mother’s mother, Ann King), his second daughter Sarah (father’s mother), and his second son Thomas (mother’s father, Thomas Hinson). The pattern is consistent with William being Corbett and Sarah’s son, though it does not prove it.

Ancestry trees and erroneous dates

The connection to Corbett and Sarah is asserted on many Ancestry trees, but we haven’t been able to verify the documentary basis for any of them. Several trees give specific dates, none of which we have found in the original registers: a William Tew baptism in 1753 or 1756, a Sarah Allen baptism in 1731, a Corbett Tew baptism in 1717 or 1729, and a Corbett and Sarah Allen marriage in 1752. A search of the microfilmed Shalstone registers at Buckinghamshire Archives found none of these entries.

The Hobbs family tree

The Hobbs Family Tree¹ is a tree on Ancestry managed by an account named “yvonne5159”. That Ancestry account’s trees are private, but the same user manages a tree for Stuart Hobbs (died 2021), who is a DNA match for a known descendent of William Tew.

The Hobbs tree is well sourced through the Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire Tews as far as Charles Tew, baptised 3 Oct 1774 at Stoke Bruerne², son of Thomas Tew and Mary Ann Abbey (married 16 Apr 1772, Stoke Bruerne). Above Thomas, the tree breaks down: it gives his father as Thomas Tew (born 1727 Northamptonshire, died 1776 Stoke Bruerne), son of Corbett Tew (born 1727 Northamptonshire, died 1794 Shalstone). The identical birth years for father and son are an obvious error, and having Corbett father a son around 1727 is irreconcilable with his known Shalstone family. The connection to our Corbett appears to be a conflation of two different men.

The Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus of 1798

This was a military census of able-bodied men taken during the invasion fears of the French Revolutionary Wars. It lists four Tews (spelled “Tue”) in Shalstone: John Tue and Thomas Tue, servants, and Corbey Tue and William Tue, labourers. Corbey is the Corbett baptised in 1755, son of the elder Corbett Tew who had died in 1794. John was Corbey’s eldest son, about nineteen at the time. William is presumably our William Tew, and Thomas is probably another of the elder Corbet’s sons.

The Eydon Connection

Barry’s original research connected the Tews to the parish of Eydon in Northamptonshire. He placed Thomas Tew, Corbett’s purported father, as being born in Eydon. See the diary entry of 11 Apr 2023 for our attempt to confirm this research.

We also found that the marriage licence of Corby Tew’s marriage to Joyce Pennil involved a bondsman William Cave of Eydon. (See diary entry of 16 Apr 2023). We later speculated that he was a guardian to Joyce, perhaps due to her being orphaned. The link with Eydon is suggestive of another connection between the Tews and that parish.

DNA evidence

We have confirmed 13 DNA matches who are direct descendants of William Tew. Two further matches are suggestive of descent from Corbett Tew, which would support the hypothesis that William was Corbett’s son, but neither connection has yet been established directly.

VARU ³ matches Linda, a known descendant of William Tew, at 8cM, consistent with a 4th cousin relationship. Ancestry suggests the connection runs via Corbett Tew’s son John Tew (1762). We traced VARU’s maternal line through Valentine Holman ⁴ to a group of Tews in Gawcott, Buckinghamshire, as follows:

• Valentine Holman (b. 1892, Potterspury, Northamptonshire), married Lilian Adams (b. 1895, Northamptonshire)
• Amy Alice Coxhill (b. 1865, Preston Bissett), married Frederick Holman (b. 1857)
• Louisa Tew (b. 1841, Gawcott), married James Coxhill (b. 1839)
• William Tew (b. 1792, Gawcott), married Mary Marcham (b. 1796)
• John Tew (b. c. 1762, inferred from age 66 at death in 1828, Gawcott), married Ann Heydon

John Tew married Ann Heydon on 20 Oct 1789 at Fringford, Oxfordshire, recorded as being of the parish of Barton, which is Chetwode with Barton Hartshorn, just west of Gawcott and Preston Bissett. Gawcott was part of the parish of Buckingham St Peter and St Paul until 1806. The only Tew baptisms in Buckingham before 1800 are all children of John and Ann: Ann (1790), William (1792), George (1793), Eliza (1797), and John (1800). Tew marriages in Buckingham before 1800 include a John Tew of Maids Moreton in 1728 and a Gabriel Tue of Pounden in 1735, but no obvious baptism for a John Tew born around 1762. VARU’s paternal line is firmly rooted in Maryland, USA from the 18th century onward and is not relevant here.

There is a conspicuous gap in Corbett’s known Shalstone children between Mary (1757) and Ann (1765), within which a John born around 1762 would fall. If John Tew of Gawcott was Corbett’s son, VARU would be a 5th cousin once removed of Linda. The DNA match is consistent with this but falls within a range where the relationship could be more distant or coincidental.

MB01 ⁵ matches Linda at 9cM and may be descended from Corbett’s son Thomas, who may appear in the 1851 census at Hatfield, Hertfordshire ⁶. The putative line runs through a daughter Mary Ann Tew (b. 1809, Northam) who married a Thomas Heath. We have not yet been able to trace MB01’s full ancestry to confirm or refute this connection.

Research Approaches Carried Out

• Buckinghamshire parish register indexes at FindMyPast: no baptism for William, no marriage for Corbett and Sarah
• Microfilmed Shalstone registers at Buckinghamshire Archives: none of the dates cited in online trees found
• Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus 1798: William listed alongside Corbey and other Shalstone Tews
• Hobbs family tree investigated: Stoke Bruerne connection to Corbett Tew of Shalstone appears erroneous
• Candidate William Tew and William Tue baptisms compiled and reviewed across a broad area; several eliminated, others pending
• DNA matches reviewed: 13 confirmed descendants of William Tew identified; 2 further matches (VARU and MB01) suggestive of descent from Corbett Tew senior, connections not yet fully established

Parishes Checked for William’s Baptism

Searching for a baptism in the period 1730 to 1768. Buckinghamshire registers are not digitised and must be consulted on microfilm at Buckinghamshire Archives. Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire registers are digitised and available online.

(TODO: complete this section)

Buckinghamshire

• Shalstone - original registers examined
• Turweston
• Biddleston
• Westbury- original registers examined
• Water Stratford
• Stowe
• Lillingstone Dayrell
• Akeley
• Maids Moreton
• Radclive
• Tingewicke

Oxfordshire

• Finmere
• Mixbury
• Newton Purcell
• Cottisford

Northamptonshire

• Brackley St Peter
• Brackley St James
• Evenley
• Hinton in the Hedges
• Whitfield
• Paulerspury - original registers viewed via Ancestry
• Plumpton - original registers viewed via Ancestry
• Radstone
• Syresham
• Wappenham
• Luffield Abbey
• Whittlebury - original registers viewed via Ancestry

Hypothesis 1: William Tew was the eldest son of Corbett Tew (?–1794) and his wife Sarah

Evidence in favour

• Only adult Tew of his generation in Shalstone unaccounted for among Corbett and Sarah’s known children
• Children’s names fit the grandparental naming pattern for both the Tew/Allen and Hinson/King lines
• 1798 Posse Comitatus places him alongside Corbet’s known descendants in Shalstone
• Connection asserted on numerous independent family trees
• Suggestive evidence from DNA

Evidence against

• No baptismal record found for William
• No marriage record found for Corbett and Sarah
• Online tree dates are unverified and absent from original registers, undermining confidence in those trees generally
• Naming pattern is consistent with but does not prove the connection

Hypothesis 2: William Tew was the child of a different Tew family

We carried out a wide search for any William Tew or William Tue baptised in the region during the period 1750 to 1768. The candidates found are listed below.

Evidence in favour

• No local baptism found; origins may lie elsewhere
• Online tree attributions to Corbett and Sarah are unverified
• Tew and Tue families existed across Buckinghamshire and neighbouring counties in this period

Evidence against

• Strong circumstantial case for the Shalstone connection
• No candidate baptism traced convincingly forward to Shalstone
• Unexplained migration into the same small community as Corbett’s known children

Possible research avenues

• Search other parishes for Corbett and Sarah’s marriage: William may have been baptised in the same place
• Check the Shalstone register for gaps in the relevant period: a gap around 1750–1755 could account for the missing baptism and marriage
• Trace the remaining uneliminated candidates forward to determine whether any are consistent with a move to Shalstone
• Search the Potterspury registers and related Northamptonshire sources to establish the true origins of the Stoke Bruerne Tew family and test whether they have any genuine connection to Corbett of Shalstone
• Trace the origins of John Tew of Gawcott (b. c. 1762) to establish whether he was a son of Corbett Tew
• Search for a will or probate record for Corbett Tew (died 1794): any mention of a son William would confirm the connection
• Trace MB01’s ancestry back through Mary Ann Tew (b. 1809, Northam) and her husband Thomas Heath to establish whether the line connects to Corbett’s son Thomas: identify Thomas Tew in the 1851 Hatfield census and work backward to confirm his parentage