We've always believed that Henry's Great Great Great Great Grandfather was a Jacobite rebel, who dropped out of the rebel army on the retreat from Derby (see post of 3rd October 2007 for the full story). In a family full of farmers it provided a bit of an edge. Maybe we just wanted to believe it so we could celebrate Burns Night in style. But as with most things in life, the truth is not so romantic. I've just been given proof that his origins were much more prosaic. He was the illegitimate son of a stone masons daughter from Brungill Moor. We may have lost the link to the mists of Scotland, but can now go back a few more generations to Henry's Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather William Fletcher who was married in Slaidburn in 1631. Of course it's not the irrefutable proof that would satisfy a died-in-the-wool genealogist, but enough to put on the Strickley Tree.
(Many thanks to Sheard Sumner who like me married into the Fletcher family)
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