Richard Keam (husband of Ann Harper)

research note by Wesley Johnston, begun 6 Apr 2014, last updated 6 Apr 2014

Problem Overview and Background

For many years, since posting the marriage (27 Feb 1782 at Luxulyan, Cornwall) and banns record images of Richard Keam and Ann Harper to my Gray-Gibson-Johnston-Butson tree on Ancestry.com on 31 Aug 2010, I have carried him as "Richard UNATTACHED Keam", since I could not figure out which Richard he was. I now have realized, based on the following evidence, that he was the son of the mason Thomas Keam and his wife Mary Prynn.

What was known about him from the marriage record

The marriage record image is at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11664-6154-8?cc=1769414&wc=M6NF-T3D:138123201,139846301,139874701

The marriage record identifies Richard Keam as a mason of the parish of St Mewan. A 1782 marriage places his birth about 1750 to 1764. The Cornwall Family History Society research database has these candidate baptisms for Richard:

1755 Jul 26 - St Austell - Richard & Elizabeth

1759 Jun 18 - Luxulyan - Thomas & Mary

1763 May 21 - St Columb Major - Robert & Grace

So none of them was baptized at St Mewan, which is closer to St Austell than to Luxulyan.

Ann Harper was baptized at Luxulyan 22 Jul 1759, so that there is a slight bit of weight in favor of the 1759 Richard. But that is far from sufficient to confirm that Richard as the one who married Ann.

On the other hand, the fact that Richard and Ann named their first son Richard weighs in favor of the 1755 Richard whose father was Richard. In fact, it was not until their fourth child that Richard and Ann named a son Thomas, so that this weights against the 1759 Richard. But this too is not conclusive.

I have not researched the St Austell Richard. The 1763 Richard married Patience Endean 4 Aug 1787 at St Columb Major, so that he can be eliminated from consideration. So it really comes down to the 1755 versus the 1759 Richard.

The St Mewan connection

Richard was definitely a mason from St Mewan, according to the marriage record. Unfortunately, the St Mewan records are mostly available only from indexes or transcriptions. FamilySearch has relatively few of the parish registers, and what they have includes some transcriptions and not original images. And, as noted above, even the indexes have no Richard Keam in the 1750's or 1760's baptisms.

The missing link turns out to be at http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Records/parishes/L-P/mewan_st_settlement_keam.php which is a page of the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks web site for St Mewan. It is a settlement record, showing that the parish of St. Mewan is officially accepting responsibility (in case of impoverishment) for the family of the mason Thomas and Mary Harper as of 6 Jan 1759. The record lists the entire family (underlind below) as of that date:

We The Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor of the parish of St Mewan in the said County of Cornwall, do hereby Certifye own and Acknowledge that Thomas Keam Mason, Mary his Wife Elizabeth his Daughter about seven years of age Mary his Daughter aged about five years Ann his Daughter aged about two years of age, are Inhabitants Legally Settled in our parish aforesaid In Witness whereof we have hereunto Set our hands and seals the sixth Day of January in the year of our Lord 1759

The only marriage in the CFHS DB that matches Thomas and Mary is the 20 Jun 1751 marriage at Lanivet of Thomas Keam and Mary Prynn. And I believe that this is the correct couple. The three daughters identified in the St Mewan record were all baptized at Luxulyan. And later in the same year, 1759, they baptized a son Richard at Luxulyan. And I believe that this is the Richard who later married Ann Harper.

Richard's family clearly had officially moved to St Mewan in 1759. But that did not prevent them from having their son baptized in the same church at Luxulyan where they had baptized their daughters. (I have not yet researched additional children after Richard, but it does appear that Thomas and Mary had more children and that they baptized them at Luxulyan, even though they were probably born at St. Mewan.)

And Richard's father is clearly identified in the 1759 record as a mason at St. Mewan, so that the Richard identified in the 1782 marriage record as a mason at St. Mewan was most likely the 1759 son of Thomas and Mary. And that is how I am carrying him in my tree. I am open to altering this if I see strong evidence for altering it. But the best interpretation of the available evidence is that the Richard Keam who married Ann Harper in 1782 was the son of Thomas Keam and Mary Prynn who was baptized 1759 at Luxulyan.