Allen line: Daniel Scofield's ancestry, revisited

In September of 2014, I wrote a post about Daniel Scofield that was mostly wrong.  When I write my blog posts, for the most part I am depending on what other people have "learned" about an ancestor, and I try to filter out the most obviously incorrect information as I write.  On this ancestor, I have to admit I had very little to back me up.

Sometime between the time I wrote the original post and now, further research showed me that Daniel's wife was probably not Sarah Youngs, or at least not the Sarah Youngs I thought she was.  So I have removed her purported ancestors from my tree (which, as I recall, when all the way back to the Plantagenets) and am still searching for documentation as to who she was.

I also had correspondence from Louis Ogden, who is a very wise and generous person, telling me that my parentage for Daniel was incorrect, and giving not only logical reasons but some additional information that should have pointed me in the right direction. That meant I had to delete that scalawag Cuthbert Scofield from the tree, and a few other folks.  I should have taken Mr. Ogden's clues and run with them, but I didn't.  My first goal is to get my immigrants back across the ocean, to whatever country they came from.  If I live long enough to complete my research here, then I'd love to do actual research in England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, the Low Countries, Germany, etc., but I have my hands full on this side of the Atlantic.

Except...Mr. Odgen was kind enough to contact me again, with additional information showing that Daniel Scofield's parents were Richard Scofield and Effame Northend.  He gave me additional generations back on Effame's line but since he is the one who has done the research on this I think he should be the one to choose whether or not to provide that information.  More than names, he also provided location, (Hipperholme, Yorkshire for Richard) and that is where I've had some fun.

Simply by googling some of the names and locations he provided, I was able to pull up some of the names, including a potential father for Richard Scofield, in volume 15 of the Thoresby Society's Publications.  This one is titled as a "Miscellanea" and it is truly a treasure.  Yesterday I actually put my hands on a copy of this, in the Allen County Public Library, and was able to sit there and try to make sense of a list of Lay Subsidies from the Waptentake of Agbrigg and Morley, in Yorkshire, for the year 1588.  There is an explanation in Latin (I think) which I couldn't make much of, except that this is a list of taxes levied on certain people (property owners of some kind, I think) to support Queen Elizabeth I.  Of course the significance of the year 1588 is that these taxes were to raise defenses for the expected invasion from Spain or, as it happened, to prevent the invasion from occurring. 1588 was the year of the battle with the Spanish Armada. I was absolutely fascinated.

There is much I don't know about the "lay subsidy" in general and this list in particular.  There are two columns after each name.  I'm guessing one is the value that the land or personal property was assessed at, and one is the amount of taxes that were due, but I don't know how to interpret either list.

I found some of the names Mr. Ogden had provided me, and also found the man I think may be Richard's father, and I was hooked.  I looked through some of the other volumes of the Thoresby Society and they are the coolest thing ever, if you have ancestors in Yorkshire, especially in or near Leeds.  I will be spending many more happy hours with these books, because I found Longbottoms there, and my last Longbottom ancestor with a location was in Yorkshire.  Also I found Crowders there, and I have had no clue at all as to where to look for them.  (My first known Crowdas is in Virginia in about 1675, but I've had no clue as to where to look for them. Yorkshire seems to be a potential location.)  There are even Lockwoods, and I have a possible Lockwood in my tree, also!  So many names, so little time!

 Many of the Thoresby Society publications m are available on line, as this one is, but there is something about having the actual book at hand when it is possible to do so, that appeals to me.  I was holding a book that was published over 100 years ago, and was still in excellent condition.  A further fun day will be spent looking at volume 11, which has the same kinds of lists, only from the year 1545, when King Henry VIII apparently needed money.

So, thanks to Mr. Louis Ogden for providing the information to give Daniel his rightful parents.  I'd love now to hear from someone who has some knowledge about these records and what they mean or say.  And I certainly plan to spend at least some time researching "back across the pond" since it seems to be so much fun!

The corrected line of descent would be

Richard Scofield-Effame Northend
Daniel Scofield-Sarah possibly Youngs
Daniel Scofield-Abigail Merwin
Daniel Scofield-Hannah Hoyt
Hannah Scofield-Nathaniel Finch
Jesse Finch-Hannah
Hannah Finch-John Bell
Hannah Bell-Thomas J Knott
John W Knott- Harriet C Starr
Edith C Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants