Genealogical Oddities (III) - Yorkshire Lad in Cádiz: the Spanish marriage of a recusant baronet's son

Gascoigne of Parlington Hall

The records of the Spanish city of Cádiz are a veritable treasure trove for a wide-ranging swathe of genealogists. The city's pre-eminent commercial position in the 18th century attracted individuals from all over Europe, and the records left by its vibrant population of Irish 'Wild Geese' are well known to - and treasured by - researchers with an interest in Hibernian families.

This is far from being the extent of the non-Spanish gems in Cádiz records. Recently while examining records of Cádiz' cathedral I stumbled across a good example.

The marriage register for 1722-1729 bears on Page 219 an entry for the marriage, on 24 September 1727, of 'Don Juan Gascoygne' of 'Parlinton, Obispado Eboracense', son of John Gascoigne and María Widdrington; to 'Doña Margarita Patricia Ana María Ley', a native of Cádiz, daughter of Lorenzo Ley and Catalina Warnes. The witnesses were Fray Francisco Ley, of the Barefoot Franciscans, and Don Lorenzo Carew.

The connexions of both 'Lorenzos' - Lawrence Ley and Lawrence Carew (of the Waterford Carews) - have already been extensively analysed and written up in Spanish publications; but until now this link to the recusant Gascoignes of Parlington Hall had, I believe, escaped notice. This couple is mentioned in the published version of Dugdale's visitation of Yorkshire (Vol. III, P. 102) in which the bride's name is rendered as 'Anna Leigh' with no particulars of her origin or eventual fate.

Assorted publications state that John Gascoigne died in June 1729 without issue, but as no source is given for this information, nor is the place of death recorded, it would perhaps be as well to double-check this at some future date. His widow, Margarita Patricia Ley, remarried in 1730 and had at least one child by her second husband: Francisco de Paula VanHalen Ley.

SOURCES: Records of the Sagrario chapel, Cathedral of Cádiz - J.W. Clay, Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire, With Additions (1917) - Index to wills, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cádiz - Fréderique Morand, Doña María Gertrudis Hore (1742-1801), vivencia de una poetisa gaditana entre el siglo y la clausura (2003)