Rebecca Gregory Dyson ^{315,348,634,635}

  General Notes:

note: So far Rebecca Gregory Dyson has yet to be located on a census of 1851 or more recent. The last we see of her is at the 1846 execution of the will of Thomas Dyson. We are assuming (correctly or not?) that Rebecca may have been a daughter of Thomas Dyson by a previous marriage?. jca , 2006

The 1846 will of Thomas Dyson shows her as Rebecca G Dyson, which backs up the above hypothesis.
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NEW DATA: April 25, 2011

Hi again:
This is totally out of left field, but please have a look at another wild and crazy idea of mine -- and give me some advice on where I can go further to put either a yea or nay to it.
I have exhausted every avenue of records available looking for Rebecca Gregory Dyson , nor a record of a previous marriage for Thomas Dyson. We have three pieces of documentation for her so far:
1. The 1841 Census where she is listed as Rebecca Gregory, age 25 and is noted as "Independent Means"
Also notice that all the children listed on the original of this census have their last name recorded as Gregory.
2. She witnessed the Will of Thomas Dyson who died in 1846
3. We recently discovered that he died in India in 1885
So, I just entered "Rebecca Gregory" into ancestry, thinking that the people who are reading the original records often make mistakes interpreting these documents, using a birth year of 1815 +/- 2 yrs.
That brought up the following:
Rebecca Gregory - born 18 Nov 1814 and baptised 16 Dec 1814 St. Dunstan in the West, London
Parents are William Gregory and Winnifred Gregory
Address is Great Shire Lane
Occupation of Father: Law Stationer
Hmm. Thomas was a Solicitor so could there be a connection between William Gregory and Thomas?
Follow up to see if this family is listed in 1841. No. Looked at Death Records as next step.
No Death Registration for Rebecca Gregory
No Death Registration of Winnifred Gregory
One Death Registration for William Gregory, who died 3 March 1830 at age 47 @ St. Luke Old St. London
No Marriage Registration for Rebecca Gregory, however
One Registration for William Gregory, who married Winnifred Dennis on2 Jan 1814 @ St. Dunstan in the West, London.
Look for Birth Registration of William Gregory. Yes, there is a christening record dated 12 Dec 1784 at St. Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, Middlesex, for William Gregory, 22 days old, son of John Gregory, Occ: Shipwright, and wife Elizabeth Gregory. Hmmm. The Seabrooks were Shipwrights and their children were baptized at St. Dunstan and All Saints in Stepney.
I have often wondered: if Rebecca was Thomas Dyson's daughter, why would she have had "Independent Means" at 25 years of age? and where would she have gotten these means from? So now I'm wondereing if Rebecca was actually a relative or close friend on the Seabrook side and at the death of her parents, was perhaps informally adopted by Thomas and Elizabeth and she took on the Dyson name?
Maureen Lussier.
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May 1, 2011
Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 15:51:44 -0700
From: maureenlussier1@yahoo.com
Subject: Rebecca Gregory
To: dodhill@hotmail.com
CC: jimander@shaw.ca; odoherty@telus.net; DHutch27@shaw.ca

Hi again:
Glad you had such a great trip to Sicily, Alan. I am envious because since coming home from Arizona sunshine, we have had colder temperatures than normal and very little sun! Not what I call fun at all.
Anyhow, thank you so much for downloading the Will of William Gregory. Question: do you just add whatever Will you would like a copy of (at 3 pounds 50) to the shopping cart from the UK National Archives website? and once you have committed your credit card does a copy come automatically into your compter? I have a couple of John Fullerton Wills that I am most interested in seeing.
Florence has become a real fan of "findmypast" and has been able to see copies of originals at her local LDS, so when I sent off my "could this be Rebecca Gregory from 1841 census with the Dyson family etc" e-mail, she found a Mrs. Winnifred Gregory, b. 1793 (in findmypast) who died in 1824. With your information re the wife named Elizabeth in William's Will, I looked for any post 1824 marriage to Elizabeth and found a William Gregory who married an Elizabeth Armitage 31 aug 1826 @St. Andrews, Holborn, Middlesex (LDS #M008924).
Also found a William Gregory age 25 in 1841 Census living in Chelsea with Caroline, age 23, and one Augustus Ruffine, age 29, occ; Barrister. William's occ: looks like "attorn clerk", but I thought the word attorney associated with lawyers was more of an American term. Nevertheless, again Florence, lately getting to be a super sleuth on the computer, found William, born 1816, son of William and Winnifred Gregory.
I think with all this info, we have managed to capture the family and relationships of one Rebecca Gregory; however, it all comes down to whether we can collectively get our heads around the real question, and that of course is, is this the person who was living with Thomas and Elizabeth Dyson and subsequently used the Dyson name?
Cheers to you all, Maureen

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May 2, 2011
Great work - what a team!
Yes the National Archives website is very easy to use for wills apart from having to pay £3.50 a will. You enter your card details and get an immediate response with a key to download the will or you can do so later.
As to 'attorney', the term was widely used in this country before the 20th century when the terms solicitor and barrister became more common, so I think there is no doubt about young William's occupation.

I don't think there can be very little doubt that we have found the family of 'our' Rebecca - the question is why she should have taken the name Dyson. One might have expected her to live with her widowed mother until she married but perhaps they did not get on. She appears to have had ample means but at that time a young lady would not have been expected to live on her own so perhaps the Dysons were family friends who offered her a home in return for some help with the children. Perhaps she fell out with her brother too and decided to distance herself from him by adopting the name Dyson - we shall probably never know.
All the best, Alan Hughes

  Research Notes:

As of 2007 there are two persons of the name Rebecca Gregory listed on the London Burial index as published by findmypast.com. One was listed as burial in Bunhill Fields in 1815 at age 39 address of Stewart Street and the other burial was in Spa Fields Burila Ground on 27 July 1842 at age 2 months+ of address St. Pancras.
So neither of these two burials are candidates as our Rebecca Gregory shows up on the 1841 census with the family of Thomas Dyson in Calthorp St. and again in 1846 on the will of Thomas Dyson.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Residence: 14 Calthorpe Street, 1841, London, England. ³¹⁵

• Residence: 14 Calthorpe Street, 1846, London, England. ³⁴⁸

• Occupation: Governess, 1865, India. ⁶³⁴