Thomas Doolittle
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Abt 1525 - of Aggborough, Worcestershire, England
Christening:
Death: 1579 - Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England
Burial:
Cause of Death:
AFN #:
Parents
Father: John Doolittle (Abt 1495-1542)
Mother: Alice ( -1560)
Spouses and Children
1. *Joan Hyll ( - Feb 1597-Feb 1598)
Marriage: 17 Oct 1549 - prob Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England
Status:
Children:
1. Thomas Doolittle (1550-1597)
2. Anne Doolittle (1553- )
3. Joan Doolittle ( - )
4. Margaret Doolittle ( - )
5. Richard Doolittle (1559-1560)
6. Alice Doolittle (1561- )
7. Edward Doolittle (1566-1604)
8. William Doolittle (1568-1594)
Notes
General:
Van Kempen lists 8 children for him. She includes Joan and Margaret who married men named Clymer. Sam Behling, whose report at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sam/doolittle.html, is apparently based on Gillian Dollittle's book, includes two more; Agnes and Maryann who married John Lyptrett. Dollittle says this is who they married but doesn't explain how she arrived at it, and it looks like high speculation.
Date of death from Conways of Ireland web site,and from Wiedrick Family Tree database (wiedrick) at Rootsweb Worldconnect.
There is both a record of his marriage, and the will of Joan Hyll's father, in which he willed her his best feather bed, the best cover, and all that belonged to the bed. Dollittle includes a sketch of a large curtained bed - the will implies that more than just the covers went with this bed, though possibly he meant the pillows, the sheets, and the chamber pot. She believes they lived in a slmall hall type farmhouse with one room and a loft.
Thomas Doolittle did not leave a will, but his inventory included a board table, a form, two chairs, pots, cauldrons, kettles, pewter, candlesticks, pails, and a grate. Dollittle thinks that the board table would have been used on one side to prepare food, and turned over to serve meals on; I can't vouch for the accuracy of this. The fireplace grate clearly meant that, consistently with the concept of a formal feather bed, their house had a fireplace in the wall instead of the old fashioned central fire pit. We do not know however just how simple this house was. I am having trouble imagining a big curtained bed in a hall-type hut with one room and a sleeping loft. Homes weren't necessarily one room in that period, and Thomas' father in law even supported a servant..
There was more, that really leaves one wondering if hte house could have been as simple as Dollittle makes it out to be. If so it sure must have been crowded. Grin. There were three flock beds 'with painting about'!" (exclamation point Dollittle's, she trying to imagine all this in the tiny primitive hut of her imagination), ten pairs of sheets, one pair being fine linen, also twoels, meteclothes of rough woven material and three coffers or chests. In other words, this was a prosperous peasant, probably with a substantial cottage. "Outside" there was cattle, pigs, sheep, lambs, hens, and a cock, a nag and mare, a wain for moving hay and a tumbrel for dung. Dollitle allows that he may even have driven to town in a cart instead of walking everywhere on foot! Exclamation point mine.