Family Historian User Group

In Ancestry I've found an image of the original marriage record (1804, Symondsbury) for my 4 x gt grandparents, William Miller and Mary Perrott. Unfortunately Perrott or Perrot seems to have been quite a common name in Dorset and I've found quite a few baptism references for Mary.

The marriage record shows two witnesses, the first of whom could be a Perrott, and might be a parent or sibling, but I can't decipher their forename. I've attached the whole image, so you can see the handwriting in context.

Can anyone see what that witness' forename might be?

It could be 'Jhon' (dyslexic John?), but as that is a common name it probably doesn't help you much!

badly spelt Jhon/ John, Ian
however as the other witness is a male it would traditionally be female - Alison

Can only suggest you find other Perretts from the area and compare.

I checked the Banns for you, from the same Ancestry DB, but not (I think) indexed so you have to check the Images, but you are out of luck, some vicars sometimes write the Fathers of the couple, but this one did not.

One set of my 5xGGrandparents were from Symondsbury and my 4xGGrandfather who I mentioned the other day.

After a bit more googling I found that there's a Dorset village/hamlet called South Perrott, so that name has another association with Dorset.

Also I'd assumed that the witness surname was also Perrott, but having seen jimladd68's post interpreting it as Perrett and digging around further it seems that Perrett is also quite a common name in Dorset, so the witness may or may not be related.

So much for trying to narrow the search down!

Thanks for your replies.

I think its John. It often used to be spelt Jhon. Also I've frequently seen both (or even all) witnesses the same sex, usually but not always male.
Anne

Agreed, it's Jhon. In the days of largely phonetic spelling which we're all interested in, quite sensible and understandable (depending on local accent). But, don't discount the possibility of Jonathan/Jonathon as the 'true' name of the individual.

Mervyn