Mar 13, 2015

A suggestion for further research on the origins of Peter Mallory of New Haven

This is not based on research, merely a suggestion for further research originally made by S. V. Mallory Smith, a scholar for whom I have the highest respect and whom I once had the privilege of meeting together with her husband at their home in Cambridge. On page 101 in her book, A History of the Mallory Family, she suggests that Peter might have been the son of a certain John Mallory, the putative, posthumous, son of Sir Chistopher Mallory of Studley Royal who passed away in 1555 by Mary, the daughter of Sir Christopher Danby and Elizabeth, the daughter of Lord Latimer. This John Mallory was said to have been dispossessed by his father's brother, William Mallory, though an attempt was made in 1578 to recover a third part of Sir Christopher Mallory's property.
My suggestion is that it might be worthwhile to go over these cases quite carefully. One might find that the Mallory of John Mallory was actually a legal fiction and that genetically speaking he might not have been of the same male-line Mallorys as other bearers of that name. It would appear, however, that chronologically speaking, if there is a connection between Peter Mallory of New Haven and John Mallory, it would have been that of a grandson rather than of a son, which could still account for the very different y-chromosome profiles of Peter Mallory of New Haven Mallory men (and their English counterparts) and other Mallory lineages.

When I met S. V. Mallory Smith some seven or eight years ago when I was on Sabbatical in England, she assured me at length that Peter Mallory of New Haven's ancestry represented at that time a genealogical black hole for which no genealogically acceptable answers had so far been forthcoming. She also assured me that this was of interest to her, as she herself had her origins in the same genealogical line as Peter Mallory of New Haven. She also expressed disappointment at people appropriating her work verbatim as their own and for others who have passed themselves off as her. 
Though this is not a research I intend to get involved in, it is nevertheless something worth pursuing, if for no other reason than out of respect for a great lady and impeccable scholar.

No comments:

Post a Comment