26th Generation

792. Ann FORTESCUE⁷⁹ was born in 1766. She died on 31 December 1838. COPY OF LETTER TO MY NEPHEW GEORGE FORTESCUE RE THE FAMILY TREE
My dear Nephew
Have been long answering your enquiry "re the Family" please excuse it.
I enclose a copy I have made of the only a/c I have of the family, it was written by my grandmother Ann Fortescue to my father at his request. You will see that the family has always been respectable though' not very successful in money making. I have seen the Parish Register at Thurning
shewing that our branch has held good positions in the Parish as Churchwardens and Overseers as my grandfather also did at Longstowe Cambs. where he was highly respected but, as to anything else, there is no certainty, not even as to the name, for even 30 years ago I knew of one old man undoubtedly of the same stock who wrote his name 'Foscue'. You see that there (are) 3 or 4 families in Thurning who spelt their names differently from each other, as Foscue, Falscot, Forschew etc. and I have seen the will of Thos. the Blacksmith, 1733 who spelt his name "Forschud", so notwithstanding the tradition of our being the direct and lineal descendants (tho* from the youngest brother) of the last Irish Lord Clermont, which I really do believe, nothing can really be said about it, but it is a fact that the Irish title did lapse about that time and I think in 1788 was revived by Parliament to the Devonshire family, Sir Mathew Fortescue, with the title of Earl Fortescue. As to the Mathew Fortescue you refer to, I know nothing of him but, as I have never met the name in our stock, should think he belonged to the Devonshire Family. This is all the information I possess.

Ann Fortescue

Ann FORTESCUE and James FORTESCUE of Longstowe were married before 1798. James FORTESCUE of Longstowe was born on 5 September 1764. He died in 1820 in Longstowe, Cambridge.¹⁰⁶ A farmer first at Thurning then at Longstowe. Publican of the" Horseshoes" Longstowe from 1812 to 1851

Ann FORTESCUE and James FORTESCUE of Longstowe had the following children:

+924	i.	James FORTESCUE of Longstowe.
+925	ii.	Robert FORTESCUE.
+926	iii.	John FORTESCUE of Paddington.
927	iv.	Nathaniel FORTESCUE.
+928	v.	Ann FORTESCUE.
+929	vi.	William FORTESCUE of Paddington.
+930	vii.	Nathaniel FORTESCUE.