ENGLISH WILL INDEX

Thus far we have been unable to find a passenger list which includes the first Pegram to arrive in America.  However, it would seem that they probably came from Essex County, England since it is only in Essex that we find a concentration of Pegrams who have left any records. Many years ago I corresponded with a Pegram cousin from Essex. Although he had no further information on the origins of the family, he did send me a picture of a lovely Tudor period home that had been in his family for many generations. The following is a list of Pegram Wills from Wills at Chelsmsford ( Essex and East Hertfordshire) Volume I, 1400-1619; British Record Society by F.G. Emmison (1958), Page 319 and Volume II, 1620 - 1720, published in 1961, Page 272. I did order copies of all the Wills but have since misplaced them. The earlier Wills were almost impossible for me to read because of the strong Norman French influence on the writing of this period. However, my best guess for the father and/or grandfather of George Pegram of Williamsburg, Va. is George Pegram who died in Manningtree  in 1644. I base this on two things that I remember from his Will. The first is his reference to his daughter "now living in New England" and another reference to his son, John, who has gone to be with his sister in "New England". It is also in the local parrish church in Manningtree that we find the bells inscribed to George Pegram who apparently gave them to the church.   All of the villages referenced in these Wills are within a few miles of each other and not far from where we find the only  Pegram reference in England in the Doomsday Book.  If anyone has experience reading early documents from this period, perhaps they will be kind enough to order copies and send us transcriptions of the Wills.