Amendments to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Submitted by edpope on

Introduction to a dataset: 70 Dictionary of National Biography articles with vital data added by Ed Pope

25 out of 65 ODNB articles where I have suggested changes have now (May 2018) been amended in line with my suggestions, though in many cases only some of my suggestions have been adopted. Most of these articles have credited my website in the sources (John Flaxman and Thomas Smith of Derby not). Many of my suggestions were very slight, but in several cases they involved substantial errors of fact (Charles Dibdin, Eliza Fenwick, Thomas Gaugain, Francis Jukes, Henry Robert Morland, Willey Reveley). All these suggestions were sent to ODNB by 2016. The ODNB was updating its website which means there was a "datafreeze" for 2 years but that is now long over.. All my suggested changes (apart from John Raphael Smith and his father Thomas Smith of Derby, see Background Article 3 Wives, 3 Husbands Living) are now under their names in the Amendments to Oxford DNB dataset in A-Z of Names & Addresses on this website..

 

 

Ed., I could not agree more with your criticism of ODNB biographies; their errors and omissions in them are being repeated by authors of new books! Martin.

John Jensen (not verified)

Sat, 14/02/2015 - 09:16

Using reference:

Monthly Magazine and British Register, Volume 18

 edited by John Aikin, Benson Earle Hil

Page 370:  'He, (Thomas Paine Oldfield) was the second surviving son of Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield ......... , the youngest branch of the family of Sir Anthony Oldfield ........ and maternally descended from Sir John Hinton .....'.

This is at variance with your interpretation in you posting on THB Oldfield:

'........ more likely they referred to Sir Anthony Oldfield ....... whose maternal ancestor was Sir John Hinton ...'.

 This would indicate that Clarissa,THB Oldfields wife was descended from Sir John Hinton. Perhaps, Sarah his mother was a 'Hinton'. 

I don't see any variance here. Sir Anthony Oldfield was maternally descended from Sir John Hinton of Battle of Bosworth fame. THB Oldfield believed he was descended from Sir Anthony Oldfield. He was almost certainly wrong, but he probably supplied the Monthly Magazine with the obituary of his son. Maternal descent can operate in any generation

After a little searching I have to confess I don't at present have any reference for this, not that it would have to be Mary Blythe, it could have been Sir Anthony's mother or grandmother or daughter-in-law or in any generation. I do have some notes that I can't yet find, and I vaguely remember that one of the Uttoxeter Oldfields (the Royal Marine officers who wanted to claim Sir Anthony's baronetcy) may have married a Miss Hinton of Lichfield. More to the point I note that John Hinton is not in the list of Knights made after Bosworth 1485, see William & Shaw, Knights of England, the only Hintons ever knighted were one in the 14th century and two in the 17th. Nor is Hinton in the list of baronetcies, the usual other way of being called Sir Somebody. Nor can I find any other reference to Hinton-Trover or Hinton-Martin, though there are three Hintons in Somerset (St George, Charterhouse & Blewett). Note my two examples of improbable newspaper announcements concerning T H B Oldfield. But my memory tells me that I found this Sir John Hinton reference in relation to the Uttoxeter Oldfields as well as in the Thomas Paine Oldfield obituary. I'll keep looking out for my notes and sources