Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/418

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Dean Stephens's 'Life and Letters of Edward A. Freeman' occurs this passage concerning the ancestry of the historian:—

This statement, as also the extract from the historian's letter, is not altogether correct. Before he was eighteen months old Freeman lost both his parents; so probably the true facts concerning his ancestry were unknown to him, as they were to his biographer. They are as follows:—

Joseph Freeman of Pedmore Hall, above referred to, was the natural son of John Keelinge of Summerhill in the parish of Kingswinford, by his housekeeper, Mary Dovey. There were two other natural children: Eleanor, who married first, in 1777, Stephen Faulkner, and secondly, in 1794, Thomas Watkins; and Nancy, who also married twice first, in 1781, William Stokes, and secondly, in 1786, William Smith Stokes. These three children were all born in the lifetime of John Keelinge's wife Anne, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hodgetts, and widow of a Mr. Stevens. He married her at Kemberton, 18 Dec., 1744, but her marriage was a very unhappy one, and she was buried at Kingswinford, 3 May, 1766; and letters of administration were granted by P.C.C. to her sister, Elizabeth Nott, on 14 July, 1766.

After Mrs. Anne Keelinge's death John Keelinge married Mary Dovey, but at what church or when I know not; nor have I been able to ascertain why these three children were named Freeman and not Dovey.

John Keelinge was an attorney, and steward to Lord Dudley and Ward. He died enormously rich, but a good deal of his wealth was acquired dishonestly, and