Written by Ian Davis. Last updated 7 September 2026.

This question concerns William Tew (?–1812).

Links

• Ancestry: William Tew
• FamilySearch: William Tew (note: contains many obvious errors)

Related questions: Who were the parents of Corbett Tew (?-1794)?, What was the maiden name of Corbett Tew’s wife Sarah (?-1789)?

Background

William Tew married Ann Hinson at Shalstone in 1786 and died in 1812. We haven’t found a baptismal record for him. The marriage implies a birth between roughly 1750 and 1768, with a date toward the earlier end fitting the ages of his children.

The question is whether he was the son of Corbett Tew (died 1794) and his wife Sarah (thought to be called Sarah Allen). Corbett and Sarah’s known Shalstone baptisms are Corbett (1755) (known as Corby), Mary (1757), Ann (1765), and Thomas (1769).

We haven’t found a marriage record for Corbett and Sarah; they had presumably settled in Shalstone before 1755, having married elsewhere. If William was their eldest child, he would have been born before the move.

Discussion

The records don’t directly name Corbett and Sarah as William’s parents; the case is circumstantial. Its strongest single point is that William is the only adult Tew of his generation in Shalstone unaccounted for among their known children.

Naming of William’s children

William’s children fit the expected grandparental pattern:

• Corbett (first son) - father’s father, Corbett Tew
• Anne (first daughter) - mother’s mother, Ann King
• Sarah (second daughter) - father’s mother, Sarah
• Thomas (second son) - mother’s father, Thomas Hinson

This is consistent with descent from Corbett and Sarah, but not proof of it.

Ancestry trees and erroneous dates

The connection to Corbett and Sarah is asserted on many Ancestry trees, but we haven’t been able to verify the documentary basis for any of them. Several trees give specific dates, none of which we have found in the original registers: a William Tew baptism in 1753 or 1756, a Sarah Allen baptism in 1731, a Corbett Tew baptism in 1717 or 1729, and a Corbett and Sarah Allen marriage in 1752. A search of the microfilmed Shalstone registers at Buckinghamshire Archives didn’t turn up any of these entries.

The Hobbs family tree

The Hobbs Family Tree¹ is a tree on Ancestry managed by an account named “yvonne5159”. That Ancestry account’s trees are private, but the same user manages a tree for Stuart Hobbs (died 2021), who is a DNA match for a known descendent of William Tew.

The Hobbs tree is well sourced through the Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire Tews as far as Charles Tew, baptised 3 Oct 1774 at Stoke Bruerne², son of Thomas Tew and Mary Ann Abbey (married 16 Apr 1772, Stoke Bruerne). Above Thomas, the tree breaks down: it gives his father as Thomas Tew (born 1727 Northamptonshire, died 1776 Stoke Bruerne), son of Corbett Tew (born 1727 Northamptonshire, died 1794 Shalstone). The identical birth years for father and son are an obvious error, and having Corbett father a son around 1727 is irreconcilable with his known Shalstone family. The connection to our Corbett appears to be a conflation of two different men.

The Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus of 1798

The 1798 Posse Comitatus lists four Tews (spelled “Tue”) in Shalstone:

• Corbey Tue, labourer - the Corbett baptised in 1755, son of the elder Corbett (died 1794)
• William Tue, labourer - presumably our William
• John Tue, servant - Corbey’s eldest son, about nineteen at the time
• Thomas Tue, servant - probably another son of the elder Corbett

The listing places William among the rest of the Shalstone Tews.

The Eydon Connection

Barry’s original research connected the Tews to the parish of Eydon in Northamptonshire. He placed Thomas Tew, Corbett’s purported father, as being born in Eydon. See the diary entry of 11 Apr 2023 for our attempt to confirm this research.

We also found that the marriage licence of Corby Tew’s marriage to Joyce Pennil involved a bondsman William Cave of Eydon. (See diary entry of 16 Apr 2023). We later speculated that he was a guardian to Joyce, perhaps because she was orphaned. The bondsman’s origin hints at a further link between the Tews and Eydon.

DNA evidence

We have confirmed 13 DNA matches who are direct descendants of William Tew. Two further matches, VARU and MB01, have been examined as possible evidence of descent from Corbett Tew. Neither is established, and the VARU connection now looks more likely to be coincidental.

VARU ³ matches Linda, a known descendant of William Tew, at 8cM - consistent with a 4th cousin, but well within the range where a match can be more distant or coincidental. Ancestry suggests the connection runs via Corbett’s putative son John Tew of Gawcott (b. c. 1762), and VARU’s maternal line does trace back to that Gawcott Tew family⁴:

• Valentine Holman (b. 1892, Potterspury, Northamptonshire), married Lilian Adams (b. 1895, Northamptonshire)
• Amy Alice Coxhill (b. 1865, Preston Bissett), married Frederick Holman (b. 1857)
• Louisa Tew (b. 1841, Gawcott), married James Coxhill (b. 1839)
• William Tew (b. 1792, Gawcott), married Mary Marcham (b. 1796)
• John Tew (b. c. 1762, inferred from age 66 at death in 1828, Gawcott), married Ann Heydon

The Tew link is unproven at both ends. We haven’t found a baptism for a John Tew born around 1762, so his descent from Corbett rests only on the gap in Corbett’s Shalstone children between Mary (1757) and Ann (1765). And the shared DNA need not run through the Tews at all: VARU’s line also carries the Adams family, and current research points instead to the Rogers and Adams families of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire, as the more likely source of the match with Linda. On present evidence the VARU match adds little to the case for William’s descent from Corbett.

MB01 ⁵ matches Linda at 9cM and may be descended from Corbett’s son Thomas, who may appear in the 1851 census at Hatfield, Hertfordshire ⁶. The putative line runs through a daughter Mary Ann Tew (b. 1809, Northam) who married a Thomas Heath. We have not yet been able to trace MB01’s full ancestry to confirm or refute this connection.

Research Approaches Carried Out

• Buckinghamshire parish register indexes at FindMyPast: no baptism for William, no marriage for Corbett and Sarah
• Microfilmed Shalstone registers at Buckinghamshire Archives: none of the dates cited in online trees found
• Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus 1798: William listed alongside Corbey and other Shalstone Tews
• Hobbs family tree investigated: Stoke Bruerne connection to Corbett Tew of Shalstone appears erroneous
• Candidate William Tew and William Tue baptisms compiled and reviewed across a broad area; several eliminated, others pending
• DNA matches reviewed: 13 confirmed descendants of William Tew identified; 2 further matches (VARU and MB01) examined for descent from Corbett Tew senior - MB01 remains open, VARU now looks more likely coincidental (possibly via the Rogers and Adams families of Greens Norton)

Parishes Checked for William’s Baptism

Searching for a baptism in the period 1730 to 1768. Buckinghamshire registers are not digitised and must be consulted on microfilm at Buckinghamshire Archives. Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire registers are digitised and available online.

(TODO: complete this section)

Buckinghamshire

• Shalstone - original registers examined
• Turweston
• Biddleston
• Westbury- original registers examined
• Water Stratford
• Stowe
• Lillingstone Dayrell
• Akeley
• Maids Moreton
• Radclive
• Tingewicke

Oxfordshire

• Finmere
• Mixbury
• Newton Purcell
• Cottisford

Northamptonshire

• Brackley St Peter
• Brackley St James
• Evenley
• Hinton in the Hedges
• Whitfield
• Paulerspury - original registers viewed via Ancestry
• Plumpton - original registers viewed via Ancestry
• Radstone
• Syresham
• Wappenham
• Luffield Abbey
• Whittlebury - original registers viewed via Ancestry

Hypothesis 1: William Tew was the eldest son of Corbett Tew (?–1794) and his wife Sarah

Evidence in favour

• Only adult Tew of his generation in Shalstone unaccounted for among Corbett and Sarah’s known children
• Children’s names fit the grandparental naming pattern for both the Tew/Allen and Hinson/King lines
• 1798 Posse Comitatus places him alongside Corbet’s known descendants in Shalstone
• Connection asserted on numerous independent family trees
• One unestablished DNA match (MB01) possibly consistent with descent from Corbett

Evidence against

• William’s baptism hasn’t been found
• Corbett and Sarah’s marriage hasn’t been found
• Online tree dates are unverified and absent from original registers, undermining confidence in those trees generally
• Naming pattern is consistent with but does not prove the connection

Hypothesis 2: William Tew was a nephew of Corbett Tew, son of Gabriel Tew of Twyford

A William Tue was baptised at Twyford, Buckinghamshire, on 8 Jan 1759, son of Gabriel and Mary. The Corbett question places a Gabriel Tew within the wider family - founder of a Tew cluster at Twyford and Poundon, variously given as a brother of Corbett’s father or as a brother of Corbett himself. If he was the father here, and a brother of Corbett, then our William was Corbett’s nephew and first cousin to the Shalstone children. Twyford lies a few miles south-east of Buckingham, so a move to nearby Shalstone for work is unremarkable. This keeps William within the extended Tew family without making him Corbett’s own son, and accounts for the absence of a Shalstone baptism.

Evidence in favour

• An actual baptism exists, unlike Hypothesis 1
• Explains both the missing Shalstone baptism and his presence among the Shalstone Tews, as kinship rather than coincidence
• Gabriel Tew of Twyford is independently attested in the Corbett question as part of the same wider family
• 1759 falls within the plausible birth range for a marriage in 1786

Evidence against

• 1759 sits at the later end of the range; the ages of William’s children favour an earlier birth
• A William Tue was possibly buried at Claydon in 1760 - if the same child, this candidate is eliminated
• Gabriel’s own place in the Tew family is unproven, and the sources that name him conflict over whether he was Corbett’s brother or an earlier generation
• We haven’t traced the Twyford William forward to Shalstone

Hypothesis 3: William Tew was the child of an unrelated Tew family

We carried out a wide search for any William Tew or William Tue baptised in the region during the period 1750 to 1768. The candidates found are listed below.

Evidence in favour

• We haven’t found a local baptism; origins may lie elsewhere
• Online tree attributions to Corbett and Sarah are unverified
• Tew and Tue families existed across Buckinghamshire and neighbouring counties in this period

Evidence against

• Strong circumstantial case for the Shalstone connection
• We can’t trace any candidate baptism convincingly forward to Shalstone
• Unexplained migration into the same small community as Corbett’s known children

Possible research avenues

• Search other parishes for Corbett and Sarah’s marriage: William may have been baptised in the same place
• Check the Shalstone register for gaps in the relevant period: a gap around 1750–1755 could account for the missing baptism and marriage
• Trace the remaining uneliminated candidates forward to determine whether any are consistent with a move to Shalstone
• Search the Potterspury registers and related Northamptonshire sources to establish the true origins of the Stoke Bruerne Tew family and test whether they have any genuine connection to Corbett of Shalstone
• Test the Rogers and Adams families of Greens Norton as the source of the VARU match with Linda, and trace the origins of John Tew of Gawcott (b. c. 1762) to establish whether the Tew route is coincidental
• Establish the parentage of Gabriel Tew of Twyford and his place in the family, and check the 1760 Claydon burial: if it is not his son William, trace that William (bap. 1759) forward to test the nephew hypothesis
• Search for a will or probate record for Corbett Tew (died 1794): any mention of a son William would confirm the connection
• Trace MB01’s ancestry back through Mary Ann Tew (b. 1809, Northam) and her husband Thomas Heath to establish whether the line connects to Corbett’s son Thomas: identify Thomas Tew in the 1851 Hatfield census and work backward to confirm his parentage