One of the problems we have to deal with in colonial genealogy is that a lot of what's published is based on oral histories or family legends. In my family, the Thomas Boon who immigrated from England about 1663, is supposed to be the son of a London merchant named Nicholas Boon and his wife Ann. The relationship is described in Rudy Thompson's history of the family, but he clearly indicates that he got the information from a living descendant -- without benefit of documentation.
From real-world experience over the last 20-years, I've seen how legend and reality can be . . . close . . but still be significantly wrong -- geographically and where the specific name quoted is displaced by one or more generations, from the expected relationship.
Within that context, I still try to follow up on all the possible leads; try to identify the possible, and relate the legends to discern what is probable. . .
Nicholas is an uncommon christian name in the broader Boon, Boone, Bohun family (compared to Edward, John, Joseph, Geroge, Ralph, Thomas, and others) but is found in almost every generation of my American family. In England, it is found in a few generations in the southwest -- Devon and Somerset; in a couple of generations in the long-running Bohun clan in Suffolk; a couple of generations of their geographically-local Derbyshire neighbors; and in three generations in Middlesex County, a suburb of London.
Nicholas and Elizabeth Boone of Edmonton, circa 1523 are the first couple. Nicholas and Ann Andrews Boone of Edmonton, married on July, 3, 1634 are the second couple.
Nicholas Boone and Ann Higdon, married at St. Andrews Enfield on April 16, 1668 are the subject of this analysis. Current information only shows one child christened by this couple:
- 1. Mary Boone; christened 25 August 1676, at St. Andrews, Enfield
I could be that other children were christened at other churches in the area, and not yet identified, or that Nicholas and family left England for the caribbean or America.