It’s often helpful to estimate key dates for one’s ancestors, even if hard information is hard to come by, and to set these dates in the context of contemporary historical events. Doing this for my 13 x great grandfather, William Byne of Burwash (see below), makes it possible to see that he lived through the reigns of at least three monarchs and died soon after the accession of a fourth. William was born either just before or soon after the accession of Henry VIII, lived through the religious and political upheavals of Henry’s reign as a young man, was a middle-aged man with a family during the brief reigns of Edward and Mary, and witnessed the arrival on the throne of Elizabeth I shortly before his death.
William Byne: key dates
c. 1505-10 Birth
1509 Henry VIII becomes king
c. 1525-30 Marriage to Joan
c.1530 –35 Birth of daughter Margery
1531 Henry VIII declares himself Supreme Head of Church of England
1536-40 Dissolution of the monasteries
1538 Leases ‘Witteres’
1547 Edward VI becomes king
1551 Marriage of daughter Margery to Godard Russell
1553 Mary Tudor becomes queen
1558 Elizabeth I becomes queen
1559 Death
