The end of my Fielden line for now is Wiliam Fielden, my 7th great grandfather.  He is the grandfather of James, who was discussed yesterday.  The name of James’ father is unknown at this time.  Records from that era are scarce; they weren’t nearly as meticulous about recording vital statistics.  Things of that nature were found in church records or family bibles.  As for public records, information gathering is limited to items like wills and land transfers/deeds.

So, evidence of William first appears in North Carolina around 1750 as witness to multiple land transactions.  From what can be gathered he had two sons–William Jr and James’ unnamed father.  They lived in Anson County, NC, which is a ways inland on the border with South Carolina.  William apparently served as a constable for a period of time and signed at least one petition against the English King’s appointed governor during this time (remember this is pre-Revolutionary War).  He apparently died around 1775.

Now, the question is…where was he before 1750?  Unless you truly believe in aliens from outer space, I doubt he just appeared one day in rural North Carolina.  Marvel Fielden mentions in his book, The Fielden Stream, that he was working with Keith Fielden, an uber-genealogist researching the English Fieldens.  Keith had a “dangling” William Fielden.  I say dangling because he just up and disappeared in the late 1730s.  William was born in 1709 in Todmorden.  He married Mary Armistead around 1730 and they had four children.  The last written evidence of William was in 1737 when the fourth child was born in the Quaker Monthly Minutes in Marsden, Lancashire.  Keith did more digging and found that William was not necessarily an upstanding member of the community, partaking in heavy drinking, and not making good on his debts, among other things.  Apparently he was arrested and/or jailed, and consequently, kicked out of the Quaker church.  Where he went after that is a mystery.  His fate is described in various ways in the marriage petitions of his children, but nothing conclusive or helpful.

So, there is a possibility that Keith’s William is also Marvel’s William, but there’s nothing conclusive to tie them together as one person.  Until that missing link is found, we can only speculate that this reprobate is my 7th great grandfather.

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Todmorden is in the north central part of England.  It’s about equal distance from Leeds and Manchester.  Lancashire is also in that same area.