sandi.irvine
18th December 2010, 09:57 PM
I'm trying to track the original owners of a very old bible. A friend has a 1613 Bible (including Apocrypha, prayer book, psalter and other items) that has handwritten Solly/Solley marginalia. The Bible originally had leather-bound wooden covers with brass fittings and was acquired in very poor condition in Tunbridge Wells in the 1960s. Some pages are missing are some are damaged. The most informative piece of writing (in ink on an internal page) is "Stephen Solley born 15 day of June and babtized the 19 day in the year of 1706". Solley is also spelled Solly elsewhere and Stephen as Steven. "Richard Solly" is written in ink earlier in the book and later 'Richard Solley his book". "Bough" and "Bought" are written under "Step Solly" [perhaps Boughton under Blean?]. "Michael Solly not his Boke" is written in what is definitely a childish hand. The names "Elizabet" and "Katheri" occur once each as does that of "Daniel Owen". At some point someone has calculated the age of the bible by subtracting 1615 from 1808. The initials R, S and M are pricked through a number of pages. Almost certainly this is the Kent Sollys but can anyone help pin it down further? My husband is descended from Isaac Solly of St Jeffrey's Axe and Walthamstow and I have the line back to Richard Solly Mayor of Sandwich but can't find a Richard, Stephen and Michael in the same family with the right birth date for Stephen despite trying several wills.