Before you draw any conclusions about the person who appears as a witness on your ancestor's document, remember that a witness does not have to be a relative. A witness needs to be of legal age and know the person signing the document.
A witness could have simply been someone else who happened to be nearby when your ancestor signed his document.
Actually, I'm not sure that witnesses even need to know the person in all cases - they just have to be present at the event/signing of the document to say that they witnessed it.
ReplyDeleteAt least that's definitely the case with lots of UK events - marriages, wills, deeds etc. For marriages in churches, I've certainly found that it's often the church-warden who is one of the witnesses, and on legal documents it might just be a clerk who happens to be on hand.
So your heading and final statement are absolutely spot on!
Deb Stock
UK