The Giffords of Exeter: The English Branch of an Irish Family

The chance discovery of the 1794 marriage of an Irish ancestor to a young woman from Exeter, England led the genealogist author to a 200 year cache of family wills. Extensive research on the changing fortunes of family members illuminates social conditions including apprenticeship, schooling, rise to the peerage, housing, religious prejudice, the penalties for non-conformism.