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A list of sources is included.

John Govier and Mary Diment ©

It is assumed John was born around 1715 somewhere in Dorset.  A baptism has been located in St Mary Burton Bradstock, for a John Govier¹, son of John and Martha his wife, on the 7^th November, 1718.  Burton Bradstock is a village in south west Dorset situated approximately 4km south-east of Bridport, Chesil Beach.  The name Burton Bradstock derives from 'Brideton' and 'Bradenstock', the latter referring to the Wiltshire abbey which once owned the village.  In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as 'Bridetone' and had 28.7 households; the lord of the manor was the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille.  The village nestles around the church of St Mary the Virgin with 16^th and 17^th Century thatched cottages alongside. The main part of the church is 15^th Ccentury although one part dates back a further 100 years.  In Saxon times the village was called Brideton, which meant The Village of the River Brode. With an interesting history, village was engaged in smuggling back in time as were all the villages along this coast².

A marriage for a John Govier and a Mary Diment has been found in the Parish records of St Candida and Holy Cross, Whitchurch Canonicorum³.  The record states they were both of the Parish and they were married by Banns on 4^th February, 1743.  An attractive mix of farms and cottages, the village of Whitchurch Canonicorum is a village and civil parish in southwest Dorset, situated in the Marshwood Vale 8.0 km west-north-west of Bridport.  Recorded in the1086 in the Domesday Book, as Witcerce, with a value of £7 to the lord, the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille. The very ancient church of St. Candida and St Cross, it is noteworthy as the only Parish Church containing the only shrine in Britain to have survived the Reformation with its relics intact, another is that of Saint Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey.  The saint in question in St. Candida and St Cross is the somewhat obscure Saint Wite (Latinised as Saint Candida) after whom the church and the village are named.  She is thought to be either a Christian martyred by the Danes or alternatively a West Saxon anchoress.  The shrine of St Wite is a simple stone chest containing her remains with three large oval openings for pilgrims to put their afflicted limbs into in the hope that they would be cured².  

A baptism for Mary Diment has been located in Symondsbury¹.  The daughter of Robert Diment, Marey was baptised in St John the Baptist, on the 8^th of November, 1718.  Set in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Symondsbury lies roughly 2.4km west of Bridport and approximately 4km south-south-west of Whitchurch Canonicorum.  The name Symondsbury derives from Old English and means the hill or barrow (beorg) belonging to a man named Sigemund.  It was listed in the Domesday Book as Simondesberge, as having 31 households, with the lord of the manor being Cerne Abbey, which was also the lord at the time of the Norman Conquest.  In historical times the main economy of the village was the production of flax and hemp for Bridport's rope and net manufacturing trade.  The Parish Church of St. John The Baptist stands near the middle of the parish, and seems to have been largely rebuilt in the 14^th Century.  Records show that the first rector arrived in 1325².

It is unclear just how many children John & Mary may have had or where some may have been born.  However, parish records suggest John and Mary had at least six children, all baptised in Whitchurch Canonicorum Parish Church:  Robert 1755, he married Arabella Jerina Bilha Mayger 1780; John 1758; Joan 1760; James 1763; Alice 1766; and Martha 1769.

The only other information we have is of John’s burial on the 15^th January, 1796, and four years later, Mary’s burials on the 8^th January, 1800, both in Whitchurch Canonicorum⁴.

References:

1. Parish Baptism Record via Ancestry.co.uk https://www.ancestry.co.uk

2. Dorset OPC http://www.opcdorset.org/

3. Parish Marriage Record via Ancestry.co.uk https://www.ancestry.co.uk

4. Parish Burial Record via Ancestry.co.uk https://www.ancestry.co.uk

Other Sources:

British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/

Open Domesday Book http://opendomesday.org/

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