Research Notes:

A number of secondary sources identify William Gartrell who died in Illogan in 1703/4 as the son of Jeffrey Gartrell and his wife Wilmot, born in Phillack in 1642. Jeffery Gartrell made a bequest of 20 shillings to his son William when he wrote his will in 1666. The same secondary sources indicate that William Gartrell married Charity (family name not known) about 1674, the Phillack parish register recording the baptism in that year of a daughter of William Gartrell and Charity his wife named Catherine, who went on to marry David Eddy in 1697 in Zennor. The children of William Gartrell / Garter who appear in the Illogan parish register from 1685 onward are shown in the secondary sources as children of William and Charity (the mother's name not being recorded in the Illogan parish register); however, the same children are named in the 1727 will of Anne Gartrell of Illogan, widow. William Garter and Ann his wife are named in the 1694 will of Thomas Carpenter of Illogan, Ann's father, who made William's children beneficiaries. The children identified in Anne's will were Mary Gartrell, John Gartrell, Henry Gartrell, Cordelia Vivian and Elizabeth Richards.

Son John, while born and married in Illogan, was residing in Phillack when he wrote his will in 1767. The beneficiaries of John's will include his sisters Mary Gartrell (who also resided in Phillack) and Cordelia Vivian, both of whom are named in the will of the said Anne Gartrell as her daughters. John also names his sister Elizabeth Richards (by then deceased) as the mother of four children to whom he made bequests, and Elizabeth Richards is likewise named in the will of Anne Gartrell as one of her daughters. In other words, Charity was not the mother of William's Illogan-born children.

A Charity Garter was buried in Zennor in 1740, the parish where Catherine Gartrell, daughter of William and Charity, was married. Catherine was living in 1734 when she became a beneficiary of the will of her husband David Edye of Zennor. If this was Catherine's mother Charity who died in 1740 in Zennor, then she would have been quite advanced in years (at the very least 85 years old when she died). If not, then the simplest explanation would be that William Gartrell married twice, first to Charity and then to Anne Carpenter. It does seem likely, however, that Charity Garter who died in 1740 was the widow of William Gartrell who most likely died in either Phillack or Zennor, such that William Gartrell who married Anne Carpenter was a different individual. That William Gartrell was active in Illogan through the 1690s until his death, signals it was the William Gartrell who married Anne Carpenter that was buried in Illogan.

If William Gartrell son of Jeffrey Gartrell of Phillack, born in 1642, married Charity, he would have been in his late 20s or early 30s; if the same William married Anne Carpenter, he would have been in his early-to-mid 40s. Accepting that William son of Jeffery Gartrell of Phillack married Charity, then William Gartrell / Garter who married Anne Carpenter can be identified with William Garter who in 1679 was a beneficiary of the will of his grandfather Jeffery Gartrell of Breage.

William Gartrell who married Charity was, as supposed, the son of Jeffrye Gartrell and Wilmot Sprigg who were married in Phillack in April 1628. Jeffry was likely the same Jeffry christened in Phillack in October 1600, son of Jeffrye Gartrell (Sr.), who in turn would have been born by 1580. Jeffrye Gartrell, Sr., of Phillack, left a will proved in 1656. Jeffry Gartrell of Phillack who married Wilmot Sprigg was a contemporary of Jeffry Gartrell of Breage who married Anna Trewecke (their marriages being 10 months apart). As such, William identified in the 1679 will of Jeffery Gartrell of Breage as his grandson was a different William to the one named in the 1666 will of Jeffery Gartrell of Phillack as his son.

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In 1691 William Gartrell was a witness to the will of Gilbert Jacka of Illogan, tinner, and with Andrew Trounsen took inventory of Gilbert Jacka's goods and chattels. Gilbert Jacka names in his will his brother-in-law, Thomas Carpenter, who was William Gartrell's father-in-law.

In 1693 William Gartrell was a witness to the will of William Robins of Illogan, tinner, and with Andrew Trounsen took inventory of William Robin's goods and chattels.

In May 1696 William Gartrell with Andrew Trounsen took inventory of the goods and chattels of Richard Cleather of Illogan, yeoman, deceased.

In 1696 William Gartrell was a witness to the will of Thomas Fox of Illogan, yeoman, and in August of that year assisted in making an inventory of Thomas Fox's goods and chattels. ²

In May 1699 William Gartrell and John Tresedren took inventory of the goods and chattels of Francis Carpenter of Illogan, deceased.

In December 1700 William Gartrell witnessed the will of Gilbert Coode of Illogan, Gent. In July 1701 William together with Emanuel Fox took inventory of Gilbert Coode's goods and chattels.