#32 Edward Richards of Yaverland--Had Any Strange Dreams Lately?

Last week my blog was about German Richards, the earliest ancestor I can identify in my Richards line.  This week I decided to continue that line and blog about  one of his descendents.  The problems with documentation continue, and I have continued to rely on the same three sources for documentation as I used last week.

Yaverland

 I decided to focus on Edward Richards, one of Germain and Alyc (Rice) Richards’s sons, who is my 10th great uncle.  Edward was born about 1568 and lived at Yaverland, which was purchased by his father.  According to the Visitation of Hampshire, Edward married Bridget Mitchell and with her had three sons:    Sir John Richards of Yaverland;  German Richards of Portsmouth; and Edward.  Edward Richards, Sr.  was High Sherriff of Southampton in 1606.

Sir John Oglander relates the following incident in his notebook under the heading “A Strange Illness:”

"Old Mr, Richards of Yaverland, having been long sick, fell into a trance, in which he continued 2 days and nights without speaking or taking any sustenance.  They all expected every hour when he would depart out of this world.  Doctor Lewkenor, his physician, left him as a dead man, came to me told me he was past hope of recovering.   Three of his children, with divers others to the number 0f 10 persons, continued in his chamber, expecting when it would please God to call him, and they put all things in order for his burial, for he had been long sick before he fell into the trance.  But , at the end of the 2 nights and days, he awakened and roused himself up in his bed.  They demanded of him how he did.  He replied “Reasonable well,” “ and told them that he had either seen a vision or one had told him, being in the trance, of divers things:  amongst other things, that he should recover out of this, his long sickness, and should live , (he being then aged three scores  years) and see all those in the buried before him, which fell out accordingly.  His 2 sons, John and German, were the last:  German died at Portsmouth  suddenly, being well and dead in 2 days.  Sir John died some 3 months after, and the old man some 6 months after.  Althogh I give small credit to dreams, yet thus it fell out unhappily."

As usual, I would have some questions for Edward.  I would like to know what else he saw in his vision and if he was surprised when his two sons died as predicted or did he expect that to happen.  I would like to know if he had other children, and if so what were their names.