William Fermor Archives - PHILIP ALAN FARMER

September 17, 2023September 17, 2023

The Men of King Henry VIII

The Smithsonian Channel aired a three-part series about King Henry VIII and his men. The episodes provide good educational and entertaining biographies of those who associated with Richard Fermor of Easton Neston and his brother William Fermor of Somerton.

The book “Thomas Fermor and the Sons of Witney” spans a period from the 1400s to 1685 into nearly eight hundred pages. The challenge was to summarize almost three hundred years of English feudalism, land ownership, military technology, geography, history, court proceedings, international commerce, fashion, and other facets of life into those pages. In some cases, entire books have been written about persons or events that regrettably were condensed into a sentence, paragraph, or a few pages.

The Smithsonian Channel aired a three-part series providing good educational and entertaining biographies of Henry VIII and of his men who associated with Richard Fermor of Easton Neston and his brother William Fermor of Somerton.

Henry VIII and the King’s Men – TV Series | Smithsonian Channel

Mentioned in the series and in the book are the following men:

Sir Richard Empson

Sir Richard Empson, born 1505 in Towcester, Northamptonshire, was a knight, high lawyer, Member of Parliament for Northamptonshire, Speaker of the House of Commons, High Steward of Cambridge University, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Empson was quite wealthy owning the manor and hundred of Towcester, the manors of Easton Neston, Hulcote, Alderton, Stoke Bruerne, Shutlanger, Bradden, Cold Higham, Grimscote, Potcote and Burton Latimer, and lands in other parts of the country.

With his colleague, Edmund Dudley, Empson collected taxes for Henry VII using extortion, harassment, and other suspicious, but legal, methods. This made the king very rich but made Empson and Dudley very unpopular. When Henry VIII became king, he arrested the two men and stripped them of their land.

Sir Richard Empson (left), with Henry VII and Sir Edmund Dudley. The Duke of Rutland Collection.

Dudley was sent to Guildhall in London for trial on 18 July 1509, and Empson was sent to the castle of Northampton for trial on 03 October 1509. Richard Fermor, recorded as living in Isham, Northamptonshire, was named one of the jurors for Empson’s trial. Innocent yet convicted of treason, Empson and Dudley were beheaded on 17 August 1510.

The Easton Neston estate, still in attainder since January 1510, was initially granted to William Compton in 1512, said then to be of “late Comberford,” but then given by a petition and act of restitution to Sir Richard Empson’s son and heir, Thomas Empson, Esquire. By indenture dated 12 July 1527, Thomas Empson in consideration of £1,000 deeded Easton Neston and other lands to William Fermor. It is unclear if William purchased the Empson estates on behalf of his brother Richard, or if he relinquished ownership to Empson within three years of the indenture, as it is recorded that Richard purchased the manor of Easton Neston in 1530 from Empson, and not from William.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey

Richard Fermor became a wealthy man due to his position as a Merchant of the Staple of Calais. Richard was at Florence, Italy, in December 1524 when he gave financial aid to John Clerk, an agent in Rome negotiating for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s election to the papacy.

By 1527, Henry VIII ordered Cardinal Thomas Wolsey to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. Unable to convince the Pope, Wolsey was arrested in 1529 and stripped of his government office yet permitted to remain Archbishop of York. He was also stripped of his property including his magnificent Hampton Court, which Henry took to replace the Palace of Westminster as his own main London residence.

After his fall in 1529, Wolsey owed £124 8s. 9d. by 13 October 1529 for silks Richard supplied him. In 1530, William Fermor was on the Commission of Inquiry into Cardinal Wolsey’s possessions in whose records show “To Roger Elys, for duties paid to William Farmer, Clerk of the Crown, for discharging my Lord’s praemunire, and entering his pardon, 4£.”[1] On 16 May 1530, probably for his work in the preparation of a pardon for Cardinal Wolsey, he received £100.

Accused of treason, Wolsey was ordered to London by Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland. He fell ill during the journey and died at Leicester on 29 November 1530.

Thomas Cromwell

Henry VIII, weary of the Pope’s delays in the matter of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, severed the Church of England from the Church of Rome in 1534.[2] While there were no discernible changes in the liturgy or the practice of daily religion, the faithful who had denied the king’s blasphemous title of “Head of the Church” were ordered to be drawn, hung, and quartered. In varying degrees of legislation, bribery of the nobility, and magnifying slander into a crime, the king confiscated church land.

Thomas Cromwell urged Henry VIII to plunder the gold and silver chalices and other sacred religious objects that had been bestowed by the parishioners to the churches and monasteries.[3] Thomas Wriothesley and Richard Pollard coldly relate in a letter to Cromwell the confiscation of objects from the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund valued at five thousand marks, along with treasures from other places of worship. In preparation of seizing and confiscating abbey lands in Oxfordshire, a writ dated at Westminster on 30 January 1535 authorized an enquiry to the inventory and value of each place of worship and was addressed to the mayor, knights, and several other prominent men, including William Fermor.[4]

In 1535, William was appointed one of the Royal Commissioners for Oxfordshire for collecting the tenths of spiritualities forbidden to be paid to Rome.[5] Cromwell commissioned William in June 1537 to inquire into allegations of treason made against the abbots of Eynsham and Osney. Considering William as a totally reliable servant of the Crown, Cromwell secured his return as a Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire in 1539. William reported to Cromwell again in 1540 about alleged seditious speeches by a priest and by a wool-winder.

For denying the king’s supremacy and maintaining the supremacy of Pope Paul III, Henry VIII condemned the “traitorous” James alias Nicholas Thayne, with a praemunire and imprisonment at Buckingham Gaol in autumn 1539. Richard came to the aid of his former priest and confessor with a couple of shirts and 8d., the equivalent of a day’s wages for a skilled laborer.[6] For this egregious act of charity, Richard incurred Henry VIII’s wrath. With the efforts of his “false friend” Thomas Cromwell, Richard was arraigned in Westminster Hall and sentenced on 09 May 1540 to life imprisonment. Additionally, Richard’s entire estate including Easton Neston was seized for the king’s use, and executed with such strictness and severity that nothing was left for him, his wife, or his children.[7]

Will Somers

Richard Fermor’s freedom and wealth were later fully restored to him due to an unlikely ally. During his prosperous days, Richard employed comedian Will Somers from Shropshire as his personal fool. It was Somers’ first job, and enjoying his professional successes, was appointed court jester by Henry VIII in 1525 after Richard made introductions at Greenwich and presented him to the king.

Lean and “hollow-eyed,” Somers had a comical face, and with a monkey on his shoulders, walked in a mincing way with a stoop around the room, rolling his eyes. Somers would tell jokes, himself laughing uncontrollably at the punchlines, or mercilessly impersonating those who were the subject of his jests. Even the monkey performed tricks. Somers’ sense of humor was very much in demand leaving monarchs and courtiers in fits of laughter. For twenty years he was the king’s constant companion and entertainment, yet never sought to capitalize on his friendship with the king, keeping in the background when not performing and preserving his privacy.[8] Using all of his wit, charm, and well-timed speeches, Somers made all attempts to restore his former employer’s fortunes, particularly when Henry VIII was feeling melancholy from his failing health.

Philip Farmer is the author and publisher of “Thomas Fermor and the Sons of Witney” tracing the family history from 1420 to 1685, and “Edward Farmar and the Sons of Whitemarsh” following their 1685 arrival from Ireland into Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Harlan County, Kentucky.

[1] Blomfield, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon (1882), p.104.

[2] Hankins, “Papists, Power, and Puritans: Catholic Officeholding and the Rise of the ‘Puritan Faction’ in Early-Seventeenth-Century Essex,” The Catholic Historical Review, vol.95 no.4 (October 2009), p.689.

[3] Lee, History and Antiquities of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame (1883), pp.298-302.

[4] Lee, History and Antiquities of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame (1883), p.302.

[5] Blomfield, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon (1882), p.105.

[6] Dyer, A Country Merchant, 1495-1520 (2012), p.7.

[7] Hamilton, The Chronicle of the English Augustinian Canonesses Regular of the Lateran, at St Monica’s in Louvain, vol.2 (1906), pp.118-120; Evans, Highways and Byways in Northamptonshire and Rutland (1918), p.318; Collins, The Peerage of England, vol.5 (1768), p.49.

[8] Weir, Henry VIII: The King and His Court (2001), p.29.

May 31, 2023June 1, 2023

Elizabeth Horne

This blog is part of a continuing series in which heraldic coat of arms, tombs, deeds, chancery records, and wills help piece together a medieval family tree.

Per his 11 September 1552 will, William Fermor – son of Thomas Richards alias Fermor by his second wife Emmote (Hervey) Wenman – bequeaths…

unto my good Aunte Elizabeth Horne wydowe one soveraigne of golde of xxs And to her sonne my Cosyne Edmund Horne Esquire one of my yonge horses of my owne brede of thage of three yeares and upwards[1]

Who is Elizabeth Horne and her son Edmund?

If Elizabeth Horne was an aunt by blood, then there were possibilities that may amend the family tree. One possibility was Elizabeth, known sister of Thomas Richards alias Fermor. The other possibility was an unidentified sister of either Thomas Richards alias Fermor’s second wife Emmote, or his first wife Alice, or perhaps the identify of an unknown wife.

After an exhaustive search, it has been determined and supported by evidence that Elizabeth (Delaford, Blount) Horne was an aunt by marriage to Elizabeth Norreys as described below.

Robert Horne and Joan Fabian

Robert Horne (b. ca. 1412), citizen and fishmonger merchant of London, was elected alderman of London on 27 July 1444.[2] Based on a chancery record of 11 November 1432 for a debt owed to John Shirley, Esquire, Robert was related – probably as brother – to Simon Horne and John Horne both of Daventry, Northamptonshire, and to Richard Horne, citizen and draper merchant of London.[3]

Per deed dated 03 July 1485, Robert and John Horne are parties to transactions in Great Norcroft and Losingrove, land given to the University College in the village of Hailey, Oxfordshire, once a parish of Witney. In that deed, “a headland of arable land in a field next to Crawley inside the tithing of Hayle” lies between Robert Horne to the west and Thomas Richards alias Fermor to the east.

In those same University College records, a William Horne of “Wyttney, Oxon., Rough Mason, and brother of John Horne of Bladon, Oxon., Husbandman” is also listed as a party to a 19 May 1509 deed witnessed by Richard Wenman, wool merchant and William Fermor’s step-brother. William Horne, “carpenter,” is also party to a 09 November 1523 deed.[4] Based on dates, William and John Horne are presumed to be nephews of Robert Horne.

Leigh, Roger (Clarenceux King of Arms). *Robert Horn, Alderman* (ca.1450). London Metropolitan Archives Main Print Collection; Record No. 32131, Catalogue No. k1306505. Watercolor on paper.

We know Robert Horne married Joan Fabian, daughter of Edward Fabian, evidenced by the heraldry displayed at Sarsden House described by Richard Lee in his 1574 Visitation of Oxfordshire.

IV. Arg. on a chevron engrailed Gu. between three unicorns’ heads erased Az. a crescent Or. [HORNE.]

V. Erm. three fleur-de-lys within a bordure engrailed Gu. [FABIAN OF ESSEX]

VIII. HORNE impaling FABIAN.

XXXIII. HORNE, as IV. impaling, FABIAN, as V[5]

[Prior to his marriage with Joan Fabian, Robert Horne may have married Agnes Wytham, daughter and heir of Richard de Wytham and Alice Daundency, and who was also the widow of William Browning. Agnes Wytham (d.1444) was the adopted daughter and heir of her cousin John Golafre of Sarsden House, the son of Thomas Golafre and Margaret Foxley. John Golafre was married three times and had no children. Evidence: 1) Baker’s History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton, Volume 2 (1844); 2) Page et al’s A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4 (1924); and 3) Turner’s Visitation of Oxfordshire (1571) in which the 1574 visitation describes “XXXVI quarterly 1. HORNE, 2. DELAFORD, 3. FABIAN, 4. GOLAFRE” as well as “XXXIV HORNE impaling GOLAFRE.”]

Robert and Joan had two sons and two daughters: John, Robert, Jane, and Anne.[6]

After Robert Horne’s death circa 1457, Joan (Fabian) Horne remarried to John Fettiplace, citizen and draper of London, and lord of the manor of East Shefford, Berkshire. They had four sons Anthony, Sir Thomas, Richard, and William Fettiplace, and a daughter, Margaret.[7]

After the death of John Fettiplace in August 1464, Joan (Fabian, Horne) Fettiplace remarried that year to John Estbury of Antwick’s Manor in Letcombe Regis, Berkshire.

Anne Horne, daughter of Robert Horne and Joan Fabian

Anne Horne (b. ca. 1455) first married Sir John Stanley of Elford, Tamworth, and Wigginton in Staffordshire, and of Aldford, Etchells, and Alderley in Cheshire. He was also King’s esquire, Sheriff of Staffordshire, and Knight of the Shire for Staffordshire.

Shaw, Stebbing. *Elford Church – The Stanley Monument* (nd). Engraving print.
Top right, “The 3 wives of Sir John Stanley (as suggested) taken from Elford Church windows anno 1537.” Upon closer inspection of the heraldic robes, the last wife to the right may be Anne Horne.

After Stanley’s death on 29 June 1476, Anne remarried before 31 January 1478 to Sir William Norreys, son of Sir John Norreys and Alice Merbrooke. Norreys was first married to Joan Vere, daughter of John Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and secondly to Isabel Ingaldesthorpe (d.1476), widow of John Nevill, Marquess of Montagu. In 1479, William and Anne sued John Stanley, Esquire, for a third part of the manors of Clifton-Campville, Haunton, and Pipe in Staffordshire, which they claimed was Anne’s dower.[8]

To further confirm the Horne-Fettiplace-Norreys connections, in a record circa 1525, prayers were requested for the souls of various siblings of William Fettiplace (d. 26 December 1528), of East Shefford, Berkshire, including “Robert Horne, John Horne, Joan Horne, and Madam Ann Horn… brothers and sister by the mother’s side” and also for the soul of Sir William Norreys “husband of the said Madam Ann.”[9]

William and Anne (Horne, Stanley) Norreys had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married William Fermor as his fourth wife. We know this from the heraldic brasses on William and Elizabeth’s tomb, as well as the 1574 description of stained windows at Sarsden House, Oxfordshire.

Trotter, Thomas. *Tomb of William Fermor and Elizabeth Norreys* (1801). Watercolor.
Source: http://somertonoxon.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Somerton-Church-Booklet_P3.pdf

FERMOR, impaling RAVENSCROFT quartering, 1. HORNE, 2. FABIAN, 3. MOUNTFORT/MERBROOKE.

After Norreys’ death, Anne remarried to William Harcourt. She has often been confused as the wife to Sir John Harcourt who had married Anne Norreys, sister to William Norreys, Anne Horne’s husband. After the death of William Harcourt, Anne (Horne, Stanley, Norreys) Harcourt remarried John Grey, Esquire.

John Horne, son of Robert Horne and Joan Fabian

John Horne married Elizabeth Delaford, the sole daughter and heiress of Pernell Whitton (d.1493) and William Delaford of Iver, Buckinghamshire (d.1494).[10] Elizabeth was also the widow of Richard Blount (d. 31 November 1508), sheriff for Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in 1502, with whom she had Richard, Anne, and Elizabeth.[11]

In a chappell on ye south side of the Church of Adderbury are the following inscriptions… On a pillar at ye lower end of the church: Neare this font lyeth Elizabeth wife to Richard Blount & John Horne, Esquire, heir to Delaford & mother to Jane Bustard wch Elizab. Died an. Dom. 1554.

Source: https://www.1066.co.nz/Mosaic%20DVD/News/September%202017/sep18/sep18.htm

Sarsden House:
XXXII. Quarterly 1. HORNE, as IV. 2. A chevron between three pheons, 3. FABIAN, as V. 4. Paly of six (untinctured).

Bruerne Abbey, Mr. Bridges’ House
V. Quarterly 1. Arg. a chevron engrailed Gu. between three unicorns’ heads erased Az. [HORNE.] 2 Az. a chevron Gu. between three pheons Or. [DELAFORD] 3. Erm. three fleurs-de-lys within a bordure engrailed Gu. [FABIAN.] 4. Paly of six Arg. and Sa. [STRELLEY.][12]

As seen in the glass now installed at the University of Oxford’s Balliol College, Lee may have slightly erred in his description, with the quartering as “1. HORNE, 2. STRELLEY, 3. FABIAN, 4. DELAFORD.”

Balliol College, University of Oxford. Quarterly, 1. HORNE, 2. STRELLEY, 3. FABIAN, 4. DELAFORD/SPYCER.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/balliolarchivist/6992603484/in/album-72157629955843265/

William Delaford’s father John had arms “sable, a pale argent” and the Delaford arms with the pheons described above is actually from William’s mother, Agnes Spycer.[13]

Elizabeth (Delaford, Blount) Horne died in 1554 and was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Adderbury.

John and Elizabeth (Delaford, Blount) Horne had at least one daughter, Jane, and one son, Edmund.

Jane Horne, daughter of John Horne and Elizabeth Delaford

Jane Horne married Anthony Bustard as can be seen by the Horne coat of arms quartered with the Bustards of Adderbury.

Argent, on a fess gules between three pellets as many bustards or, within a bordure engrailed azure [BUSTARD], impaling, Quarterly, 1 and 4. Argent, a chevron engrailed gules between three unicorns’ heads erased azure. [HORNE.] 2 and 3. Ermine, three fleurs-de-lys gules within a bordure engrailed of the last. [FABIAN.][14]

Edmund Horne, son of John Horne and Elizabeth Delaford.

File 1127, No. 75 (1544-1547) Edmund HORNE, esquire, son of Elizabeth Horne, v. Robert BEKINGHAM. Contempt of a decree concerning boundaries of pasture in Sarsden Heath and Lyneham and the manor of Merriscourt (in Lyneham) and Lyneham. See File 828, No. 9. Oxford.[15]

Edmund Horne married first to Elizabeth Tame, daughter of Jane Grevill and Thomas Tame.[16]

IV. Arg. a chevron engrailed Gu. between three unicorns’ heads erased Az. [HORNE OF SARSDEN], impaling. Quarterly: — 1 and 4. Arg. a griffin Vt. and a lion Az., both combatant. [THAME.] 2 and 3. Cheeky Or and Az., on a bend Gu. three lions passant Or.

XIX. HORNE, as IV., impaling, Quarterly 1 and 4. Arg. a griffin Vt. and a lion Az. crowned Arg. combatant. [THAME.] 2 and 3. Cheeky Or and Az. on a bend Gu. three lions passant Or. [WARREIN.] Over it written, E.HORNE & E.TAME

Church of Shipton under Whichwood:
This picture presentith to yo’r reme’brance
the last symplytud of all yo’r bewtye & fame
also hyt sygnyfieth the mortall chance
of Elysabeth daughter and heir of Tho. Thame
Which somtyme was ye dear and loving wife
of Edmond horne esq. durynge all her lyfe
Whose mortall bodye now consumed to dust
was layd here in grve as by nature neds hit most
In the year of Chrsts his incarnacon’
a thowsande fyve hyndredth fortye eight
the fyftenth of august her v’tuus enclynacione
brought her to the place of ye eternall lyght.[17]

Tomb of Elizabeth (Tame) Horne. Coat of arms shown with HORNE impaling quarterly 1 &4 TAME, 2 & 3 WARREIN.

Family relationships can also be inferred from chancery records, wills, and land deeds.

File 1131, No. 29 [1544-1547]. Edmund HORNE, esquire, and Elizabeth his wife, great-granddaughter and heir of John Tame, esquire, v. Thomas VARNEY, esquire, Elizabeth his wife, and others. Manor of Fairford and land there formerly in the guardianship of Edmund Tame, knight, deceased, younger son of the said John. Gloucester.[18]

File 1234, No. 32-35 [1547-1551]. Edmund HORNE, esquire, v. Walter BASKERFEELDE and Jane his wife, late the wife of Thomas Tame, esquire. Manor of Stowell, advowson of the church, and lands in Stowell, Yanworth, and Chadworth, all of the entail of Richard Conwaye, clerk. Gloucester.[19]

Additionally…

By 1470 Hampnett manor belonged, with Stowell manor, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Clifford, and her second husband Thomas Limerick (d.1486). It passed to Limerick’s daughter Agnes, wife successively of William Tame and Sir Robert Harcourt (d. by 1504), lord of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. Sir Robert’s heir Richard Harcourt also married Agnes and in 1508 feoffees settled the reversion of Hampnett on her heirs. Agnes died before Richard (d.1513), and her son Thomas Tame owned Hampnett together with Stowell in 1522. Thomas Tame evidently held it at his death ca.1545 and Edmund Horne, who married Thomas’ daughter Elizabeth, sold it in 1550 to [his-brother in-law] Anthony Bustard of Adderbury, Oxfordshire.[20]

Elizabeth (Tame) Horne died on 15 August 1548 and Edmund Horne married secondly to Amy Clarke, daughter of Valentine Clarke and Elizabeth Brydges.

XX. HORNE, as IV., impaling. Or, two bars Az. in chief three escallops, in fess a mullet Gu. [CLARKE.] Over it written, E.HORNE & AMYE CLARKE[21]

Edmund Horne died in 1553 with a will written 12 October 1553 and his inquisition post mortem conducted soon after.[22]

Footnotes

[1] Hutchens, “Will of William Fermor of Somerton,” Oxfordshire Family History Society (OFHS.uk). nd. An abstract also found in Blomfield, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon (1882), p.105.

[2] Beavan, The Alderman of the City of London, Temp. Henry III – 1912, vol.2 (1913), pp.9, 164. Robert Horne of Sarsden House, Oxfordshire, has been confused with other Robert Horne’s, primarily Robert Horne of Appledore, Kent, possibly a vintner, the son of Henry Horne, and husband to Isabel who he left a widow. Separating their biographical attributes requires more research, to include: a) imprisonment at Newgate in 1444 for his involvement in Jack Cade’s Rebellion, and by paying a large ransom of 500 marks, was spared his life; b) killed at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461 during the War of the Roses; c) Sheriff of London from 1446-1447; d) Sheriff of Kent from 1451-1452; e) Mayor of London (sic? William Horne, salter); and e) Member of Parliament for Kent in 1460. The Horne’s of Kent may have had a coat of arms described in simple terms as a “chevron between three bugle horns” of various tinctures and extra charges. Reference: 1) Woodger, “Horne, Henry, of Horne’s Place in Appledore, Kent,” The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421 (1993); 2) Harris, “The Longleat House Extracted Manuscript of Gower’s Confessio Amantis,” Middle English Poetry Texts and Traditions (2001), pp.80-81; 3) Robertson, “Chapel at Horne’s Place, Appledore,” Archaelogia Cantiana, vol.14 (1882), p.366; 4) Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.2 (1915), p.613; 5) Mercer, “Lancastrian Loyalism in Kent During the Wars of the Roses,” Archaeologia Cantiana, vol.119 (1999), p.228; 6) Andrews, “Ockholt, alias Ockwells Manor, and its Owners,” The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archaeological Journal, vol.24 no.1(1918), p.21; 7) Armytage, A Visitation of the County of Kent, 1663-1668 (1906), p.96; and 8) Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884), pp.507-508.

[3] TNA C 241/225/52.

[4] UC:E6/1D/1; UC:E6/1D/2; UC:E6/1D/4; Darwall-Smith, “Early Records of University College, Oxford,” Oxford Historical Society, vol.46 (2015), pp.374-380.

[5] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), pp.8, 10. A John Horne, sheriff of Berkshire and Oxfordshire temp. Henry VII, had arms “Gules a chevron argent, twixt three escallops or.” Fuller, A history of the worthies of England… (1662), p.106.

[6] Thrupp, The Merchant Class of the Medieval London (1948), p.350; Collections Towards a Parochial History of Berkshire (1783), p.66.

[7] Andrews, “Ockholt, alias Ockwells Manor, and its Owners,” The Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archaeological Journal, vol.24 no.1 (1918), p.21.

[8] Wrottesley, “Extracts from the Plea Rools, Temp. Edward IV., Edward V. and Richard III,” Collections for a History of Staffordshire, ser.2 vol.6 pt.1 (1903), p.121.

[9] Collections Towards a Parochial History of Berkshire (1783), pp.68, 73. Page 73, of which there are two same numbered pages, has “John Horne, John Horne*…” footnoted as “Joan Horne…” Page 68 lists “John Horne, Joan Horne…”

[10] Page, A Victoria History of the County of Buckinghamshire, vol.3 (1925), pp.286-294; Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.2 (1835), p.167; Croke, The Genealogical History of the Croke Family, originally named Le Blount, vol.2 (1823), pp.255-256.

[11] Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.3 (1836), p.167.

[12] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), pp.196-197, 19.

[13] Reference XVIII in Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), p.9; Croke, The Genealogical History of the Croke Family, originally named Le Blount, vol.2 (1823), p.254/255. The latter has the arms described as “argent, a pale sable.”

[14] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), p.196.

[15] List of Early Chancery Proceedings Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.9 (1963), p.57.

[16] Gibbs, “Palimpsest Brasses – Ancient Request to Aylesbury Church,” The Buckinghamshire Miscellany (1891), p.158; Maclean et al, The Visitation of Gloucestershire Taken in the Year 1623 (1885), p.260.

[17] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), pp.9, 83. Other sources for Thame coat of arms has “a dragon vert” (e.g. Maclean et al, The Visitation of Gloucestershire Taken in the Year 1623 (1885), p.260.)

[18] List of Early Chancery Proceedings Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.9(1963), p.64. Elizabeth Tame, daughter of Thomas Tame, son of William Tame, son of John Tame and Alice Twiniho (Maclean et al, The Visitation of Gloucestershire Taken in the Year 1623 (1885), p.260.)

[19] List of Early Chancery Proceedings Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol.9(1963), p.232.

[20] Herbert, A History of the County of Gloucester, vol.9 (2001), pp.81-91.

[21] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford Taken in the Years 1566, 1574, and in 1634 (1871), p.9.)

[22] TNA PROB 11/36/241; TNA E 150/820/1; TNA C 142/101/98.

May 26, 2023May 26, 2023

William Fermor of Somerton

In an earlier blog, we examined how the answer to a brick wall can be found… on a brick wall. In this blog we again use heraldry and burial tombs combined with wills and deeds to verify the identity and marriage order of William Fermor’s four wives.

The Visitation of Northamptonshire claims…

“William Farmor of Somerton, co. Oxon, Esq., first son to Thomas [Richards alias Fermor] by his second wife [Emmote (Hervey) Wenman], mar[ried], to his first wife, the widow of … Marrow of co[unty] Midd[lesex], Esq[uire], and, to his second wife da[ughter] to … a merchant of London ; thirdly, he mar[ried] the da[ughter] of John Pawlet of Basing, co[unty] South[amp]ton, Esq[uire] ; and, fourthly, he mar[ried] Elizabeth, da[ughter] to Lyonnell Norrit of co[unty] Berks[hire], Esq[uire] [sic] by all the which four wives the said William Farmor had no issue, and so dyed without issue…”[1]

Other publications have William’s marriage order as Catherine Paulet, Joan “widow of Marrow”, third wife unknown, and Elizabeth Norris.[2]

William Fermor’s Last Will and Tomb

William Fermor died on 29 September 1552, having made his will eighteen days earlier.[3] His wife Elizabeth was appointed sole executrix and directed to “bear and pay all my funerals after a convenient degree and order and with no pomp or vainglory.” By the terms of William’s will, Elizabeth was to hold the Somerton estates for her life and she was still lady of the manor as late as 1568. By 1573 her nephew Thomas Fermor, the youngest son of William’s brother Richard Fermor and William’s heir, had succeeded her.

At the church in Somerton, William had lengthened and converted the east end of the south aisle into a burial chantry. He installed new windows, constructed a new entrance, and built a round-headed arch giving access to the aisle from the chancel. It is here we find William’s tomb in present St. James Church and use it to work backward into his life.

Thomas Trotter’s 1801 watercolor of William Fermor’s tomb at St. James Church, Somerton.

Elizabeth Norreys

William’s fourth wife was Elizabeth Norreys, married from after 1510 to his death.

A brass with figures and shields of arms set into the top of William’s tomb chest records his burial there and that of “his last wife” Elizabeth Norreys.[4]

Here lyeth Mr. William Fermour Esq. whyche was lord of this towne and patrone of this churche and also clarke of ye Crowne in ye kings bench by King Henry ye 7^th and King Henry ye 8^th dayes whyche dyed ye 29^th day of 7ber in ye year of our lord god MCCCCCLII and alsoe here lyeth Mestres. Ellsabeth Fermour his last wyffe which was ye daughter of Sr Willm Norrysee Kt. upon whose & all Christen soules Jesu have mercy.[5]

Brasses on tomb of William Fermor and Elizabeth Norreys.

The arms on the brass over Elizabeth’s head is documented as…

[FERMOR, on a fesse between 3 lyons heads rased. 3 anchors]… impaling a chevron between 3 ravens heads rased. q.
1. A chevron between 3 unicornes heads rased.
2. 3 de lis within a border ingrailed.
3. Bends of 8 within a border.[6]

Upon closer inspection, the charges and tincture of her arms are best described as: argent on a fess sable between three lions’ heads erased gules three anchors or [FERMOR] impaling argent a chevron sable between three ravens’ heads erased sable [RAVENSCROFT / NORREYS], quartering 1) argent a chevron gules between three unicorn heads erased azure [HORNE]; 2) argent three fleur-de-lis gules a bordure gules engrailed [FABIAN]; 3) a bend of ten or and azure a bordure gules [MOUNTFORT / MERBROOKE].[7]

The same descriptions were also provided by Anthony Wood on 28 February 1675 for a coat of arms displayed at Sarsden House, Oxfordshire, and arms at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame.

XXXVIII. On a fess between three lions’ heads erased three anchors (untinctured), [Fermor] impaling, Ravenscroft, quartering, Per fess Or, two bars Gu. within a bordure Az.[8]

NORRIS and FERMOR. 1 and 4, NORRIS, Quarterly argent and gules, in the 2nd and 3rd quarters a fret or, over all a bend azure. 2 and 3, FERMOR. Argent a chevron sable between three ravens’ heads erased of the last.[9]

Coat of arms for William Fermor impaling Elizabeth Norreys.

From her coat of arms, we are able to conclude that Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir William Norreys (d. 1507) and Anne Horne, the daughter of Joan Fabian and Robert Horne, fishmonger, alderman, and Sheriff of London. Sir William was the son of Alice Merbrooke and John Norreys, son of Christian Streche and William Norreys of Bray, son of Anne De Rivers and Roger Norreys, son of Millicent Ravenscroft and John Norreys of Bray. When John married Millicent, daughter and heir of Ravenscroft of Cotton, the line of Norreys assumed the Ravenscroft arms. Likewise, a line of the Merbrooke family adopted the Mountfort arms.[10]

William secured an annuity of £20 in 1539 for himself and Elizabeth who, by some sources, he had married that year. However, the 1535 will of his stepbrother Richard Wenman bequeathed to “Elizabeth, wife of my brother William Farmer, a juell of 10 marks.”[11]

Catherine Paulet

William’s third wife was Catherine Paulet, married from after 1508 to her death in 1510.

Catherine was the daughter of Sir John Paulet of Nunney by his wife Alice Poulett of Hinton St. George, Somersetshire. We know this from two sources.

First, a visual inspection of the brass over William’s head has an untinctured coat of arms signifying his marriage to Catherine.

on a fesse between 3 lyons heads rased. 3 anchors Impaling. 3 swords points meeting in brasse. q.
1. Fretty a canton.
2. 6 martletts.
3. A fesse between 3 de lis.[12]

This brass and Thomas Trotter’s 1801 watercolor was then matched with known coat of arms, yielding a description most likely charged and tinctured as: argent on a fess sable between three lions’ heads erased gules three anchors or [FERMOR] impaling sable three swords in pile, points in base argent pommels and hilts or [POULET], quartering 1) argent fretty gules a canton sable [IREBY]; 2) argent six martlets sable three, two, one [DELAMARE]; 3) azure a fess between three fleur-de-lis argent [SKELTON].[13]

Coat of arms for William Fermor impaling Catherine Paulet.

Second, Catherine passed away on 26 May 1510 and was buried at Hornchurch, Essex. Based on her coat of arms, the epitaph cast in stone partially reads in error as:

Here lyeth Katherine the daughter of Sir William Pawlet, Knight, [sic] wyf of William Fermour, Clerke of the Crown, who died May 26 the second of Henry the Eighte.[14]

Catherine’s brother, Sir William Paulet, was 1st Marquess of Winchester. The Paulet family will have other marital connections to the Fermor’s in later generations.

Joan Grove

William’s second wife was Joan Grove, married in 1508.

Joan was one of three daughters born to Joan ___ and Roger Grove, alderman and grocer of London.[15] Per 1508 land deeds of the manor of Grove Place, in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire,

25 June 1508. Westminster, Buckinghamshire. Roger Grove, citizen and alderman of London, and Joan, his wife, deforciants… [grant] William Fermour and Joan, his wife, querents… the manor of Groue Plate and 70 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 30 acres of pasture, 6 acres of wood and 17 shillings and 4 pence of rent in Chalfount Sancti Egidij and Chalfount Sc’i Petri…[16]

12 November 1508. Westminster, Buckinghamshire. William [Fermour] and Joan, his wife, have acknowledged the manor and tenements to be the right of Roger, as those which Roger and Joan, his wife, have of their gift, and have remised and quitclaimed them from themselves and the heirs of Joan to Roger and Joan, his wife, and the heirs of Roger for ever. For this, Roger and Joan, his wife, have granted to William and Joan, his wife, the manor and tenements and have rendered them to them in the court, to hold to William and Joan, his wife, and the heirs of their bodies, of the chief lords for ever. In default of such heirs, remainder to the right heirs of William.[17]

Roger died in 1508. William’s second marriage was also short lived when Joan died at about the same time and was buried at Chalfont St. Giles. Her burial brass shows a woman standing in prayer. Above her is a well-worn coat of arms with three anchors visible in fess on the sinister impaling an unrecognizable dexter that may have been “ermine a chevron engrailed gules charged with three scallops or.”[18]

Burial brass of Joan Grove, second wife of William Fermor.

Joan Chedworth

William’s first wife was Joan Chedworth, married from around 1499 to around 1508.

Joan was the daughter of alderman William Chedworth of Stepney, and the widow of William Marrow V of Redfern, Warwickshire. Marrow was the son of Sir William Marrow IV, Mayor of London in 1455, and Katherine Rich, daughter of Richard Rich, mercer and sheriff of London. William and Katherine’s two other children, Joan and Katherine, respectively married Sir William Clopton and Sir Robert Throckmorton who will have family ties to the Fermor’s in later generations.

Marrow V’s will written on 26 February 1499 and probated on 30 October 1499 requested burial at St. Botolph’s without Bishopgate under his father’s tomb. By Joan, he left a son, Thomas (d. 1538); two minor daughters Elizabeth and Katherine; Anne who had married ___ Duckling; and Cecily who married Hugh Weldon by whom she had four sons.[19]

Thomas Marrow’s great grandson Sir Edward Marrow will marry Thomas Richards alias Fermor’s second great granddaughter Ursula Fiennes.

Featured image and other pictures of William Fermor’s tomb:
https://www.1066.co.nz/Mosaic%20DVD/News/October%202017/Oct9/oct9.htm

[1] Metcalf, The Visitations of Northamptonshire Made in 1564 and 1618-19 (1887), p.19. Lyonell Norreys was Elizabeth’s brother.

[2] Coros, “Fermor, William (by 1580-1552), of Somerton, Oxon. and London,” The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (1982). The footnote also states that Metcalfe’s Visitations is in error, presumably “fourthly, he mar[ried] Elizabeth, da[ughter] to Lyonnell Norreys of co. Barks [Berkshire], Esq…”

[3] Hutchens, “Will of William Fermor of Somerton,” Oxfordshire Family History Society (OFHS.uk). nd. An abstract also found in Blomfield, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon (1882), p.105.

[4] Ross, “Somerton, St James Church,” BritainExpress.com. nd; Coros, “Fermor, William (by 1480-1552), of Somerton, Oxon. and London,” The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558 (1982).

[5] Blomfield, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon (1882), p.106; Collins, The Peerage of England, vol.5 (1768), p.49. Alternately, “Here lyeth buried Mr. Wylliam Fermour Esquyre which was Lord of this towne and patrone of this church, and also Clark of the crowne in the Kings Bench by Kyng Henry the vii. and Kyng Henry ye VIII. days, which dyed ye XXIX daye of September in ye yere of our Lord God MCCCCCLII. and also here lyeth Mestres Elisabeth Fermoure hys last wife, whyche was the dawghter of Syre Wylliam Norryshe Knyght. Upon whose souls and all christen souls Jesu have mercy (Davenport, Lords Lieutenant and High Sheriffs of Oxfordshire, 1086-1868 (1868), p.35; Gomme, The Gentleman’s Magazine Library, pt.9 (1897), p.211.)

[6] Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester (1882), p.106; “Art. VII. Church Notes, etc. of Somerton, in Oxfordshire,” The Topographer, vol.3 no.2 (August 1790), p.91. A closer visual inspection contradicts “a bendy of eight” and “a bendy of ten.” A bendy of nine as shown on the brass is pictured.

[7] The seal of Richard de Mountfort circa 1365 was a bendy of ten a bordure (Birch, Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (1894), p.271). Burke’s General Armory describes one Mountfort arms as “bendy or and az. a bordure gu.” but does not define which line of Mountfort, and yet another line from Warwickshire as “bendy of six or and az. a border gu.” (Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884), p.712). The Horne arms in Sarsden House are “ar. on a chev. engr. gu. between three unicorn heads az. a crescent or.” (Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1884), p.507).

[8] Turner, The Visitations of the County of Oxford (1871), p.10.

[9] Lee, History and Antiquities of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame (1883), p.171. Footnote states: “On the tomb the herald-painter has made some obvious mistakes. Fermor is incorrectly represented in the first and fourth quarters; and the arms of Norris in the second and third are altogether wrong…”

[10] Ravencroft, Some Ravenscrofts (1929), p.31.

[11] TNA PROB 11/25; Bloom, Wayman Wills and Administrations Preserved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1383-1821 (1922), pp.11-12; Moore, “Will of Richard Wenman of Witney,” Oxfordshire Family History Society (OFHS.uk). nd; Lee, History and Antiquities of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame (1883), p.442.

[12] Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester (1882), p.106; “Art. VII. Church Notes, etc. of Somerton, in Oxfordshire,” The Topographer, vol.3 no.2 (August 1790), p.91.

[13] Paviour, “Catholicism in Somerton: The Fermors and Catholicism in Somerton,” SomertonOxon.co.uk. 2015; Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales (1884), pp.275, 340, 817. The arms of Sir George Paulet, the second son of Sir John Paulet of Basing, and brother to William Paulet, the first Marquis of Winchester, had eight quarterings for Paulet – 1) Paulet; 2) Roos; 3) Poynings; 4) St. John; 5) Delamare of Hampshire; 6) Hussey; 7) Skelton; 8) Ireby; 9) Delamare – of which 1, 7, 8, & 9 are shown on the Fermor brass; however, Ireby is described as “argent, a fret sable, and a canton of the second” (Baignet et al, A Practical Manual of Heraldry, and of Heraldic Illumination (1864), pp.34-35).

[14] Blomfield, History of the Present Deanery of Bicester, Oxon (1882), p.105; Urban, “Topography of Somerton,” The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, vol.97 pt.1 (February 1827), p.115. Another publication has the date of 1511 (Simpson, A List of the Sepulchral Brasses of England (1857), p.24).

[15] Page, A Victoria History of the County of Buckingham, vol.3 (1925), pp.184-193; Green, “The National Archives PROB 11/55/374,” The Oxford Authorship Site. 2009.

[16] Feet of Fines, CP 25/1/22/129, No.113.

[17] Feet of Fines, CP 25/1/22/129, No.116.

[18] “probably identifying the lady as Joan (Grove) wife of William Fermour, who died about 1525…” (Page, A Victoria History of the County of Buckingham, vol.3 (1925), pp.184-193.)

[19] Davis, The Ancestry of Mary Isaac (1955), pp.339-340; Green, “The National Archives PROB 11/5/139,” The Oxford Authorship Site. 2013; Green, “The National Archives PROB 11/12/372,” The Oxford Authorship Site. 2020; Green, “The National Archives PROB 11/12/390,” The Oxford Authorship Site. 2012. The latter source cites chancery record TNA C 1/88/21 to refute claims within the Visitations of Cornwall that Joan Chedworth was the daughter of Sir Thomas Catworth as well as the 1619 Visitations of Warwickshire of another Joan Chedworth, the daughter of John Chadworth, Mayor of London in 1402 (reference Vivian, The Visitations of Cornwall, Comprising the Heralds’ Visitations of 1530, 1573, & 1620 (1887), p.638; Fetherston, The Visitations of Warwickshire in the Year 1619 (1877), p.69.)