puritan_migration
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^ Puritan Migration to Connecticut\\ //the saga of the Seymour family 1129 / 1746//\\ by Malcolm Seymour | ^ Puritan Migration to Connecticut\\ //the saga of the Seymour family 1129 / 1746//\\ by Malcolm Seymour | ||
- | //Note: This page is a portion | + | //Note: This document comprises pages 13-22 of Puritan Migration to Connecticut, |
- | in 1982 by Phoenix Publishing in Canaan, New Hampshire. | + | ISBN 0-914016-85-7, |
- | available here by permission from Malcolm' | + | Publishing in Canaan, New Hampshire. |
+ | from Malcolm' | ||
==== Chapter 2: The Norman St. Maurs ==== | ==== Chapter 2: The Norman St. Maurs ==== | ||
Line 21: | Line 22: | ||
prominent individual families who lived there would use the place name as their | prominent individual families who lived there would use the place name as their | ||
family name. Thus, Goscelin de St. Maur is mentioned in a charter of Foulque | family name. Thus, Goscelin de St. Maur is mentioned in a charter of Foulque | ||
- | Martel, count of Anjou, in the year 1000. | + | Martel, count of Anjou, in the year 1000((Richard Harold St. Maur, //Annals of |
+ | the Seymour Family// (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. Ltd., Paternoster | ||
+ | House, 19(2), p. 7)). | ||
Starting with this Goscelin we are bold enough to depict the supposed family | Starting with this Goscelin we are bold enough to depict the supposed family | ||
Line 88: | Line 91: | ||
" | " | ||
Wales, were for offensive purposes," | Wales, were for offensive purposes," | ||
- | " | + | " |
- | Penhow as deduced by Mr. Stephen Weeks, present (1980) owner, when he says: | + | (April/May 1978), p. 410.)). This description fits the experience of Penhow as |
- | " | + | deduced by Mr. Stephen Weeks, present (1980) owner, when he says: " |
+ | never a great battely castle." | ||
The first St. Maur families were devout and must have fought their way into the | The first St. Maur families were devout and must have fought their way into the | ||
- | good graces of William I and his successors to have gained | + | good graces of William I and his successors to have gained |
+ | successors to have gained knighthoods, | ||
+ | carving out their domains in southwest Wales, as part of the border guard or the | ||
+ | Marcher Lordships. | ||
- | \\ | + | A particularly aggressive member of the St. Maur family was the William, who in |
- | [[start|(Back to the " | + | 1240 married the third daughter of William Marshall, earl of Pembroke. He might |
+ | have acquired this heiress' | ||
+ | Morgan ap Howell, lord of Caerleon. Gilbert Marshall, also earl of Pembroke (of | ||
+ | the second creation), " | ||
+ | Woundy [Undy], from Morgan ap Howell." | ||
+ | |||
+ | The aggressive policy of permitting knights to gain land at the expense of the | ||
+ | Welsh was committed to paper by an agreement that survives today and is | ||
+ | presented in translation later in this chapter. By this scheme, which | ||
+ | undoubtedly the offended party considered utterly corrupt, William St. Maur | ||
+ | agreed to divide the spoils of lands, taken from Morgan ap Howell, with his | ||
+ | superior, the earl. Having a safe keep tower to retreat to, and with the backing | ||
+ | of the governor in charge, the St. Maur rough-and-ready fighting spirit came to | ||
+ | the fore once again. | ||
+ | |||
+ | So the brave (and competent) deserved the fair, or so we can observe. This | ||
+ | talent for self-advancement seems to have run through the St. Maur family where | ||
+ | the majority of the Penhow lineage married well, fought alongside the winning | ||
+ | combatants, and established a place in English history, culminating with | ||
+ | service to the Tudor dynasty from Henry VII to Elizabeth. | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Penhow Castle-The First Seymour Dwelling// | ||
+ | |||
+ | IT HAS ALREADY BEEN stated that the William St. Maur line, alternating between | ||
+ | William and Roger St. Maur, was founded in Penhow, Gwent, Wales. A. Audrey | ||
+ | Locker mentions Penhow briefly in pages two and three of //The Seymour Family//. | ||
+ | [[book: | ||
+ | early pages describing how Richard the Colonist was not descended from the ducal | ||
+ | line of William St. Maur, etc., through John of Wolf Hall, the great- | ||
+ | grandfather of Jane, the sister of the first Duke of Somerset. However, in his | ||
+ | denials of ducal descent, and his wonderful revelation about the Ruscoe-Seymour | ||
+ | connection, he keeps pointing, with great nostalgia and promise, at Penhow | ||
+ | Castle, because it was there that the first arms of the St. Maurs was devised, | ||
+ | the golden WINGS CONJOINED IN LURE. If it were not for the fact that Richard | ||
+ | Seamer 's son Thomas, both of Norwalk, sealed his will with this symbol of the | ||
+ | St. Maurs, nobody would have any real reason for getting excited about the | ||
+ | Richard Seymour line stemming from the same Norman family tree. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He did use the seal, however, and nobody to date has been able to prove that he | ||
+ | did it without any right, or with any right, for that matter. The fact that many | ||
+ | descendants later used more elaborate winged seals is beside the point. Did they | ||
+ | have any family secret passed from father to son which is lost to us today? | ||
+ | |||
+ | [[book: | ||
+ | were an invisible magnet exerting its pull on its offspring. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Forget Berry Pomeroy, the ducal manor, and consider Penhow. Where is Penhow? | ||
+ | Look at southeast Wales, near the English border, close to the Severn Estuary. | ||
+ | By automobile take the M4 Motorway across the Severn bridge and head west about | ||
+ | twelve miles on route A48. As you approach from any direction, the compact stone | ||
+ | mass dominates the roadside, perched on top of a small hill, with a working farm | ||
+ | surrounding it on all sides. Drive up through the farmyard on a public way and | ||
+ | park your vehicle in a small area in front of the new iron gates across from the | ||
+ | church. Stephen Weeks, an artist, writer, and motion-picture director, bought | ||
+ | Penhow for a song. The wrecked oldest part was restored lovingly with the help | ||
+ | of grants in funds and labor by the Welsh government together with donations | ||
+ | from American Seymours, not to mention Weeks' | ||
+ | and that of his parents. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The castle had been the dwelling of a farm couple, but the oldest parts-the keep | ||
+ | tower, the upper hall, and the hall below it-were completely disused, being | ||
+ | storage for hay and fodder. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1979 Mr. Weeks presented the Seymour family with a festival commemorating the | ||
+ | 850th anniversary of the building of the first Seymour home in Britain. This | ||
+ | unforgettable experience, captured by BBC radio and television, may never be | ||
+ | duplicated in the near future, but the emotional experiences of the fortunate | ||
+ | few who were there will live forever in their minds. The official opening at | ||
+ | noon on May 19, 1979, was made by His Grace the Duke of Somerset, present with | ||
+ | Her Grace the Duchess. The Marquess of Hertford also attended, accompanied by | ||
+ | the Earl of Yarmouth. The forty-one American Seymours in attendance represented | ||
+ | only a fifth of those who had helped reconstruct the oldest parts of Penhow. | ||
+ | Penhow now remains a true Seymour museum and a family shrine. [< | ||
+ | to end of September, Wednesdays to Sundays inclusive, 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. | ||
+ | Telephone: Penhow (0633) 400800</ | ||
+ | in the summer of 2003, Penhow castle was a private residence and no longer open | ||
+ | to visitors.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | It does not take too much imagination walking up the circular stairway, from the | ||
+ | lower hall to the beautifully reconstructed upper hall, to imagine the | ||
+ | festivities that took place there, the judgments meted out by the lord of the | ||
+ | manor, and the sadness, as well. Enter the small masonry tunnel, leading into | ||
+ | the earliest part of the castle, the keep tower. Before the addition of the hall | ||
+ | block, the St. Maurs would reach the first floor of the keep tower through a | ||
+ | small opening, about twelve feet above the ground level, using a ladder that | ||
+ | could be pulled up at night and in times of trouble. Access from this room to | ||
+ | the floor above was by means of a staircase built into the rock wall. Here the | ||
+ | St. Maurs would have slept, hopefully keeping warm in great bearskin coverings, | ||
+ | with a meager fire in the hearth for minimum comfort. Above the sleeping chamber | ||
+ | are the ramparts where crenelated walls look down on approaches. A sentinel' | ||
+ | seat faces the east and south, the weakest side of the castle. Far away, the | ||
+ | vista of the hills that slope and fall away have not changed in these 850 years. | ||
+ | Pigeons still beat a hasty retreat at the sight of the falcon, as reenacted | ||
+ | during the Seymour Festival of 1979. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The author read about Penhow and the famous arms of the golden wings and, as | ||
+ | part of a pilgrimage, at last came on the historic ruin. After that first visit, | ||
+ | followed by revisitations each year thereafter, Penhow is considered as a great | ||
+ | Seymour monument to the past. | ||
+ | |||
+ | How this came about can only be told by considering the WINGS CONJOINED IN LURE, | ||
+ | and the first use in America of the arms of Penhow by Thomas Seymour, eldest son | ||
+ | of Richard the Colonist in his will of 1712. | ||
+ | |||
+ | No genealogist has carried the ancestry of Richard Seamer of Norwalk (1604-55) | ||
+ | beyond his grandfather, | ||
+ | grandson was one year old. We have no knowledge of when or where this John was | ||
+ | born, although thousands of dollars have been spent to trace his ancestry back | ||
+ | one generation. In 1976, at the suggestion of the Marquess of Hertford, the | ||
+ | author engaged the services of Mr. P. Llewelyn Gwynn-jones, | ||
+ | Arms in London, and Bluemantle Pursuivant, who was given the task of carrying | ||
+ | the work of countless other genealogists one step further. Two years of research | ||
+ | passed without any contribution of knowledge concerning Richard' | ||
+ | in Mr. Gwynn-jones' | ||
+ | that a search of Manorial Court Rolls had disclosed that John Seymer was | ||
+ | admitted tenant of Pishiobury Manor on Monday, 2 June 14 Elizabeth (1572). This | ||
+ | manor dominated the southern section of Sawbridgeworth, | ||
+ | immediately sought more information about the history of the manor. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Through the good offices of the Reverend Rupert Child, vicar of Great Saint | ||
+ | Mary's Church in Sawbridgeworth, | ||
+ | same town, a photocopy was sent the author of material published in //The | ||
+ | Victoria County History of the County of Hertfordshire//, | ||
+ | coincidence that in 1339 Pishiobury Manor was owned in part by Alice Lisle St. | ||
+ | Maur, the wife of Sir Thomas St. Maur. The policy established by Bluemantle | ||
+ | Pursuivant, to look close at hand for ancestors, apparently paid off. | ||
+ | |||
+ | What is it that makes one believe that Sir Thomas St. Maur, baptized in 1308, | ||
+ | might be the Sir Thomas St. Maur mentioned as being the husband of Alice Lisle | ||
+ | St. Maur? First, in the genealogical chart given in the //Annals of the Seymour | ||
+ | Family// by R. St. Maur, there is only one | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thomas St. Maur of Seymour listed from 1009 to 1549, with the exception of Sir | ||
+ | Thomas, created Lord Seymour of Sudley, who was beheaded in 1549. The dates are | ||
+ | correct for the Thomas St. Maur of 1308 to have married Alice Lisle, who | ||
+ | inherited, with her sister Elizabeth and her brother Robert, Pishiobury Manor in | ||
+ | 1339. Sir Thomas would have been thirty-one years of age at the time. Not much | ||
+ | was known to R. St. Maur when he wrote his annals about this gentleman, as the | ||
+ | following discloses: | ||
+ | |||
+ | //His// [Nicholas St. Maur' | ||
+ | brought him considerable property, but had not lived long. His second wife was | ||
+ | Helen, the eldest of three daughters and co-heirs of Alan la Zouch [sic] of | ||
+ | Ashby, in Leicester. By his second marriage, he gained considerable importance as | ||
+ | well as more property. He died in 1317, leaving a son, Thomas. His wife, Helen, | ||
+ | survived, and married Alan de Chereleton.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Thomas de St. Maur was only nine years of age at the time of his father' | ||
+ | death. He became a ward at the disposal of the Sovereign, Edward II, who almost | ||
+ | immediately granted letters patent to High le Despencer, the elder, giving him | ||
+ | wardship of the Manors of Hampton-Maysi, | ||
+ | Wilts, which the late Nicholas had held, as part payment of certain debts which | ||
+ | were owed him by the king. This wardship was to be held during the minority of | ||
+ | Thomas, who does not, however, appear to have lived many years after the coming | ||
+ | of age. Little further can be found about him, except that he founded the Priory | ||
+ | of Dulton, in Wilts, annexing it, as a cell, to the Priory of Semplingham, | ||
+ | Lincoln.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | As a further reinforcement, | ||
+ | was a lady named Alice, and she apparently married back into the le Zouch | ||
+ | family, when she wed Sir William le Zouche // | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
+ | Hundred is a geographic-political division of land, the " | ||
+ | the number of hides or landholdings (between 40 and 120 acres). )) | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Robert Lisle was summoned to Parliament as Lord Lisle from 1311. Shortly | ||
+ | before his death in January 1342-43 he took religious orders, having previously | ||
+ | in 1339 granted Pishiobury with other manors to his daughters// ALICE, WIFE OF | ||
+ | SIR THOMAS SEYMOUR, //and Elizabeth Perverel for life, with the remainder to his | ||
+ | son John who quitclaimed to his sisters. This grant was apparently made by | ||
+ | Robert for the performance of certain alms. In 1343, however, John obtained from | ||
+ | Alice and Elizabeth a release of the manor for thirty years, with the exception | ||
+ | of certain premises-viz. the house on the left-hand side within the second gate, | ||
+ | which contained two chambers for habitation, and the part of Gedelesho, which | ||
+ | belonged to the Manor, John retaining 12 acres of underwood yearly with profits | ||
+ | from the land called V odeleye and housbote and heybote for the manor, the | ||
+ | keeper of Gedelsho Wood to be chosen with the assent of both parties and to have | ||
+ | his robe from A lice and his livery of corn, &c., from John. John Lord Lisle | ||
+ | died seized of the lease in 1356. After his death, Alice Seymour surrendered | ||
+ | Pishiobury to his son Robert, who was to assist her in the foundation of | ||
+ | charities begun by Sir John for the soul of his father. . . . A William Lisle | ||
+ | granted Pishiobury in March 1392-3 to RichardfirstLord Scrope of Bolton, this | ||
+ | transaction being followed by a quitclaim from Robert Lisle in 1394.// | ||
+ | William Page, //The Victoria County History of the County of Hertfordshire// | ||
+ | (Westminster, | ||
+ | Sawbridgeworth], | ||
+ | Pembroke and William St. Maur v.s. the lands in Woundy (Undy) of Morgan ap | ||
+ | Howell: //Gilbertus Marescallus, | ||
+ | Willo de S. Mauro consilium in quantum potent, secundum leges Angliae, ad | ||
+ | perquirendum manerium de Woundy, de Morgana filio Hueli, tali conditione quod si | ||
+ | praed: Willus dictus menerium perquirere poterit, dictus Gilbertus habebit | ||
+ | medietatem dicti manerii, et aliam medietatemfaciatextendi dicto Willo, per | ||
+ | probos it legales homines ad hoc ex utraque parte electos ita quod pro qualibet | ||
+ | summa 20 L redittus dictus Gilbertus dabit Willa de S. Mauro decem libras. Et | ||
+ | quod idem Willus de S. Mauro teneat medietatem dicti manerii in manusua, donee | ||
+ | inde plenum solutionem, sicut praescriptum est, receperit. Et siforte | ||
+ | contigerit, quod idem Willus de S. Mauro remaneat solutus et quietus de | ||
+ | obligatione, | ||
+ | |||
+ | When Alice Lisle St. Maur surrendered Pishiobury Manor to the son of her | ||
+ | brother, it was probably because of impending old age. Does this mean that there | ||
+ | were no St. Maur heirs to inherit Alice' interest in Pishiobury? | ||
+ | of Pischibury-Pishobury has varied with time: Peyshoo, Pyssoubery, thirteenth | ||
+ | century; Spisshou, fourteenth; Pisshou, sixteenth; Pyssowe, Pishoo, Pishebury, | ||
+ | seventeenth; | ||
+ | Alice that we are left in the dark on this tantalizing subject. After all, the | ||
+ | property was essentially Lisle property, and yet, why was there an exception | ||
+ | made, namely-" | ||
+ | contained two chambers for habitation" | ||
+ | to their brother. The author searched in vain in 1978 for any such phantom | ||
+ | dwelling. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It seems inconceivable that knowledge can exist, slip away, and be lost for | ||
+ | years, only to be rediscovered, | ||
+ | pedigree covering three centuries. It has been the author' | ||
+ | less than one American Seymour in five has any knowledge of his Seymour | ||
+ | background more than six or seven generations back, unless he or she happens to | ||
+ | have been a descendant of Richard of Norwalk, about whom so much has been | ||
+ | researched and written. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Of course, Richard and Mercy knew that they were born in Sawbridgeworth, | ||
+ | Hertfordshire, | ||
+ | generations. Then, the writer believes, ambitious Seymours, flattering their | ||
+ | egos, wistfully contrived to arrange descent from the ducal branch, as a result | ||
+ | of which several generations of Seymours in America were brought up in blissful | ||
+ | ignorance and self-satisfied congratulatory one-upmanship. | ||
+ | |||
+ | How all this came about is explained in the next chapter, wherein a fluke of | ||
+ | research unraveled the mystery of the true origin of Richard Seamer of Norwalk, | ||
+ | and at the same time dashed the images of ducal splendor from the egos of | ||
+ | hundreds of Seymours living in the twentieth century. (As a matter of fact, even | ||
+ | as this is written, many will probably dispute the facts presented herein.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | \\ [[start|(Back to the " | ||
puritan_migration.txt · Last modified: 2018/01/01 18:10 by jims