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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 document comprises pages 13-22 of Puritan Migration to Connecticut,
+ISBN 0-914016-85-7, Copyright 1982 by Malcolm Seymour, and published by Phoenix
+Publishing in Canaan, New Hampshire.  It is made available here with permission
+from Malcolm's son, Mike Seymour.//
 ==== Chapter 2: The Norman St. Maurs ====
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 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
-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
@@ Line 84: / Line 91: @@
 "Castles built by the Normans in Normandy were defensive, but in England and
 Wales, were for offensive purposes," says A. E. J. Morris in his article,
-"Norman Castles," in British Heritage. 2 This description fits the experience of
+"Norman Castles," in British Heritage((//British Heritage//, Vol. V, No. I
-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
-"Penhow was never a great battely castle."3
+deduced by Mr. Stephen Weeks, present (1980) owner, when he says: "Penhow was
+never a great battely castle."((BBC broadcast, May 20, 1979.))
 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 of William I and his
+successors to have gained knighthoods, and been given the responsibility for
+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
+married the third daughter of William Marshall, earl of Pembroke. He might
+have acquired this heiress' hand by doing small battle with a Welsh leader,
+Morgan ap Howell, lord of Caerleon. Gilbert Marshall, also earl of Pembroke (of
+the second creation), "conspired with William St. Maur to wrest the Manor of
+Woundy [Undy], from Morgan ap Howell."((St. Maur, //Annals//, p. 11.))
+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:george_dudley|George Dudley Seymour]], in his book with the same title, spends most of the
+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:george_dudley|George Dudley Seymour]] was drawn to Penhow by the strength of the wings, as if it
+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's own fortune and personal labor
+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
+th 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. [<del>Open Good Friday
+to end of September, Wednesdays to Sundays inclusive, 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.
+Telephone: Penhow (0633) 400800</del>. -- //Editor's Note: When I visited
+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's
+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, John Seymour of Sawbridgeworth, who died when his
+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, M.A., the College of
+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's family. Then,
+in Mr. Gwynn-jones's letter of August 25, 1978, he revealed, for the first time,
+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, and the author
+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, and Mr. K. E. Wilson, of 26 Bell Street of the
+same town, a photocopy was sent the author of material published in //The
+Victoria County History of the County of Hertfordshire//, showing the amazing
+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
+. 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's] //first wife had been Eve de Meysi, who had
+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's
+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, in Gloucester, and Eton-Maysi, in
+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, in
+Lincoln.//((Ibid., p. 9.))
+As a further reinforcement, the first female descendant of this Thomas St. Maur
+was a lady named Alice, and she apparently married back into the le Zouch
+family, when she wed Sir William le Zouche //(sic).//
+//Pishiobury Manor in the Fourteenth Century (Braughing Hundred)//((Braughing
+Hundred is a geographic-political division of land, the "hundred" referring to
+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.//((7.
+William Page, //The Victoria County History of the County of Hertfordshire//.
+(Westminster, England: A. Constable and Co. Ltd., 1902-14) [Braughing Hundred,
+Sawbridgeworth], p. 337. Latin text of the agreement between the earl of
+Pembroke and William St. Maur v.s. the lands in Woundy (Undy) of Morgan ap
+Howell: //Gilbertus Marescallus, comes Pembrochiae tenetur praebere. domino
+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, quam dictus Gilbertus fecit super dictum manerium de Woundy.//))
+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?((The spelling
+of Pischibury-Pishobury has varied with time: Peyshoo, Pyssoubery, thirteenth
+century; Spisshou, fourteenth; Pisshou, sixteenth; Pyssowe, Pishoo, Pishebury,
+seventeenth; and Pishiobury, twentieth.)) So little has been published about
+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-"the house on the left-hand side within the second gate, which
+contained two chambers for habitation"-when Alice and Elizabeth gave a quitclaim
+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, especially when one is talking about a family
+pedigree covering three centuries. It has been the author's observation that
+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, and this knowledge must have been passed along for several
+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 "start" page)]]
-[[start|(Back to the "start" page)]]