Quemerford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quemerford is a suburb of the town of Calne in the county of Wiltshire in the South West England region of the UK.

It is home to the fine Public House the Talbot Arms.

Many a child can be found wittling the day away in the Bentley Woods.

The early history of Quemerford and the Quemerford family

Quemerford is one of the ten tithings in the parish of Calne, two miles outside Calne in Wiltshire, about a mile off the main road from Chippenham to Marlborough and 28 miles north-west of Salisbury. It is situated on a branch of the Wiltshire and Berkshire canals, near the River Marden, which passes through Calne into the Avon.¹

 In the mid-19th century, Quemerford had a population of 635 inhabitants.Superscript text2 According to etymologists, the name is derived from the Old English Cynemaeres-ford, meaning the ford at the royal (cyne) boundary (maere) or lake (mere).3 The etymologist Ekwall notes the early variants of the name include Camerford (1204),4 Kemerford (1226-1228),5 Quemerford (1240-1245),6 Cameresford (1292),7 and Quemerforde (1294).8

  Today, Quemerford is part of the town of Calne, which claims to be “of very remote antiquity.” The parish website claims the town has one of the longest histories in Wiltshire. The first recorded mention of the town was in the will of King Edred in 955. Calne was probably laid out as a deliberate settlement during the Anglo-Saxon period, when it was described as a villa regia, meaning a place on crown land. In 977, Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury presided at a synod in Calne to settle a dispute between monks and secular clergy. During the synod, the floor of the chapter gave way, and several secular priests were killed although the monks escaped unhurt.9

 In the Norman Survey, Cauna was a royal demesne,10 and the present Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, standing on the site of an earlier Saxon minster, dates from the 12th century. Saint Edmund of Canterbury was the Rector of Calne when he was elected as Archbishop in 1234. Later, in the reign of Edward I (1274-1307), Calne sent its first members to Parliament. Traditionally the patron of the living was the Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral.11 The manor of Calne belonged to the Cantilupe and Zouche families before passing to the FitzMaurice family, Marquesses of Lansdowne, whose seats included Bowood Park on the outskirts of Calne.11

 A collection of manuscripts kept at Home House, Much Marcle, in Herefordshire, at the beginning of the 20th century, gives some insight into the early origins of the Quemerford family in Wiltshire. These manuscripts originally belonged to the Fynamore or Phillimore family who lived at Whethan Hall, near Calne, and who came into possession of the manor of Comerford or Quemerford in the reign of Henry VII in the year 1504. From these manuscripts, it seems that the first member of the family using the name of Quemerford village as his own surname was Bartholomew de Quemerford, who was living ca 1230-1240. At that time, he granted certain lands and services in Stoke to William the Scrivener (Scriptori) for 10 marks and an annual rent of one penny. The grant was witnessed by Walter de Bachamtune, Gilbert de Finemore, Symon Horn, Will Luvel, Reg Pal, Gilbert de Chelfurst[re], William and Hugh the merchants, Walter the baker, Rob le Limnere, Rich de Ponte, and Will de la Grene, clerk.12

 From other documents in the collection, it would appear that this Bartholomew de Quemerford had at least two children: a son Henry and a daughter Alteneya. Henry, son of Bartholomew de Quemerford, was living ca 1250 to 1260, when he sold a piece of land in Quemerford. The collection includes a manuscript that shows that Henry was paid half a mark for selling to Richard de Leicestre his black chief virgate in Quemerford above Homeputte. The sale was witnessed by a Philip de Quemerford, but there is no indication whether he was a brother or, less likely, a son of Henry. The other witnesses were Walter de Calestone, Nicholas de Cynnoc, Walter de Bachamtone, clerk, Jocelin bailiff of the hundred of Calne, Gilbert de Finemore, Will Luvel, and Will de Calne, clerk.13 Many of these names already appear in the first document as witnesses to Bartholomew’s grant, showing the closeness of society in the Calne and Quemerford area at the time. The term “clerk” indicates a clerk in holy orders or priest, and Will de la Grebe and Will de Calne may have been the same priest. A round green seal was affixed to the document, and although the inscription was effaced, a star and a crescent could be seen at the beginning of this century. A grant involving the “le Escriveyn” family ca 1260-1270 mentions the area of Quemerford. John le Escriveyn of Calne granted to Nicholas son of William le Escriveyn pasture for four oxen above Haylle and in all his other pastures in the community of Quomerford [sic], paying annually one penny.14

 Bartholomew de Quemerford’s daughter, Alteneya, was living ca 1270-1280, when she made a quit claim to William le Escrivyen of a rent of three half-pence from her lands in Quemerford. Instead, she was to receive one red rose each year at the feast of Saint John the Baptist in the vill of Calna, the town of Calne. This William appears to be the same William le Escriveyn and William the Scrivener mentioned in the other documents relating to the family. The transaction, with its romantic allusions, was witnessed by Henry son of Philip and by Walter son of Philip, both of whom I might presume to be the sons of Philip de Quemerford: Henry son of Philip appears at the same time as a member of the family and there is no other description of this Henry son of Philip in a Quemerford family document to distinguish him from a member of the family or from other contemporaries named Henry. The other witnesses of this quit claim were Gilbert de Finemore, Will de Patteford, John the Archer, Walter Sweyn, Roger le Draper, Hugh le Mercer, and John le Masun.15

 At the same time, ca 1270-1280, we find Henry de Quemerford, son of Philip de Quemerford, holding property in the Quemerford area. As Henry Phelip of Quemerford, he paid John Wither 20 shillings for an acre in a field called Yvindona, in the cultivated land called Bremerforlang, in Quemerford. The land was subject to an annual charge of one half-penny, and the sale was witnessed by Sir Roger de Calestone, knight, Roger de Stodlaye, William the Scribe (?le Escriveyn), John and Henry the Archers, Will the Patterford, Henry Barth, Henry Pinnoc and Walter Andrew.16 On 2 February 1272 (i.e., 1273 according to the present calendar), Henry Phelip of Quemerford, William the Scribener and others were witnesses to a lease by the Finemore family to Robert de Rode.17 The lease also mentions that at the time the Rector of Calne was Treasurer of Sarum – the Cathedral of New Sarum or Salisbury had only been completed a few years earlier in 1266, and the Sarum Rite, which was developing at this time in the cathedral, had considerable influence on the liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer.18

  Henry Phelip of Quemerford was still living a decade later, ca 1280-1290, when he was among the witnesses to a quit claim of land involving the Finemore family.19 There are few records after this time of the Quemerford family living in the area around the village from which they took their name. In September 1310, we find the Avenel family leasing lands in Churiel and Quemerford to the Bartelot family,20 and the last mention of the Quemerford family in the area is on 17 March 1344, the Wednesday after the feast of Saint Gregory the Pope, in the 18th year of the reign of Edward III, when Nicholas de Quemerford made a grant at Calne to Robert de Huggerford of all his lands and tenements in Quemerford in return for an annual rent of 20 shillings.21

 After that, the Quemerford family no longer appears in the records, but the name Quemerford continues with the Quemerford or Comerford family in Ireland, associated with counties Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford. In 1353, the name of the village is spelt Kemerford,22 but it is spelt Quemerford again in 1382.23 In 1386, John Blake is living in Quemerford,24 and the Blake family appear to have continued living there for over a century until 1500, when another John Blake granted his capital messuage in Comerford [sic] to Will Raynold of Trourbridge.25 By 1504, Comerford had the status of a manor and on 4 December that year Will Raynalds transferred the manor to Rich Fynamore.26 With this sale, the Fynamore or Phillimore family came into possession of Quemerford, and with it they also acquired the 13th and 14th century documents relating to the village that allow us to trace the early members of the Quemerford family shortly before they moved to Ireland.

1, National Gazetteer (London, 1868), i, p. 454; ii, p. 269. 2, Samuel Lewis, Topographical Dictionary, iii, p. 602. 3, Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English place-names (Oxford, 1936), pp. 359 and 296. 4, ibid, quoting Rotuli de Oblatis et Finibus, Rec Com, 1835. 5, ibid, quoting The Book of Fees, Rolls Ser, 1920-1931. 6, ibid, quoting Salisbury Charters, Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, Rolls Series, London, 1858 ff. 7, ibid, quoting Close Rolls. 8, ibid, quoting Inquisitiones Post Mortem. 9, Lewis (i, 1842), pp. 468-469. 10, National Gazetteer, i, p. 454. 11, Lewis (i, 1842), pp. 468-469. 12, National Gazetteer, i, p. 455. 13, HMC, iv, 1907, pp. 98-99. 14, ibid, p. 99. 15, HMC, iv, 1907, p. 100. 16, ibid, p. 101. 17, do. 18, ibid, p. 102. 19, E.A. Livingstone (ed), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford, 2000), p. 513. 20, HMC, iv, 1907, p. 104. 21, do. 22, ibid, p. 108. 23, ibid, p. 110. 24, ibid, p. 115. 25, ibid, p. 117. 26, ibid, p. 126.