Fettiplace

Fettiplace is an English family name of Norman descent, with at least 800 years of history. They were landed gentry, chiefly in the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.[1]

Origin

Fettiplace is probably from old French "fâites place" for 'make room', the shout allegedly given by the ushers/bodyguards/protectors of the French Kings and nobility. The name Fettiplace is now largely modernized within the direct descendants as Fetterplace and known as Phetteplaces in the United States.

English family

They are said to have first arrived in England with William the Conqueror. The first notable recorded family member was Adam Feteplace or Fettiplace who was Mayor of Oxford for eleven terms between 1245 and 1268.[2] His family's first estate was North Denchworth in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). Thomas Fettiplace (d. 1442) of East Shefford in Berkshire married Beatrix, widow of Gilbert, Earl Talbot. She was probably illegitimately descended from the Royal House of Portugal.[3] Their youngest son, John, a London wool merchant (d. 1464), became a member of the household of Henry VI and because of his family connections carried the insignia of the Order of the Garter to the King of Portugal.[4] Public service by the Fettiplaces continued during the Tudor and Stuart periods with records showing the knighting of family members during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. During the latter's reign, Sir Thomas Fettiplace of Compton Beauchamp in Berkshire accompanied the King to the Field of the Cloth of Gold to meet the French King, Francis I in 1520. Another Fettiplace accompanied the entourage that escorted Anne of Cleves to England. Anthony Fettiplace of Childrey and Swinbrook (d. 1510), son of John the wool merchant, married the granddaughter of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London;[5] Queen Elizabeth I was thus a cousin of that branch of the family. John Fettiplace of Besselsleigh was an MP in the 1550s. Eleanor, wife of Richard Fettiplace, wrote a 'book of Receipts' in 1604, this is one of the earliest surviving books about food and remains in print. A Fettiplace was the magistrate who arrested Edward Campion.[6] Most but not all family members supported Charles I in the English Civil War and suffered as a result. Some of the early surviving wills of family members are of considerable sociological interest, particularly those of Alexander Fettiplace (1564) and Lady Ann Fettiplace (1651), both of the Childrey and Swinbrook branch.[7] The two triple family monuments at Swinbrook Church in Oxfordshire, with sets of effigies ranged on shelves above each other, are fine examples of English Renaissance and Baroque funerary art.[8] The main landed English branches of the family died out in the early 18th century, but a small number from younger branches remained and do so to this day. The English Fettiplaces have spread over England, the United States, Australia and elsewhere. Among descendants through female lines is the 19th century surgeon William Lawrence FRS.

US family

The US 'Phetteplace' spelling is a result of a mistake dating from Phillip Fettiplace arriving on Rhode Island (Massachusetts) in the 17th century. However, the original line actually arrived in 1607, some 50 years earlier, and helped found Jamestown. However, as adventurers in the employ of John Smith, they returned with him when he was injured in 1609. The current American Phetteplaces therefore are not directly related to the Jamestown brothers, although they do have common ancestors. Two direct descendants of the Jamestown Brothers Fettiplace (now Fetterplace) do live in the United States.

References

  1. ↑ Peter Coss, Knights, Esquires, and the Origins of Social Gradation in England, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6.5 1995. The Family of Fettiplace, J Rentyon Dunlop, 1916 onwards in Misc. Genealogica & Heraldica Fifth series II-III (reprinted in Royal Berkshire History, on line, below)
  2. ↑ Oxford city records, cartularies of Oxford religious houses, especially St. Frideswide’s, St. John’s, Osney
  3. ↑ J. R. Planche in Journal of the Archaeological Association, 1860
  4. ↑ Christopher Hussey in Country Life July 27, 1948
  5. ↑ Franklyn, Charles Aubrey Hamilton, The Genealogy of Anne the Quene, 1977
  6. ↑ Evelyn Waugh, Edward Campion
  7. ↑ National Archives (Documents on line), PRO 11/47 and 11/217
  8. ↑ Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 799–800. ISBN 0-14-071045-0

External links