Worcestershire: Hundy Country 1563 – 1833

Worcestershire: Hundy Country 1563 – 1833 Worcestershire is a county located in the south-west Midlands of England. The county is dominated by the city of Worcester and features several smaller towns and villages such as Kidderminster, Dudley, Droitwich, Evesham, Pershore, and Great Malvern. It was established as an administrative area in its current form when the Saxon kingdom of Wessex was established in the 7th century.1 The Hundy family name is a locational name of Anglo Saxon origin being derived from pre- 7th century English with ‘hund’ meaning dog and a piece of firm land in a fen or marsh. In modern English, this translates to an ‘island frequented by dogs’. It probably identifies a now lost village or unrecorded location.2 The original place is probably in the Worcestershire area due to the prevalence of the name in that county. The parish and public records particularly link William Hundy’s immediate family to Worcester, Defford, Pershore, and Crowle. It’s at these four locations we have records showing marriages, baptisms, employment, and, ultimately, William’s trial and sentencing. The locational derivation of the Hundy name is itself rooted in the Anglo-Saxon period of rule in England prior to the 11th century. It gives no indication of the genetic origins of the Hundy family as some names more closely aligned with specific cultures (such as the Celtic name McDermott i.e. son of Dermot) do. It is probable the family’s lineage reflects the cultural and racial diversity arising from England’s history of invasion and the integration of native Iron Age Celtic populations with successive waves of Romans, Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons), Norseman, and the Normans from today’s France. Whilst the county of Worcestershire was established in the 7th century under Saxon rule, its history of occupation goes back to the time of the Britons of Celtic ancestry, with the Cornavii tribe occupying the lightly wooded landscape of the Neolithic period post 9000 b.c..3 Gradually, the landscape was cleared with the development of hill forts and round houses, enclosed grazing lands, and the farming of crops through to the commencement of the Iron Age around 800 b.c.. After the Roman invasion of 55BC, and ultimate colonisation in 43AD, the Britons were either pushed westward into Wales or co-existed, usually as a subjugated population, with the Roman occupiers.4 The Roman occupation of England was to last for another four centuries until approximately 400AD. The Romans established the province of Flavia Ceasariensis in the area of modern Worcestershire. It is thought that during this time there were only two Roman towns in the area: Worcester (known as Wigorna Castra), a small settlement in Roman time, and Droitwich. Both were important industrial and market centres for the region with Droitwich important for its salt. The rest of the surrounding countryside appears to have been populated by subjugated Britons farming their land, with Roman villas sparsely interspersed around the countryside.5 The Romans suddenly withdrew from Britain in the fourth century in response to internal political disputes and pressure from European tribes in the empires heartland around Rome. The vacuum created by their withdrawal and subsequent loss of stable government and administration was eventually filled in the 6th century by the northern European tribes of the Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Danes. The Saxons occupied most of the south and east of England whilst the Angle Hwicce tribe overran the lands to the north including the Worcestershire region.6 The Hwicc established the Kingdom of Mercia based on the Worcestershire area. It was then absorbed into the West Saxon Kingdom of Wessex which was to continue to battle invading Norseman and Danes until the successful establishment of Danish rule in the second half of the 9th century.7 The Danish invader, Canute, was to then rule as King of all England, which became part of a larger Empire including modern Denmark, Sweden, and part of Norway. In an important strategic move, he married the previous Anglo-Saxon King’s widow thereby continuing the Anglo-Saxon rule over England.8 He also created Wessex as an earldom preserving Worcestershire’s status as a discreet administrative area. The Anglo-Saxon rule over Worcestershire, and wider England, was to be swept away in the Norman invasion led by William of Normandy fifty years after Canute took the throne. The last Anglo-Saxon King was to be King Harold. He led an army against William’s army at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 where his famous death from an arrow through the eye brought down his kingdom.9 The rule of the Anglo Saxons was over. They had established a stable and effective democratic administrative system for modern England and contributed many of the enduring cultural and legal legacies adopted by the Normans still visible today in the language, customs, and place names of England and its former colonies. Over the next four years, Norman rule led to wholesale replacement of the Anglo-Saxon ruling class and traditions including replacing the native language with the use of French and Latin in aristocratic circles. Positions of power were given to Norman supporters as King William set about replacing the existing system and rewarding his allies. The earldom of Wessex was abolished by the Normans along with other administrative areas created by the Anglo-Saxons. This created enormous unrest as England was treated as a province of Normandy and a source of revenue for continental conquests. The English were ruthlessly subjugated under William’s rule amid famine, misery and dislocation. The feudal system introduced under King William meant all land was owned by the state with tenants of the land owing military service or payment of duties, labour, or goods.10 During this time, the Doomsday Book of 1086 was written revealing 28 tenants in chief in Worcestershire with the four major holdings of the church left relatively undisturbed. The church of Worcester was in control of 50,000 acres within which two major manors and their lords are recorded at Crohlea, in the location of modern Crowle. The Abbeys of Evesham and Pershore held about 30 000 acres between them. Medieval Crowle (Crohlea) consisted of the two manors described in the Doomsday records and was occupied by a total of about 80 to 90 people living as a loose community in and around the present- day site of the village. It was comprised of little more than fifteen families and eight slaves with cultivated land, woodlands, and a mill to support them and pay the duties levied by the Norman King William. The main towns of Worcestershire were now Worcester itself along with the smaller towns of Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Halesowen, and Kidderminster. The town manors passed down to various families mentioned in official records throughout the next three centuries. The area enjoyed relative peace and conditions gradually improved with the growth in organised agriculture and an increase in the population. The 14th century however heralded a period of poor harvests and wet summers, resulting in economic downturn and famine. In 1348/49 the ‘Black Death’, or Bubonic Plague, struck England arriving in the Midlands by mid-1349. Whole villages were lost to the ‘Black Death’ as between a third and a half of the total population perished.11 The result was a breakdown in agricultural production due to the loss of labour and expertise, and subsequent famine, social disruption, and poverty. The demand for agricultural labour and the need to bring now vacant lands back into production resulted in a lessening in the feudal ties and obligations of labourers to the lord of the manor. Enclosure of lands for the grazing of sheep increased in response to a lack of labour, further alienating the poor from common lands and exacerbating poverty levels.12 The next six centuries cemented the changes wrought under Norman rule. The throne of the English Kingdom from 1066 to the 18th century was occupied by Plantagenets (1154-1399), the House of Lancaster (1399-1461), House of York (1461-1485), Tudors (1485-1603), and the Stuarts (1603- 1714). These monarchs came from the royal courts of France, Germany, Wales, and Scotland. While the political machinations of England’s monarchy continued to unfold over the centuries, with wars fought over legitimacy to the throne and religious fervour, little was to change in Worcestershire for the labourers and rural workers until the 1500s with the rise to the throne of the Tudors. King Henry VIII’s religious reformation which followed led to upheaval and civil war. Monasteries were disbanded and their wealth and lands re-distributed to benefit the state. Religious persecution of those practising the ‘papist’ beliefs of the ‘Roman church’ increased as the Church of England was established.13 Worcestershire was not immune to the upheaval having considerable lands held in the control of monasteries. In 1535 Henry VIII dismissed the Bishop of Worcester for neglecting his duties leaving the Prior of Worcester the highest-ranking cleric in the area. The dissolution of the monasteries resulted in the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral of Worcester becoming the Lords of the Manor of Crowle Court leaving the lands in the control of the monarchy rather than the Catholic Church.14 Records of the Hundy name first appear towards the end of the Tudor period in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I with the marriage of Joyse Hundye to Richard Pengrye at the Church of Brendon in Worcestershire on the 26th of January, 1573.15 A spelling variation, ‘Hundey’, also appears around this time with the baptism of Elizabeth, daughter of John, in Urchfont in 1563.16 The name is variously spelt as Hundy, Hundey, Hundye, Handey, and Handy, in the public record.

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