The Cammocks

1 THE CAMMOCKS by Victor S. Cammock 2 “Honour and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honour lies. Fortune in men has some small difference made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.” From Memoirs of the Camocks of Co. Down by F. O. Fisher. (FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION) BOOK NUMBER CD Version Digitally printed by Computer Print & Design Onekawa, Napier, New Zealand. Binding by New Life Bookbindings Greenmeadows, Napier, New Zealand. July 1999 3 The CAMMOCK FAMILY HISTORY 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents 4 Preface 6 1610 Map of Carlisle & Cambeck 8 The English/Scottish Border 9 Camboglana, The Romans and the Invading Hordes 9 William the Conqueror, and Scotland is Born 10 The Border, Half-English Half-Scottish 13 Alfred Cammock - Askerton Castle 13 England v. Scotland 14 Carlisle Castle 17 Bannockburn - Scotland’s High Point 18 Feuding on the Border 19 Map - Carlisle, Kirkcambeck, Askerton Castle, etc. 21 Naworth Castle, Cumberland 23 Dual Personality of the Reiver 24 Summary 28 The Parish of Kirkcambeck 29 Askerton Castle 31 Lanercost Priory 33 Border Families Dispersed 35 Memoirs of the Camocks. Volume I by F. O. Fisher 37 Principal Abbreviations 38 F. O. Fisher’s Preface 39 Pedigree I. 42 Chapter I. 43 List of Lands held by Robert Camock 45 Robert Cammock’s House 47 Layer Marney Tower and Church 49 The Cammock Monument in All Saint’s Church, Maldon 51 Cammock Coat of Arms 53 Pedigree II. 54 Chapter II. 55 Table A Showing Connections between Families 56 Table B 58 Pedigree III. 60 Table C 62 Table D 64 Maldon 65 Pedigree IV. 68 Chapter III. The Descendants of Lord Riche’s Daughter 69 Pedigree V. 77 Chapter IV. The Descendants of Ursula Cammock 78 Ireland 89 Queen Elizabeth and the Ulster Plantation 90 Map of Co. Antrim and Co. Down 92 5 Chapter V. Continuing the Descendants of Ursula Cammock 98 Table E 99 George and Mary go to Ireland 100 Table F 104 Table G 106 Table H 110 Pedigree VI. 115 Admiral George Camocke 117 Extracts from Memoirs of the Camac’s of Co. Down by William M. Camac 119 Thomas Cammock of Comber & Maralin 120 Camac’s Pedigree IV, (Camock Pedigree VII) 121 Further Descendants of Thomas Cammock & Janet Cunningham 141 Pedigree of Descendants of George & Mary Cammock 142 James Cammock 144 Map of Newtownards, Bangor, Comber & Drumhirk 145 Prosperity, Revolution, Reaction 153 Newtownards 1864 160 Movilla Graveyard 164 The Cammocks of Drumhirk 166 Alexander Cammock and Esther Kelly 173 Emigration to New Zealand 177 The first N. Z. born Cammock 182 The Karamu Plains, Borrowing for Growth 184 Schooldays and Life on the Karamu Plains 187 Alexander the Contractor 189 Waipawa 190 The Hungry Eighties and Bankrupted 191 The move to Maharahara 192 The Family Home 199 Bushfires, Grass and Crops, Sheep Farming, Dairy Farming 200 Religion 206 Social Life and Pioneering 207 Esther’s Death 208 The Children and Grandchildren 209 Alexander, the first child 209 Francis (Frank), the second child 210 James, the third child 211 David, the fourth child 213 Mary Jane, the fifth and first New Zealand born child 213 Charles, the sixth and first New Zealand born male child 216 Henry, the seventh child 218 William, the eighth child 220 Catherine, the ninth child 220 Isabella, the tenth child 221 John, the eleventh child 221 Edward, the twelfth child 223 Acknowledgements 225 6 PREFACE Like most family names, Cammock has been variously spelt throughout its history. This is reflected in the text of the different sources used in this book. Doctor William Camac was born in America in 1829. In his adult years he became keen to add to the meagre information he had about his ancestors across the Atlantic. In 1885 some valuable old family papers came to light after nearly fifty years in oblivion. These inspired him to attempt to piece together a more detailed history of his family. When in London in 1891, he gained the interest of the Librarian of the British Museum, Mr. J. O’Brien, who agreed to research the name. Later he interested his brother, John Camac, who lived in France. The latter’s enthusiasm resulted in the engagement, through the British Museum, of Mr. F. O. Fisher to search parish registers, deeds and subsidy rolls, to determine the origins of the family. The results of Mr. Fisher’s work were published at his own expense in a book entitled The Camocks of County Down, Vol.1. in 1897, but ending with the year 1737. Mr. Fisher passed on all the necessary information to Dr. Camac for Volume II, but it was never published. However, William Masters Camac, Dr. William Camac’s son, later took Mr. Fisher’s book, condensed it, and then added to it the remaining part, from 1737 to 1913. This he published as Memoirs of the Camacs of Co. Down, with some Account of their Predecessors, In One Volume, by William Masters Camac. Only twenty five copies of this book were printed and fifty of F. O. Fisher’s. The writer has been fortunate in obtaining a copy of both books, and they will be referred to at a later stage. The English/Scottish Border from page 8 to page 36, covers the origins of the Cammock family, and the turbulent times on the Border. At a later stage Alexander and Esther go back to the Border, after they leave Ireland, and before they come to New Zealand. The English section is dealt with by the Memoirs of the Camocks by F.O.Fisher, from page 36 to page 88. In this section, Frank Fisher’s book has been copied completely. His extensive notes have been inserted into the text, rather than at the bottom of the page in the original book. He 7 supplies an amazing amount of detail which gives the family a unique family history. Some recent photographs have also been added. The Irish section. Continuing with the Memoirs of the Camocks by F. O. Fisher on page 64 it says, ‘Having followed the fate of Robert Cammock the younger and that of his ill-starred son, we now turn to pursue the fortunes of his brother George, whose life was so influenced by his powerful relatives, as to render a perusal of their history an essential preliminary to his story.’ The story continues with George settling at Ballymoney and dying there in 1610. A grandson, Thomas, later settles at Comber. Thomas’s children grew up at Comber, and remained there until one of his grandsons married Margaret Johnston, who induced her husband and his relatives to migrate from Comber. It was this branch of the family that changed its name to Camac. Here extracts from the ‘Camac’ book graphically show the huge financial and social gap between the two branches of the family. Fisher concludes that his work would have been more complete, but for the loss of the parish registers of Layer Marney, Layer Bretton, Butterwick, Epworth, Ballymoney, and Comber. While Newtownards Church of Ireland records were still available when Frank Fisher’s book was written, these too were destroyed in Dublin in 1922. The section from page 141 to page 176 tells of the research into the Drumhirk family. It has not been possible to obtain absolute proof of the relationship between this family and the family at nearby Comber. The reader is left to assess this for themselves. New Zealand This section covers Alexander and Esther Cammock and their first four children’s arrival in pioneer New Zealand in March 1867. From Napier they worked their way south, finally reaching Maharahara, Southern Hawkes Bay, in 1885. Here they carved out a farm from the virgin bush. This part is followed by a brief account of their children and grandchildren, the ancestors of an extensive New Zealand family. Vic. Cammock Reiri Road R. D. 1 Dannevirke N. Z. 30th July 1999 8 The Original Home of the Cammocks OLDE MAP OF CUMBERLAND - by JOHN SPEDE - ANNO DOMINI - 1610 Shown Kirk Cambeck or Cammock (original home of the Cammocks) Askerton Castle, home of Alfred de Cammock, when in 1157 it was confiscated by Henry II, and granted to Sir Hubert de Vallibus (or de Vaux). The Roman Wall Lanercost Priory Netherby, home of the Grahams, and a close association with the Cammocks 9 THE ENGLISH/SCOTTISH BORDER Camboglana, The Romans of Gaelic/Celts whose original territories and the Invading Hordes ranged from Lancashire in the south, 40 AD - 400 AD - 1,000 AD northward to the south bank of the River Clyde in Scotland. It was on a line from the Tyne to Solway Firth that the Romans built their defensive wall. They had been unable to conquer the fiercely independent tribes in the north. In 400 AD, nearly 400 years after they first arrived in Britain, the Romans withdrew. The Celtic Britons who had been conquered by the Romans were left alone to fight off the invading hordes of heathen Angles and Saxons. On the Border at Camboglana, from 400 AD to 900 AD, their territory was overrun firstly by the Irish Gaels, then the Angles from the east, and finally the Picts and Dalriadans from the north. A Roman Cavalry Officer ‘When the great force of the Roman Empire attacked Britain 2,000 years ago, its mighty army was stopped just short of a place named “Camb-bogh-gan”, by the Roman Trade Ships first inhabitants, and the Romans renamed it Camboglana. It is now Cambeck and Cammock, corruptly. The nature of the However their basic culture remained soil and form of the place caused the first relatively undisturbed.

Load more