The Skidmore and Scudamore Families of Frampton Cotterell, Gloucestershire 1650-1900
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Skidmore (Scudamore) Families of Frampton Cotterell Linda Moffatt © 2012 THE SKIDMORE AND SCUDAMORE FAMILIES OF FRAMPTON COTTERELL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 1650-1900 This file was last updated by Linda Moffatt on by Linda Moffatt © 2012 4 January 2015. To protect the privacy of living descendants: individuals born after the 1911 census are not included, no marriage details are given after 1911 - unless with express permission of descendants. Please respect the authors' contribution and credit the source if you quote from this material. The material is to be used for private research only. Please report omissions or errors to Linda Moffatt via [email protected] INTRODUCTION The origin of the Frampton Cotterell Skidmores in Westerleigh. The first account of this family was written by Warren Skidmore in 2006. After its publication on our website much more material has become available. Warren is presently writing an account of the ancient Gascelyn land held at Frampton Cotterell and Westerleigh from Peter Escudemore of Upton Scudamore, Wiltshire, in which he describes its transfers from the 14th century onwards. I have in the extended essay below picked up the story in the early 17th century. Gascelyn’s lands at Frampton Cotterell and Westerleigh descended to Sir Thomas Seymour who died at Frampton Cotterell on 23 April 1627. An inquest post mortem taken at Thornbury on 31 July 1628 shows that he died owning the manor called “Gaslings” alias Frampton Cotterell. The messuages, cottages, closes, meadows, pastures (as well as the advowson of the church) are named but nothing is said about the tenants. Seymour’s small holding in Westerleigh (now shown as 20 acres of pasture) is also mentioned. Nothing is said about the tenant who held it, but it might possibly have been James Skidmore (ca.1565-1629), a substantial yeoman like his father, who had a farmstead at Ashbury at the time of his death (about two years after Seymour died).1 Ashbury was a hamlet close to Frampton Cotterell but is now lost as a place-name.2 The eldest Skydmore son and heir in each generation had probably held this freehold farm at Brownfield in Ashbury. The younger sons, as always, were forced to either negotiate a leasehold from the lord of the manor, to learn a useful trade in the parish, or better still to be apprenticed to a tradesmen in the cities which offered the very best opportunity for advancement. Many of the sons left Westerleigh for Bristol, went up to London, or off to Ireland or New England, and at a still later date to Australia. The likely origin in Westerleigh parish of the Skidmores found in the late 17th century in Frampton Cotterell parish is described below. I have, with Warren's blessing, revised parts of his 2006 piece and taken it forward to include people born up to the time of the British census of 1911. The account would not be nearly so complete without the labours of the late John Hunt of Potton, Bedfordshire who acquired most of the raw material long before the days of the Internet. We are also indebted to Mrs Kathleen Skidmore who turned up many of the records noticed here on the London families. 1 Warren Skidmore, unpublished. 2 It survived until at least 1830 when it appears as a knoll in the Ordnance Survey map with coordinates at 156-682(812). It may have been formerly reckoned as a part of Mayshill. 1 Skidmore (Scudamore) Families of Frampton Cotterell Linda Moffatt © 2012 The use of the surnames Skidmore and Scudamore in the Frampton Cotterell families. The families using the parish church of St Peter's, Frampton Cotterell were baptised, married and buried with the surname Scudamore until mid-1841 - the burial register clearly shows the switch between May 1841 (at the burial of Ann Scudamore) and August 1841 (at the burial of Lucy Skidmore). This coincides with the first British census to list all members of a household, taken on 6 June 1841, at which families in Frampton Cotterell, Winterbourne and Bristol were enumerated as Skidmore. In the early years of the 19th century when Frampton Cotterell boys were apprenticed, their surname was recorded as Skidmore. The descendants of our Frampton Cotterell families using St Michael's church in Winterbourne (first entry 1792) are always found as Skidmore, as are those who moved to work on the Gloucester docks, the coal mines of Monmouthshire, the ironworks in Bristol and those who became hatters in Southwark, London. This suggests strongly that the Frampton Cotterell families were known as Skidmore but were recorded up to 1841 by custom as Scudamore by the clergy of St Peter's. Some families from Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne moved into Bristol during the 1840s and were initially boot and shoemakers - see descendants of Pinnell Skidmore [21] and of Daniel Skidmore [23]3. Certain of the descendants of Daniel [23] later used the surname Scudamore on an 'everyday basis', some from as early as the 1850s, others from as late as the 1890s. Details can be found in the text and on the family tree which accompanies this account. It seems that brothers from a single family adopted the surname at different times, at least as far as can be judged by the names they gave to census enumerators - see the sons of Luke Skidmore [49]. In fact, Luke's son Daniel Skidmore in his will (proved in 1876) named as one of his executors his brother George Scudamore. The first Skidmores in Frampton Cotterell parish. Skidmore families are found in the neighbouring parish of Westerleigh as early as the 15th century though the earliest mention of Skidmore residing in Frampton Cotterell does not occur in the parish registers of St Peter's there until the 1680s. Edward Skidmore was buried on 11 January 1682/3 at Frampton Cotterell and his widow Sarah (née Atwood) followed on 27 December 1688. A younger Edward Skidmore and William Skidmore, presumably brothers or cousins, were raising their families in Frampton Cotterell during the 1690s and 1700s. We presently have no evidence of the occupation of Edward Skidmore but we know that William Skidmore was a feltmaker at Frampton Cotterell when on 19 June 1699 he was a bondsman at the marriage of Richard Prior, a feltmaker of Stoke Gifford, and Elizabeth Hollister of Frampton Cotterell (a couple who intended to marry at Augustine the Less, Bristol). We know that the art of feltmaking existed in the Westerleigh family in the late 17th century. Robert Skidmore (1640-77) was apprenticed on 26 March 1655 to Abraham Read, a citizen and weaver of London, for a term of seven years. He was admitted a freeman in the Weaver’s Hall on 8 December 1673 and lived in the parish of St Olave’s, Southwark. His son Robert, baptized 22 January 1664/5 at St Olave’s 'the son of Robert and Susan Skidmore' is presumably the Robert Skidmur of London, a member of the Company of Feltmakers4 who took the Association Oath in 16965. He had died there before 10 January 1711/2 when the administration of his estate was given to his widow Jane. 3 The male heads of the households described below are given code numbers which enable them to be easily tracked through this account. These codes match those in the master databases of birth, marriages, deaths and censuses produced by the Skidmore/ Scudamore One-Name Study. 4 The Worshipful Company of Feltmakers. The first reference to Feltmakers is in London in 1180. In 1269 the Cappers became officially established. Hurers made shaggy caps and in 1311 the Hatters were active. The Hurers and Cappers amalgamated with the Hatters and then merged with the powerful Haberdashers in 1502. Many feltmakers were already members of the Haberdashers and, as the Haberdashers controlled the retail outlets and the raw materials, this unification seemed sensible. The Feltmakers were the only group to survive in name and became synonymous with hatters and is today the Livery Company of the hatters. From www.feltmakers.co.uk 5 Oaths of allegiance were used to secure the loyalty to the sovereign and to help identify potential opponents. They were relatively common in in post-Reformation and revolutionary England. Association Oath Rolls for City of London Livery Companies followed the discovery in 1696 of a plot to assassinate William III. A transcription of the Association Oath Rolls for the City of London Livery Companies are now available on British Origins. This dataset contains the names of over 21,500 members of 77 livery companies. It is likely that for most Companies the great majority of members would have signed the Oath Roll. 2 Skidmore (Scudamore) Families of Frampton Cotterell Linda Moffatt © 2012 At present, the Skidmore/ Scudamore DNA Project has obtained genealogical DNA evidence from only three male descendants of Frampton Cotterell residents. These three DNA results match each other but do not match those from descendants out of the adjoining parish of Westerleigh. The three participants all descend from one man - Daniel Skidmore FCL[11]. Daniel [11]'s first wife died in 1769 which suggests his birth was around 1740-1745. His baptism as Skidmore or Scudamore has yet to be found and Warren Skidmore has tentatively suggested he is a son of Daniel [5]. When more men of Skidmore/ Scudamore descent volunteer to take part in our DNA study, it is possible that we will be able to establish that Westerleigh and Frampton Cotterell Skidmores are indeed 'genetic cousins'. Feltmaking and hatmaking in Frampton Cotterell. Feltmaking and hatmaking was already well-established in the area, in London and elsewhere.