Source: Facebook

ANCIENT FAMILY HISTORY IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT WAS HANDED DOWN.

(family history nonsense)

Growing up we were told that our most distant ancestor had some crime or other that he apologized for, and gave money to Mont St Michelle. That wasn’t true at all. He merely gave witness to the legal proceedings. Fun with the “telephone game” of family history.

The other was that one gave all his possession to a monastery. But of course, that’s what you did when you joined one.

(Not that a am really sure of anything prior to 1350. Nor is anyone else for that matter. I’m still trying to get hold of something I can trust between the time the family disappears from the south of england, and … it sure looks like, moves north and then west. Always have property. Seems they were always literate. My ‘intuition’ tells me there was a little fortune seeking military nonsense going on in scotland and that this maybe didn’t turn out as they’d hoped, and resettled in the west.)

This is the other axis I want to check. But I don’t think we can distinguish that clearly yet:

THE HUSMERAE

The Husmerae were a tribe or clan in Anglo-Saxon England, possibly forming an early settlement of the Hwicce subkingdom. The Husmerae settled on the banks of the River Stour, prior to 736.[1] They probably took their name from Usmere, a pool on the boundary of Wolverley whose name in preserved in Ismere House in Churchill, Worcestershire.[2]

The tribe is mentioned only in the Ismere Diploma of 734, and subsequent charters relating to the same property until 964, when Usmere occurs on the boundary of Cookley in Wolverley.[1][3] This charter was for the foundation of a coenubium (minster). That minster was probably at Kidderminster, quite probably occupying the site of the parish church there.[4]

Although the Husmerae may have been of West Saxon origin, settling into the area some time after the West Saxon defeat of the Britons at the Battle of Dyrham in 577, the Ismere Diploma suggests that Husmerae is the ancient name for area, although uncertainty over its provenance leave the origins of the name open to question [5]

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HWICCE

Hwicce (Old English: /ʍi:kt͡ʃe/ [hw-eek-chay]) was a tribal kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham. After 628, the kingdom became a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result of the Battle of Cirencester.

The Tribal Hidage assessed Hwicce at 7000 hides, which would give it a similar sized economy to the kingdoms of Essex and Sussex.

The exact boundaries of the kingdom remain uncertain, though it is likely that they coincided with those of the old Diocese of Worcester, founded in 679–80, the early bishops of which bore the title Episcopus Hwicciorum. The kingdom would therefore have included Worcestershire except the northwestern tip, Gloucestershire except the Forest of Dean, the southwestern half of Warwickshire, the neighbourhood of Bath north of the Avon, plus small parts of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and north-west Wiltshire.[1][2]

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ABBEY OF MONT ST. MICHEL, FOR BENEDICTINE MONKS, IN THE DIOCESE OF AVRANCHES.

[Original Charters in Archives of La Manche, (fn. 1) and in private hands; Cartulary in Public Library of Avranches, No. 210. (fn. 2) ]

[? 1085–1087.]

(Original in archives. (fn. 46)

Trans. Vol. II.

fo. 247.) 718. Charter of William (Wilgelmus) son of Hugh de Silliaco. For forgiveness of all the misdeeds of himself, his predecessors and his successors, he grants in the time of William (Wilgelmi) king of the English, of Hoel bishop of Le Mans, of Ubert the vicomte and of Geoffrey de Mayenne (Mahena), to the monks of St. Michael, for the brotherhood and the prayers of St. Michael and the monks his servants, all the dues on his land of the monks’ demesne [to be enjoyed] as their own in peace, Ralf the monk and Andrew receiving them, on behalf of that house with a green branch of thorn (cum spine viridi ramo), Oldeburga (sic) allowing the gift on behalf of (loco) his other sons and accepting the benefits [of brotherhood] for them.

Testimonio Willelmi de Vernico, et Amelini forestarii, et Berardi de Silliaco; Warini filii Rogeri; Radulfi de Dolieta; Erberti de Orca; Thebaldi capellani; Droconi[s] de Sancto Christoforo; Fulconi[s] Droardi, etc.