Westmill

Westmill is a northerly parish in Hertfordshire surrounded by several other parishes, Wakeley, Aspenden, Layston, Braughing, Standon and Great Munden.

Miscellany

Lands called Hammondes in 1521 were so named after a family of HAMOND, whose name occurs constantly in wills, deeds, inquisitions, &c., of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.  This family has died out in Westmill since the beginning of the 19th century.

I was fortunate to discover an old book by Guy Ewing called simply 'Westmill'. The following are extracted from that book.

On the Rectors:

Adam OLYER, whom Chauncy calls Ade ULIER, is mentioned, in a deed of covenance of 1476, as a Trustee in conjuction with, amongst others, John HAMOND, probably one of his parishioners and a member of the ancient family of maltmen of Westmill. He may well have been the son of Thomas HAMOND of Henry VI's Subsidy Roll, and a witness to an ancient deed of 1440, discovered at Cherry's Green, of which more hereafter.

In November, 1552, "Ihon HAMOND of Westmylle" represented the parish when the Commissioners of Edward VI took an Inventory of the valuables, or such as remained, the property of the Church. The last of the HAMMONDS died, of cholera, at the old house, formerly known as Parliament House, in Westmill, in 1849.

On a deed found in a chest at Cherry Green:

William BRAUNCETES, a name now extinct in the neighbourhood, was probably a descendant of the Peter BRAUNCESTRE, who was one of the Jurors at the Inquistio post mortem when Mary Countess of Pembroke died in 1377. The witnesses to the deed were John REYMOND, which establishes the antiquity of the RAYMENT family at Westmill for 500 years at least, Thomas HAMOND, a maltman of Westmill (the first, with Nicholas GREEN of Braughing, whose name has been preserved in the County), and Walter BONDE, a family that as BOND, or BOUND, survived for many generations in the parish.

Comments: this is interesting because it implies that the family had been maltmen for several generations. There are some seemingly unrelated marriages in other parishes where the groom was a HAMMOND and his given profession was brewer. Also one of the larger HAMMOND families to survive until at least the 1881 census was that from Ware. Almost all the males from this family were brewers and are mentioned in several trade directories in the 19th century. We are given more details about cholera in a later quote.

More on Rectors:

The overlordship of Alswick, like that of Anstey and Aspeden, came to the family of FITZWALTER. Their tenant before the middle of the 12th century was Richard FITZWILLIAM, who granted the chapel of Alswick to the Prior and Canons of Holy Trinity, with the whole, or part, of the Manor. This gift was made in the presence of St. Thomas of Canterbury, who was Archbishop from 1162 to 1170, so that the date can be fixed approximately between those years. At the same time, FITZWILLIAM acknowledged the church to be a chapel to the mother church of Layston, the advowson of which already belonged to the Priory. After the dissolution of the Priory in 1531, Lord AUDLEY was granted possession of Alswick as one of Corneybury and Braughingbury, Westmillbury coming to him later on the dissolution of the Abbey of St. Mary de Graces. In 1546 Alswick appears in the hands of William HAMMOND, probably the well-to-do freeholder of Westmill. Salmon says that then it "was purchased by John CROUCH of Corneybury, Esq., in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, HAMMOND passing a fine."

Similarly regarding the dissolution:

That this fate befel them is sufficiently clear from the Report of the Commissioners of November, 1553, which sets out under the heading, "Things don by men dead" that "Sir Henry PARKAR layt of Pellam Knight . . . haiethe Clearlie desolved and puld down the Chappell of Allswike (at Layston) in the said Shiar and haithe sold the Bells lead Tymbre and Stone to Willyam HAMMONDE and Henry GRAVE of Buntingford in the said Countye."

On Gerish's monumental inscriptions from Wakeley Church:

Mr. Gerish made a list of the inscriptions upon most of the stones in the churchyard, but three or four he found to be too much worn to be decipherable. The earliest date is 1706, and there are few in any churchyard of the district much earlier than this. The Holgate stone, near the priest's door, which bears this date, has also the date 1696, and the undecipherable stones are no doubt of the 17th century, possibly of HAMMONDS or ANSELLS, but they may be of the three Rectors, James, Richard, and John TAYLOR, whose resting place is unknown. The only name in the Subsidy Rolls of 1445 which Gerish finds represented among the inscriptions is HAMMOND.

Comments: the Feet of Fines section contains many references to 16th century land and property transactions between the HAMMONDs of Westmill and surrounding parishes, and other local families.

An interesting mention of how the HAMMOND line became extinct:

That the village [of Westmill] was visited by the Black Death we know from the County Records, but we have no evidence that the plague which was only stayed in London by the Great Fire, ever came there, but that the Cholera came in 1849 from London is not only a matter of tradition, but was remebered by persons living until quite recently, and a large C marked against several burials in the Register, is explained by a note saying that they died from Cholera, the ages of the victims ranging from 1 year to 70.

In this connection a letter to her nephew from the late Mrs. FIBBENS, written about 1913, is interesting. Mrs FIBBENS, born 1835, was Harriet JACKSON, and was apprenticed as a girl to Miss DIX, dress-maker of Buntingford, the predecessor of Miss WENHAM. She afterwards became personal maid to the old Marchioness of Zetland, and later on housekeeper at Aske Hall, the Zetland seat in Yorkshire. She married Mr. FIBBENS, the Steward there, and they ultimately retired to their own property in Richmond, Yorks, where they are buried. She died in 1916.

"I have often heard Mother talk about the BELLENDENs, one as you say died from small-pox in the middle room of the Sword-in-Hand. Mr. DURY died while I was at Buntingford, Mr. EWING succeeded him. I plainly recollect Queen Victoria and Prince Albert driving through Buntingford soon after their marriage. They changed horses at the Bell. We were in one of Mrs. PATMORE's windows close by, also quite well recollect the rebuilding of Coles, also the Cholera, that was brought to Westmill by Mrs. HAMMOND's son-in-law and family; they has lived at Widdial, but were going to emigrate, went to London to settle about their passage, caught the cholera and brought it to the village. A great many deaths from that, some went to work in the morning quite well, at night in their grave. I used to sit at my bedroom window at Miss DIX's, listen to the bell tolling, and wonder whether it was for one of us. I was miserable." Mrs. HAMMOND died and so did her son-in-law Mr. HAYDEN and his wife.

The village of Aspenden is approximately H mile north of Westmill and glebe terrier for the village given in 1638 is transcribed here: Aspenden Glebe Terrier

 

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