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