Another Holmes article published

Denwood Holmes wrote me to let me know his new article, “A Black Sheep Redux: The Further Essex Ancestry of John Holmes, Gentleman, Messenger of the Plymouth Court”, has just been published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 173 (Fall 2019):1–9. This is a followup to his earlier article mentioned here, filling in more about my Holmes ancestors in Colchester and Ramsden Bellhouse, Essex. It’s great to see this finally in print. I’ve hesitated to say a lot about the subject before Denwood got it published, since the research is pretty much entirely his.

Denwood originally was going to write a single article, but the editor wanted it split into two. I was rather surprised said editor wanted the discussion of the will of Priscilla Stephens held for the second article, because to me that will is what clinched the argument that John Holmes, son of Thomas Holmes the maltster of Colchester and John Holmes of Plymouth were one and the same. Priscilla was born Priscilla Middleton, daughter of Robert Middleton and Margaret Reynold; Margaret’s sister, Ann, was wife of the Thomas Holmes who came to Colchester from Ramsden Bellhouse in the 1530s or 1540s. Priscilla must have been quite old when she wrote her will in 1626 in which she makes a bequest to “My old cousin Holmes his wife”. That “old cousin” is presumably Thomas the son of Thomas and Ann, and since the bequest is to his wife this probably means he’d died by then. This is the only evidence we have regarding his death date. In the same will “my cousin Thomas Mott and my cousin Thomas Holmes” are named overseers of her estate, and here she must be talking about Thomas the maltster, father of John, who was of course still living at that point. Thomas Mott was Priscilla’s nephew (“cousin” in the archaic sense of any relative more distant than immediate family), son of Robert Mott and Priscilla’s sister Anne Middleton.

She mentions numerous other Motts as well, and “My cousin Shirley and his wife”, that being James Sherley and Mary Mott (daughter of Thomas’s brother William) — and that’s the interesting part, because James Sherley was one of the financial backers of the Plymouth colony, and when questions arose regarding his donation of cattle to the colony, who corresponded with Sherley to clarify his intentions? John Holmes of Plymouth, who was, if he was the same man as John of Colchester, Mary’s third cousin.

The other interesting set of documents discussed in the article are records from the manor house of Downham Hall, the next village over from Ramsden Bellhouse, for the time period 1503–1521 and 1537-1555. The Holme(s) surname crops up several times and it looks as though we have the following:

There were two men named William Holme(s). One, who had died by 1506, had a wife named Isabell and was a tenant at Giffords, probably the same property as one of that name held by Sir Edward Tyrell at the time of his death in 1442 and likely inherited first by Edward’s nephew Thomas and then by Thomas’s son Humphrey, whose name appears alongside William Holme in the fine of 1499. The other seemingly was alive in 1509 but dead by 1511 leaving a widow, Elizabeth, and he’s referred to as William Holmes of Ramsden Bellhouse. My inference is that he was the one who acquired the property in 1499, and it seems an attractive speculation that he was son of William of Giffords. The Downham records show William and Elizabeth had a son John, who likely is the same man referred to in the 1514 will of Thomas Holme of Ramsden Bellhouse as his brother, and in several court records as a defendant in suits for debt, where he’s described as a tailor. In one of these suits the creditor was Michael Dormer. John inherited property in both Ramsden Bellhouse and Downham. Interesting, then, that the Thomas Holmes who went to Colchester was a tailor, and that he sold property in Downham, Ramsden Bellhouse, and Ramsden Crays to John Dormer, son of Michael Dormer. This seems to strongly suggest Thomas was John’s son. Unfortunately there aren’t any documents known (yet) that tell us anything about John’s wife or children, if any.

Hence the question marks in this chart:

Holmes family of Essex

We don’t know where either William Holme(s) came from. Perhaps they became connected with the Tyrell family as a result of the London inquisition post mortem for Sir Edward, where one of the jurors was the grocer Thomas Holme. Perhaps the early 16th century partnership between John Helion and William Holmes of Great Waldingfield, Suffolk was indicative of a more general Helion-Holmes relationship in that area, and some Holmes accompanied Isabel Helion when she married Humphrey Tyrell, and became their tenant farmer. Or perhaps neither; both scenarios are entirely speculative. So far nothing concrete’s turned up, but there are always more records to look at.