The Hollyman English Ancestry Quest 2019, Part 13

by Glenn N. Holliman

10th Stop

Dinton, Buckinghamshire, England

May 19, 2019 

Discovering Our English Surnames  -
Lee, Thomas and Yates!

A few miles from Cuddington, Buckinghamshire is the parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul located in Dinton, sometimes called Moreton. Here from the late 1400s was the home of an up and coming family called the Lees.  Their manor house is gone, but the church holds the remains of Francis and Elizabeth Thomas Lee, my generations 11th great grandparents, the grandparents of Margaret Lee Hollyman who married Christopher Hollyman, d 1589 of Cuddington.

As genealogists know tracking the lineage of the matriarch of a family is often difficult due to the lack of legal records, such as a will.  Not so with our Lee family, whose star continued to rise into the 17th century whilst that of the Hollyman branch (which included Christopher Hollyman, 1618-1691) would begin to fade, economically and socially.

Above a stone wall protects the grounds of St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Dinton.

Below Looking into the nave, reveals the massive interior of the church, a much grander facility than St. Nicholas in Cuddington, reflecting the larger wealth of the community and the Lee family.  Here we descendants of the Lees inspected the medieval structure on a Sunday afternoon.

Above a substantial arch provides the entrance to the sanctuary. 

Below embedded in the sanctuary (pictured above) are brass effigies of Francis (1506-1558) and Elizabeth Thomas Lee (1506-1558) reflecting their considerable status in the community.  They both were born and died in the same years.  Note the clothing of the Tudor era, undoubtedly the couple's finest.

Historians report a serious epidemic across England in 1558.  That same year in Cuddington, Thomas Hollyman died, the father of Christopher (d 1589) who married Margaret Lee. Also dying that year was one of our great uncles, The Rt. Rev. John Holyman (see earlier blog) and Queen Mary Tudor, but she probably of cancer.  

This couple had a son named Thomas Lee (abt 1531-1572) who married Ursula Yates (1531-?).

Thomas and Ursula, my generation's 10th great grandparents, gave birth to Margaret Lee (1548-1639?) and other children.

Margaret Lee married Christopher Hollyman (d 1589). According to one Ancestry site, Margaret lived much longer, dying in Bedford, Bedfordshire, one suspects in the home of her son, Thomas Hollyman.  Was our American immigrant, Christopher Hollyman, named after his grandfather, present at Ursula's passing?  Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691) died in Isle of Wight, Virginia.

As proof that Hollymans remained in this part of Buckinghamshire into the 20th Century is the name of F. Hollyman who died in World War I.  This monument stands at the gated stone entrance to the church grounds.

Next we ventured to the Hartwell House, Home of Margaret's nephew, Thomas Lee, d. 1626.