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Our Second Stop – St. Mary’s Parish,
The 17th Century Church of the Thomas Hollyman Family
The 17th Century Church of the Thomas Hollyman Family
Now Re-purposed as the Albion Archaeology Centre
Bedford, Bedfordshire
May 18, 2019
Approximately 3/4ths mile south of St. Peters de Merton, across the River Ouse, is St.
Mary’s Church which is one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Bedford. Even before the 1066 Norman Conquest there
was a church on this spot. The four-stage
tower has been a major landmark to travelers for more than one thousand years.
It
may have been founded by King Alfred the Great’s son, Edward the Elder, circa
915, when Bedford was a key stronghold in the Viking wars. For fifty generations it was the center of
community life. Tens of thousands of town folk were baptized, married and
buried here, including our Hollyman families.
In
the 12th Century a hermit took up residence in the Church for whom
King Henry II made a grant of a penny a day for food which was passed to the religious recluse under his cell door.
Who were the children of
Thomas and Helena Hollyman?
Genealogist Anne Holmes provides this
information:
John
Holliman, 1610-1645
Ellenora
Holiman, 1612-1612
Jone
or Jane Holliman, 1613-?, m. Barnabas Crash in 1631
Thomas
Hollyman, 1616-?
Christopher
Hollyman, 1618-1691 (d. in Virginia)
Judith
Holliman, 1621-? (d. in Virginia)
Eleanor
Hollyman, 1623-?
Stephen
Hollyman, 1625-? (Member of John Bunyan’s Meeting House)
Mary
Holyman, 1628-?
All
the children were baptized at St. Mary’s and records indicate Ellenora and John are buried in the church cemetery. Eight children grew
to adulthood, unusual for the time when infant and childhood deaths were
common.
Below, across from the now Albion Centre (St. Mary’s Church) on Cauldwell Street is a digital internet
company, as a representation of 21st Century as one can get. The Blue Boar Inn would have stood where the two buildings meet. This is where Christopher Hollyman, our American founder, first saw the light of day.
In the 1800s, Cauldwell Street looked as drawn below. St. Mary's Parish is at the end on the street. On the right would have stood the Blue Boar Inn, where now late 20th Century buildings, as pictured above, fill the block.
On this site in 1618, Christopher Hollyman was born at a tavern and inn known
as the Blue Boar.
He was the fifth child and
third son of Thomas and Helena, and along with his sister Judith he would leave
Bedford at age 32 and immigrate to America.
For a detailed family tree
of the Hollymans of England (and tens of thousands of other Hollymans and
associated families) visit the Ancestry.com site: Hollyman Tree, created and maintained by Jeanette Holiman Stewart. Jeanette has entered over 52,000 Hollyman
names (many spellings) and works closely with Anne Holmes to fine tune our
English ancestry. Jeanette’s email
address is Htreekeeper@gmail.com.
Next blog, more on St. Mary's, the Albion Centre, Thomas Hollyman, his life, and the forces that may have led to his son, Christopher, immigrating to American in 1650.
Next blog, more on St. Mary's, the Albion Centre, Thomas Hollyman, his life, and the forces that may have led to his son, Christopher, immigrating to American in 1650.
