Connecting the Hollyman English Lineages, Part 1

by Glenn N. Holliman

Professional genealogist Anne Holmes has been researching the Hollymans of England for almost a decade since she and I met in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Her work exploring the United Kingdom ancestors of most Hollimans in American (numerous spellings since 1650) has been outstanding.

Above, Jeanette Holiman Stewart, keeper of the Hollyman Ancestry.com tree, Anne Holmes, center and beside a Lee tomb, church historian George Lambert in 2013. Entombed in the sanctuary at St. Peter's and St. Paul's in Dinton, Buckinghamshire are the resting places of the Lee families, ancestor's of Margaret Lee Hollyman, grandmother of Christopher Hollyman who migrated in 1650 to Jamestown, Virginia.

Anne's work seemingly climaxed as she guided approximately 30 American cousins in 2019 through Buckingham and Bedfordshire revealing the parish churches and domestic locations of our English fore bearers. She has not ceased her research and in the past year has tried to connect the lineages of the Cuddington, Buckinghamshire Hollymans (from which most American Hollimans descend) with groups of 17th Century Hollymans in Somerset (Bristol) and Worcester.

Above, Holliman cousins at St. Peter's and St Paul's, Dinton, May 2019

This research has been triggered by information provided by Michael Hollyman of Australia who reached out by email to us earlier this year. Michael's ancestry involves both London and Somerset persons and more than a hint of relationships to the Cuddington Hollymans. Anne has picked up these threads and using her time during the global pandemic has researched these connections. What follows are a number of articles concerning her research.

To Michael in Australia, we tip our hats for his sharing of family research and to Anne a continued shout out for her perseverance in exploring the roots of parentage whose DNA we carry. - GNH

Part I by Anne Holmes

My initial search was to look at the London HOLLIMANS to try and link them back to the Cuddington HOLLIMANS and also to look at a possible connection to the Somerset HOLLYMANS also.

Michael Hollyman's possible earliest HOLLIMAN known ancestor was a Richard HOLLIMAN or HOLEMON, a bachelor and Brewers Servant, who married a Mary BROWN in London in 1753. The marriage, recorded in the London Clandestine Marriage Register, noted Richard was from the parish of St. Andrew’s Holborn and Mary from St. Luke’s parish.

St. Andrew's Church in London

Clandestine marriages were a way of circumnavigating church regulations on marriage: one example being the bride or groom being under twenty-one therefore no need for parental consent to marry. The earliest age at which a male could marry at this time was fourteen and a bride twelve (normally with parental consent), but a groom marrying at fourteen was rare. Young men had to have the means in which to support a family if one came along and at fourteen that would have been difficult, even in eighteenth century London.

St. Giles in the Fields, sometimes known as the Poets Church,

is near Covent Garden in London.

These London Clandestine marriages took place in several locations in London including the Fleet Prison Chapel, Kings Bench Prison Chapel, the Mint and the May Fair Chapel. The Hardwicke Marriage Act of 1753 that came into force on 25th March 1754 put an end to the clandestine marriages in these institutions.

A baptism could not be found for Richard in St. Andrews Holborn parish circa 1739 or before. However, there was a baptism of a Richard HOLLMAN in St Giles in the Field, Holborn in 1716, son of William and Mary. A possible candidate for the Richard who married in 1753, but was the Richard born in 1716 a HOLLIMAN or a HOLMAN? The register entry is unclear.

However, looking for a marriage of the parents William HOLLMAN or HOLLIMAN and Mary in London, there were three possible marriages between 1696 and 1700 and in locations not that close to Holborn, so not enough firm evidence to take the family of this Richard back further.

To confuse matters further there was also another Clandestine marriage of a Richard HOLLIMAN of Ealing, Middlesex to a Rachel THORNE of Dinton in 1734. Noting the bride was from Dinton, Buckinghamshire this Richard may be connected to the Cuddington HOLLIMANS. As can be seen, with incomplete information, the London HOLLIMANS at this time are a confusing picture. - Anne Holmes

The stories Anne has composed from her research will continue with the next blog and numerous others. - GNH

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.

The Hollyman English Ancestry Quest 2019, Part 6

by Glenn N. Holliman

Our Fourth Stop – St. Laud’s and the Old Rectory

 Sherington, Buckinghamshire

May 18, 2019

Fortified by lunch, our coach driver took us to Sherington, over the Bedfordshire line into Buckinghamshire.  This beautiful village is filled with lovely gardens and thatched cottages.  

It was here that by 1575, the grand parents of Christopher Hollyman, 1618-1691, lived and raised a family including Thomas Hollyman of Bedford, Bedfordshire, the father of our Virginia immigrant Christopher.  

Alice Holliman Murphy reads about the parish's program of saving wild grass and flowers.  St. Laud's is in the back ground.

These grandparents were named Christopher, 1537-1589, (guess where our Virginia Christopher obtained his name?) and Margaret Lee Hollyman, born abt 1548, death date unknown.  We went through the lychgate (below) and inspected the interior of the church.

Kindly church wardens, below, greeted us and pointed out the interior of the facility where Christopher Hollyman, Sr. served as a warden himself.  We know this as our great grandfather and another church leader complained to the bishop about the indolence of the priest. 

   

   

Left Kathy Joiner (in black) and Dr. Jim Holliman, in glasses, in the chancel of St. Laud with other Hollymans.

                                    

Above genealogist Anne Holmes explained that Christopher and Margaret Lee were born in Cuddington and Dinton, Buckinghamshire and probably moved to Sherington to look after Lee family lands.  The Lees were moving up the English social and economic ladder and the Hollymans peaked also in the 16th Century. 

Probably because of Lee connections, Christopher was made a member of Queen Elizabeth's guard and wore a Tudor uniform similar to those worn by the yeomen at the Tower of London, shown in the photograph. Try to imagine our great grandfather dressed accordingly when mustering the local militia!

The church yard at Sherington most probably holds the remains of my 9th great grandfather, Christopher, named after his grandfather, Christopher Clark of Cuddington, Buckinghamshire. 

Below, nine to eleven generations later the immediate descendants of Walter O. Holliman, 1927 - 2003, gather at St. Laud's on a chilly day in May 2019. 

Before we left Sherington, we stopped at the Old Rectory, no longer where the priest lives and now privately owed.  This 'Old Rectory' was constructed in 1711.  On this site in an earlier rectory, Christopher and Margaret raised Thomas Hollyman, the father of the Christopher who migrated to Virginia in 1650.  Evidently the Hollymans assumed possession of the rectory when the bishop dismissed the errant priest who Christopher, d 1589, had complained about.  Hmmmm.....

There was one more stop on May 18th, the school where Thomas Hollyman, abt. 1581 - abt 1650 attended.