HARTOM perhaps HARDHAM?

[supermoussi]

A couple called John & Ann HARTOM baptised the following children in Ringmer:-

   Barbara HARTOM bap. 8 Jan 1725
   Sarah HARTOM bap. 28 Jan 1727

Ann died and was buried in Ringmer on 16 Jan 1747 but what became of John I know not. Barbara and Sarah both married in Ringmer as follows:-

  27 Sep 1748 Barbara HARTOM m. Wm TICEHURST
  15 May 1753 Sarah HARTOM m. Tho LEWER of Chiddingly

My questions are:-

 * Was HARTOM really the correct spelling of their name; it hardly occurs at all in Sussex.
 * How likely is it that HARTOM is a variant of HARDHAM, which is much more common?
 * Where did John come from and where did he go?

Thanks 

[Fairmeadow2]

No other HARTOM or similar Ringmer parish register entries than the ones you have, 1605-1900.
In my transcripts two of the entries are HARTUM rather than HARTOM. The Sussex accent put the emphasis on the first syllabus and the vicar or curate, never a local man, usually had to guess the spelling. Spelling wasn't important anyway - the registers have a marginal (index) surname entry and then the main entry later in the line, and the two spellings do not always agree.
Note that Ann's burial is in Jan 1747/8 [they called it Jan 1747, because the year then ended on 25 March, Lady Day, but we would call it 1748 in today's calendar].

John HARTOM was one of the two men nominated to serve as headborough [= petty constable] of Norlington borough, Ringmer, in 1738, 1739 & 1740. This tells you the part of the parish in which he lived. In 1740 he was the man chosen to serve by the steward. The men chosen were always legally settled in Ringmer parish. A working man was usually legally settled in the last parish in which he served a complete year before marriage (a wealthier man could gain a settlement by leasing or buying a farm or large house).

Ringmer has annual views of frankpledge (supposed to list all adult males) for the period 1691-1719. John HARTOM does not appear. He doesn't appear in the earliest surviving Norlington land tax (1748) or our earliest tithe book (1752-3). I've never found is name as owner or occupier in the many Norlington property deeds. We have many settlement records, marriage licences, etc, but no HARTOMs.

[Fairmeadow2]

RINGMER
William TYSEHURST married Barbara HARTOM on 27 Sep 1748

Elizabeth d. William & Barbara TYSHURST bapt. 25 Dec 1748 [quite fast]
William s. William & Barbara TISHURST bapt 10 Aug 1755

a William TISEHURST buried 29 Aug 1762 - could be another W.T., including Barbara's father-in-law
Barbara TISEHURST buried 14 Nov 1762

Quite a lot of TISEHURSTs in Ringmer (various spellings) and Glynde, at different social levels in this period, one a prominent brickmaker in the Broyle (adjoins Norlington borough), another the farmer of the Glynde estate's Home Farm. Others well down the social scale. No coherent family tree known to me.

[Fairmeadow2]

IGI offers baptism of Elizabeth d. John & Anne HARTOM at West Farleigh, Kent, on 1 Apr 1722.

[supermoussi]

John HARTOM was one of the two men nominated to serve as headborough [= petty constable] of Norlington borough, Ringmer, in 1738, 1739 & 1740. We have many settlement records, marriage licences, etc, but no HARTOMs.

Thanks Fairmeadow    When you say "we have many settlement records" who do you mean; E.Sussex RO, Sussex FHS, Ringmer FHS? Is it likely that there are settlement records you haven't looked at that would identify where John HARTOM came from/went to?

Quite a lot of TISEHURSTs in Ringmer (various spellings) and Glynde, at different social levels in this period, one a prominent brickmaker in the Broyle (adjoins Norlington borough), another the farmer of the Glynde estate's Home Farm. Others well down the social scale.

The Glynde TICEHURSTs were relatively wealthy and seem to descend from a Thankful TICEHURST, Yeoman of Burwash (bapt. Burwash 1628 W.P. 1701); Ticehursts from Ashburnham and Burwash rotated many times between each parish and imo it is very likely Thankful was a relatively close cousin of the Ashburnham Ticehursts. I suspect the poorer Ticehursts in Ringmer, including the ones in my original post, also came from Ashburnham but from one of the "junior" lines further back in the early 1600s or even late 1500s, but this is just gut feel really as the records become really patchy back then.

William s. William & Barbara TISHURST bapt 10 Aug 1755

William Ticehurst jnr's first grandchild was baptised BARBARA HARTOM TICEHURST at Willingdon on 12 May 1824, the year before he died. He was buried at Willingdon 25 Sep 1825 aged 70. I'd guess Barbara HARTOM must have been very well respected/loved to have had a great grand child named after her.

IGI offers baptism of Elizabeth d. John & Anne HARTOM at West Farleigh, Kent, on 1 Apr 1722.

I had noticed that one; it is a possibility but how to confirm it? There is also a marriage of a John HARTUM to Susan GNATT at Farningham 2 Aug 1722 on the IGI; Susan could have subsequently been abbreviated to Ann.

There is also supposed to be a will of a John HARDHAM at Chichester in the late 1700s, if memory serves me correct he was an Excise/Customs Officer or similar. I did try to find it when I visited the West Sussex RO but failed; probably got in a muddle as I was trying to do several things at once!

[Fairmeadow2]

Have been collecting Ringmer settlement records for many years!

The main collection are those in the Ringmer parish chest [now in ESRO parish 461].

Another major collection is that (or those) collected by Michael Burchall, mainly from QS records, and also in ESRO and SFHG. These include a Thankfull TICEHURST with a wife Mary and children Thankfull, Mary, Ann, Thomas & John ack by Lindfield to Ringmer 23 May 1727. This certificate was followed by Ringmer baptisms of children of Thankfull & Mary in 1729 (Benjamin), William (1730/1), Timothy (1732), Elizabeth (1734), Sarah (1735/6), Ruben (1738) & Susanna (1739/40). I'm very tempted to add to these Abraham (c.1745-1819), buried at Ringmer Apr 1819 aged 74, who has a nice slate memorial currently fighting it out with a growing tree in Ringmer churchyard (tree is winning). I think this is the only slate memorial in the churchyard, and presumably relates him to the TICEHURST slaters in Lewes in the second decade of the 19th century. Of the children John s. Thankfull was buried at Ringmer 1732, William s. Thankfull in Mar 1730/1, Elizabeth (a child) in Oct 1735 and Ruben in May 1740. Abraham TICEHURST and his wife Elizabeth had children bapt at Ringmer in 1775 (John) & 1778 (Abraham) before Elizabeth w. of Abraham TYCEHURST was buried here in Jun 1779.

We have also collected Ringmer settlement records from a number of other (mainly Sussex) parish collections - sometimes they duplicate those in the Ringmer collection, but often they don't. Most parishes have a larger collection of orders for deportation from the parish than those of deportation back to the parish - which stands to reason, but makes it clear that the surviving records are very incomplete. Other settlement records include apprenticeships and bastardy records.

[Fairmeadow2]

The Glynde TICEHURSTs were higher up the economic scale than most of the others, and they also stayed put. The Glynde Estate has some land in Ringmer, let with Home Farm, so that William TICEHURST appears in various Ringmer tithe and local taxation records. Mt TISEHURST pays these rates and taxes to 1758, the year of his will; then Mrs TYSHURST 1759-1761; and then the farm passes to the famous ELLMAN family.

There are also wills of John TICEHURST of Glynde, yeoman (1745/6) & Abraham TICEHURST of Ringmer, husbandman (1819). The latter refers to two children Abraham and Elizabeth NORMAN, widow, but is witnessed by Joseph TICEHURST of Lewes, slater, whose business survived there until he failed in 1839.

Various Ringmer TICEHURSTs can be identified as brickmakers and carpenters, and like most such tradesmen they moved about, following the work. One Ringmer family at least came to grief in the 18th century.

Ringmer has pretty copious overseers' records. A Dame BRAN was paid £2 3s 0d for keeping Elizabeth TISEHURST 43 weeks in Mar 1761; William TISEHURST was farmed out to two different farmers in Wellingham, Ringmer, 1765-1766, generally at a cost to the parish of a shilling a week, while a James TISHURST was put out to a different farmer at 2s 0d per week up to March 1766; was in the workhouse [James TISORS] in May 1766 and farmed out again in 1772 [at 1 guinea for the year] to one of the same Wellingham farmers who had previously taken William. These look like children of William & Barbara, farmed out after Barbara's death in 1762.

William's brother James (1729-   )could be the James TISEHURST advertising lime for sale from a South Malling chalkpit in the 26 Apr 1773 Sussex Weekly Advertiser. His string of baptisms of children at Ringmer ends in 1769, and he figures in Colin Brent's book 'Georgian Lewes'.

[Fairmeadow2]

Ringmer & Glynde are in the South Malling (Peculiar) Deanery. There is an Apr 1751 administration in their records ESRO/SM/D7-394 for the goods & chattels of Mary FRIEND late of Glynde, "the pretend wife of William TICEHURST" whose goods were committed to her brother John FRIEND. Is this the farmer William TICEHURST?? If so, did he belong to a sect whose marriages were not formally recognised - "pretend" wife's name might suggest the Quakers, who flourished in Lewes at this time.

[supermoussi]

These include a Thankfull TICEHURST with a wife Mary and children Thankfull, Mary, Ann, Thomas & John ack by Lindfield to Ringmer 23 May 1727. This certificate was followed by Ringmer baptisms of children of Thankfull & Mary in 1729 (Benjamin), William (1730/1), Timothy (1732), Elizabeth (1734), Sarah (1735/6), Ruben (1738) & Susanna (1739/40).

A Thankful TICEHURST is listed at Lindfield in the E.Sussex Window & House Tax Assessment in 1747. I don't think the Ringmer one was buried at Ringmer so it looks like he may have returned to Lindfield c.1740-47.

I'm very tempted to add to these Abraham (c.1745-1819), buried at Ringmer Apr 1819 aged 74, who has a nice slate memorial currently fighting it out with a growing tree in Ringmer churchyard (tree is winning).

The children of Thankful TICEHURST (bap.1690 Burwash) of Lindfield & Ringmer are explicitly named in the will of his brother John TICEHURST, Yeoman of Glynde (WP 1746) and there is no mention of an Abraham.

There was a father & son both called Abraham TICEHURST who were born in Ashburnham in 1622 and c.1654. Someone has listed on another forum that there were another 2 generations of Abrahams born at Mountfield, but I haven't checked this out. My guess is that if they are correct the Abraham TICEHURST that appears in Ringmer in the late 1700s is from this Ashburnham/Mountfield line, in other words there are 3 separate TICEHURST lines in the Ringmer registers whose relationship to one another is not known, e.g.:-

Line 1

John TICEHURST m1. Ann MONGER 1646 m2. Joan GOLDSMITH 1656
James TICEHURST bap 1659 Ringmer & Elizabeth APTOT nee. MARTEN (common law marriage?)
William TICEHURST bap 1691 Ringmer m. Ann COTTINGHAM 1713
William TICEHURST bap 1716 Ringmer m. Barbara HARTOM 1748 & his brother James TICEHURST bap 1729 Ringmer m. Ann (unknown)

Line 2

Thomas TICEHURST
Thankful TICEHURST, Yeoman of Burwash bap. 1628 Burwash WP 1701 m. Susanna WOOD
Thankful TICEHURST, Yeoman of Burwash WP 1724 m1. Sarah BINE 1690 m2. Mary (unknown)
Thankful TICEHURST of Lindfield & Ringmer bap 1690 Burwash m. Mary PELLING 1722

(dubious) Line 3

???John "blind" TICEHURST, Yeoman of Bachelors, Ashburnham WP 1590 & Izabell WOODSELL
???John TICEHURST, Yeoman of Winters, Ashburnham WP 1648 & Joan (unknown)
???Abraham TICEHURST, Yeoman of Ashburnham bap. 1622 Ashburnham WP 1671 & Mary (unknown)
???Abraham TICEHURST bap. 1653 Ashburnham/Dallington?
???Abraham TICEHURST b. abt 1691 Mountfield? m. 1718 Mountfield
???Abraham TICEHURST b. abt 1718 Mountfield?
Abraham TICEHURST of Ringmer b. abt 1744 m. Elizabeth (unknown)


In addition twins Lucy & Elizabeth TICEHURST daughters of William & Ann were baptised at Ringmer on 4 Oct 1761. They don't really seem to fit in with Line 1 but could possibly belong to William Ticehurst b.abt 1740 who was another son of Thankful.

There is an Apr 1751 administration in their records ESRO/SM/D7-394 for the goods & chattels of Mary FRIEND late of Glynde, "the pretend wife of William TICEHURST" whose goods were committed to her brother John FRIEND. Is this the farmer William TICEHURST?? If so, did he belong to a sect whose marriages were not formally recognised - "pretend" wife's name might suggest the Quakers, who flourished in Lewes at this time.

I have it noted down that the Sussex Marriage Index lists William TICEHURST of Glynde marrying Mary Friend of Glynde at Tonbridge 30 Sep 1750. They baptised their daughters Mary and Ann in Glynde's C of E church, which is not something Quakers would have done, so I suspect the "supposed" wife comment was some other slur. Perhaps the marriage never took place or she was already married?