Hi, Everyone,
Recently I have had a bit of a search through what is available at the Essex Record Office on their excellent SEAX website and have come across the frequent mention of "The Manors of Great Burstead, Whites, Gurnards and Chalvedon(or sometimes Chalweedon) in Great Burstead.
My GURNER family's name was GURNARD/GOURNARD in the 16thC in Ickleton in Cambs, and there is a similar manorial grouping (but with totally different names) of about 4 original manorial seats, with a long history back to the medieval period.
So, does anyone know where I might find details of this Gt. Burstead manorial reference and its possible origins, particularly as the name GURNARD features within it.
The earliest reference to the GURNARD name I have found so far is a 1524 subsidy roll mention of a Roger GURNARD in Stanstead, just across the border in Suffolk. (Listed by ancestry.co.uk)
Would be wonderful to get some kind of step backwards pre-1558, which is the first sighting I have so far of the GURNARD family name in the Ickleton Parish baptisms...
Very best wishes,
keith
