Carman Web Space 2001

Rev: 19 April 2001
CARMAN WEB SPACE 2001

Helen's Archives



Helen Silvey's archives
From Prodigy

More from TLCarman -- this on the 
Middle Ages.

 In the chapter on surnames in the 
above work, it is shown that 
John Carman and John Seaman 
are recorded in the Domesday 
records of the County of 
Surry (1085-86) as having 
held lordships in the same 
county in the first year of 
the reign of King Edward the 
Confessor, A.D. 1042.  This 
seems to indicate that the 
John Carman and the John 
Seaman of 1085-86 were the 
same as those of record in 
1042.  Neither of the names 
appear in the Domesday 
records of any of the other 
countries.  In 1096 we find 
a John Seaman and a John 
Carman in thelist of "Sir 
Knyghtes Crusaders" of "the 
First Holie War," and as 
neither name is found in the 
records of any county but 
Surrey, we are justified in 
assumingthese asvdescendants 
of the Carman and Seaman 
holding lordships in 1085-86 
and 1042.                                           
  This brings us to the beginning 
of the twelfth century, and 
by the middle of which we 
find both family names in 
the records of the adjoining 
counties, Kent and Sussex.  
Both are in Battle Abbey 
charter, as the quotations 
elsewhere    given show, and 
in other contemporary rolls, 
and records. Then we find 
both in the Cinque Ports 
records (and again 
illustrations of the 
remarkable chain of 
coincidences in the 
histories of the Carmans and 
the Seamans) - and in which 
we find a John and a Henry 
Carman, and several John 
Seamans in  the lists of the 
historic Cinque Ports sea 
captains.          At 
Seafort, County of Sussex, 
as has been shown, a family 
of Seaman resided for three 
and a half centuries and 
many of them of the daring 
mariners who laid the 
foundation of England's pre-
eminence as "Ruler of the 
Seas."  p.4
       In the thirteenth century 
the Carmans are found in the 
Hertfordshire records.  They 
are not in Kent, nor Sussex, 
nor Surrey.  In Sussex they, 
however, reappear in the 
fifteenth century. This line 
became extinct a century 
later.  In the thirteenth 
century we find the main or 
parent line of Carmans in 
the second historic census 
of England in the time of 
Edward the First - the 
Rotuli Hundredorum, or 
Hundred Rolls, A.D. 1273, 
and recorded as owners of     
deameanen (domains), manors, 
and properties at Hemel 
Hempstead.  Henry Carman is 
the recorded owner of these 
proerties and according to 
the name records his wife 
was Matilda.                                                      
In the next of following 
centuries the Carmans are of 
record as holding the same 
domains and manors at Hemel 
Hempstead.  In the adjoining 
hundred of Eitchin a branch 
of the historic Kingsley 
family acquired land about 
the middle of the fourteenth 
century, and one of the 
descendants (William) in the 
early part of the fifteenth 
centu
ry married Elizabeth Carman of 
Hemel Hempstead.                          
The Hemel Hempstead domains 
and manors of 1275 descended 
from Henry and "Matilda, his 
wife," from genertion to 
generation, from sire to 
son, and then in the 
fourteenth century from 
Henry and Matilda, and 333 
years from the       cunsus 
record of 1273,in the year 
1606, an event occurred of 
pre-eminent interest in the 
annals of the Carman family 
of this country.In this year 
1606, as the official record 
shows, there was born in 
Hemel Hempstead John Carman, 
the Pilgrim father who came 
in   (Note: there is a ? in 
the margin)  the ship  
"Lyon" in 1631, the Puritan 
ancestor of the American 
family of the name.  A
year prior among those who came in 
the "Winthrop fleet" was a 
John Seaman, a      
Captain John Seaman of historic 
fame, as set forth in the 
history of the Seaman 
family, and with this John 
Seaman of 1630 and John 
Carman of 1631
begins another series of 
remarkable conincidences-the 
American series, so to 
speak.  The county histories 
of various reference 
authorities named at the 
close of this chapter 
contain more or less 
extended details of the 
Carman lineage from Henry 
Carman of 1273 and on.  He 
was ancestor of Thomas 
Carman, born 1517, in Hemel 
Hempstead, and of the tenth 
generation from Henry  
Carman, and eighteenth from 
John Carman of Domesday Book 
(1095-96) and time of Edward 
the Confessor (1042).  
William, brother of Thomas 
(born 1517), was also born 
in Hemel Hempsted, and both 
brothers later on are of the 
formost of the leaders of 
the Puritan cause - among 
the earliest of the "godly 
martyrs" who, regardless of 
cruel and fiendish threats, 
stood forth bravely, 
eloquently and   
unflinchingly as champions 
of human rights, and in 
consequence were burned at 
stake.  William Carman was 
the first of the two 
brothers subjected to such a 
revolting death in 1557, and 
"with God in his heart and a 
song of praise to God on 
High, this saintly 
man met his end," says an old 
chronicle of the time(see 
Bloomfield's "History of 
Norfolk" and other 
authorities elsewhere 
named). A year later, says  
(p. 5) the same old 
chronicle, "on the 19th of  
May, 1556 were these three 
godly martyrs burned at one 
fire at Norwich, namely: 
William Seaman of Mendlesham 
in Suffolk, Thomas Carman of 
Herts, and  Thomas Hudson of 
Aylesham."  William Carman, 
the martyr of 1557, had two 
sons and two daughters.  
Both sons died young and the 
line became 
extinct,surviving in the 
female line and one of the 
daughters married a Seaman 
of Norwich (of the line of 
Sir Peter Seaman, who at the 
close of the seveteenth and 
the early part of the 
eighteenth centuries was of 
much prominence and wide 
influence and successively 
alderman, lord mayor, and 
member of Palriament for 
Norwich, and a descendant of 
the William Seaman, the 
"godly martyr" of 1558.                                                          
Thomas Carman, the martyr of 
1558 (born 1517), had 
Thomas, born 1539, died 
1548; John, born 1541; 
Henry, born 1547; and 
several daughters.  Of 
these, Henry, born 1547, and 
Henry, 1571, and he had 
Henry, born 1597, who in 
1620 was a passenger on the 
ship  "Duty", bound for 
Virginia.  He is of record 
in the "Muster of the 
Liveing in Virginia 1623-4, 
Att. James Gittye and the 
Plantation Thereof," and is 
in this record as twenty-
three years when he came in 
the "Duty", 1620, thus 
showing 1597 as the year of 
his birth. Of him we speak 

 
 


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19 April 2001