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