In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare asked: ‘What’s in a name? A rose by any name would smell as sweet.’
In the Jerrems name case the answer has not come so easily. However, our Ray may finally got to the bottom of the Jerrems name origin. Ray has a new lead that had dogged him for 13 years. Read his research below.
Above is an aerial photo of the former Jerrems Hill Cottage, which is explained later.
This is my first detailed article about the results of my DNA test, following on from my explanation in the April 2019 Journal.
Readers may recall that last year I had a DNA Test carried out by Ancestry.com. The results take the form of a long list of family trees registered with Ancestry.com where someone in the family tree is related to me. There have been some very interesting results, particularly in tracing two more of my Jerrems ancestors, where previous research had shown that my oldest known ancestor was my great great great great great great grandfather William Jerom (that is six “greats”!).
Who was William Jerom?
Here is a photo of St Helen’s Church at Willingham which is referred to later.
Before telling you about the results of the DNA test it is convenient to tell you about William Jerom to provide a point of comparison.
William Jerom was born in about 1725 (my estimate), and died in 1796 in Willingham.
William married Cecelia Futtit on 29/7/1750 at Willingham.
Their children (all baptised as “Jerrems” at St Helen’s Çhurch, Willingham) were
(a) Alice b1754 (no further information)
(b) William b 1752 (married Mary, son Big Bill)
(c) Ann b1757 (no further information)
(d) Mary bc 1764 (married Mark Chapman 1784).
William Jnr had six children, including the William I have dubbed “Big Bill”, one of whose sons was Thomas referred to previously.
I decided that my first port of call in searching the matches provided by Ancestry.com was to try to solve the conundrum of the source of the name “Jerrems Hill”.
The conundrum of Jerrems Hill
At the top of this article is a photo of the former Jerrems Hill Cottage on Jerrems Hill (the house has been extended several times) in Mottisfont, Hampshire.
Also, here is a photo of Mottisfont Abbey, a historical priory now operated by the National Trust. About 350,000 people visit it each year.
Readers with prodigious memories may remember my article about Jerrems Hill in the September 2006 Journal. I had discovered Jerrems Hill in a Google search and with the help of a local resident I had deduced that Jerrems was probably a toll collector who had lived in the nearby toll house. A toll collector collected toll for the use of major roads, calculated on the number of users, including carts, cattle and sheep. The location was Mottisfont in the parish of Broughton and County of Hampshire.
The only clue as to the date the name Jerrems Hill was coined was that it was shown on an 1871 map.
When I had written the article I concluded that it was unlikely that I would ever find out who “Jerrems” was, particularly because Hampshire, south of London, is a long way from Lincolnshire where my ancestors have previously been traced.
I can now tell you that at last I have solved the conundrum of Jerrems Hill after waiting 13 years!
My solution to the origin of Jerrems Hill
Looking through the matches provided by Ancestry.com I came across a family which originated in Hampshire
(a) Richard Jerrome bc 1745 (my estimate), married Mary
(b) Daughter Sarah Jerom born and baptised 19/4/1770 at Broughton, Hampshire
(c) Sarah married William Blacklock (1755-1833) on 15/10/1797 at St Mary’s, Broughton, Hampshire.
Sarah and William had the following children, who could have been born when the family lived in Jerrems Cottage:
(a) Sarah 1801-1806 b Mottisfont, Hampshire
(b) John b 1803 (ditto)
(c) Elizabeth 1804-1875 (ditto)
(d) George 1807-61 (ditto)
(e)William 1809-1882 (b Broughton, Hampshire)
(f) James Jerom or Jerram died 1840 (not clear if surnames or given names).
A brief examination of descendants took me up to the 1930s, but there could be later descendants.
It seems to me that the name “Jerrems” was a variation of Richard Jerrome’s surname. Perhaps the map makers had interpreted the spelling incorrectly.
Encouraged by this result I decided to look further for people in the genetic matches which had names like Jerom, Jeram, Jerome etc.to which I may be related. The exciting result was that another family appeared, with the surname Jeram.
The Jeram family
Here is a photo of St Mary’s (Anglican) Church at Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight.
This Jeram family originated near Hampshire, in the Isle of Wight on the east coast of England.
Here is a summary:
(a) William Jeram born before 29/7/1632 (presumably the date he was baptised), mother Mary Haxley, William married Suzanne Downes (bc 1635)
(b) Jeremiah Jerome born before 13/6/1669, at Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight
(c) John Jerom born before 11/5/1719, baptised Jerome 11/5/1719 at Newchurch on the Isle of Wight, married Mary Gerard in 1736 at Carisbrooke.
(d) Thomas Jeram b27/6/1736 at Carisbrooke, died 8/6/1798 at Portsea, on the English mainland at Portsmouth.
The Victoria County History states that St Mary’s Church “ranks first in importance” among the island’s parish churches, standing high above the village street as a “worthy” accompaniment to the nearby castle”.
Carisbrooke is in the mid-north of the island and Newchurch is to the east of Carisbrooke. The remoteness of these villages from the coast would indicate that the family had a farming background, possibly between Carisbrooke and Newchurch.
The Jeram family later
Several generations later we find descendants in Australia:
Elizabeth Jeram 1852-1934, mHarry Ward
Daughter Elsie Ward 1894-1986 (died in NSW rural town of Taree) mHarry Hall 1892-1978.
Daughter Peggy Elizabeth Mary Hall (1927-2013) mLeo Allan Baker (1925-2002).
Daughter Joan Elsie Hall (1928-2017) mRonald Joseph Wilson (1924-1990), with eight children.
Descendants of these children could be ninth or tenth cousins of our younger “Jerrems” readers.
The Isle of Wight
Here is an aerial photo of the Isle of Wight.
The relevance of this is that, as described above,
Jeremiah Jerome was born in about 1669 on the Isle of Wight.
Occupation of the Isle dates back to Bronze Age, Celtic and Roman times.
The Isle of Wight is an English county and the largest and second-most populous island in England, with an area of 150 square miles (380 square km). It is in the English Channel, between 2 and 5 miles off the coast of Hampshire, separated by the Solent (a strait of the English Channel). The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, verdant landscape of fields, and its chalk hills and soft cliffs.
The Isle of Wight came into public prominence when Queen Victoria built there her much-loved summer residence and final home Osborne House at East Cowes. At this time the island would have been rural, with most people employed in farming, fishing or boat-building.
The island had a chequered history in Tudor times. Under Henry VIII, who developed the Royal Navy and its Portsmouth base, the island was fortified at Yarmouth, Cowes, East Cowes, and Sandown.
A French invasion on 21 July 1545 (famous for the sinking of the Mary Rose on the 19th) was repulsed by local militia.
During the English Civil War, King Charles fled to the Isle of Wight in 1651, believing he would receive sympathy from the governor Robert Hammond, but Hammond imprisoned the king in Carisbrooke Castle.
During the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) between England and France the island was used as a staging post for British troops departing on expeditions against the French coast.
During 1759, with a planned French invasion imminent, a large force of soldiers was stationed there. The French called off their invasion.
Relationship with the Huguenots
One of our earliest Journal articles (September 2005) canvassed the theory that the Jerrems family originated with the Huguenots in France.
It was evident that this was a very popular theory because it emanated from separate independent sources including
(a) Cathy Jerrems in Idaho, USA
(b) A German lady tourist who spoke to my Uncle Alf in the 1960s, who said she had the same name and that it had come from a French town
(c) My Aunty Vi who had probably heard it from her grandfather Charles
(d) Ari Jerrems, who had carried out some internet research on the subject.
Who were the Huguenots?
The Huguenots were a Protestant group which developed in France in the 1500s and 1600s. Their political fortunes waxed and waned, the lowest ebb being in 1572 at the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day, when thousands were murdered. But the pendulum swung back their way in the Edict of Nantes issued in 1598. This gave the Huguenots freedom of worship in about 75 towns and cities where Calvinism prevailed. However the Edict was revoked in 1685.
The World Book Encyclopedia says that the Huguenots then fled to new homes in England, the Netherlands, Prussia (now in northern Germany) and America (particularly South Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts and New York). The WBE goes on to observe that most of them were craftworkers or textile workers who played a large part in building up the English textile industry.
Websites state that King Charles ll declared England to be a sanctuary for the Huguenots in 1681 and that between 40-50 000 migrated to England between 1670-1710. Many escaped from France in small boats.
Are Huguenot origins unlikely?
The fact that William Jeram was born in 1632 indicates that his family significantly predated the migration of the Huguenots which (as stated above) took place between 1670 and 1710.
Origin of the names Jerrems, Jerom, Jerrome, Jeram etc
Above is an illustration of St Jerome in his study.
The original ramifications of the Huguenot theory was that it explained the origin of the name “Jerom” as having been imported from France. In this regard Ari Jerrems put the view in 2006 that the above names are very likely to have had their origin in the medieval name of St Jerome. Here is his report on his research:
“For the names Jérôme/Gérôme, they are common French surnames with 3462 Jérôme’s and 1564 Gérôme’s. In an online French Surname dictionary Jérôme is described as a Surname most common in the Bas-Rhin and Picardie counties, of Greek origins and made popular in France by the Saint Jerome who was responsible for translating the bible into Latin.
Today the Jérôme surname is most common in the counties of Territoire de Belfort, Indre-et-loire and Ardennes. Gérôme is described as a variation of Jérôme used mainly in Lorraine. It is now most common in Hautes-Alpes, Vosges and Manche.”
St Jerome (c347-420) was a famous priest, theologian and historian who was born in a village on the border of Dalmatia, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. He was best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin.
Relations between England and France
Illustration of the Battle of Agincourt
Relations between England and France had been strained for a long time, dating back as far as the decisive English victory at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Henry Vlll’s adoption of Protestantism in the mid 1500s would have further strained the relationship, followed a little later by the invasion of the Isle of Wight by the French in 1545. None of this seems to have been conducive to peaceful migration of French citizens to England.
However the “St Jerome” theory can be applied equally to England.
Applying the “St Jerome” theory to England
Bearing in mind that England had been Catholic until Henry Vlll’s conversion to Protestantism, St Jerome would have been equally venerated in England as in France and the other Catholic countries. It is therefore equally likely that the surname “Jerome” would have been adopted in England during the Catholic era and carried through to later times.
Conclusion
I do not consider that too much significance can be given to the various spellings of Jerrems, Jeram, Jerrome, Jerom etc because the differences can be attributed to the lack of education of the people concerned. The critical factor is that they all show up in my DNA test.
More results could come up as more people take the DNA tests.
The fact that William Jeram was born shortly before 29/7/1632 (when he was presumably baptised) indicates that William Jerom (bc 1725) and William Jerrome (bc1745) were descended from him in some form. It also indicates that the “Jerrems” family originated in the Isle of Wight/Hampshire area, not in the Lincolnshire area.
APOLOGY TO BRIAN HARRISON
Brian Harrison and grave of Philip Hogan
The side photo was inadvertently omitted from the previous Jerrems Journal. It shows long term reader and distant relative Brian Harrison at the very well preserved grave of his great grandfather Philip Hogan.
It is situated in the old Catholic Cemetery at Parramatta, west of Sydney.
