10. MINTER-CULMER

Baker Tree

 GEORGE MINTER and JANE CULMER (10)

 

GEORGE MINTER. We have traced our Minters back to the 17^th-century George.
He was born about 1640-1645, but we have no record of his baptism. A number of parishes have patchy records for this Civil War period. There are no births or baptism recorded between 1641 and 1653 in the village of Ash-next-Sandwich, where he later started his family.
We find his adult life in a cluster of villages some three miles west of Sandwich in east Kent, and it is likely that he was born here. There are a number of 17^th-century Culmers in Stourmouth, 3 miles north of Ash.
His childhood was spent in the Civil War and his teenage years in the Puritanical Commonwealth. By Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1648, most people, even those who had sided with Parliament in the war, were tired of this joyless regime, that forbade even the celebration of Christmas. When Cromwell’s son Richard succeeded him as Lord Protector, it began to look as though they had swapped one monarchy for another. There was a general welcome for the return of the Stuart monarchy with Charles II in 1660.

In 1715 there is a baptism in Stourmouth for “George Minter an Adult”. This might lead us to conclude that he was not baptised as an infant, but there are a number of other baptisms of teenagers or adults, including George’s own son Henry, where we know that an infant baptism took place. It may be that the rector of the time had doubts about the legitimacy of the clergyman who conducted these baptisms.

In the 1660s, Henry and Elizabeth Minter were having children baptised in Ash, but we do not know the date of their marriage, and there is no indication that they were George’s parents, other than that George Minter called his first son Henry.

Our first evidence of George’s occupation tells us that he was a yeoman. This may have been his father’s status too.

 

JANE CULMER. In one record of their marriage she is Jane Cullmore, but Culmer is the most common spelling of her name.
She was baptised in Stourmouth.
Baptism. All Saints, Stourmouth,
1649, born Jun 20, bapt Jun 29  Jana Daughter of George and Margarett Culmer

George Culmer’s will confirms that this is the right baptism.

Jane was the fifth of eight children. We have no record of her siblings dying young, but records at this period are not always complete.
Her mother was Margaret Austen.

Stourmouth lies where the River Stour empties into the Wantsum Channel that separates the Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent.  Edward Halsted says: “There are two villages, called East and West Stourmouth. In the latter, which is the principal one, is… Husseys farm… belonging to Mr. Carr Culmer, gent.”[1] Jane’s father was a yeomanand may well have farmed in this neighbourhood.

By the time of their marriage, both were living in Elmstone, a village halfway between Stourmouth and Ash.
Marriage. Elmstone.
1669 Oct 14  Geo Minter & Jane Culmer, both of Elmstone.

Elmstone is highly unusual in that its 13^th-century flint church has no dedication to a saint. It is known simply as “Elmstone Church”.
There are only a handful of houses, not a true village. And one of them is half a house, since it spans the stream that forms the parish boundary with neighbouring Preston.

We have no further records of them in Elmstone, but George was living in Preston-by-Wingham when he died.

The couple moved around between nearby parishes. They began and ended the baptisms of their children at Ash-next-Sandwich. This is varied countryside, ranging from hills to marshes by the River Stour. It was fertile farmland.

Baptism. St Nicholas, Ash-next-Sandwich.
1670 Jan 1  Elizabeth
Baptisms. St James, Staple.
1673 Jun 2  Henry
1675 Sep 20  George
Baptisms. St Dunstan, Snargate.
1678 Mar 10  John
1680 Sep 12  Martha
1683 May 27  Joan
This baptismal record is repeated for St James, Staple.
Baptisms. St James, Staple.
1685 Oct 20  Mary
Baptism, Preston-next-Wingham.
1688 May 10  Stephen
Baptism. Ash-next-Sandwich.
1690 Feb 15  Hanna

This was a period of growing suspicion of the Stuart monarchy and its Catholic leanings. James II converted to Catholicism, but kept this secret for ten years. When he married the Italian Mary of Modena, people were afraid that that their son James would grow up to become an openly Catholic king. In 1689 Whig and Tory politicians combined to force King James to flee to France and leave the throne to his Protestant daughter Mary, and her husband Willliam of Orange.

Three years later, in 1692, Jane’s father, George Culmer died. He left Jane £10 and his son-in-law George Minter one shilling.

Sometime between 1690 and 1694, the family appear to have moved to Canterbury.

In 1694 their son Henry was admitted as a freeman of Canterbury as a victualler by redemption (purchase). A victualler at that time was an innkeeper, and we have later evidence of George Minter being a victualler of the Fleur de Lis in Ash. [2]

When Jane died, probably in 1694. George remarried in Canterbury
Marriage Licence.
Minter, George, of S.M. Bredin, Cant, yeom, and Eliz. Dodd of S. Margt, Cant, spr. At S M Bredin, S Margt or S M Bredin, Cant, 1 Jan.
In fact, the wedding took place on 8 Jan 1694/5 at St Mary Bredin. This was a 12^th-century church, which has since been demolished and rebuilt on the east of the city.
George is here said to be a yeoman.

Six children followed, all baptised in Canterbury. The records we have do not say which church they used, but it is likely that it was St Mary Bredin.
Baptisms. Canterbury.
1695 Nov 4  Elizabeth
1698 Apr 17  Robert
1699/1700 Jan 15  Ann
1702 Oct 19  Barbara
1705/6 Feb 19  Susanna
1709 Aug 25  George

Although their children were baptised in Canterbury, George seems to have kept his links with Ash-next-Sandwich. In 1705, he is recorded living in Ash as a victualler at the Fleur de Lis¸ with 14 acres of land.
We might have wondered whether there were two George Minters, one of Ash and the other of Canterbury. But his will mentions both his widow Elizabeth, from his second marriage, and his son Henry Minter, from his first. It would appear that he combined the roles of innkeeper and yeoman farmer.

When George died in 1717, he was buried, not in either Canterbury or Ash, but in Stourmouth. This may have been his family’s burial place. His will shows him to have been living a mile away in Preston-next-Wingham,.

Administration of his estate was granted on 8 June 1717 to his widow Elizabeth, with his son Henry Minter of Ash, yeoman, and Jane’s brother George Culmer of Preston, yeoman, giving bond.[3]

His second wife Elizabeth was buried at St Mary Bredin, Canterbury, on 23 Mar 1726/7.

 

[1] Edward Hasted, ‘Parishes: Stourmouth’, in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9(Canterbury, 1800), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol9/pp126-130.
[2] I am indebted to Cliff Minter of the Minter Exchange for details about George and Jane’s lives. https://theminters.co.uk/getperson.php?personID=I607&tree=ash
[3] PRC3, Canterbury Archdeaconry Court Books, Vol. 43, folio 63v.