15. CULMER

Baker Tree

 THOMAS CULMER and ?MARGARET (15)

 

THOMAS CULMER. We learn about Thomas Culmer from the wills and testaments of his father, Richard Culmer junior, his mother Joan Culmer, and his grandfather Richard Culmer senior, as well as though his own will and testament.

He lived in the parish of St Peter’s on the Isle of Thanet in NE Kent. This was a large parish that included what was then the fishing village of Broadstairs.

When his grandfather wrote his will in 1485, Thomas was not yet 22, but he was an adult ten years later when his father made his will. This puts his likely birth date between 1465 and 1474, in the reign of Edward IV.

He was the younger of two sons, with an older brother Nicholas. There is no evidence that he had sisters.

He came from a family of considerable standing in the parish. Both his parents and his grandparents were buried in the main aisle of St Peter’s church, before the high altar.

In his testament, dealing with money and goods, his grandfather left “To Nicholas Culmer and Thomas Culmer all my utensils in the chamber hall and kitchen, all my grain and chattels, a cart with the ? and a plough with all their appurtenances between them to be divided in equal portions.”[1]

In his will, which disposed of his land he said: “Also I will that my feoffees enfeoff Thomas Culmer son of the said Richard Culmer in my present tenement at Churchhill with two attached enclosures and in six acres of land lying near Lime Pit with their appurtenances at the age of 22 years to his heirs and assigns forever.”

There is no Church Hill in Broadstairs now, but it was the name formerly given to the road now known as The Vale. This runs from the Ramsgate road, near the coast, NW in the direction of St Peter’s, which stands two miles inland.

“The true residue of all the lands that are in fields near Churchhill and Solishill may be divided between the aforesaid Nicholas and Thomas in equal portions, their heirs and assigns forever.”
“Also I will that my feoffees enfeoff Richard my son, Nicholas and Thomas sons of the said Richard in half an acre and 3 rods of wood and underwood situated at Wedwood to their heirs and assigns forever in equal portions.”

By the time Thomas came of age, he possessed a considerable amount of land.

He was probably in his twenties when his father died, leaving him with still more legacies.[2]
To his sons Nicholas and Thomas, all the grain and cattle that are in the hands of Richard Gooson, to be shared equally after the death of their mother Joan.
He made Joan, Nicholas and Thomas executors of his testament, and paid his two sons 6s 8d for this work.
He willed that, after Joan’s death, all his lands and tenements not otherwise bequeathed were to go to his younger son, Thomas.

In 1504, Thomas’s mother died. She, too, left a testament, disposing of her money and goods.[3]
There was a long list of bequests, including £4 and a number of household items to her elder son Nicholas. When all these have been paid, the remainder of her goods were to go to Thomas.
She made Nicholas and Thomas her executors.
There was a bequest of 6s 8d to Nicholas’s wife Alice, but no mention of Thomas’s wife, though there are some unidentified Culmers. It is likely that he was not yet married. 

 

?MARGARET. We do not have a record of Thomas’s marriage. In his testament, he asks to be buried in the church of St Peter, next to his wife. Unfortunately, he does not name her.

The Find a Grave website has a memorial to Margaret Culmer, who, it says, was the wife of Thomas Culmer and the mother of Alexander Culmer.[4] Without seeing the wording of the memorial, it is hard to judge how reliable this is. Thomas says she is buried inside the church, but the Find a Grave entry says Margaret’s memorial is in the churchyard.

There is a Margaret Culmer in the list of beneficiaries in Thomas’s mother’s testament, but, as with several other Culmer beneficiaries, her relationship is not given.

The likelihood is that Thomas married sometime after his mother’s death in 1504.

Two years later, in 1506. Thomas’s elder brother Nicholas also died. 

He left a third of all his grains, chattels and £19 to his wife Joan and his brother Thomas Culmer, to sell and dispose of as they thought fit “to please God and profit my soul”. He made these two his executors, and paid Thomas 6s 8d for this.[5]
Nicholas had no sons. In his will, concerning his lands, he left most of his real estate to his wife and three daughters.
He also instructed his feoffees (trustees) to sell his tenement and garden at Churchille in St Peter’s next to the tenement of his brother Thomas, with half an acre of land next to it. He adds a proviso that, should Thomas wish to buy this, he should be able to do so at 20s less than the price offered by another buyer.
We do not know whether Thomas took that offer.

We know from his testament in 1533 that Thomas then had four adult children: a son Alexander, and three married daughters, Joan Cheke, Alice Hyks and Johanna Cok. There were also grandchildren, with Alexander having two children . This makes it likely that Thomas’s children were born in the 1490s and 1510s.
There may have been other children who died earlier.

Sometime before his death in 1533, Thomas’s wife died, but we have no record of this. She was buried in St Peter’s church.

Thomas spent his last years in the most turbulent times of Henry VIII’s reign. Since Queen Katherine of Aragon had failed to give him a son, the king sought an annulment of the marriage, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. When the Pope refused, Henry set in motion the steps that would lead to the break with Rome in 1534. While the Act of Supremacy was probably not passed until after Thomas’s death, it must have been a major talking point throughout the country. The nation was deeply divided on the issue. We do not know where the Culmers stood.

Thomas wrote his testament and will on 25 Nov 1533.[6] His testament, concerning his money and goods, was written in Latin, and his will, disposing of his lands, in English.[7]

In his testament, after commending his soul to God, the blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, he asks that his body be buried in the church next to his wife (unnamed). His parents and grandparents had similarly been buried in the church, not outside in the graveyard. It was a mark of the status of the family.
He left 5s to the high altar for his forgotten tithes.
Also, 3s 4d to the high altar of St John the Baptist (Margate).
There was an additional £3.6s.8d for the church works of St Peter’s.
He left 6s “to each of the lights of which I am a brother” at St Peter’s. This meant that he was a member of more than one religious guild or fraternity. Each was devoted to maintaining lights before a particular altar or religious image in the church. They also acted as a form of social insurance, helping members in need and supporting dependents when they died.
These were the closing years of religious guilds. The following year, Henry VIII broke with Rome to form the Church of England. In 1547, under his son, the strictly Protestant Edward VI, religious guilds were abolished.
To each of his godchildren (unnamed) Thomas leaves 6d, if they request it.
There is 5s each to his daughters Joan Cheke and Alice Hyks, and 10s to his daughter Johanna Cok.
The sums left to his daughters are small, probably because they had already received substantial marriage portions.
He leaves 20s to Margaret Culmer, 10s to Valentine Culmer, 10s to each of the children of Alexander Culmer, 10s to Henry Copyn, 3s 4d to Thomas Honywod. Apart from Alexander’s children, we do not know who these people were.
The residue of all his goods, “moveable and immoveable”, he gives to Alexander, charging him to pay Thomas’s debts, legacies and funeral expenses. He appoints Alexander sole executor.
He leaves Thomas Norwood, his feoffee (trustee of his lands), 3s 4d for his work.
The witnesses are Richard Norwood, chaplain, Thomas Norwood, Silvester Turrett, Thomas Peye, Robert Hunte, “with others”.

The Norwoods feature prominently in the Culmer records. They may be related by marriage, with this perhaps being the maiden name of one of the Culmer wives, but we have no hard evidence of this – or not until 1594, when Thomas’s great-grandson John Culmer married Alice Norwood. The Norwoods feature prominently in memorials in St Peter’s church.

Thomas made his will on the same day, disposing of his lands and tenements (houses). It is short and simple.
He appoints his son Alexander and Thomas Norwood as his feoffees (trustees).
He wishes them to pass to Alexander all his lands and tenements in St Peter’s or elsewhere in the Isle of Thanet or the County of Kent.
Strictly speaking, all the land in the country belonged to the monarch. But others could own, and pass on, the right to use it.
He left money to his daughters, but no land. Women in Tudor England could own land, but did no usually inherit it from their fathers unless, as with Thomas’s nieces, there was no son.

We do not have a date for Thomas’s death or burial. Nor do we know when his will was proved. The likelihood is that he died late in 1533 or early in 1534.

 

[1] Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury PRC17/4/48, Probate 1485 . Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver.
[2] Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury will. DCb, PRC 17, vol. 6, folio 81. National Archives, C1/29/140Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver and John Lewis.
[3] Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury will. DCb/PRC17/9/24. Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver.
[4] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/191819036/margaret-culmer
[5] Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury testament and will, DCb/PRC17/10/186-188. Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver.
[6] Consistory Court of Canterbury PRC32/16/65, Probate 1533? Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver.
[7] Canterbury Cathedral Archives ref: DCb/PRC 32/Book 16/folio 65. Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver.