17. CULMER

Baker Tree

  RICHARD CULMER and MARGARET (17)

 

RICHARD CULMER. Richard and Margaret are the earliest of our Culmer ancestors we can trace.
We find them on a brass memorial in St Peter’s church on the Isle of Thanet.
They were originally buried in the central aisle of the church, in front of the high altar, suggesting that they were people of some standing.
Noël Siver writes: “Three brasses—one of a man, one of a woman, and one containing an inscription—appear to have been moved from the location of the tomb of Richard Culmer senior and his wife Margaret and are currently attached to a pillar on the south side of the nave.[1]

“The Latin inscription reads:
“Hic jacent Ric[hard]us Colmer carpentarius et margareta uxor euis qui quondam Ric[hard]us obiit sexto die me[nsi]s Novembris Anno d[omi]ni mill[es]i[m]o CCCClxxxv quor[um] a[n]i[m]ab[u]s p[ro]piaetur deus amen.”

Translation: “Here lies Richard Culmer, carpenter, and Margaret his wife the late Richard who died on the sixth day of the month of November in the year of the Lord 1485 may God have mercy on their souls Amen.”

The brasses will not be an accurate representation of Richard and Margaret. Craftsmen used a repertoire of stock images.

We know Richard’s death date, but not his birth. His will shows that he had two grandsons, one adult and one under the age of 22. This makes it likely that he was born in the first quarter of the 15^th century.

It is tempting to think that he was the son of an older Richard Culmer, who also had a brass memorial in the church.

Writing about St Peter’s church in a journal published in 1836, the churchwarden John Mockett tells us: [2]
“Near the font is a slab, inlaid with a brass inscription, to the memory of Richard Culmer and his wife, who, by his will, gave six acres of land, in 1434, to trustees, the rents and profits to be given, by them, to the poor most needing it, on Good Friday for ever.”

In fact, Mockett is mistaken. The Richard Culmer who left 6 acres of land for the poor was the son of Richard and Margaret Culmer, Richard junior, who died in 1495.

The Find a Grave website has a succession of memorials going back from this Richard Culmer to Waldemar Culmer in the 13^th century. The dates are compatible with this being a list of father-son relations, but this falls far short of proof. All the same, the prestigious burial given to our Richard, originally before the high altar, suggest that he came from a family of some standing, and we should expect his father to be similarly buried. The Richard Culmer who was buried in 1434 is a strong candidate.

Mockett’s Journal does not tell us the name of this older Richard’s wife.

The older Richard was buried near the font. This was at the back of the church, by the door, symbolising entry into the Christian life.

The inscription on our Richard’s memorial tells us that he was a carpenarius. This was not merely a carpenter, who would have been a faber lignarius or artifex lignarius, but a coach or wagon builder, or possibly a coachman, from the Latin carpentum, meaning a coach, wagon or chariot. Some of the later Culmers in Broadstairs were shipwrights. We can see how the craft of building coaches might develop into that of building ships.
Richard’s prestigious burial place, and the lands he left in his will, show him to be somewhat more than a skilled artisan.
He owned a plough and a quantity of grain, so he appears to have had some involvement with farming.

 

MARGARET. We do not have a record of their marriage, so we do not know her maiden name, or which parish she came from.

St Peter’s is on the Isle of Thanet in the north-east corner of Kent. It was separated from the rest of the county by the Wantsum Channel that ran from NW to SE. This was silted up in the 16^th century, but before that, it was some 2,000 ft wide.

St Peter’s was a large parish, that included the fishing village of Broadstairs. St Peter’s itself, and the village around it, was some 2 miles inland from the coast.

We know of one son from this marriage, a younger Richard.
Adult daughters often do not appear in their father’s will because they have received a substantial marriage portion at their wedding. But the only grandchildren mentioned in Richard’s will are the sons of Richard junior. It seems likely that Richard junior was an only child, or the only surviving child.

In 1440, an archway was built by George Culmer across a track leading down to the sea, where the first wooden pier or jetty was built in 1460.

Richard and Margaret lived their lives at a time of unrest. Under Henry V1 (1422-1461) there was resentment at the corruption and maladministration of the king’s favourites. In 1450, the Jack Cade rebellion began in Kent, and culminated in an attack on London. Other counties were involved, but it ended with Jack Cade’s body being quartered and the limbs being sent to towns in Kent thought to have been most heavily engaged in the rebellion.

This rising was a precursor to the bitter struggle that divided the nation in the Wars of the Roses, with the House of Lancaster vying for the throne against the House of York, from 1455 to 1487. In 1485, the year Richard Culmer died, the short-lived reign of the Yorkist Richard III ended when he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was succeeded by the first Tudor king, Henry VII.

Sometime before 1486, Roger Sencler brought a suit against Richard Culmer and Richard Norwood of Thanet.[3] He alleged that his great-grandfather Geffery Cord..yme had left 22 acres and 3 tenements to his daughter Cecely, wife of John Sencler the elder, Roger’s grandparents. On Cecely’s death, this had passed to John Sencler the elder. He enfeoffed these lands and tenements to Richard Culmer and Richard Norwood, for them and their heirs to hold forever. Roger Sencler asserted that this wrongfully disinherited him and sought reparation.
We do not know the outcome of the suit, or whether this was the older or the younger Richard Culmer.

Margaret is not mentioned in Richard’s will, so we assume she had died before this. We do not have a death date for her.

We are accustomed to see a last Will and Testament as a single document, but, as was usual at this time, Richard Culmer’s wishes were contained in two documents, one concerning money and goods, the other concerning land.[4]

The first is the will of Richard Culmer of St Peter’s, Thanet. It is written in Latin and dated 11 Jul 1485.

He commends his soul to God and asks for his body to be buried in the parish church before the high cross.  This would appear to be before the altar.
He gives to the high altar of that church 6s 8d. This was the value of a coin called a noble.
“To each of the lights of which I am a brother 4d.”
This indicates that Richard was a member of a religious guild. These were associations of lay people within a church. They paid for candles before a specific altar or religious image. They helped members who were ill, and supported their dependents when they died.
To each of his godchildren 4d.
To Johanne Culmer 20s and a pair of sheets. He does not specify who Johanne Culmer is, but she could be the wife of his son Richard, who we know was Jone.
“Also I leave for providing an ideal chaplain for celebrating for my soul and all those to whom I am bound in the said church for one year next after my decease 10 marks.”
A mark was 13s 4d, two thirds of a pound. It was believed that saying prayers for the dead would shorten their time in purgatory, before they reached heaven.
“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.”
Nicholas and Thomas were his grandsons, sons of Richard Culmer junior.
The residue of his goods to Richard Culmer his son and John Coopyn, whom he made his executors. We do not know who John Coopyn was. His son Richard makes John Coopyn overseer of his will, and includes him as one of the witnesses.
He appoints Nicholas Easton senior as overseer of the will. There is a brass in St Peter’s church of Nicholas Easton and his wife Alice, dated 1503. He was evidently a person of some standing in the parish.

The second part of the document is “the Last Will of me the aforesaid Richard Culmer made the day of the aforesaid third reign year of Richard III after the conquest of England of all my lands and tenements with all their appurtenances in whom Thomas Graunte senior and Nicholas Easton senior are seised.”
Again, we have a mention of Nicholas Easton, probably a family friend.
“First I wish that my feoffees enfeoff Richard Culmer my son in my tenement lying at Dumpton with all my adjacent lands next to Dumpton aforesaid, Herston, Ramsgate and Haine with all their appurtenances to his heirs and assigns forever.”
“Enfeoffment” was the transfer of ownership.
Dumpton is just over a mile south-west of Broadstairs
“I will that my feoffees enfeoff Nicholas Culmer son of the said Richard in the other tenement at Churchhill called Churchplace with two adjacent enclosures at Smyth to his heirs and assigns forever.
“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.”
Churchhill in St Peter;’s was the road now know as The Vale.
“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.
“And if it happen that the said Thomas Culmer son of the said Richard may die under the age of 22 years without heirs of his body lawfully begotten I will that the said Nicholas Culmer his brother may be the heir of the aforesaid tenement with all its appurtenances forever.”
“Also I will that my feoffees enfeoff Thomas Culmer my cousin/relative of and in an acre of land adjacent to Nynne in the parish of St Lawrence to his heirs and assigns forever.”
St Lawrence is now a separate parish, but then included Ramsgate.
“Also I leave to each of my feoffees for their labours 6s 8d.”
The feoffees were trustees, who would hold the rights to the lands at the testator’s death. 

 

 

[1] Translation and photograph from Noël Siver.
[2] John Mockett, Journal Canterbury, 1836. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3uJwzKNQAGAC
[3] National Archives, C1/29/140. Early Chancery Proceedings, Bundle 29, 140.  Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver
[4] Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury PRC17/4/48, Probate 1485 . Transcribed and translated by Noël Siver.