20. PEDERTON-TURNEY

Sampson Tree 

JOHN PEDERTON and CECILIA TURNEY (20)

 

JOHN PEDERTON. Nearly all the references we have to John and Cecilia tell us that they are the parents of Agnes Pederton, who married John Bampfylde of Poltimore in the fifteenth-century. We have little other information about them.

What we do know is that John Pederton was lord of the manor of Hardington in Somerset. This lies 7 miles S of Bath.

Lord Hynton describes it thus:[1]
“On the north side of the highroad leading from Frome to Radstock about 1 mile w from the village of Buckland Dinham stands a slender pair of mouldering stone piers, known as Hardington Pillars. Between these a narrow lane leads down hill for some distance to a brook some 200 yards above which, on the opposite bank, appear the remains of an ancient manor-house, and the tiny parish church. Behind these buildings a fine deer park once extended up the northern slope of the valley, and, flanked by spacious woodlands, spread eastwards towards Buckland….
“The spot preserved until recently more than one sign of its better days, but the hand of the destroyer has been busy in the last years. The park has been stripped of nearly all its old trees – its boundary walls have nearly disappeared – farm sheds now mar the approach to the church, and unless a few notes be forthwith recorded, all tradition associated with the Bampfylde owners may be lost. It is true that these Hardington squires seem to have played little part in the civic life of Somerset, none of them having served as a knight of the shire, or even as sheriff before the year 1693, but it would appear that seasonable employment was long afforded by their means to many a poor man about their mansion and estate, the decay of which must have been sincerely lamented by the village folk.”

John Pederton is thought to have been born around 1348, in the reign of Edward III. This was the time of the Black Death that devastated the population. Hardington was a small village and so many people died that the houses were left deserted.

We have no firm information about his parents.

There is an online family tree that makes him the son of Walter de Pederton, Lord of Carmarthen Castle.[2]
There is plenty of evidence for this Walte Pedeton, but all of it in Watles in the 13^th century. This makes it highly unlikely that he was the father of John Pederton born in Somerset in the mid-14^th century.

Not only do we not know whose John’s parents were, but we do not know where they came from, or how John acquired Hardington. Early in the 14^th century, it was in the hands of another family.[3]

“William and Alexander de Hardington were of this place in the time of Henry  III. [1216-72] The heirs of John Le Sore held the manors of Hardington and Wydergrave 9 Edw. II   [1316] by  the service of one knight’s fee. John  de Pederton was afterwards lord of this manor, and at his death left a daughter, Agnes, married to John Baumfilde  esq; whose son, Peter Baumfilde, possessed this estate,  and  transmitted it to his posterity; Sir Charles  Warwick  Bampfylde, Bart. being the present owner. The manor-house, now in ruins, stood near the church and there was a fine park stocked with deer, extending to the top of a hill from which there is an extensive and pleasing view.”

A website on St Mary’s, Hardington, tells us : “the tiny hamlet of Hardington Bampfylde (not to be confused with Hardington Mandeville in South Somerset), hardly more than church and farm, lies in a valley in gently undulating country between Frome and Radstock, 3½ mls NW of Frome.”

There are many documents about the ownership of Hardington Mandeville, but not of the Hardington south of Bath. John Pederton may have grown up here, or he may have acquired the manor as an adult.

It may be this John Pederton who appears in an inquisition for Proof of Age in 1411.[4] In the days before parish registers, let alone birth certificates, it was necessary for orphans of landed families to prove when they were born, so that they could claim their inheritance when they came of age. Witnesses were called who had cause to remember the day of birth.
In the case of William de Botreaux of Kildmersdon in Somerset, the first witness was “John Pederton, aged 54 years and more, [who] was in the church to hear mass and saw him raised from the font.”
This would make John born in 1357 or earlier.
Kilmersdon is under 4 miles from Hardington.

But this may be a different John Pederton.

Since John and Cecilia he bought the manor of Dunkerton in Somerset around 1369, he may be the son of a John de Pederton who was a witness at a case in Dunkerton earlier in that century.
Dunkerton is a small village 4 m north of Hardington.

If he was born in Hardington, John would have been baptised in the little 11^th-century church of St Mary, now set in a farmyard, and no longer in use. Fragments of the medieval wall paintings that he would have seen remain.
It is thought that the medieval manor house stood close to the church.

A later document about his daughter Agnes calls him John Pederton, esquire.

 

CECILIA TURNEY. We know only a little more about Cecilia’s background. We know that she was the daughter of John Turney, but there was more than one man of that name in Somerset. Research is hampered by the fact that we do not know where the Turneys came from.

She is thought to have been born around 1360.

There is a website that says she was the daughter and heir of John Turney, son of Symon Turney, son of Sir Symon Turney.[6] We have not found confirmation that this was the right John Turney.

Another possibility is a deed of 1357 between John Turney, son of Walter Turney, lord of Wolverton and Adam de Estoon and his Agnes for a tenement in Tatewyk. John de Pederton witnessed  thiss, but he witnessed many other documents, so no great store should be set by this.
The heir to Wolverton was Walter’s son Philip, but on his death it came to the younger son John Turney.

John and Cecilia grew up in the aftermath of the Black Death. Though the pestilence had passed, the reminders were all around them in the deserted houses and the shortage of labour. John, in particular, would have seen the abandoned village of Hardington, where all that was left was the manor house and the church.

We do not know where John and Cecilia married. It would probably have been in Cecilia’s parish.

Nor do we have a date for their marriage. It would appear to be in the latter half of the 14^th century.

They had a daughter Agnes, who is often said to be their sole heir. But there are documents which show she had a brother William. [7]

These relate to a garden near the city walls in Bath that “John Bampfylde and his wife Agnes, daughter and heir of John Pederton, granted to William Pederton, son of John.”

The documents span the years 1454-1458. We do not know when John and Cecilia died, but it is very unlikely that they were still alive in 1458. So why is it Agnes who is John Pederton’s heir, and not William? The most likely answer is that William was base born.

During the reign of Edward III [1327-1377] John and Cecilia acquired the manor of Dunkerton in Somerset, probably by purchase.[8] It had previously belonged the Hugh Courtenay, from the family of the Earls of Devon, who died in 1369. This passed to Agnes, along with Hardington.

There is a document dated 1388 at Dunkerton in which John Pederton takes out a five-year lease from William Cherm for all his tenements in Ekewike, with four shillings rent form John de Toukare and Sibilla his wife.[9] We do not know where Ekewike was.[10]

Nor do we know when John and Cecilia died, but it was evidently after 1388.

Agnes eventually inherited all her parents’ estates. In the next generation, her elder son, William Bampfylde took over his father’s manors, principally Poltimore, near Exeter, but Agnes’s estates of Hardington and Dunkerton passed to her younger son, Peter.

 

[1] Rt Hon Lord Hylton FSA, “The Manor Houses of Hardington and Vallis”.Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society https://sanhs.org › 2021/01 › 13-Lord-Hylton
[2] National Archives: BC 151/3/60, BC 151/3/61,   BC 151/3/62
[3] Gentlemans Magazine. https://archive.org/stream/gentlemansmagazi23gommuoft/gentlemansmagazi23gommuoft_djvu.txt
[4] https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/19-999/index.html
[5] Hardington Church – Moish Sokal
[6] https://fabpedigree.com/s014/f929312.htm
[7] National Archives: BC 151/3/60, BC 151/3/61,   BC 151/3/62
[8] https://www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com/SCUDAMORE%20DESCENDANTS%20OF%20CERTAIN.pd
[9] https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/WHb/466
 [10] National Archives:DD\WHb/466