Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy --- Go to Genealogy Page for Laurence Omer

Notes for Laurence Omer

1518-1529 "William a Forde and Richard May, feoffees to uses. v. Laurence Omer and Margaret, his wife, late the wife of John Brooke.: Dilapidations, and detention of deeds relating to a gate-house, land, &c., in Ash, belonging to John, son of the said John Brooke, a minor.: Kent." [1]

Is this Lawrence Omer the same one who later married Ellen Sherborn? It is chronologically possible that he was. If this Margaret died soon after 1529 or earlier, there would have been plenty of time for Laurence to marry Ellen and have two kids (under 17 and under 5) by 1544.

1544 Laurence Omer dated his will 22 November. An abstract states, [2]

Laurance Omer.* 22 Nov. 1544. Buried in the churchyard (sic) before the high altar at the east end. Wife Helayne have all household stuff and moveables in the house where I dwell, and 7 kine, 6 mares and their colts, and 4 other colts called yearlings, a roned gelding, bay horse, and £30; also all my lands in Ash for 23 years. Daughter Jane £40 at 17 years of age or day of marriage, the money to be levied out of the Manor at Belthanger in the parish of Northbourne. Residue of lands and goods to son Thomas when he is 21 years of age, but if he die before then, to my daughter Jane, but if both die under age, then to my cousin Laurence Omer. Son Thomas have 40s. yearly towards keeping him to school after he is 5, until 21. Residue of all my lands and goods to be in the hands of my ex'ors until my children come to above age. Ex'ors: Wife Helayne and cousin Laurence Omer, with Richard Monings of Swanton overseer. Witnesses: Roger Omer, my brother, Mistress Anne Heron, Mildred Elys. Probate 18 Dec 1545. (W., fol. 216.)
*Lawrence was eldest son of Thomas, who died 1504, and brother to John, 1536.

Research Notes:

"Northborne, usually called Norborne, as it is written in the survey of Domesday, lies the next parish westward from Little Mongeham, being so called from the north borne, or stream, which runs from hence into the river at Sandwich. There are four boroughs in it, Norborne, Finglesham, Asheley, and Tickness, or Tickenhurst, for each of which a borsholder is chosen at the manor court of Norborne. ...

"Little Betshanger is an estate in the western part of this parish, which was antiently accounted a manor, and had once owners of the same name; one of whom, Ralph de Betshanger, was possessed of it in king Edward II.'s reign, as was his descendant Thomas de Bethanger, in the 20th year of the next reign of king Edward III. Soon after which, Roger de Cliderow, says Philipott, was proprietor of it, as appears by the seals of old evidences, which commenced from that reign, the shields on which are upon a chevron, between three eagles, five annulets. Notwithstanding which, it appears by the gravestone over his successor, Richard Clitherow, esq. in Ash church, that the arms of these Clitherows were, Three cups covered, within a bordure, ingrailed, or; at least that he bore different arms from those of his predecessor. At length, Roger Clitherow died without male issue, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom Joane, the second, married John Stoughton, of Dartford, second son of Sir John Stoughton, lord-mayor of London. After which, this estate was alienated from this family of Stoughton to Gibbs, from which name it passed into that of Omer; in which it staid, till Laurence Omer, gent. of Ash, leaving an only daughter and heir Jane, she carried it in marriage to T. Stoughton, gent of Ash, afterwards of St. Martin's, Canterbury, son of Edward Stoughton, of Ash, the grandson of John Stoughton, of Dartford, the former possessor of this estate. He died in 1591, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom, Elizabeth was married to Thomas Wild, esq. of St. Martin's, Canterbury; Ellen to Edward Nethersole, gent. and Mary to Henry Paramore, gent. of St. Nicholas, and they by a joint conveyance passed it away to Mr. John Gookin..." [Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Northborne', The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 9 (1800), pp. 583-604. ] [See, however, Turner, Ethel McLaughlin and Paul Boynton, The English Ancestry of Thomas Stoughton, 1588-1661, (Waterloo, Wisc: Artcraft Press, 1958) for an argument that Edward Stoughton was not the grandson of John Stoughton.]


Footnotes:

[1] The National Archives of the United Kingdom Catalog, Chancery pleadings addressed to Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, Cardinal and Papal Legate as Lord Chancellor, C 1/504/1, [UKNationalArchives].

[2] Arthur Hussey, "Ash Wills Part 3," Archaeologia Cantiana 36 (1923), 49-64, at 61-62, [KentArchaeologicalSociety].