Thomas H Holcomb Born 1526 - Jeri Charlene Holcomb Watson's Side Of The Family

THOMAS H HOLCOMBE (Jeri's twelve-times-great-grandfather) was born in 1526 in Hole, England to Ellis-Elias Holcombe1211 and Elizabeth Sydenham1212. Thomas died in 1579, aged about 53. Note: The oldest houses in Branscombe are Church Living, on the main road just north of Saint Winifred's, Edge Barton and Hole House, both within half a mile of each other in the northern part of the parish. The latter two are perched on ledges, half-way up the steep sides of the same valley. They are fortified against attack from below by walls. Hole House is said to have been built in 1075 by Simon de Holcomb, a Saxon bowman who fought at the Battle of Hastings. Legend has it he took up residence in Branscombe after being evicted by the victorious Normans from his manor at Farringdon. Hole House then became the home of the Holcombes for over 500 years. Most famous of the line was Sir John de Holcomb, who died in the Crusades and who, with his wife, Isabella Downe of Rousdon, a direct descendant of Henry I, owned most of the land between Branscombe and Lyme Regis. Sir John is buried at Dorchester Abbey, near Oxford, in one of the finest surviving Crusader tombs. Most large houses of this vintage will have included some kind of private family chapel originally, and there are traces of a fourteenth-century mortuary chapel at Hole, possibly a chantry, where prayers would be said for departed ancestors, the cost covered by a provision in the lord's will. The house was extensively re-built in the late sixteenth-century. Some interesting graffiti can be found on a stone mantelpiece in one room. The names of Gilbert, Josias and Christopher Holcombe were carved there in 1577, when they were children. The house was sold out of the family by Gilbert, in 1601. Gilbert's son, Thomas, believed to have been born at Hole House, is said to have emigrated to America in 1630, on the "Mary and John", and founded the American branch of the family that survives today. However, recent research argues this particular Thomas Holcomb may in fact have come from Warwickshire. Hole House was bought by Ellis Bartlett whose wife, Anne Mitchell, died there five years later, and was buried in St.Winifred's. The family continued to live in the house until the eighteenth century, when it passed by marriage into the Stuckey family, of which Judge John Stuckey was the last of the line. He died in 1810. For a short time in the 1980s, a Branscomb family from California owned and lived in Hole House, but they eventually returned to the U.S.A.. They were probably descended from a West Country branch of the family that emigrated to America in the early eighteenth century, and so are almost certainly descendants of the original Branscombes of Edge Barton. Edge Barton has a central stone spiral staircase that's said to be thirteenth century. It has been called one of the 'oldest continually-inhabited houses in England', although there is a period of several hundred years during which its occupation has to be assumed, as there are no records. Also, it was described in the eighteenth-century as 'derelict'. It is first mentioned in a document of 1218, in connection with the Branscombe family that lived there until the late fourteenth century, but both parts of the name "Edge Barton" are Saxon, and may indicate a farm dwelling existed here long before that. "Barton" describes a courtyard-farm dedicated to growing barley, used in great quantities to make beer, the Saxons' national drink. "Edge" probably refers to its position, overhanging the valley. Defensive platforms of this type, with pallisaded earth walls were typical of the earliest occupation in these valleys, so the site at Edge may be extremely old, even prehistoric. The interestingly-named "Hill Arrish" is nearby, "arrish" being the Saxon word that describes the stubble left, after grain has been harvested. There is plenty of evidence a substantial chapel existed on the site from at least 1290, when it is first noted. The antiquarian brothers Lysons described it, in 1772, as being in poor repair and desecrated. The chapel has now been absorbed into the fabric of the house, but a thirteenth-century rose window, 6 feet 6 inches in diameter, has survived in the attic, in what was the west gable end. A piscina niche now inside the house probably belonged to the chapel. The evident size of the building has led to speculation it may have been a religious establishment in its own right, possibly connected with the supposed birth there of Walter, the thirteenth-century Bishop of Exeter. Certainly, it was home to the Branscombes of Branscombe for at least two hundred years. They were a wealthy and influential family, providing three Sheriffs of Devon in the fourteenth century, several members of parliament and of the Church. They were Surveyors of Weights and Measures, Escheators for Devon and Cornwall, Justices of the King's Peace and Keepers of Exeter Castle. They were Knights of the Shire, trusted servants of the monarch and of the Earl of Devon. One is said to have been the Abbot of Newenham, near Axminster, another was a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral. Richard de Branscombe of Edge is recorded as among the first Freemen of the City of Exeter, elected in 1299 'at the instance of the mayor and community'. By the end of the fourteenth century, the Branscombes had substantial land-holding throughout Devon and branches of descendants were ensconced on distant manors. As County Sheriffs and royal office-holders, the heads of the Edge Barton household would have spent much of their time resident in Exeter Castle. It may be that the family's original house in Branscombe was beginning to look a bit small and dowdy in comparison. Whatever the reason, in or about the year 1377, the house was sold to the Wadhams of Knowestone, in north Devon, and as far as is known, the Branscombe family was not seen again in the parish for more than 500 years. The Wadhams held Edge Barton for eight generations. The mother of the last male heir in this line, Nicholas, is buried in the church. Her tomb is the finest of those surviving from the Elizabethan period. Nicholas died in 1609. He is most remembered for having founded Wadham College, Oxford. He died before it was opened, but his widow Dorothy oversaw the project to completion. One of the upper rooms of Edge Barton contains grafitti of a fleet of sailing ships carved into the stone windows. An expert has identified them as sixteenth-century Portuguese carracks of a type that would only have been seen in large numbers in the English Channel at the time of the Armada. The sea can just be glimpsed from the window. The logbook of the "San Martin", flagship of Captain-General Alonso Perez de Guzman, Duke of Medina Sidonia, records that the 130 ships of the Spanish Armada were becalmed between Start Point and Portland Bill (within sight of Branscombe) on Monday the 1st of August, 1588. With the last male heir dead, Edge Barton passed by marriage from the Wadhams to the Wyndhams and then the Strangeways. Finally, Edge became the property of the Langdons of Chard. It was sold at about the beginning of the twentieth century to Mr. Richards of Sidmouth, who was born in Branscombe. It was in a decayed state, and the ruined chapel was being used as a dairy. It was rescued in 1933 by an architect, Captain Frank Masters, who began extensive renovations which were completed by a later owner, Robert Blackburn, the aeronautical engineer. Today, it wears its age beautifully, blending so naturally with its surroundings that it seems to be part of the landscape. Church Living could be as old as St.Winifred's, and still retains some thirteenth-century features. The south window may have been part of the chamber which, in a 1307 inspection, was estimated to require 60 shillings-worth of repairs. It's said one of the bedrooms used to have two bas-reliefs of a coat of arms, with a third was in the ceiling, but they have not survived. Church Living was never the vicarage. It was probably used as a guesthouse by visiting canons. Tradition states there's an underground passage that connects Church Living with the church. Between the two, where the war memorial is now, stood Church House, for years the residence of the sexton. It was pulled down in about 1880. Hole and Manor mills, both water-powered, were important revenue-earners for their respective lords. Tenants were obliged to use the manor mill, just east of the church, and pay for the privilege. Hole Mill, at Bottoms, just east of Hole House, was still working until the early twentieth century, but is now a private home and guest house. Manor Mill has been completely restored by the National Trust. It probably occupies the site of an earlier mill. Until the second world war it provided flour to the former Branscombe bakery, now a tea-room, opposite the village hall.