Pomeroy Home Page, Lists and Sub-pages
Web Site and Research by Alma LaFrance
With additions from Others!
Embedded Files
From Normandy to Devon; to Dorset, Cornwall, Ireland and Beyond:
From Normandy to Devon; to Dorset, Cornwall, Ireland and Beyond:
Although the documents that record the heads of various Pomeroy family clusters go back to the mid 1500's at best, we find, as we explore, older records that mention the name, of various spellings, going back many more hundreds of years.
While most of our earliest known forbearers cannot be connected to those historical figures, items that relate to the Pomeroy's of an earlier time are most interesting.
‘We find but few historians, of all ages, who have been diligent enough in their
search for truth; and it is their common method to take on trust what they deliver to
the public, by which means a falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes
traditional to posterity.’
1 John Dryden, quoted in J. Potter, Good King Richard ? (London: Constable, 1983), pp. 166-7.
This site serves as a depository for my internet explorations, conversations, and little discoveries.
It is my desire not to contribute to further falsehoods, but rather to locate the simple truths based upon those records available online. PLEASE do not treat the information on this web site as authoritative.
Early Origins of Eltweed Pomeroy
Early Origins of Eltweed Pomeroy
Update April 7, 2026: Pomeroy, Richard (d. 1612, Symondsbury, Dorset) and Elinor Pomeroy alias Wrixon: Reassessment of Relationship to Eltwid Pomeroy (bap. 1585)
Pomeroy Families of Symondsbury and Beaminster (Dorset): Documentary and Genetic Evidence for Separate Lineages: Alma LaFrance; April 7, 2026
The Bishop's Transcripts were not regularly kept until 1598. The earlier entries, beginning with Eltwid's, may have been copied from earlier parish records or cross-registered from other parishes.
It is even possible that his mother was from the Beaminster/Netherbury area while the family resided elsewhere, which would explain cross-parish recording and incomplete parental identification.
The Problem of the Burial of Richard Pomeroy at Symondsbury (d. 1612)
A Re-evaluation Using Documentary and Genetic Evidence
I have reexamined the long-accepted identification of Richard Pomeroy, buried in Symondsbury, Dorset, in 1612, and claimed to be the father of Eltwid Pomeroy, whose baptism was recorded in the Beaminster Bishops Transcript as 4 Jul 1585.
This attribution, widely repeated in compiled genealogies, rests on proximity and chronology rather than direct documentary evidence. No will, land record, or parish entry has been identified that explicitly connects the Richard Pomeroy buried in 1612 in Symondsbury to Richard Pomeroy, father of Eltwid.
'Failure to Account for Alias Usage:' Earlier researchers did not fully consider the significance of entries in Symondsbury parish registers identifying individuals as:
"Pomeroy alias Wrixon" "Wrixon alias Pomeroy"
This omission is critical. Such alias usage indicates the likelihood of maternal inheritance, blended family identy or tenurial naming conventions.
By treating "Pomeroy" as a fixed surname, prior work obscured the possibility that the Symondsbury individuals belonged to a distinct Wrixon-associated lineage.
YDNA Evidence:
Y-DNA testing among Pomeroy descendants with roots in and around Beaminster and Bridport, Dorset, reveals a predominant haplogroup amongst the lineages as being I-M223. At the same time, there is a consistent haplogroup of R-M239 in not only the line descending from Eltwid Pomeroy but also six other Pomeroy lineages originating in the Brixham/Totnes area of Devon. Where R-M239 Pomeroys appear in later Symondsbury records, they are associated with documented surnames or genetic switches.
Therefore, the Symondsbury group (I-M223) and Eltwid's line (R-M239) are not compatible within a direct paternal line. Therefore, Richard Pomeroy, alias Wrixon, husband of Elinor Pomeroy, cannot be the biological father of Eltwid Pomeroy.
The following note is from FindMyPast: I am not allowed to copy the Ancestry images for posting here.
1. Beaminster Burial 1612 : 12 May 1612: Elinor Pomeroy wife of Richard Pomeroy alias Wrixon
2. Beaminster Burial 12 May 1612, Elinor Wrixon. Last name Wrixon Place Symondsbury County Dorset Death year 1612 Country England Burial year 1612 Record set National Burial Index For England & Wales Burial date 12 May 1612 Category Birth, Marriage & Death (Parish Registers) Denomination Anglican Subcategory. Parish Burials Description. St John the Baptist Collections from Great Britain, England.
These two records represent the same person. In fact, the burial record from which both were taken was the same record, with one transcriber reading “Pomeroy,” the other reading “ Wrixon.”
Richard Pomeroy belonged to the Pomeroy alias Wrixon (I-M223) lineage; he was not the paternal father of Eltwid.
Eltwid's baptism record in the Bishop's Transcript and his adult presence in Beaminster may be better explained through maternal inheritance or kinship ties through his mother's family. We do not know who she is at this point in time. (03/2026)
Who is the Richard Pomeroy alias Wrixon who appears in the Symondsbury records? Who was Richard Pomeroy in the Bishop’s Transcript record dated 1585? If they were one and the same, Eltwid would be called Pomeroy alias Wrixon.
While it is not proven to be Eltwid's father, the burial of Richard Pommeroi in 1629 at Broadway, Somerset, within the Crewkerne parish, where Eltwid married his second wife, demonstrates the presence of Pomeroy individuals in the immediate area.
Notes
Beaminster, Dorset, Bishop’s Transcripts, baptism of Eltwid Pomeroy, 4 July 1585.
Secondary compilations and online genealogies attribute the 1612 Symondsbury burial to this individual without primary evidence.
Symondsbury parish registers (original images), entries showing “Pomeroy alias Wrixon” and “Wrixon alias Pomeroy,” late 16th–early 17th century.
Pomeroy DNA Project data (FamilyTreeDNA), results for East Devon and Dorset participants, showing predominant I-M223 haplogroup.
Y-DNA test results for documented descendants of Eltwid Pomeroy, identifying haplogroup R-M239.
Project notes and documented cases within the Pomeroy DNA study identifying surname switches associated with non-matching haplogroups.
Regional parish geography based on Dorset and Somerset parish maps; distances within approximately 10–12 miles.
General historical context of Bishop’s Transcripts: irregular survival and copying practices prior to the 1590s.
Parish and family connections linking Beaminster and Crewkerne, including marriage and residence patterns.
10.Broadway, Somerset (Crewkerne parish), burial of Richard Pommeroi, 24 May 1629.
Symondsbury, Dorset, original parish images are online at Ancestry: Ancestry.com. Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data: Dorset Parish Registers. Dorchester, England: Dorset History Centre. Dorset Church of England Parish Registers, Dorset History Centre, Dorchester, England.
Filmstrip 43: In going through each image of the Symondsbury, Dorset records, page by page, we note THREE (3) Pomeroy Burials in 1611-1612.
1. 1612: February 23rd: (Old Style) Buried was JOAN Pomery, the wife of Richard Pomery.
2. 1612: April 12th, (Old Style) Buried, ELINOR Pomery, the wife of Richard Pomery alias Wrixon. (Old style means Elinor was buried two months after Joan.)
On Filmstrip 46: 3. 1612: 3rd of February, (Old Style) Buried, RICHARD Pomeroy.
(Ancestry.com. Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Filmstrip number 46 Original data: Dorset Parish Registers. Dorchester, England: Dorset History Centre. Dorset Church of England Parish Registers, Dorset History Centre, Dorchester, England.)
C.A. Hoppin (1923, History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family) made the connection based on an unsupported assumption.
Y700 DNA testing confirms that descendants of Richard, father of Eltweed, share a close common ancestor with descendants of Hugh POMEROY, who baptized 3 children in Kenn, Somerset, between 1596 and 1695.
Historical records in the National Archives prove Richard POMEROY, whose first marriage was to Elinor Coker, was married 2nd Anne, nee Wykes. The marriage occurred in 1544. Anne was the widow of Thomas Arthur, who owned Clevedon Manor, Somerset. Anne brought dower property to her marriage with Richard POMEROY. A map shows us that the village of Kenn, where Hugh Pomeroy's children were baptized, is next to Clevedon.
This is the direction of future research.
Sources
↑ Pomeroy, Albert Alonzo. History and genealogy of the Pomeroy family, collateral lines in family groups, Normandy, Great Britain, and America; comprising the ancestors and descendants of Eltweed Pomeroy from Beaminster, County Dorset, England, 1630. The Franklin printing and engraving company: Toledo, OH, 1912. Available on Family Search.
↑ https://sites.google.com/site/pomeroytwig/front-royal-the-early-years/the-eltweed-question
AMERICAN POMEROY HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL ASSOCIATION Eltweed Tree
http://www.opcdorset.org/BeaminsterFiles/BeaminsterBaps1585-1620.htm
Pomeroy Global DNA Project (run by the Pomeroy Family Association), Family Tree DNA.
Ancestry.com. Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data: Dorset Parish Registers. Dorchester, England: Dorset History Centre. Dorset Church of England Parish Registers, Dorset History Centre, Dorchester, England.
2022: Previous Notes: Work in progress:
Descendants of Eltweed Pomeroy belong to a genetic group of Pomeroy's with early origins in Devon. The public page of the Family Tree DNA-Pomeroy surname project lists this genetic group. Y700 results show this group underwent rapid expansion and dispersal between 1500 and 1560, from the immediate area around Totnes in Devon to Somerset and Dorset, followed closely by a branch to Ireland and Wiltshire. This all occurred before BMD records were kept, so we have to rely on the Archives and Y-DNA testing.
No, A. A. Pomeroy, (History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family, Volume III, 1923) was not wrong, but he wasn't right, either. The National Archives do provide sufficient evidence to connect one of the Pomeroy Genetic B families, with early origins in Clapton in Gordano, Somersetshire, to Thomas Pomeroy and Agnes Kelloway of Bowden at Totnes. (Richard Pomeroy, their 2nd son, married first Elinor Coker, and second Anne Wykes Arthur, widow of Thomas Arthur of Clapton in Gordano.). Both the Wykes and the Arthurs had holdings in Somerset and Dorset.
I propose to provide all the archives and backstory to support this connection. It will be a short story with a very long set of footnotes. I now realize why POWLEY used the format he did...it was the only way to fit everything in.
John Pery holds by copy a cottage with appurtenances and eleven acres of land lying in the common field of Crukerne, and
renders per ann. vjs. v\\]d.
County
Somerset
Church name
Register type
Burial date
16 Feb 1587
Burial person forename
John
Burial person surname
POMMERYIE
Burial person abode
Huishe
File line number 962
Huish: Hewish; Near Crewkerne:
BURIAL:
Richard
Last name
Pommeroie
Death year
1629
Burial year
1629
Burial date
24 May 1629
Church; St Aldheim & St Eadburgh
Crewkerne, Somerset, and burials for people from the surrounding area were held there, and the records are noted frequently.: The individuals NAME “Of Huish.”
In the Crewkerne church records, none of the Pomeroys were “of this parish,” but “Of Huish.”
What is curious is that they are NEAR Clapton and Henley, villages located right next to Crewkerne.
Henley was one of the properties Anne Wykes brought to her first marriage to Thomas Arthur. Anne Wykes married 2nd Richard Pomeroy, of Bowden at Totnes 1544-5. About the time of his marriage, Richard Pomeroy sold most of his holdings in the Totnes area.
A. A. Pomeroy latched on to Richard Pomeroy, buried FEB 1612 (old style) in Symondsbury as THE father of Eltwid because his genealogist, C. A. Hoppin, couldn’t find any record of a Richard Pomeroy in Beaminster. HE IGNORED the record two lines above the Elinor Pomeroy record, of "Joan Pomeroy wife of Richard Pomeroy, buried Feb. 1612." AND he proposed Elinor, buried April (Old Style) 1612, was the wife of Richard Pomeroy, father of Eltweed, and therefore the mother of Eltwid. Wrong.
Elinor was not the wife of Richard Pomeroy, but the wife of Richard Pomeroy alias Wrickson.
Richard Pomeroy ALIAS WRICKSON was contemporary with the other Wricksons; William Pomeroy alias Wrickson and John Pomeroy Alias Wrickson, in the records. I suggest they were ALL siblings. They were all OLDER by about 10 years than Eltwid, but TOO YOUNG to be Eltwid's Parents.
If Eltwid were a younger sibling, he would ALSO CARRY the Alias Wrickson surname and YDNA.
An assertion on page 262 of the July 1913 NEHGA
An assertion on page 262 of the July 1913 NEHGA
"Thomas Pomeroy, (son of Sir Henry Pomeroy, Knight, Lord of the Manor and Castle of Berry Pomeroy, and from which family Eltweed Pomeroy is believed to have descended), died in 1493 as a farmer, possessed of not an acre of land of his own, (as hereinbefore proven).(gentleman, in the English sense of the word), but he resided upon an ordinary farm which he had leased."
(Mr Bartlett)
Thomas Pomeroy (d. 1493): “Not an Acre”? The Records Say Otherwise
Thomas Pomeroy (d. 1493): “Not an Acre”? The Records Say Otherwise
A long-cited statement claims:
“Thomas Pomeroy… died in 1493 as a farmer, possessed of not an acre of land of his own… but he resided upon an ordinary farm which he had leased.”
It’s a striking claim—but it does not survive even a basic review of the contemporary records.
What the Inquisition Post Mortem Actually Says
What the Inquisition Post Mortem Actually Says
The most important document is the Inquisition Post Mortem (9 Henry VII, 1493), taken shortly after Thomas’s death.
It states plainly that Thomas Pomeroy:
was seised in his demesne as of fee (i.e., outright ownership) of:
1 messuage, 300 acres of land, and 20 acres of meadow in Bowden, Blaudon, Ivecombe, and Langedon
an additional 20 acres of land and 5 acres of meadow in Ivecombe
with a total annual value of about £10
and that these lands were held in free socage (a standard free tenure, not mere tenancy)
In short:
Thomas Pomeroy died owning hundreds of acres of land.
That alone directly contradicts the statement that he possessed “not an acre.”
Recognized as a Man of Status
Recognized as a Man of Status
Multiple records describe him not as a simple farmer, but as:
“Thomas Pomeray, esquire” (repeatedly, including deeds and bonds)
a participant in legal agreements involving £100 bonds (a substantial sum)
a party to Chancery litigation over deeds and land in Totnes, Bowden, Ashprington, and Langton
He was also:
Knighted at the Order of the Bath (1487)—a mark of gentry status and royal connection
These are not the activities—or the social level—of an “ordinary farmer.”
The Real Issue: A Misreading of Status and Tenure
The Real Issue: A Misreading of Status and Tenure
The earlier claim seems to rest on a narrow assumption:
if land was not held directly of the Crown, or if leasing occurred → then the man was landless
But this ignores how landholding actually worked in the 15th century.
Thomas Pomeroy:
held land “in his demesne as of fee” (true ownership)
held it under free socage, a perfectly normal form of tenure
engaged in transactions, litigation, and obligations typical of the gentry
Leasing arrangements, where they existed, do not negate ownership—they were part of how estates were managed.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The statement that Thomas Pomeroy:
“possessed not an acre of land of his own”
is not just overstated—it is demonstrably incorrect.
The contemporary record shows a man who:
owned substantial acreage,
operated within the gentry class,
and played an active role in the landholding and legal structures of his time
Rather than an “ordinary farmer,” Thomas Pomeroy emerges as exactly what the records call him:
Thomas Pomeroy, Esquire.
The chart above represents Y700 results for the Pomeroy Haplogroup Project: Genetic Family B: Haplogroup R-BY160080, as of December 2022.
Within Genetic Family B, we now see three distinct lineages descending from a lineage called Haplogroup BY160561. The only surname associated with this Haplogroup is Pomeroy, living in Devon before 1350.
Family Tree DNA: Y700 results. 1. Lewannick Pomeroys: a formed c 1350. 2. Brixham/Holne Pomeroys. Research in the National Archives, UK suggest The Brixham family descends from John Pomeroy of Holne. Land records connect John Pomeroy of Holne with the Ingsdon Pomeroys, a cadet branch of the nobel family at Berry Pomeroy. In addition the descendants of Haplogroup R-BY199996 carry the 3668398 AT-A INDEL. 3. The Bowden Pomeroys, which now includes both the Beaminster Pomeroys and the Clevedon Pomeroys.
January 2023: Following the Pomeroy's from Bowden at Totnes:
Inserted here temporarily.
[no title] PH/10 21 May, 1618
These documents are held at Cornwall Record Office
Contents:
Bargain and Sale (enrolled) With covenant to levy a fine. £2000
Thos. Earl of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer to:
(i) Edwd. Harris, Esq., Chief Justice of the Province of Munster in the Kingdom of Ireland
(ii) Hen. Spiller and Michael Humfreis of London, esquires.
(i - ii) -- manor of Colquite (with deeds and evidences at cost of Thos. Earl of Suffolk) except mess. in St. Kew occupied by Moyse, Mess. in St. Minver occupied by. Thomas, mess. in St. Teath occ. Hambly, mess. in Davidstowe occ. Gedy, patronage and advowson of a prebend in Endellion (Endillion).
Seal of i on tag.
Witd.: Hugh Pyne, Edm. Sawyer, Mathew Coningsby, Reignolde Billinge, Mathew Leighton
"The lordship of the manor of Colquitte, to which Tredethy belonged, (near Bodmin) the place belonging to Thomas Pomeroy (0160) at St. Mabyn, Cornwall, was
granted to him by Edward Harris;” (From A. A. Pomeroy 1923)
I found Thomas Pomeroy in Cornworthy records with his mother Agnes Harris, Henry Fortescue and Giles Harris up until around 1608. Then there was nothing further about him. Did he go to St Many, part of the. Manor of Colquite?
Curiously, Colquite ended up with the Hoblyn Peter family; which came from his wife, the Heiress Elizabeth Pomeroy; Elizabeth descended from John Pomeroy (1678-1732;) Edward 1645-1723; John 1616 Merchant of Fowey, who I believe was a son of this Thomas Pomeroy, who was 1/2 brother of Arthur Harris. Further, I believe he married Joan Bellot, Bodmin.
27 Jun 1641: R/958: LEASE FOR 3 LIVES. JONATHAN of Menabilly, esq. to SUSAN, POMEROY, dau. of Thomas P. of Tywardreath, and (also) JN. P., son of Thomas P. and wife JOAN.
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