Examining Origins of Eltweed Pomeroy in Dorset

 Pomeroy records in Dorset

Powley mentions the John Pomeroy, Gent. Living in Stoke Abbot in 1525. 

1. Lay Subsidy, Dorset, on the holders of land of the annual value of £20. Parish of Stoke Abbot.  "John Pomerey in goods, (annual income value) xx1', subsidy tax xxs ."(1525) 

2. John Pomeroy, Gent, leased the farming of the vicarage of Stoke Abbot from parson Thomas Chylde c 1523. 

3.  27 Henry VIII.  1535:Assessment of 1st payment of a subsidy granted 26 Henry VIII. Hundred de Bemyster:  John Pom'y de Netherbury (first name)

4.  2 Sept. xxvii. Henry VIII. (1537)  Assessment of 1st payment of a subsidy granted 26 Henry VIII. Hundred de Bemyster: (1) John Pom'y de Netherbury (first name), xf. (2) John Horsford eadem xs. Richard Strowde de eadem xvis iiiid.

5. .  "Musters taken in Brideporte in the county of Dors. the Xth Daye of April and at Bemyster in the said Countie in the Xlth Daye of Aprell the XXXth yere (1539) "The Tethyng of Bowode: The Tethyng to bvyde hernys, w* a Bowe 1 Sheff arr. to the Kyng. (First name) *John Pom'ey, gent. — 1 harnys, wt. a Bowe, 1 Sheff arrowes and a Bylle.

Bowood is a hamlet in Netherbury, adjoining Beaminster. The "hernys" owned or to be provided by John Pomeroy, Gent., was a metal armor for the protection of his body. The "Bylle" was his pike or halbert. He was the only man in Bowood who had, or had to provide armor. In 1539 he was an "ableman,"  (between 16 and 60 years) able to fight, for these records also indicate the men who had arms but were not "ablemen."

6.    Roll 104-158. 29 Oct. 37 Henry 8, Dorset, Hundred of Modbury,  Ric. Pomrey in goods xls . . . iid. (1546).  (Near Burton Bradstock, very close to Bridport.) 

7. Richard Pomeroy, son of Thomas Pomeroy and Agnes Kelloway married 2nd Anne Wykes, widow of Thomas Arthur of Clapton in Gordano, Somerset. They also held Clapton, near Crewkerne. Somerset.  (Link) 

    The Wykes had Henley, in Crewkerne.  (Anne received as Dower, 1/3rd Clapton in Gordano and Weston-super-Mare. Richard Pomeroy held by right of his wife.)  

This next section starts with The Bishop’s Transcripts and early baptisms in Beaminster, Dorset.  Early parish records for Beaminster were lost.  

Eltwid Pomeroy baptized 4 Jul 1585, son of Richard Pomeroy. (Spelling as per Bishops Transcript)

The name of the mother of Eltwid Pomeroy,  as stated in the History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family by A. A. Pomeroy,  was speculative. 

I will discuss the Pomeroy burials in Symondsbury below.  

 A. A. Pomeroy sent  C. A. Hoppin back to Dorset in 1924 to find the facts that would connect Eltwid Pomeroy to the noble family. 

He could not find a father for Richard Pomeroy, father of Eltwid, in Beaminster. Nor could he find a mother. He found a lot of “facts,” but nothing that made the case that Eltwid’s father, Richard, was descended from Richard Pomeroy of Bowdon at Totnes, and that was their goal. The missing link. 

At the time, the short version was that John Pomeroy, the 2nd son of Richard Pomeroy of Bowden, in Totnes, must be the vital link, and that he was probably the John Pomeroy at Bowood, Netherbury, and therefore the father or grandfather of Richard Pomeroy, father of Eltwid.  

If we are to follow that line of inquiry, we see a problem with dates:  John Pomeroy was an adult in Bowood in 1523,  and therefore must have been born by 1500, which date makes him a contemporary in age of Richard Pomeroy (1492-?) of Bowden, in Totnes,  and not his son.   

I know I’m being “hard” on C. A. Hoppin, but there is more than just dates that he overlooked.   1. Elinor, buried April 1612, was  called "wife of Richard Pomeroy alias Wryckson.  "This record was several lines below another Pomeroy wife: 2: Joanne Pomeroy,  wife of Richard Pomeroy buried Feb 1611.(Old style, which means she died two months before Elinor.)   Two men and two wives,   Both buried in Symondsbury between Feb 1611 and Feb 1612, (old style) within months of each other.: To repeat: Joanna Pomeroy buried Feb 1611, wife of Richard Pomeroy;  And Richard Pomeroy alias Wrickson. Feb 1612, different entry and day (images below), and his wife Elinor, b April 1612. 

Who can know why the genealogist Mr. Hoppin chose Elinor to be Eltwid’s mother, instead of Joanne?   While the Joanne Pomeroy burial isn’t in the FMP or Ancestry indexes due to poor transcribing, if one looks through the original images, she is there, on the same page as Elinor.  That C. A. Hoppin “missed” this is unfortunate because we always assumed that he had seen the original records, and that therefore, there wasn’t anything else to see. 

I want to spend a little more time on John Pomeroy of Bowood, Netherbury.  As an adult in 1523, he could have had children in the 1530’s, and grandchildren in the 1560’s.  In Symondsbury we find a John Pomeroy alias Wrickson,  father of Robert (1594), Henry, (1596) , Elizabeth, 1599; Walter (1600)  and William c 1605). ( The children are contemporary with Eltwid Pomeroy.) 

One has to consider that  Richard Pomeroy, alias Wrixon, and his wife Elinor's (1612 ) burial records in Symondsbury), were the parents of John Pomeroy, alias Wrixon.  One must also conclude that  Richard Pomeroy, alias Wrixon, in the Symondsbury records, husband of Elinor Pomeroy, alias Wrixon, who died in April 1612,  was NOT the father of Eltwid Pomeroy.   If Eltwid were their son, Eltwid would also be Pomeroy alias Wrixon.  

John Pomeroy, alias Wrixon at Symondsbury, was  of the same generation as Richard Pomeroy, who baptized Eltweed in Beaminster.  Nor was he the John Pomeroy, gent, of record at Bowood, in Netherbury. 

C. A. Hoppin wrote: (Page 172, A. A. Pomeroy vol III 1923) " The widow Wrixon who seems to have married a Pomeroy, may have inherited so much of the estate of John Pomeroy, Gent., and have bestowed it upon her own children by her previous husband Wrixon, that but little may have come to Richard and Eltweed Pomeroy . .  "      

YDNA: 

A careful genealogical and YDNA study of descendants of the Pomeroy alias Wrixons of Symondsbury indicates the Pomeroy alias Wrixon family belongs to Haplogroup I-M223. (Eltweed descendants are R-M269).  What the Y700 test also tells us is that this is an old POMEROY lineage, and while we don't know where or when their common ancestor lived, the Pomeroy alias Wrixon genetic lineage is shared with another early Pomeroy group with early origins in east Devon, including Farway and Membury.  

Family Tree DNA Pomeroy Surname Project

The Dates don't work!

C. A. Hoppin suggested that John Pomeroy, Gent, on record at Netherbury in 1523, 1526, and 1539,  must be the son of Richard Pomeroy and Agnes Kelloway, and because Netherbury was 1 1/2 miles from Beaminster, he must also be the father or grandfather of Richard Pomeroy, father of Eltweed.    

The IPM (Inquisition Post Mortem for Agnes nee Kelloway Pomeroy Bowring) indicates Richard Pomeroy was born in 1492. He came of age in 1510.  Richard Pomeroy, son of Thomas Pomeroy and Agnes Kelloway could not have been the father of John Pomeroy, Gent, on record at Netherbury as an adult in 1523.

Is it beginning to make sense? 

Where then, should we look for the origins of Eltwid Pomeroy, bp in Beaminster 1585?  Now that we realize Elinor and Richard Pomeroy, alias Wrixon, are not the parents of Eltwid, perhaps there are hints in the records prompting us to also look beyond Joane Pomeroy and Richard Pomeroy, buried in Feb 1611 and Feb 1612 in Symondsbury.  

In the National Archives: C 241/193/78: ** The THOMAS ARTHUR family held in Ashcombe, Weston, Wyntryde,  in Winterstoke Hundreds, and in Clapton in Crewkerne, CREWKERNE HUNDRED, Somerset. 

Clapton is a tything in Crewkerne parish, Somerset. 3 miles from Crewkerne. A short distance from Hewish (Huish).  See Clapton Mill. (A Watermill.) For a period of time, it was called Langdon Mill.  The Langdons were from Beaminster; they owned Langdon Mill (A Watermill) in Beaminster. Also, Langdon Farms.   

English court records show that in early 1632 an  Eltweed Pomeroy, "fuller," had been called as a witness in a suit brought by tenants of Langdon Manor in Beaminster. 

There is a burial in Huish, near Crewkerne: 

A burial:  24 May 1629: Richard Pommeroie. 

Huish: Near Crewkerne: BURIAL:  

Richard Last name. Pommeroie

Death year. 1629

Burial year. 1629

Burial date  4 May 1629

Church St Aldheim & St Eadburgh

Somerset & Dorset Family History Society

Transcriptions © Somerset & Dorset Family History Society

** Note: Thomas Arthur,  Somersetshire was married to Anne Wykes. Her second husband was Richard Pomeroy of Bowden at Totnes, son of Thomas Pomeroy and Agnes Kelloway, born 1492. His first wife was Elinor Coker. 

 Lands held in dower for Anne Wykes Arthur Pomeroy were later held in Freehold by Richard Pomeroy, and Anne, by rights of his marriage to her. 

Update: April 2026: AML. 

Pomeroy, Richard (d. 1612, Symondsbury, Dorset) and Elinor Pomeroy alias Wrixon: Reassessment of Relationship to Eltwid Pomeroy (bap. 1585)

As I work through these records for the hundredth time, I began to realize there were other considerations to be taken into account.  True, we could simply decide that Joanna, buried in February 1611, was Eltwid's mother, and Richard, buried in February 1612, was his father. But that doesn't answer the questions we've raised. 

First, there’s actually no record (will, land record, parish entry, etc. in Symondsbury or Beaminster that directly links either Richard Pomeroy or Richard Pomeroy alias Wrixon, both buried in Symondsbury, to Eltwid, baptized in Beaminster. The assumption seems to have been made based on timing and location, which we all know can be risky.

Second — and this feels important: 

• Pomeroy alias Wrixon

• Wrixon alias Pomeroy

That “alias” usage wasn’t really taken into account in earlier work. It usually points to things like maternal inheritance, blended families, or name changes tied to land or tenancy. In other words, this may not be a straightforward “Pomeroy” line at all, but a Wrixon-connected family using both names.

Then there’s the DNA.

Y-DNA results are showing a pretty clear split:

• The Symondsbury/Bridport area Pomeroys  tend to fall into I-M223

• Eltwid’s line (and several Devon lines, especially around Brixham/Totnes) fall into R-M239

Those two haplogroups don’t match on a direct paternal line — so that’s a big red flag. Th

Putting that together, it looks very unlikely that the 1612 Richard Pomeroy alias Wrixon of Symondsbury was Eltwid’s biological father.

So what’s going on with Eltwid?

The Bishops Transcripts: Eltwid's baptism shows up in the Beaminster Bishop’s Transcripts — but those early transcripts (pre-1598) weren’t always consistently kept. Some entries were copied later, and sometimes events were recorded across parishes. 

Is it possible that Eltwid’s connection to Beaminster is through his mother, not his father?  That could explain why he appears there, even if his paternal line belonged elsewhere. Perhaps they were living elsewhere, and recorded his baptism in his mother's home parish. 

That opens up the discussion considerably. 

👉 Who is Richard Pomeroy, father of Eltwid, in the 1585 Beaminster record, if he’s not the Symondsbury man? 

There are other Pomeroys in the wider area. For example, a Richard Pommeroi was buried in 1629 at Hewish, in Broadway, in Crewkerne parish, Somerset,  showing the name isn’t confined to the Symondsbury cluster.