Bellamys And Kemps
It did not take long for me to realise that my random collision with Suffolk in the early 1980s might run deeper than a one-off scientific project. The first mental alert came when I read in Rowland Parker's book 'Men of Dunwich' that one, William Belamy, together with twenty other mariners of Dunwich, withheld his taxes as a protest against the chronic inefficiency of the town's government. This minor local rebellion happened in 1287. The possibility of Suffolk being a family meeting place could not be ignored when I learned that at this time Kemps (my mother's family) were Domesday property holders in the town and surrounding countryside. Now, after decades spent unraveling many skeins of family history, starting with the birth of my grandfather Kemp in Aldeburgh a few miles from Dunwich, I can see that the Bellamy connection was through the Flemings, who came to East Anglia in the 13th century in the pay of the Count of Flanders. The Kemps had arrived much earlier from Normandy and were established as henchmen of the local Suffolk aristocracy prior to the Norman Conquest. This story is presented in the following website.