Introduction

An Introduction to Macnamara's Memorials of the Danvers Family

In 1852 Dr Francis Nottidge Macnamara, Surgeon Major with the Indian Army, married Amy Danvers. Upon retiring 35 years later in 1888, Macnamara, having time to spare and a fondness for antiquarian research, set about proving (or disproving) the correctness of a table of descent of the Danvers family which the family had acquired years before.

The chart, which provided the stimulus for Macnamara's research, traced the ancestry of the family through the Swithland branch back to the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. His research enabled him to document the descent of the Culworth and Dauntsey branches of the Danvers family from about the year 1000 through to 1895. Although he agreed with the earlier descent charts of the Swithland branch he suspected that the branch died out during the 14th century and that the current Swithland branch is descended from the Culworth branch, circa 1420. A copy of the chart was included as an insert in the back of Macnamara's Memorials of the Danvers Family. Because the chart was removable, very few copies remain with the books.

Included in these books are detailed descriptions of the associates of the family, their places of residence, and the historical context of their lives.

Descriptions of the four versions of the book.

1. The first edition - 1895

In 1895 Francis Macnamara published the Memorials of the Danvers Family. Two hundred copies of his book were printed, at least six copies came to New Zealand, two of which are shown here. The original untrimmed pages with white cover of the left and a trimmed and rebound copy on the right.

Description of Macnamara's Memorials of the Danvers Family - 1895 Edition

Author: Francis Macnamara (1831-1899)

Binding: Hard cover

Cover illustration: Danvers arms

Format:  Portrait 9" H x 6" W x 2" D  / 230 W x 160 H x 50 D

Copies printed:       200

Pages untrimmed: 564

Maps:                            0

Illustrations:              14

Family charts:            17

Pages of Index:     12

An scanned searchable copy of the original book can be viewed here. Press right and left arrow key to change pages. An earlier B&W copy.

Introducing the Editors

Updating the Family Tree by Gary Danvers

In 1961 my father, Mike D'Anvers, visited his cousin, Barabara Tyers in Hastings, whose mother he had lived with after his own mother died in 1936. He borrowed and had photographed, the Danvers family tree from the back of the Memorials of the Danvers Family. This is the tree that Macnamara mentions above that started him off on his research. Upon moving to Australia in 1968 my father left me with the photograph of the tree. Over the succeeding years it slowly deteriorated and in 1987 I attempted to use a typewriter to reproduce it. This proved unsuccessful, mainly because the typeface wasn't small enough to fit the details across the page, but shortly afterwards I learnt to use a computer word processor along with a printer that used wide fan-fold paper and I found it ideally suited to the task of reproducing the family tree. This method of producing the family tree was used until 2020 when the portion of it from 1761 was converted to a digital version (MMDF Chap 14).

In 1987 I borrowed a copy of the Memorials of the Danvers Family and photocopied it. After reading it found many characters missing from the tree and commenced adding them to the family tree. The following years resulted in much of our spare time taken up with genealogy related matters leading up to the publishing of the 1995 Centennial Edition.

Updating the Memorials of the Danvers Family by Jane Webster

Between 1990 and 1995 Jane was instrumental in producing the master documents for the 1995 Centennial Edition. Besides the text, these documents included the production of 60 more family charts or tables of descent; the updating of the lineal descent chart dating from 1761 to 1995 listing the descendants of John Danvers and Elizabeth Hardy; and indexing the whole book, increasing the pages of indexing from 12 to 63.

2. The 1987 photocopied edition

In 1987 Jane and I borrowed one of the six copies of Macnamara's Memorials of the Danvers Family known to have come to New Zealand (the red one above) and having discovered the significance of its contents it was obvious that the information would be of great interest to many members of the family and would become even more interesting as the years went by. To preserve the 100-year-old book we set about getting more copies printed and in 1987 produced 10 photocopies of Macnamara's work for distribution to family members.

Retracing Macnamara's footsteps

One hundred years after Macnamara conducted his research, Jane and I spent several months during 1990 and 1993 in England retracing his footsteps. While referring to his book during our travels we discovered that many of the buildings he listed (Dauntsey, Culworth, Calthorpe, Danby Castle, besides the many churches) are not only still standing, but are mostly still used and well maintained. We also discovered that a considerable amount of research is being conducted by several members and relatives of the Leicestershire branch of the family. No doubt the results of their endeavours will eventually supplement Macnamara's work.

3. The centennial edition - 1995

While using the book in England in 1990 it soon became obvious that the layout of the book could be modified to assist people to find their way along the ancestral trail. On return to NZ we decided that it would be an interesting project to update the layout of the book and the descendancy charts it contains. This project took five years to complete and was timed to be released in 1995 as a centennial edition of Macnamara's work.  The content of the original book was enhanced for the centennial edition by:

1. the addition of maps to make the places mentioned easier to locate should folk decide to follow the ancestral trail through Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Middlesex, and Sussex;

2. the addition of 47 new illustrations, several drawn by family members and friends, namely: Marie Batterby (nee D'Anvers), John D'Anvers of Auckland and Tony Danvers of Leicester;

3. the addition of 49 new family charts;

4. the addition of a comprehensive index of names which not only lists hundreds of family members and their relatives, but it also lists dozens of notable characters from the history of Great Britain and western Europe with whom members of the family came into contact;

5. the addition of another index listing many places and items of interest, and the references from which Macnamara took his information;

6. the incorporation into the text of eight pages of corrections from the 1895 edition;

7. the inclusion of pages of additional information resulting from subsequent research; and

8. the updating Chapter 14 which contains the lineal descent chart dating from 1761 to 1895 listing the descendants of John Danvers and Elizabeth Hardy. The update includes Australian and New Zealand descendants up until 1995, and those of other countries where details had been located or made available.

Description of Macnamara's Memorials of the Danvers Family - Centennial Edition - 1995

ISBN:    0-473-03049-7

Editors: Gary Danvers & Jane Webster in 1986

Binding: Soft cover. 

Cover drawing and Dauntsey Church by Tony Danvers of Leicestshire (see below).

Back cover: Wedding Certificate of Ann Stradling and John Danvers, 1487 (see below).

Format:  A4 Landscape 11.5" W x 8" H x 1.25" D / 295 W x 205 H x 30 D

Copies printed:     150

Pages (2 column): 410

Maps:                       31

Illustrations:            61

Family charts:         66

Index 1 People:      44 pages

Index 2 Misc:          19 pages

Title page:

Macnamara’s

Memorials of the Danvers Family

Centennial Edition - 1995

Gary Danvers & Jane Webster, 1995

Privately published in 1995

Palmerston North

NEW ZEALAND

Copyright

First edition published in Great Britain by Hardy & Page, London, 1895.

Centennial edition published in New Zealand by Gary Danvers and Jane Webster, 1995.

This digital edition copyright: Gary Danvers and Jane Webster, 2020.

All rights reserved. For commercial purposes, no part of this publication (printed or digital versions) may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers (addresses below).

Some rights reserved. For non commercial purposes, any part of this digital publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers, providing it is for research purposes and the following credit is used.

Macnamara's Memorials of the Danvers Family, digital edition, 2020 by Gary Danvers & and Jane Webster.

Contact the publishers / editors:
Gary Danvers garydanvers@gmail.com
Jane Webster thirzajane@gmail.com