and reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey
Hempnall is the largest of the 21 parishes of Depwade Hundred in south Norfolk - about 10 miles south of Norwich. It’s a fertile area of mixed farms with an elongated main village spread along ‘The Street’. In times past, this was the scene of much weaving of wool and linen hemp produced by local Yeoman farmers. Prior to the 16th century, the name of the parish was ‘Hemenhale’ - derived from ‘Home Hall’, its original principal manor. Whether its name was transformed to Hempnall with the advent there in the 15th century of much flax-growing and hemp production remains speculation.
The family of Jermyn - with its many variations (as Jermin, Jarmen, Jermine, Jermy, Jermany, etc) is well represented in the older church registers throughout rural south and east Norfolk. When searching out the ancestry of any of the many branches of this extensive family, the parish of Hempnall usually becomes predominant eventually - as noted for example in their many Wills of the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest of these discovered thus far, dated 1504, and what exists of the Hempnall’s church register begun in 1560, indicates that this was a focal point from which many if not most subsequent Jermyns in Norfolk derive. The Jermyns of Hempnall were mostly Yeomen, Linen Weavers and Tailors although one seems to have been a Clergyman and another accorded Gent status in the 1680s. In addition, many families given the name Jermy are, in reality, derived from this same early epicentre of Jermyns - their name having been shortened (mainly after the Civil war) by earlier clerics and registrars to a form with which they were probably more familiar. For many of that shorter name (unrelated to the Jermyns) were enrolled at the same colleges and universities as such Norfolk clergymen at a time when few if any Norfolk Jermyns were.
Depwade Hundred - organised as such during the later Anglo-saxon period (ca 800) - was named from a deep-waded ford across the small river Tas, at Tasburgh. The more successful Saxon (ie English) thegns/ thanes there, as elsewhere, gradually developed their early manors and estates which often over-lapped parish boundaries so that, by the time the Danes arrived (ca 865-920), and took control in their Danelaw areas (most of East Anglia) - local administration had become an Anglo-Danish amalgam of parish, manor and Hundred influences. Hemenhall, like most local parishes, was thus held by a Danish nobleman - one Thomas Torn - when the Normans arrived in 1066. Some of the principal English families however had retained control in some East Anglian parishes before that important date - provided they could pay sufficient danegeld. It has been estimated that there were in all England about 4000 English thegns and Danish noblemen prior to 1066 - the latter mainly in the East, including Norfolk.
But William the 1st soon imposed his much more comprehensive manorial/feudal system on these families throughout the realm - with all land, initially, held by the King - who then parcelled it out to about 200 of his most loyal Barons and relatives. They would soon sub-divide this amongst their many more supporters in the knighted class of local gentry. Again, however, while these latter men were often of Norman extraction also, control at this local level required loyalty from many of Danish and English origin as well, and sons in these principal families were encouraged to train to knighted status regardless of racial origin. The currency of this encouragement was land which, while ostensibly only ‘held’ of someone higher in the hierarchy, could be passed on through inheritance and marriage. And, from about 1250, it could also be ‘bought and sold’ in a de facto sense, through the copyhold and leasehold systems.
Depwade Hundred was held by the Crown itself from 1066 until about 1220. Before the Domesday survey (1086), the chief manor of Hempnall (HemenHale) in this Hundred had been granted, along with 43 other Norfolk manors, to Ralph Baynard - ‘to hold of the King’ - as part of his Barony of Baynard’s Castle (located then near present day St Paul’s Cathedral, London). Other major Norman benefactors to share Norfolk’s 400 or so Manors included William de Varrenne (later Earl Warren of Surrey) and Alan Rufus who, between them were granted over half the county - again to hold ‘of the King’. However, they and their heirs resided elsewhere and played little or no direct part in Norfolk’s history. They likely traded off such holdings over time to more locally based magnates. Ralph de Waher had also received several manors in 1067 and was appointed 1st Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk. He did reside locally - at Norwich castle - giving him local power and influence. But, he held a seat at Exning, Suffolk as well and, in 1075, he plotted unsuccessfully there with several other Barons to overthrow William and had to flee back to Normandy. His lands and titles were then conferred upon Roger Bigod who already held a large number of manors in East Anglia - having fought at the side of William at Hastings. This man and his heirs retained this local power base for an impressive 230 years or about 8 or 9 generations, extending it when they could (eg by acquiring land from the Warrens). The ‘Honour’ of their chief holdings, with the Earldom of Norfolk, was centred on Norwich Castle and was eventually valued at 120 knight’s fees and ran to over 85,000 acres - in 80 Norfolk parishes. Moreover, the Bigods also held 115 manors in Suffolk - including Walton, Framlingham and Bungay castles. They thus ruled East Anglia more or less independently in often uneasy alliance or outright conflict with succeeding monarchs throughout the 12th and 13th centuries.
By 1307, however, the last Roger Bigod, the 7th Earl of Norfolk, had died without male heir and the family’s titles and property reverted to the Crown - by a prior agreement. Edward the First subsequently conferred them upon his 5th son - Thomas Plantagenet de Brotherton - this being finalised by his brother Edward II in 1312. Dying without surviving male heir himself - in 1338 - Thomas’s eldest daughter Margaret inherited and was created 1st Duchess of Norfolk. She married……and their daughter….. married Thomas, Lord Mowbray who, on his wife’s death, succeeded in 1397. Once again through a daughter, this title and the former Bigod lands came eventually to the Howard family - long established in west Norfolk and who still retain this, the premier Dukedom in England, although much of the original holdings were sold off or relinquished to the Crown.
The chief Court for the Duke’s ‘Liberty’ (the totality of his holdings and jurisdiction) was often held at Lopham or at Forncett St Mary in Norfolk. He controlled four complete Hundreds - of Earsham, Guiltcross, Launditch and South Greenhoe and 34 other scattered parishes in south-east Norfolk around Loddon. Depwade Hundred itself (including Forncett and Hempnall) had been granted to John de Clavering in 1327. Most of all these Hundreds had been the Bigods’ for centuries and if the last Roger Bigod had had a son, they could still have held it today (as do the Howards). One may mention here that at Forncett St Mary, Tharston and Wacton in Depwade Hundred (not that far from Hempnall) part of a Manor was held from 1305 by members of the Jermy family (whose genealogy is described elsewhere on this website). There appears to be no evidence to support the idea that they and the Jermyns of Hempnall were related or have a common origin. However, some may wish to argue the converse.
Sir Ralph’s Manor remained with the Hemenhales through most of the 14th and 15th centuries before they failed in the male line and it passed to a grandaughter’s husband Sir Thomas Brooke. Their son Sir Edward Brooke died seized of it in 1468. According to Blomefield, it somehow then ‘came’ to one Richard Blomvyle or Blunderville by 1500 - but now held of the Fitzwalters (to whom it must have reverted) as of their main manor of Hemenhale - at a token rent of one pence per year. One of the Richardsons (later to hold Stanfield Hall) then acquired it before the Civil war after which it was broken up and sold piecemeal as had the rest of the Manor. The Hemenhales had been a major family for a time - with several knights and Bishops amongst them - owning property and settling mainly far from Hempnall - in both north Norfolk and Suffolk (one of the latter marrying a Jermy there). But the largest Hearth tax payer in Hempnall by the 1670s was a local Attorney Robert Chettleborough. The parish church guide refers to the former Vicarage as ‘The Old Manor’ - which adjoins ’Manor Farm’ - as the only evidence now of Hempnall’s manorial past.
Throughout the 15th to 18th centuries, the Yeomen of Hempnall supplied local Linen Weavers with fibre from which they would supply cloth to the Tailors - both locally and in Norwich. The Jermyns would appear to have been a major player in all three elements of this cottage industry. Some were also Tailors in Norwich. In his ‘Norfolk Families’, Rye refers to one Thomas Germyn, a Tailor admitted a Freeman in Norwich in 1453 - and so born around 1430. There was also a William Jermyne of nearby Hellesdon who left a Will in 1433 (details presently misplaced). Because there were also Tailors named Jermyn in Norwich at a later date, who had verified Hempnall connections, one is tempted to assume a relationship between this earlier Tailor and the William Germyn of Hempnall whose Will of 1504 was referred to above. Thus, a William Jermyn, Tailor of Norwich, was buried in St Giles in 1617 and left a Will in which he leaves “..to my son John, my lands in Hempnall..”. And a little later, another Norwich Tailor, John Jermyn, left 5 ½ acres next to Hempnall (in Saxlingham) to his son John Jermyn in 1646 - being land left him by his father Bernard Jermyn - a grandson of Ralph Jermyn of Hempnall who died in 1556. The above William Germyn left land in 1504 to, amongst others, Bernard’s father - Thomas Jermyn, who had settled in Gt Plumstead.
William and Thomas Germyn, the earlier Tailor of Norwich, could well be descended from the earliest Germyn noted thus far in the area - one Thomas Germyn (born ca 1270, say) - who sold property in Hemenhale in 1305 (as per Feet of Fines records). Any early Manor court records may provide evidence of links between this man and these later members of the family. One may note here that as early as 1174, there were German ‘merchants from Cologne’ settled in small colonies in many of England’s larger towns (eg as Norwich or Yarmouth) - as described in Asa Brigg’s ‘A Social History of England’. The locals may well have called them such as Johannes or Tomas ‘the German’ - from which the surname ‘Germyn’ (for their children) would no doubt readily evolve, as they mostly did during the 1200s.
In his Will of 1504, William Germyn referred to ‘my Curate’, John More…’. This could imply that William was himself a Cleric - in charge of the local church - who had the assistance of such a Curate, or that he was the chief landowner at the time and use this possessive pronoun as a Lord of the Manor might. [Note reference above to the Vicarage having been The Old Manor.] Any such position - implying some learning or status - was probably difficult to maintain however. Whether as Vicar or Esquire, his son and heir Ralph Jermeyn (d 1556), who was left various pieces of land in Hempnall, wasn’t able to maintain this situation. For he had 4 and possibly 6 sons to consider and they necessarily had to go down the Yeoman and Artisan route. The elder two appear to have pre-deceased him - likely being his own and his father’s namesakes - Ralph and William. For in his Will, he then names his 4 younger sons Thomas, Robert, Richard and John Jermyn. Of these, Thomas Jermyn would seem to have been the eldest as he would hold land in several local parishes including (besides Hempnall) Saxlingham and Shottesham, as well as in Gt Plumstead some miles to the north (and across the natural boundary of the river Yare), as mentioned above At his death, he left money to the churches in all three of these latter parishes. But the younger sons of Ralph, who remained in or nearer Hempnall, would receive rather less and it was primarily their sons from whom the expanding numbers of Jermyns of Hempnall and area appear to have derived.
While many of these later Jermyn descendants maintained their Yeoman and Artisan station in society - often as Linen and Worsted Weavers - and indeed one became a Clergymen, another achieved Gent status and the parish Steward and Bailiff were Jermyns, it was inevitable that many more would have to disperse to other parishes and fend for themselves in more labouring and husbandman classes as the 18th century proceeded. Nevertheless, in Hempnall itself, further Wills and the local church register provide more data on which subsequent pedigrees may be constructed. Unfortunately, the latter has two lengthy gaps in it - from 1599 to 1612 and, during the civil war and commonwealth period, from 1642 to 1660. Several men born in that earlier period appear to be crucial in unravelling later paternities. During the war, the then Vicar, the Rev William Barwick, was quite outspoken against the Puritans in Parliament and Cromwell’s East Anglian over-lord, the Earl of Manchester, responded by mutilating the font and removing bells from the tower. Rev Barwick was ejected from his living in 1644 and the Army then billetted at Hempnall. The register has an entry in it written in 1660 saying that a local man - ‘Edward Sporle kept away the register book from about 1643 until his death’ (in 1658). Presumably some other (Puritan) cleric replaced Rev Barwick and performed baptism, marriage and burial services during this period, but did not record same in any book that has survived. However, Edward Sporle Jnr had married a Jermyn girl in 1643 (one of the last events recorded) and he or his father seem to have registered a few such events in the hidden register for friends and relatives - surreptitiously - including the baptisms of two Robert Jermyns in 1647 - each born to a different Robert Jermyn (see discussion on this point in ‘The Spurgeon - Jermy’ webpages). But there were several other young Jermyn fathers having issue in Hempnall over this period and these missing facts also prevent us constructing a complete and reliable pedigree for the Jermyns of Hempnall.
Nevertheless, we can try to deduce some of this missing information from what is available. A major difficulty is the repeated use of the same few christian names over several over-lapping generations - especially ‘Ralph, Edmund. Robert and John Jermyn. When age at burial or status at other events (as single, widow, child of…, etc) are also rarely given, it becomes very difficult to establish identities with confidence. We may first give an overview of a part of the family by reproducing here the outline pedigree as shown in ‘The Spurgeon - Jermy’ account. This covers mainly those that appeared relevant in that study, as well as touching on those who spread to the north via Kirby Bedon (to be described in The Jermyns, etc of Broadland). Other lines, which spread more easterly and southerly, will need further analysis. Or had they spread from the east ?
While so many of the Jermyns of Norfolk appear to have derived from this Hempnall family, there were a few others who may have had a different origin. There was for example, a Thomas Germyn at Little Yarmouth (today South Town in Gorleston) in 1325 (as per Patent Rolls) who had sought to obtain landing rights there and from whom other early Jermyns in the far east of Norfolk (in Lothingland and Clavering Hundreds) may conceivably have derived and spread - towards Loddon say - by the 1500s. Thus, a Henry and a William Jermyn paid subsidy taxes in nearby Mundham and Hellington in 1525, the same year as did Ralph Jermyn in Hempnall. Were they related ? (Or was the Yarmouth Thomas related instead to the Jermys of East Suffolk - settled there since ca 1200 ?) There was also a Richard Germyn at North Tuddenham - noted in a 1327 Subsidy Roll (and others of this surname at Snettisham, Moreton-on-the-Hill and/or Attlebridge (details presently mislaid), although there seems to have been no subsequent spread of either name in that general area (ie of north-west Norfolk) near or beyond East Dereham. The latter town was in Mitford Hundred which was long held by a religious order in Ely. Interestingly, the last Abbot in charge of the Abbey at Dereham was one Roger Jermy at the Dissolution in 1536. He was given a pension of £66 per annum - a very large amount at the time. His origins are unknown (born ca 1480, say) but intriguing. Possibly records at Ely Cathedral or Cambridge Record Office might reveal something on him.