Robert’s younger brother Thomas Jermy, Gent was married on 14 Oct 1560 (the year Robert died) to Constance Turke, a widow and daughter of John Phippes, a Yeoman of Marlingford - which is a little west of Norwich. He settled in the Manor house there as a leasehold tenant of its absentee owners - the Paston family - who were involved with the Jermys over previous decades. Thomas himself was in corresponence with William Paston in 1565 concerning appointment of the High Sheriff (see reference in Valdar). His sons, grandsons and gt-grandsons would remain at Marlingford for about 100 years - although they never actually owned the major manor or estate there. In 1598, after the Jermys had residing there almost 40 years, presumably by some previous Leasehold contract, William Paston had ‘demised and lett unto Thomas and his son Clement Jermy the site of Marlingford Manor for a further 21 year Lease (ie to 1619). This was then renewed for another 60 years (to 1679). Confusingly, however, early in that latter period, later descendants of the more senior branch of the Norfolk Jermy family (of Gunton) would purchase the Freehold of the Marlingford Manor from the Pastons - on 12 Jan 1629/30 - and thus own same (as absentee owners) over much of that period, with the junior branch of the Jermys continuing to reside there however, as per the agreed lease. When this ran out - in 1679 - the two remaining Marlingford Jermys (cousins), if still alive, apparently couldn’t afford the increase in rent then demanded (from £30 to £200 per annum) and it was sold out of the Gunton family about then by the widow (Anne) and elder son (Francis) of its then deceased former owner - John Jermy of Gunton, Esq (d. 1662) - as described in that section.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service and
reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey.

      Thomas and Constance had just two children baptised with certainty at Marlingford - a son Clement Jermy in 1561 and a daughter Ele in 1563. (An Edmond Jermy married in Norwich in 1612 (to........) who may have been a second son - this unusual name choice appearing in the Marlingford family in the next generation - but there is no baptismal evidence.) It is likely that Constance, having been married previously, could manage only two or three children with Thomas - before age caught up with her. She died about 1579, I believe, while Thomas died 5 July 1609. I’m not aware if he left a Will. Norfolk Jermys of the 1600s

      Thomas’s son Clement Jermy, Gent entered Clare college, Cambridge in 1579, age 18 and later married Margaret Robinson, daughter of William Robinson of Norwich, in 1597 at Keswick - by whom he had a large family of about 10 children over the next 20 years, at Marlingford. Both lived to a good age and left Wills - Clement’s proved 20 Dec 1626 and Margaret’s on 2 May 1659. As a Gent residing on a rented country estate, Clement (like his father) may have had a farm manager and obtained his income from its hopeful productivity or would sub-rent his land out and live on the rental income. If possible, he would purchase rather than just rent any small pieces of adjoining land that he could manage. He was to have 6 or 7 sons and any that survived to adulthood would require educations and hopefully property of their own - whether leased or owned - before his own demise in 1626. His eldest son Edmond (named after whom?) was born in 1600 - specifically, at 4 am on Tuesday June 5th that year and then baptised June 12th at St Gregory’s in Norwich (possibly near his mother’s family). Such detail was provided by the St Gregory incumbent. Thus, the next child was William - ‘born between 5 and 6 am on Aug 17th 1602 and baptised 30 Aug 1602’. Subsequent issue were all baptised at Marlingford over the next 10 years. William went to Caius college, Cambridge in 1617, and was awarded his B.A. (1621) and M.A (1624) before being ordained a Deacon in 1626 - but he died in 1628 at Marlingford, aged 26, without marrying. He had also spent a term at Oxford.

      The next son John Jermy, Gent (bp 14 Jan 1604/5) remained at home on the estate, which he likely helped run - living in his Copyhold house there called The Guildhouse (inherited from his mother) which he later ‘sold’ to his brother Clement in 1665. He lived to 1671, but apparently never married. The 4th son Thomas (bp 18 Jan 1606/7) also died at Marlingford, aged just 18, on 13 Nov 1625. A daughter Marie was born to them in Apr 1608; she married John Cullyer of Norwich (a widower) in Dec 1637 and died a widow in Sept 1672. The one other daughter - Elizabeth - born in Nov 1613, died there unmarried in Jan 1645/6, aged 32, described as a ‘Gentlewoman’. The next son Clement (bp 26 Sept 1609) eventually settled at nearby Fundenhall and died there in 1662, aged 53, apparently unmarried and possibly residing there with his sister Constance (who was born in Dec 1622). The 6th - Robert - born Oct 1614, also attended Caius college (1631-34) but died there before graduating, aged just 20, and unmarried. A 7th son Henry was born in Nov 1615 but died aged 10 in 1625, the day after his brother Thomas - probably of the same infection.

      The seeming lack of marriages amongst younger sons William, John, Robert and Clement (and hence of any subsequent issue) may have reflected their limited sources of income on a small leasehold estate. This went to eldest son Edmond Jermy, Gent in 1626 on his father Clement’s death - about when he at least seems to have married - for the first time - one Sarah Buxton, daughter of Thomas Buxton of ‘Channons’ in Tibbenham, Norfolk. [This was about when the Pastons sold Marlingford to John Jermy and his elder son Francis ca 1628 (not to Robert Jermy of Norwich in 1572, as mentioned in Blomefield, who says he then gave it to his son Thomas who settled there on marrying Constance, daughter of Sir(!) John Phippes.] Edmond and Margaret had two sons - Francis and Clement - before her apparent early death and his second marriage to one Sarah Beacon, widow - on 2 Sept 1635 at Kempston. The qualification ‘apparent’ is needed here as the information about these unions is scant and it could be argued that he was only married once - to one of these Sarahs - who may have been eg nee Buxton and then ex Beacon, widow. In any case, there was a third son - William - baptised 2 July 1637. He would be the one who later wrote in the Marlingford register that it hadn’t been properly kept ca 1659-71. I have no record of him marrying and assume he died by about 1690 or so - but where? Clement’s wife Margaret died at Marlingford in Oct 1658. She wrote her Will in Oct 1649 and it was proved 21 May 1659. Her son John was the executor and she left her personal property to him and other son Clement and daughter Constance - all unmarried and then in their 40s or more. She had transferred a house in the village to John earlier; he later sold it to his brother Clement. At about this period (6 Nov 1655) John went to law in an attempt to prevent John Jermy of Gunton from felling timber at Marlingford (worth £200) which the latter claimed the Lease agreement allowed him to do. He seems to have won. John of Marlingford died around 1668, having been referred to in a Manor Court book of 1673 as being ‘deceased some years’.

      This middle son of Edmond and Margaret - Clement Jermy (third of this name) wrote his Will (15 July 1662) described as of Fundenhall, Gent. He left £200 to his nephew Clement Jermy of Bawburgh (who seems to have lived to about the 1680s), son of his deceased brother Edmond, and to his brother-in-law Augustin Cullyer, a Notary Public of Norwich, he left two or three small cottages. Again, all three younger sons appear not to have had the income to attract a wife - especially one with any income or property of her own. Thus the younger sons of the eldest Clement and these three younger sons of Edmond were often engaged in intra-family squabbles and litigation over relatively small pieces of property and inheritance and, by about 1680s or so, there were no more ‘Jermys of Marlingford’; that is, no young Jermys there of the 16th generation to carry on the name. While the Marlingford parish register was, as the latter William wrote in it around 1670, ‘not well kept for several years’, there appeared to be no evidence of any Jermy sons thereby missed during the Civil war or post Commonwealth periods who would carry on the family subsequently - either there or elsewhere. [However, see now below; one of those younger sons (Clement) may have married and had issue.]

      Francis Jermy of Gunton (with his mother Ann) sold Marlingford around 1679 to Sir James Rushout, Bt, an M.P. who sold it in turn to a Richard Clarke, Apothecary of Norwich in about 1681. The Clarkes held it about 80 years. Today, it is a charming ‘backwater’ kind of village - gone slightly to seed. The Manor house is still there.

A Possible Offshoot of the Marlingford Family who settled in North Norfolk

      While it appeared that the Marlingford line had ceased in its home area in or near Marlingford by the 1680s, there was an interesting cluster of Jermys near Stalham in north-east Norfolk where the names Edmond and Clement re-appear (ca 1700) whose origins were previously not readily apparent. Were they of this same line, or possibly of the rather limited Saxlingham family - where an Edmond at least also occurs? For we find that an Edmond Jermy had several children baptised around 1700 at far off Brumstead (just north of Stalham) near the north coast. This man appears to be the Edmund Jermy, later a Maltster of nearby Ingham, who was shown as such in a Poll Book for 1734 (although also shown as an Edward Jermy - in error, I believe. He left a Will proved 8 Oct 1737 in which he mentions sons Clement, Thomas and Matthew (likely born ca 1705-12). To whom was this Edmond born? Was it to that Edmond born at Saxlingham - in 1638? Or, more likely, to the Clement of the Marlingford family - born ca 1628? I could formerly see no direct connection with the latter family but a recent discovery of an Edmond Jermy born to Clement and Anne Jermy - in Hethersett (next to Bawburgh) on 1 March 1668 and baptised there on the 14th, might well provide this very linkage. If he remained in the Bawburgh-Hethersett area, it makes sense that it was very likely this same Edmond who apparently married in neighbouring Bixley in 1697 (to an Anne......). [Note: this latter item is believed to derive from the Norfolk pedigrees of Arthur Campling lodged at the Soc of Gen. However, the actual register was recently examined and it was found that while there were marriage entries in Bixley shown each year in the mid 1680s and again for most years after 1701, there was a 15 year gap without any between 1686 and that latter year. The rest of the register was searched in case they were misplaced but there were no others. It is a mystery therefore where Campling, a most respected genealogist, obtained this entry - which fits the other facts so well; possibly it was from a marriage licence which can be checked.]

      The Hethersett register was then examined further and it was found that after Clement and Anne had had Edmond there in 1668, they also had a son Clement Jnr - baptised on 15 Sept 1672, followed by a son John on 7 Feb 1673/4. None of this family were shown as subsequently buried or married there. Another son, Thomas, was also expected (see below) but no further Jermy baptisms were noted there up to 1685. [Note: we may review the Suffolk Jermy family to recall that, oddly, another 'end of line' branch of the family had also settled in Hethersett, and around this same period; one would assume that these two albeit distant cousin lines were aware of each other there.] As mentioned, Edmond apparently married his wife Anne in nearby Bixley in 1697. It is not easy to then account for their seeming re-appearance in distant Brumstead around 1700 - unless possibly Anne's father had a little property in that area, say? Or there was an opening for a Maltster (this skill possibly learned through an apprenticeship in Norwich?) in that northern area? In this pre-Georgian era, the average agricultural labourer only rarely acquired training in such skills; they and their sons typically remained at that labouring level well into the Victorian era. Rather, skilled men were more likely to arise amongst those of a more middling status who had fallen on hard times but still had sufficient resources, property and education to cover the costs at least of such apprenticeships. The Marlingford remnants would fall into that category.

      [Note: Since writing the foregoing, I have noted two seemingly relevant items: 1. The senior line of Jermys - of Gunton - held land in this very area around Stalham from the early 1600s - eg at Sutton, Hickling, Filby and, further south, Runham. 2. One of the daughters of Francis Jermy of Haynford (he formerly of Gunton who may have continued to hold such lands after selling the main Gunton estate in 1679 to the Harbords) married a John Harcourt in 1708 and, besides having a first son Jermy Harcourt in Haynford in 1709 (who would become a Mayor of Norwich), had another there in 1711 whom they named (unusually) 'Boys' Harcourt ('Boys' possibly being the surname of John Harcourt's mother). Some years earlier, a John Harcourt, Gent and wife Elizabeth (nee..?..) had a son given this same unusual name - 'Boys Harcourt' in Brumstead of all places, who died and was buried there - on 14 May 1697. And this John Harcourt was himself later buried there also - on 23 Oct 1717. One wonders therefore if Edmond Jermy was somehow influenced in settling in this small parish of Brumstead himself (initially) because of some such connection with this family - ie after Francis and his mother Ann had sold Marlingford, so leaving any surviving remnants of the family, such as Edmond or his brothers Clement, Thomas or John, without a secure homebase (possibly after residing in or near Hethersett for a time - where another relative had been the Vicar seemingly)? We may recall that Francis Jermy was still in Haynford around 1700 or so and thus could have himself been a factor in helping his now landless 'cousins' Edmond and Clement settle on ?former Jermy lands near Stalham.]

      That possible fourth brother Thomas - likely born around 1670 or so - may have married Margaret Foster in Norwich Cathedral 3 Jan 1698/9 and, in turn, also have a son named Clement - baptised 24 Oct 1703. A daughter Mary appears to have been born to them as well - at Heigham in 1711, she later marrying Robert Young at St Augustine’s in 1734. One or other Clement (an appropriate name for a first born sons of either Edmond or Thomas who were born, as far as we can tell, to a Clement Jermy of the Marlingford family) may have later married at Norwich Cathedral in 1738 to Sarah Getts, widow, and apparently died in 1762 - then of St Benet’s, Norwich - when his Will was proved that year (July 6th). This was seemingly after an earlier abode in St Augustine, where he wrote it - on 26 Oct 1756. A Thomas Jermy, brother of the other Clement seemingly, had land at Hickling and Sutton in 1737, I believe, and possibly married a Jane Castle at St James Pockthorpe, Norwich on 23 Dec 1736 by whom a son Thomas Jnr was likely born - about 1740 (details sought). One of the Clements was buried in Ingham on 19 Mar 1749 (no age shown). There is no Will dated thus, however.

      Edmond and Anne had 3 daughters baptised in Brumstead (ie Catherine (1699), Elizabeth (1702/3; buried 1703) and Barbara (1704; buried 1704)) and the first of 3 sons named John Jermy in about 1700/01 (baptism details lacking) who was also buried in Brumstead - on 17 Nov 1702. A second John was then born to them and baptised on 27 May 1705 in neighbouring Ingham (of where Edmond was later described as being a Maltster), and where he (John 2) was buried on Aug 8th that same year. A third given this same name was baptised there on 28 May 1709 but again soon buried - on 12 Aug that year. And yet another John Jermy was buried in Ingham - on 10 Sept 1737; he may have been an adult - ie Edmond's brother (born in Hethersett in 1672/3). It was Edmond (who was buried in Ingham that same year, I believe) who in his Will proved in Oct 1737 (the dates of John's and Edmond's burial and of his Will need confirming; there is a possible discrepancy) referred to sons Clement, Thomas and Matthew; they were baptised in neither Brumstead nor Ingham over the next few years (ca 1706-12) - but possibly in Sutton, Stalham or Hickling, which have yet to be checked. The eldest son Clement would be another possible husband of Sarah Getts and/or the one who died in 1762 whose Will was proved that year. The middle brother Thomas wrote his Will about this same time - in 1761 (proved 1771 at.....Court) in which he refers to the 3 daughters of his brother Matthew (Jane, Martha and Ann - the latter girl having married a William Grand/Graud - whose sister Susannah was referred to as a 'sister-in-law' by the Clement Jermy who died in 1762). But, did Thomas not also refer to a son Thomas - who may well have been the Thatcher of nearby Filby (near Hickling) who was himself listed in a Poll Book - for 1768? (A Thatcher likely also required an apprenticeship.) He would also seem to be the Thomas Jermy who later signed the Manor Court book for Runham in 1781 - indicating some literacy and a position in this albeit isolated marshland parish where, sadly, no other Jermy references occur in that parish's church register. He may have inherited his role as a Manor Court official through the Jermy's earlier hold of this parish. Or could this younger Thomas have been a son of that latter Clement (d 1762) and Sarah Getts? (Too many variables.)

      In any case, that younger Thomas would seem to be the last of this particular line of the family (or even of the entire family?) of whom we have some meagre data at least. Did he have any issue who might, not unreasonably, have spread further into marshland, say - if not eastwards towards Gt Yarmouth (an understandable attraction); then possibly more southwestly - as through Halversgate (where later a Henry Sharman farmed) to Reedham?? The elder Thomas's brother Matthew Jermy, described as formerly of Ingham, had married Elizabeth Barker at Sutton (nr Ingham) in 1732 - by licence - by whom he had the three daughters mentioned above, as well as others. The daughter Ann was baptised in Ingham on 14 Sept 1740 - after they had had a son Edmond Jermy baptised there on 17 Dec 1734 (possibly buried 30 Oct 1739 as Edward?) and a daughter Elizabeth on 10 Oct 1737. I could see no baptisms for the other two daughters mentioned - Jane or Martha (these possibly in Sutton or Stalham again?). There were no Jermy marriages shown in the Ingham register. Did a son from any of these cousin lines survive and reproduce? Where?

      Clearly, all this (some of which originated from Campling's pedigrees at the Soc. of Gen's original home in Westminster ca 1982) needs sorting out - but at least much of it is now here - to one day consider further (after some of these Wills and other registers are further examined - when we would hope to remove some of the 'mays', 'coulds, and 'possiblies'. A new pedigree and map would also be helpful for this rather isolated northern offshoot of the family. Before leaving them however, we may point out that, strangely, the very year 1781 (in regard to a possible last reference to a Jermy of the ancient landed family - as signing the Runham Court Book that year) will be heard of again in this regard, but concerning a different individual - in the last section of our Jermy saga. We may note also that some of these landless north Norfolk Jermys appear to be contemporary with the John Jermy of Gt Yarmouth (d ca 1766?) who has been heretofore considered to be the sole survivor of the family in Norfolk; this may not now be quite the case. If so, did they know of each other?]

      We may now return to the major branches of the Norfolk Jermys descended from the brothers Francis and Robert Jermy - born close to one another at the beginning of the troublesome 17th century - ie to John Jermy, Esq, Barrister of Norwich and his distant cousin Eleanor from the Stutton line of Jermys. After returning from a successful career in London, John seems to have obtained his useful position with the Diocese of Norwich - as their chief lawyer or Counsellor and resided in Norwich - from about 1585. As early as 1588/9, he was involved in legal cases in north Norfolk and advising on Dutchy of Lancaster cases there for Sir Francis Walsingham. He may also have held the position of Steward for the Dean and Chapter of Norwich, among others, around this time. Within a few years, in anticipation of his retirement, he was able to purchase the freehold of at least 4 estates - those at Gunton and Bayfield in the north of the county, at Marlingford in mid-Norfolk and at Tivetshall (in the south). As mentioned, he may have owned Saxlingham as well (ie over and above the several nearby parishes into which the Bayfield estate extended - seemingly as an independent entity). But there were apparently other Jermys in this other northern district before this - which we may briefly consider first.

To The Jermys of Saxlingham

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