Whatmore Family History

All those Whatmores who descend from James Whatmore 1795 and his wife Ann Lowe, have William Lowe, Bailiff of Shrewsbury in 1572/3 as their direct ancestor. (See earlier post). That is my excuse for this post about William’s grandson Anthony Lowe. It concerns Anthony Lowe’s will made in 1632 which was full of mysteries which I thought might be of interest.

I was trawling through the on-line wills on the National Archives website when I came across that of Anthony Lowe and as  he was a member of the Lowe family that settled at Calne,  the sons of William of Shrewsbury, I downloaded the will and transcribed it. Although it  appeared to be the will of William’s Lowe’s grandson, it referred to many relatives of whom I had no previous knowledge.

Calne church, Wiltshire         Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

William Lowe’s two  sons by his second marriage settled at Calne in Wiltshire where they leased the manor. Anthony Lowe was one of the sons of Richard Lowe who was probably born in Shrewsbury about 1568.  Many of the members of the Lowe family at Calne  are mentioned in the pedigree chart drawn up at the time of the Herald’s Visitation of Wiltshire in 1623. This shows Anthony Lowe as aged 24 in 1623, the second son of Richard Lowe of Shrewsbury and Calne.  Anthony would have been born in about 1599, so  he would have been about 33 in 1632 when he made his will.

The will reads as follows:

In the name of God,  Amen. The sixth (?) and twentieth day of April , Anno Domini One thousand six hundred thirty two. Anthony Lowe of Calne in the county of Wilts. Gent. being sick (?) and weak in body but of sound and perfect memory, praised be Almighty God, do hereby make and ordain my last will and testament in manner and form following.

………  …….. and bequeath my soul to Almighty God and thereto hoping through Jesus Christ my Redeemer to be saved and my body to be buried in the parish church of Calne aforesaid.

Item: I will, depose and devise to the bft [benefit ?] of the poor of the parish of Calne aforesaid the sum of twenty pounds. I give to the poor of the City of Bath the sum of twenty shillings immediately to be paid.

Item: I give to my cousin George Ve……….. the sum of twenty pounds.

Item: I will, dispose and devise unto my cousin Mary Ve……… the sum of twenty pounds.

I give and bequeath to my cousin (?)  Anne …………    ……………    …………

Item: I ………. will and devise until my cousin George Lowe my brother George his son the sum of ten pounds.

Item: I give, will and devise unto my cousin  Richard Lowe the sum of ten pounds.

Item: I will, devise and depose to my cousin Mary Lowe the sum of ten pounds.

Item: I give, will and devise unto my brother William Ve… the sum of thirty pounds to be paid unto him within the space of one year after my deayth.

All the rest of my goods  … and chattels not formerly given or bequeathed, my debts and ……  paid and my funeral expenses discharged, I will, devise and bequeath unto my beloved and well deserving mother  … Mary Lowe whom in respect of her motherly ….. of …. this mortal life and her charitable christian and religious love  …. touching my eternal life I do hereby make and nominate my sole and whole executrix of this my last will and testament, desiring my said executrix to keep a due respect and solemn funeral for me.

In witness hereof I have put my hand and seal the date and year first above written.

ANTHONY LOWE  ……. published, signed and sealed in the presence of  ….Childs       Bar. Atkins

Old cottages  dating back to the time of Antony Lowe, near the church at Calne   Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

Going through the will, one wonders who were his cousins George and May Ve…… ? The surname looks like Vermier but the IGI did not supply anyone with those names. What does Anthony mean by cousins?

Cousin George Lowe by my brother George his son - Anthony’s brother George was born in 1600 so  he could have had a son called George by 1632 but this son would be Anthony’s nephew. So Anthony sometimes refers to nephews and nieces as his cousins.

Cousin Anne  - Anthony had a aunt called Mary who married a John Baker and they had a daughter called Anne who would be a cousin of Anthony’s.

Cousins Richard and Mary Lowe.  No true cousins with these names can be identified so they were probably the nephew and niece of Anthony. They were not the children of his brother George, or they would surely have been referred to in the earlier item. The IGI  gives the name of four children born to Anthony’s brother Richard, and Richard and Mary are not amongst these. It would seem then that Richard and Mary were the children of Anthony’s brother John.

My brother William Ve…….. How could Anthony have had a brother with a surname other than Lowe?

My mother - Mary Lowe.   The pedigree chart drawn up at the time of the Herald’s Visitation of Wiltshire in 1623 shows Anthony’s mother as Mary Wootton - and after her marriage to Anthony’s father she would have become Mary Lowe. Clearly she was still Mary Lowe in 1632 so she had not remarried after the death of Anthony’s father in 1624. Was Mary Wootton her maiden name? Was she a widow when she married Richard Lowe? Here the IGI came up trumps. A Mary Wootton had married a John Vennard on 8 October 1581 at St Thomas’s Salisbury. A John Vennard, son of John Vennard had been baptised at Salisbury on 12 August 1581 - presumably the child of Mary Wootton born just before she married the father.  Two other children, sons of a John Vennard, were baptised at Salisbury, Elizabeth in 1584 and Anne in 1585. William Ve….. was also presumably the son of John and Mary Vennard. In addition we know that the Lowe family at Calne included a Margaret or Mary Lowe who married a George Hungerford at Calne on 13 Oct 1608. To be old enough to marry in 1608 this Margaret/Mary must actually have the daughter of John and Mary Vennard.  To complete the picture, a Richard Lowe married a Mary Vennard on 15 Feb 1589 at St Thomas’s, Salisbury. Althoughthe name in the will looks like Vermier - it simply has to be Vennard. Since Anthony does not refer  to his Vennard cousins in connection with his brother William Vennard, we must conclude that George and Mary Vennard were the children of John Vennard Junior.

If any reader would like to comment on this interpretation of Anthony’s will or has further information I would be pleased to hear from them . Please write to me at rhyswhatmore@btinternet.com

A final word about the church where both John Vennard and Richard Lowe married Mary. This was St Thomas’s, Salisbury - the parish church of the city.  Dating mainly from the fifteenth century this church is a little gem which visitors to Salisbury should not miss. The highlight of the church is the early sixteen century ‘Doom painting’ above the chancel arch. Although Nicholas Pevsner in the Wiltshire volume of the ‘Buildings of England’, describes this ‘Doom painting’ as being ‘of low quality’ - so few such paintings have survived to justify anything but admiration of the example here.

The ‘Doom painting’ in St Thomas’s, Salisbury     Copyright: Rhys Whatmore