Whatmore Family History

People who are not family history fanatics, like me, sometimes complain that written family histories are nothing but lists of names and dates. This is probably true of some family histories, which is why I have tried to provide interesting stories, and accounts of people’s lives on this blog. Most of these stories are factually true, but occasionally it is fun to publish a fictitious story, albeit about real people,  which attempts to show how our ancestors might have thought and felt. Derek E Whatmore of Hove, the historian of the Hampshire branch of the Whatmore family, has written several fictitious stories about his ancestors and he has generously allowed one of these stories to be reproduced here. I think it is a fascinating ‘realtistic’ piece and I hope you will think so too.

The story is about Timothy Watmore and his family at Mitcheldever sometime after the restoration of Charles II, a time when the beliefs and practices of the Puritans still cast a baneful shadow across the land.

All that is known about the Watmores at Micheldever at this time  are the basic facts set out in the parish registers. It is not clear where these Watmores originated, though I suspect that they came to Micheldever from Berkshire and before that from the north of the England where they formed part of the ancient Watmough family. The last register entry for these early Watmores at Micheldever is 1642 and it is not known whence they went - but most likely it was back into Berkshire. The next Watmore entry in the Micheldever registers is the baptism on 20 October 1782 of a John Watmore, son of John Watmore and his wife Ann Holland. The descendants of this John and Ann at Micheldever and elsewhere can be traced down the present day.

The chart below includes all the early Watmores shown in the Micheldever registers and I have added the fictious characters to be found in the story.