The Origins of the Hoare Family:
A working paper by
William Acton
Genealogist with C.Hoare
& Co (Hoare’s Bank)
of
37 Fleet Street, London EC4P 4DQ.
Last updated: 14 September 2016
The surname[1]
Hoare derives from the Old English word ‘hore’,
meaning ‘grey’ or ‘whitehaired’. The name occurs in medieval records all over
England, Wales and Ireland. The Norman equivalent of ‘hore’
was ‘chanu’, which became ‘canutus’
in Latin.[2]
As there were plenty of unrelated white haired men in medieval England (when
surnames became hereditary), there are plenty of unrelated Hoare families
today.
DNA tests prove that the Hoares of Fleet Street share origins with the Hoare Baronets
of Annabella in Ireland. We now know that both are branches of the Hoare family
who resided in and around the village of Greens Norton in Northamptonshire.
In around 1150-1172 Roger de Clare, 2nd
Earl of Hertford granted some land in Foscote,
Northamptonshire (a mile south of Greens Norton) to Roger ‘the Engineer’. At
the end of the deed there is a list of 12 witnesses, whose names appear in
Latin and who are listed in order of importance. At the top of the list are two
landowners, followed by the Earl’s servants (his chamberlain, steward, butlers
and cooks), and finally at the bottom of the list is “Radulfus
canutus”.[3]
This ‘Radulfus canutus’
(Ralph the whitehaired) was evidently a rather lowly member of the Earl’s
household staff, though important enough to witness a grant of land. Since the
deed dates from a time when surnames were not hereditary, we cannot be certain
that this Ralph was the ancestor of the later Hoare family.
In around 1250-1260 William, son of
Henry of Abthorpe granted Luffield
Priory some land in the fields of Abthorpe (two miles
south of Greens Norton). This time the witness’ names appear in a blend of
Latin and Norman. They all appear to be local men and among them we find “Galfrido le Hore”[4]
(i.e. ‘Geoffrey the whitehaired’).
The Northamptonshire tax assessment of
1301 shows that “Walter le Hor”[5]
was assessed for 12.75 pence in Duncote (1 mile north
of Greens Norton) and “Osbert le hore”[6]
for the weightier sum of 2 shillings and 10 pence in Pattishall
(2 ½ miles north of Greens Norton).
A William Hurre
appears on a local jury in 1434[7]
and occurs again in 1450 as ‘William Hurre of Greens
Norton, yeoman’ when Thomas Margrettys brought a charge
of debt against him and several other neighbours.[8]
Solid evidence to connect these names
into a family tree is lacking. Despite this deficiency, it is clear that there
were consistently people with the surname Hoare (or its variants) living in the
region of Greens Norton. The examples given above demonstrate that there is usually
someone of that name in any records which do survive.
We are on much more certain ground with
Thomas Hore of Greens Norton, whose will was proved
in 1526. Thomas was probably born in the 1470s or early 1480s. As boy he may
well have seen King Richard III’s troops marching from London to the Battle of Bosworth
in 1485. We have no specific indication of Thomas’ profession but the
probability is that he was a yeoman farmer. In his will Thomas followed the
usual pre-reformation custom of leaving generous offerings to his parish church
such as candles, wax and barley. He left his property to his elder son William,
while providing for his widow Elizabeth and younger son Thomas (II).
William lived on at Greens Norton for another twenty years. He served
on juries at the local manor court and presumably followed his father in living
the quiet life of a tenant farmer. At his death in 1546, the manor court rolls
record that he held one tenement and 2 virgates (usually about 50-60 acres)
worth 6 shillings and 8 pence. William was apparently unmarried and childless
(or else outlived his family) as his heir was his forty year old brother Thomas
(II).
Figure 1 – Hoares of Greens Norton
Thomas Hoare
of
Greens Norton
(?-1526)
M: Elizabeth_
William Thomas (II)
of Greens Norton of Greens Norton
(?-1546) (1506-1573)
M:
Agnes_
John
William
Robert Henry James
of Greens Norton of
Greens Norton of Deanshanger (living
1573) of Greens Norton
(?-1613)
(?-1608)
(?-1577) M: _ (?-1629)
M1:
Catherine_ M: Catherine_ M: Agnes_ M:
Alice_
M2:
Mary Knot
Edmund Thomas Thomas Nicholas Robert James
(?-1635) (1569-?) (1568-?)
(living 1577) (living
1573) (1584-?)
M1: Elizabeth Rowe
M:
_
M2: Mary Elliott
Major Edward
Henry
James
of Togher Castle of Walton
of the Mint
(1621-1690)
(?-1655)
(?-1696)
M: Mary Woodcock M: Olive_ M: Elizabeth_
Hoare Baronets of Annabella Henry
James
of Smithfield
Barrister
(?-1670)
(1644-1679)
M: Cicely_
M: Anne Large
Sir Richard
“cousin”
Henry
Founder of the Bank
of the Mint
(1649-1719)
(1670-Aft 1703)
M:
Susannah Austen
While Thomas (I)’s surname appears in records as ‘Hore’,
in Thomas (II)’s will of 1573 it appears as ‘Hoore’,
and in his children and grandchildren’s baptism records the name usually
appears as either ‘Hore’ or ‘Hoare’ (since there was
no standardized spelling people spelt surnames phonetically and it is quite
normal to find a variety of spellings, even within a single document).
Thomas (II) is the progenitor of the many branches of Hoares who rose to such prominence in later centuries. He
names seven children in his will (the five sons shown in Figure 1 plus his daughters Elizabeth and Jane) and though he
states that James was his youngest son, he does not specify the order of
seniority of his other children, meaning that we cannot tell which branch of
his descendants is senior.
Much
had changed in England during Thomas (II)’s lifetime (1506-1573). Soon after
Thomas’ father died in 1526, King Henry VIII had separated of the Church of
England (or Anglican Church) from Rome. Accordingly, Thomas embraced the new
faith and rather than leaving wax or barley to the local church we find him
leaving 5 shillings towards its reparation, along with 4 pence to Peterborough
Cathedral. He also generously gave two gallons of milled corn and another two
gallons of malt to every peasant farmer in Greens Norton and the neighbouring
village of Duncote.[9]
Thomas
(II) made the following bequests in his will of 1573:
·
His youngest son James received
his house in Greens Norton, along with all of his land in the fields of Greens
Norton, Duncote and Towcester.
·
His daughter Elizabeth he gave
the token gift of a one year old calf, and to Elizabeth’s children he left a
single cow, one presumes because Elizabeth had already received a generous
dowry.
·
His then unmarried daughter Jane
was left £20, with a further £4 to be paid on her wedding day.
·
His son William’s children
received the same treatment as Elizabeth’s, perhaps because William had already
been catered for in his father’s lifetime.
·
His son John was to received one yoke of oxen, one cow and one mare or a colt.
John was also granted the use of a house (and grounds) then in the occupation
of Margery Davy along with a barn in the occupation of John Hound, which would
revert to his brother William’s descendants following
John’s death.
·
His son Robert received 27
shillings, 4 pence and one colt.
·
His grandson Robert (son of Henry),
who was then a minor, was to received £4 on his 18th birthday.
·
Other bequests were made to his
servant Thomas Woodfyld, his maid Katherine Cosyn and his ‘best’ cook Thomas Walcoke.
Clearly
Thomas (II) had prospered greatly, most likely through his own efforts and the 50
acre inheritance he received from his brother. Thomas (II)’s sons and grandsons
continued to live quietly as tenant farmers in the Greens Norton area until the
English Civil War changed the landscape and opened up new opportunities for the
family.
Thomas
(II)’s son John was the grandfather of Edward Hoare (1621-1690) and his brother
Abraham (1624-1670). The two brothers apparently joined a Cromwellian regiment
of foot raised by Col. John Pickering of Northamptonshire in 1644 (they
certainly served in this regiment for many years afterwards). The regiment was
posted to Ireland in 1649 and by 1655 Edward had been promoted to
captain-lieutenant (a senior lieutenant in charge of the colonel’s personal
company within the regiment) and was promoted to Major soon afterwards. In 1659
King Charles II was restored to the throne and though the commander of the
regiment was removed, Edward kept his commission until March 1660. Edward and
his brother Lieutenant Abraham Hoare were paid off for their army service by a
grant of 3468 acres at Togher Castle, 30 miles west
of Cork, which they claimed in 1666 and 1667.
During
all this time, the grandson and namesake of Thomas (II)’s youngest son James
had moved to London and found employment as at the Mint. In 1660 he was
appointed Comptroller, a position he would hold until his death in 1696. In
this capacity he became acquainted with Sir Isaac Newton who was appointed
Warden of the Mint following James’ death. James was also close to his cousin
Sir Richard Hoare (founder of Hoare’s Bank) as in his will of 1696 he forbids
his grandson Henry from marrying without the consent of “Richard Hoare of
London Goldsmith”. This Henry appears in early bank ledgers, wherein Sir
Richard refers to him as “my cosyn”.
The
grandfather of Sir Richard Hoare, founder of Hoare’s Bank, was Henry Hoare of
Walton (now a suburb of Milton Keynes). In February 1642 the
government raised funds to quell an uprising in Ireland by directing
churchwardens to ask for voluntary gifts from all persons in their parish and
forward the funds raised. Among the donors in Walton,
we find Henry Hoare listed as having given £1, his wife Olive 4 pence, his
second son John 6 pence and his daughter Alice 2 pence. As
shown in Figure 1, there were four
men in the Hoare of Greens Norton family who were of the right age to have been
Henry of Walton’s father. There is further evidence that at least one of the
two Thomas Hoares (born in 1568 and 1569) was still
alive in 1591, when he was listed in a local muster roll.[10]
Since all four of these candidates share the same origin, it does not seem to
matter which of them was really Henry’s father because the broader question of
where Henry came from has now been settled.
Henry of Walton’s younger sons William and Thomas followed their brother Henry and went to London to make their fortunes. William ended his life as a merchant tailor based in the parish of St Stephen Coleman Street, while Thomas became a cordwainer (shoemaker). Neither managed to accrue the same degree of wealth as their eldest brother and the only piece of property William specifically mentions in his will is a parcel of land in Walton, Buckinghamshire, which he stood to inherit following the death of his mother.
Figure 2 – Children and grandchildren of Henry Hoare of Walton
Henry Hoare
of Walton
(?-1655)
M: Olive_
Henry John William Elizabeth Olive
Charles A
daughter Thomas
Horsedealer (living
1654) Merchant Tailor (?-Bef 1660) (living 1654)
(?-Bef
1664) (living 1664) Cordwainer
of St Botolph’s M: _
of St Stephen M: Samuel M:
Joseph M: _
M: William of
London
Aldersgate Coleman Street Simpson
Brinklow Trebble (Bp.
24 Jul
(?-Bd. 5 Jan
(?-1660)
1631-1679)
1669/70) M: Anna_
M: Magdalen_
M:
Cicely_
Sir Richard 3 sons 2 daughters 2 daughters 4 children 3 children children
Founder of
the Bank
(Bp. 8
Sep 1649-
Bd. 13 Jan 1718/9)
Thomas is also the only one of Henry and Olive’s children whose baptism record survives. He was baptised at the Church of St Michael in Walton on 24 July 1631. This is very important because the earliest surviving baptisms from St Michael’s date to 1598 and this indicates that Thomas’ elder siblings were born and baptised elsewhere. Wherever it was, the records have not survived, but we can be certain that the family were new arrivals in Walton.
The eldest son of Henry of Walton was another Henry who became a horse dealer (akin to a modern car saleman) and lived in the parish of St Botolph without Aldersgate. He had been based in the area since at least 1649, when his only child Richard (the founder of the bank) was baptised at St Giles Cripplegate. Henry was a successful man and by the time he wrote his will in 1664 he owned property in Swann Alley in the parish of St Giles without Cripplegate and others in Dolphin Yard in West Smithfield. He had a large extended family, with 7 younger siblings and at least 14 nephews and nieces. In his will, Henry left each of these nephews and nieces bequests of between £5 and £20. Leaving such sums of money to wider family was not an entirely common practice and it demonstrates a particularly family minded attitude in Henry. He was buried in the chancel of the Church of St Giles Cripplegate 5 January 1669/70 and his widow Cicely followed him in September 1677. John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, was buried in the same chancel in November 1674.