Post by John on Feb 5, 2009 0:35:37 GMT -5
OUR FAMILY STORY 2008 Part One
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I have been delving into the history of the Madams/Maddams Family for 35 years researching our identity, with the help of various other members of our scattered clan.
Before I began this task we were led to believe that Maddams originated from Madame and was a nickname, the first occurrence of it being John Madame found in the court tax rolls in York about 800 years ago.
Then a company committed to tracing ancestry associated us with the Madden family and led us back to the banks of the Shannon in Ireland 1000 years ago and gave us a crest and a motto, but no actual proof.
Another author of the History of British Surnames associates us with
the Mattams family and originates with a Plantagenet nobleman in Herefordshire.
One branch of the Madams family the Sussex area in the South of England changed it’s name to Mirams and a Bill Mirams, on a site on the Internet claimed on the 23 November 2003 descent from a John and Sara Maddams married in 1528 who had 7 children one of whom Thomas was married to an Elizabeth about 1688,making him about 140. So clearly 1528 date should read 1628 Bill claims to descend from their son William.
Other Earlier Records of Madams family include
15.02.1662 Stephen to Robert and Jane Maddom
Mary daughter to John & Mary Minster in Thanet.
22.10.1716 Edward Madams married Elizabeth Parker Minster in Thanet.
William to Edward & Elizabeth 13.01.1717
Ann daughter of William and Ann at St Mary’s Dover .
William to John and Mary
25.04.1796 William to John and Ann at St Leonards Shortditch
1808 Sophia to William and Mary at Spitalfields Stepney
Late 19th century members of the family in Bedfordshire claimed that we descended from a group of French Huguenots and this legend persists in various parts of the country in various forms where outcrops of the family developed. Another story suggested the ancestors were French or Flemish Jews. No evidence has so far appeared of the name in any Huguenots records, but then some of the stories suggest that our ancestors had good cause to keep their real identity a secret.
One story was that a young Protestant duke fell foul of the Catholic King, and his castle and land was seized and he was banished from France with his family, or fearing imprisonment, he escaped. The story goes that they crossed the Channel in an open boat and landed near Lymington Hants.
The story goes on that he married a Quaker girl from Penn and they emigrated to the American colonies. Probably to Pennsylvania.
Another twist in the tale was that the Castle was demolished and forms part of the site of the Palace of Versailles. One writer stated that it was associated with a village near Paris pronounced as Ives. The Versailles site did take in a village and a lake and a lot of marshy ground but not as far as is known a castle.
There was a chateau which was originally a hunting lodge of Louis the 13th but the land before that was never the property of a Maddams or a Duke.
Across the years in the records, we have found several instances of the surname being recorded in the same family with one “d” and with two “dd”s, and also of the name changing in one family over 3 generations.
There is a branch of the family in Cornwall and in Kent still using the one “D” spelling which appears to be the earlier version amongst our ancestors. The Kent group derived from a shipwright in Kent whose family yard was still operating early in the 20th century and the family claim to have arrived in England from Holland.
Since many of the French Huguenots escaped first into Holland this legend could still be true, of members of a household which could have included children or servants or both, who came by boat across the channel who became known as Madam’s (belonging to the household of Madam, a French woman.).
The pronunciation of the name at Silsoe in Bedfordshire was said to be Maydarms. May as in Pay and darms as in harms.
What we think is the earliest record of the name is Richardi Maddam who was the father of Agnes Maddam christened at St Stephen’s Church at St Albans on the 8th November -1615 and buried there as “ a poore child”in 1630.
We then have Richardus Meddom who married Mariani Webb 1675 in London
They Christened their first child Guilielmus(William) on 2-2.1676 when their names were recorded as Richardi & Mariani Meddom, then when their second child was christened Elizabeth 21-07-1681 their names were recorded as Richard and Mary
Another researcher working back from the present day has got as far back but with another branch of the family being the descendants of John Madams born about 1670 and buried in 1733 who married Ann Pratchett in November 1696 who had 3 children, Anne, Sarah and Joseph. Joseph with his wife Sarah had 7 children one of who was a Richard who also had a son Richard after which use of that Christian name died out
We believe that these two families along with a family at Harlington and a family at Flitton are linked one or two generations earlier, possibly with Richard baptised at Flitwick in April 1688, and may descend from children of John and Susan Madams of Flitwick. Susan died in 1695 and John died in 1701 and that there too lies the link with the Hertfordshire family based early, on Hatfield, who claims that an ancestor of theirs regularly drove a coach between Hatfield House and the Palace during the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, but tantalising we don’t know whether the name of the ancestor was Maddams or a similar name, or was of another family into which the Maddams family had married.
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The Flitwick Registers [ Memo. Flitwick had a Huguenot community
==================
Richard son of John & Susan Maddams
08.04.1695 Susan Maddams wife of John buried
Sarah Madams daughter John and Ann Madams baptised.
John Maddams husband of Susan buried
03.08 1704 Joseph Madams son of John and Ann Madams baptised
John Madams buried
09.05.1733 Widow Madams buried
John Madams buried
20.11.1759 John Madams married Mary Squire
18.11.1760 John Madams labourer buried
Certainly branches of the family appear to have developed in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire from 1615 with other links with London. There are links too between London and Birmingham early in the 19th century. We know too something of how from both cities members of the family moved to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tasmania, Singapore and Canada from where it moved into various parts of the USA. There are about 350 Maddams families world wide today but it appears unknown in the rest of Europe. There is a family data base of the family in Canada.
The earliest persecution of the Huguenots was in the late 1590’s so a 1615 date, the earliest we are told in Britain for the name, still sounds plausible to the legend..
Of the earlier strands of Maddams and Madams in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire the earliest we have is still the one in 1615, and there are other groups of the family under both spellings around the country some up to the present day, but we still cannot prove a link with them. Many of these groups cannot trace their way back into the 18th and 17th centuries and may derive from the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and London families later in the 19th century.
So we now have a Speculative Tree from around 1615 to 1750
suggesting that the heads of the families at Flitwick, Harlington, and Flitton are all linked to John and Susan at Flitwick of the previous generation and with the earlier links at London and St Albans,
There is in the International Register of Baptisms no reference to the surnames Maddams, Madams, Maddam, Madam or Meddom earlier than 1615.
The assertion on the Tombstone in Silsoe churchyard of Samuel Taylor Maddams who died in 1904 that he was a descendent of ancestors who came from Normandy in 1685 and was mentioned in some Bedfordshire magazine in 1903 has never yet been proved ( The ancestors may not have been called Maddams even though in the family their name was pronounced as “Maydarms” as that could have come much later ) nor has the legend of the French Duke deposed for being a Huguenot who crossed the channel with children. One descendent reckoned her 19th-20th century aunt had a book about the family but it disappeared when she died. Another said there was a book about the family in the British library but nothing has been found under the name Maddams.
It still remains possible that the Maddams name originally comes from Mattams and originates with a Plantagenet nobleman in Herefordshire.
But again there is no documentary proof.
################################################
With this limited circulation Report, I include the Family Tree as it now is, most of it printed in black. Those names shown in Green were known to be alive in 2003. Some who have died since we have been aware of and changed from green That part of the supposed family of William Maddams born in 1754 believed to be married to Elizabeth Young is printed in brown apart from those still alive printed in green.
I have also included what records we have of other families that married into our family, the Cooper, Caton, Crouch Priest, Roberts, Cowley, Jellett, Brown, Bush, Barker, and Kidman families.
This information is on my Lighthouse Prayer Ministry (MCCPF) web board site www.lhpm.proboards.com where the Maddams Tree on there since 2005 has been visited by many people. There is a link to it from the International Ancestry Web Site.
To those who inquire if the report is sent by post we also supply a Map of Maddams-Land marking in red the towns and villages in Bedfordshire and on the border with Hertfordshire associated with the family.
I also have 9 loose-leaf albums of family records, photos and documents of my family, and 17 more of my life.
There is a reference around 1835 in a court at Bedford of a William Maddams aged about 20 brought before them arising from a probable sex offence. Elsewhere there is a record of a William Maddams being a convict, one of 110, lodged om the prison ship Mangles March 18th 1837 sentenced at the Central Criminal Court to 7 years in a penal colony in New South Wales, Australia.
MADDAMS FAMILY RESEARCH began 1973 and is still going on.
It is also associated with
MADDAMS FAMILY TREES 1991-2012 which is a Commemorative tree planting programme that has planted so far 7265 trees in 15 countries and expects to bring that up to 7300 in 2013 with several hundred more in Uganda where we already have 2 woods
John E Maddams 1938-2012
############################
I have been delving into the history of the Madams/Maddams Family for 35 years researching our identity, with the help of various other members of our scattered clan.
Before I began this task we were led to believe that Maddams originated from Madame and was a nickname, the first occurrence of it being John Madame found in the court tax rolls in York about 800 years ago.
Then a company committed to tracing ancestry associated us with the Madden family and led us back to the banks of the Shannon in Ireland 1000 years ago and gave us a crest and a motto, but no actual proof.
Another author of the History of British Surnames associates us with
the Mattams family and originates with a Plantagenet nobleman in Herefordshire.
One branch of the Madams family the Sussex area in the South of England changed it’s name to Mirams and a Bill Mirams, on a site on the Internet claimed on the 23 November 2003 descent from a John and Sara Maddams married in 1528 who had 7 children one of whom Thomas was married to an Elizabeth about 1688,making him about 140. So clearly 1528 date should read 1628 Bill claims to descend from their son William.
Other Earlier Records of Madams family include
15.02.1662 Stephen to Robert and Jane Maddom
Mary daughter to John & Mary Minster in Thanet.
22.10.1716 Edward Madams married Elizabeth Parker Minster in Thanet.
William to Edward & Elizabeth 13.01.1717
Ann daughter of William and Ann at St Mary’s Dover .
William to John and Mary
25.04.1796 William to John and Ann at St Leonards Shortditch
1808 Sophia to William and Mary at Spitalfields Stepney
Late 19th century members of the family in Bedfordshire claimed that we descended from a group of French Huguenots and this legend persists in various parts of the country in various forms where outcrops of the family developed. Another story suggested the ancestors were French or Flemish Jews. No evidence has so far appeared of the name in any Huguenots records, but then some of the stories suggest that our ancestors had good cause to keep their real identity a secret.
One story was that a young Protestant duke fell foul of the Catholic King, and his castle and land was seized and he was banished from France with his family, or fearing imprisonment, he escaped. The story goes that they crossed the Channel in an open boat and landed near Lymington Hants.
The story goes on that he married a Quaker girl from Penn and they emigrated to the American colonies. Probably to Pennsylvania.
Another twist in the tale was that the Castle was demolished and forms part of the site of the Palace of Versailles. One writer stated that it was associated with a village near Paris pronounced as Ives. The Versailles site did take in a village and a lake and a lot of marshy ground but not as far as is known a castle.
There was a chateau which was originally a hunting lodge of Louis the 13th but the land before that was never the property of a Maddams or a Duke.
Across the years in the records, we have found several instances of the surname being recorded in the same family with one “d” and with two “dd”s, and also of the name changing in one family over 3 generations.
There is a branch of the family in Cornwall and in Kent still using the one “D” spelling which appears to be the earlier version amongst our ancestors. The Kent group derived from a shipwright in Kent whose family yard was still operating early in the 20th century and the family claim to have arrived in England from Holland.
Since many of the French Huguenots escaped first into Holland this legend could still be true, of members of a household which could have included children or servants or both, who came by boat across the channel who became known as Madam’s (belonging to the household of Madam, a French woman.).
The pronunciation of the name at Silsoe in Bedfordshire was said to be Maydarms. May as in Pay and darms as in harms.
What we think is the earliest record of the name is Richardi Maddam who was the father of Agnes Maddam christened at St Stephen’s Church at St Albans on the 8th November -1615 and buried there as “ a poore child”in 1630.
We then have Richardus Meddom who married Mariani Webb 1675 in London
They Christened their first child Guilielmus(William) on 2-2.1676 when their names were recorded as Richardi & Mariani Meddom, then when their second child was christened Elizabeth 21-07-1681 their names were recorded as Richard and Mary
Another researcher working back from the present day has got as far back but with another branch of the family being the descendants of John Madams born about 1670 and buried in 1733 who married Ann Pratchett in November 1696 who had 3 children, Anne, Sarah and Joseph. Joseph with his wife Sarah had 7 children one of who was a Richard who also had a son Richard after which use of that Christian name died out
We believe that these two families along with a family at Harlington and a family at Flitton are linked one or two generations earlier, possibly with Richard baptised at Flitwick in April 1688, and may descend from children of John and Susan Madams of Flitwick. Susan died in 1695 and John died in 1701 and that there too lies the link with the Hertfordshire family based early, on Hatfield, who claims that an ancestor of theirs regularly drove a coach between Hatfield House and the Palace during the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, but tantalising we don’t know whether the name of the ancestor was Maddams or a similar name, or was of another family into which the Maddams family had married.
#################################################
The Flitwick Registers [ Memo. Flitwick had a Huguenot community
==================
Richard son of John & Susan Maddams
08.04.1695 Susan Maddams wife of John buried
Sarah Madams daughter John and Ann Madams baptised.
John Maddams husband of Susan buried
03.08 1704 Joseph Madams son of John and Ann Madams baptised
John Madams buried
09.05.1733 Widow Madams buried
John Madams buried
20.11.1759 John Madams married Mary Squire
18.11.1760 John Madams labourer buried
Certainly branches of the family appear to have developed in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire from 1615 with other links with London. There are links too between London and Birmingham early in the 19th century. We know too something of how from both cities members of the family moved to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tasmania, Singapore and Canada from where it moved into various parts of the USA. There are about 350 Maddams families world wide today but it appears unknown in the rest of Europe. There is a family data base of the family in Canada.
The earliest persecution of the Huguenots was in the late 1590’s so a 1615 date, the earliest we are told in Britain for the name, still sounds plausible to the legend..
Of the earlier strands of Maddams and Madams in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire the earliest we have is still the one in 1615, and there are other groups of the family under both spellings around the country some up to the present day, but we still cannot prove a link with them. Many of these groups cannot trace their way back into the 18th and 17th centuries and may derive from the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and London families later in the 19th century.
So we now have a Speculative Tree from around 1615 to 1750
suggesting that the heads of the families at Flitwick, Harlington, and Flitton are all linked to John and Susan at Flitwick of the previous generation and with the earlier links at London and St Albans,
There is in the International Register of Baptisms no reference to the surnames Maddams, Madams, Maddam, Madam or Meddom earlier than 1615.
The assertion on the Tombstone in Silsoe churchyard of Samuel Taylor Maddams who died in 1904 that he was a descendent of ancestors who came from Normandy in 1685 and was mentioned in some Bedfordshire magazine in 1903 has never yet been proved ( The ancestors may not have been called Maddams even though in the family their name was pronounced as “Maydarms” as that could have come much later ) nor has the legend of the French Duke deposed for being a Huguenot who crossed the channel with children. One descendent reckoned her 19th-20th century aunt had a book about the family but it disappeared when she died. Another said there was a book about the family in the British library but nothing has been found under the name Maddams.
It still remains possible that the Maddams name originally comes from Mattams and originates with a Plantagenet nobleman in Herefordshire.
But again there is no documentary proof.
################################################
With this limited circulation Report, I include the Family Tree as it now is, most of it printed in black. Those names shown in Green were known to be alive in 2003. Some who have died since we have been aware of and changed from green That part of the supposed family of William Maddams born in 1754 believed to be married to Elizabeth Young is printed in brown apart from those still alive printed in green.
I have also included what records we have of other families that married into our family, the Cooper, Caton, Crouch Priest, Roberts, Cowley, Jellett, Brown, Bush, Barker, and Kidman families.
This information is on my Lighthouse Prayer Ministry (MCCPF) web board site www.lhpm.proboards.com where the Maddams Tree on there since 2005 has been visited by many people. There is a link to it from the International Ancestry Web Site.
To those who inquire if the report is sent by post we also supply a Map of Maddams-Land marking in red the towns and villages in Bedfordshire and on the border with Hertfordshire associated with the family.
I also have 9 loose-leaf albums of family records, photos and documents of my family, and 17 more of my life.
There is a reference around 1835 in a court at Bedford of a William Maddams aged about 20 brought before them arising from a probable sex offence. Elsewhere there is a record of a William Maddams being a convict, one of 110, lodged om the prison ship Mangles March 18th 1837 sentenced at the Central Criminal Court to 7 years in a penal colony in New South Wales, Australia.
MADDAMS FAMILY RESEARCH began 1973 and is still going on.
It is also associated with
MADDAMS FAMILY TREES 1991-2012 which is a Commemorative tree planting programme that has planted so far 7265 trees in 15 countries and expects to bring that up to 7300 in 2013 with several hundred more in Uganda where we already have 2 woods
John E Maddams 1938-2012
