John Seymour

Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England

Death Notes

John Semare was buried on 23-Oct-1605 at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England.

His will. "To my son Robert a table. To my daughter Annie my "wafer yernes (Waffle irons). To my sons John and Peter 6d each. To my daughters Jane and Dorothy a bed each. All residue to my wife [unnamed], who is to be exeutrix, and my son Robert is to be executor. Wotnesses; Thomas Browne, Mathew Thorowgood."

His estate was probated on 13-Nov-1605.

The will of John Seymour/Semare, transcribed from the original in Essex Record Office (ref: D/ABW 36/30):
       In the name of god Amen the vij day of October in the yere of our Lord one Thousande sixe hundered and five I Jhon Semare of Sabridgworthe in the Countie of Hertford doe ordayne & make this my laste will & testament in maner and forme following
       Fyrste I bequthe my soule into hande of Almighty god and my body to be buried where it shall please god
       Item I give & beqethe to Robert Semare my sonne my table & the frame in the halle to remayne with the howse
       Item I give to Annie my daughter my wafer yerns
       Item I give to John & Peter my sonnes vi d apece
       Item I give to Jane my daughter my flocke bede & ij joyned stoles
       Item I give to Dorite my daughter my beste bed with the furniture and my cobbard and ij joyned stoles and my rounde table & great pewter platter my beste table clothe and my lattino morter to be delivered immidiatly after my wyffes decease
       The residue of all my goods unbequeathed I give & bequeathe to Dissere my wyffe whom I ordayne & make my executrix and Robert my sonne to be overseer of this my laste will & testamente
       There being witness Thomas Browne and Mathew Thorowgood

       Probate xiij November 1605

General Notes

Children --- Name Sex Birth:
Annis Semare F 1564-03-06 in Sawbridgeworth, Hert, England
Jone Seymour Semare F 1567-10-18 in Sawbridgeworth, Hert, England
Mary Seymour Semare F 1570-10-28 in Sawbridgeworth, Hert, England
Robert Seymour M 1573-11-30 in Sawbridgewort, Herts, England
John Semare M 1576-09-30 in Sawbridgeworth, Herts, England
Dorotey Seymer F 1579-09-06 in Sawbridgeworth, Huet, England
Dorothy Semare F 1579-09-06 in Sawbridgeworth, Herts, England
Peter Semare M 1582-02-11 in Sawbridgeworth, Herts, England
William Semare M 1584-02-09 in Sawbridgeworth, Herts, England
------------------------------------------------
He married (1) Jone Androw on 11-Nov-1560 at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England; no issue of this marriage. John Semare married (2) Dyzory Porter on 9-May-1562 at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England.

He was also known as John Seymour. Sawbridge is a rural parish in co. Herts, extending to the eastern boundary line of this county and bordering on co. Essex. It is about twenty-five miles notrheast of London, and has (1917) a population of about two thousnad. The local pronunciation of the name is "Sapsearth" in 1562. He resided at at Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England, between 1562 and 1605. He left a will on 7-Oct-1605 at Of, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England.

Sawbridgeforth is a very old community, located in the county of Hertford in the south-east quadrant of England. It has gone through a series of name changes through the years. Its name was SABRIXTEWORDA in the 11th Century, SEBRICHWORDE in the 12th Century, SABRITHTESWORTH in the 13th Century, SABRETTESWORTH in the 14th Century,SABRISWORTH in the 15th Century, SABRIDGEWORTH in the 16th Century and finally SAWBRIDGEWORTH in the 18th Century.

For the first 100 years, Sawbridgeworth occupied only 2940 acres, listed as having an area of 24.5 HIDES which was an OLD ENGLISH unit of land measurement. By 1900 it had 6638 acres of good farm land. The main crops were through the past 900 years, wheat, barley and beans and as of this date the main crops remain the same.
--------------------------------
Sunday, December 5, 1999

1. The Seymours or Semares of Sawbridgeworth, co. Herts., were to the best of my knowledge exhaustively researched by J. Gardner Bartlett some time ago, ending (or beginning) with John Semare, whose will dated 7 Oct 1605 was proved on 13 Nov 1605. This, and a record from the parish register of his marriage in 1562 (as John Seymer) to one Dyzory Porter is as far back as I am aware this has been traced.
-------------------------------------------------------
SEYMOUR, or St Maur, the name of an English family in which several titles of nobility have from time to time been created, and of which the duke of Somerset is the head. The family was settled in Monmouthshire in the 13th century. The original form of the name, which has been resumed by the dukes of Somerset since 1863, seems to have been St Maur, of which Camden says that Seymour was a later corruption. appears that about the year 1240 Gilbert Marshal, earl of Pembroke, assisted William St Maur to wrest a place called Woundy, near Caldecot in Monmouthshire, from the Welsh. Woundy and Penhow, at the latter of which he made his residence, were the property of Sir Richard St Maur at the end of the 13th century, but they passed away from the family through the marriage of Sir Richard's great-great-granddaughter, the only child of John St Maur, who died in 1359. John St Maur's younger brother Roger married Cecily, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of John Beauchamp of Hache, Baron Beauchamp de Somerset (d. 1361), who brought to her husband the greater part of her father's extensive estates in Somersetshire, Devonshire, Buckinghamshire and Suffolk. The eldest son of this marriage was Sir William St Maur, or Seymour (for the later form of the name appears to have come into use about this date), who was an attendant on the Black Prince, and who died in his mother's lifetime, leaving a son Roger, who inherited the estates and added to them by his marriage with Maud, daughter of Sir William Esturmi of Wolf Hall, Wiltshire. During the next three or four generations the wealth and importance of the Seymours in the western counties increased, until in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. Sir John Seymour of Wolf Hall became a personage of note in public affairs. He took an active part in suppressing the Cornish rebellion in 1497; and afterwards attended Henry at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and on the occasion of the emperor Charles V.'s visit to England in 1522. The eldest of his ten children was Edward Seymour, 1st duke of Somerset (q.v.), the famous Protector in the reign of Edward VI.; his third son was Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley; and his eldest daughter Jane was third wife of King Henry VIII., and mother of Edward VI. The Protector was twice married; and, probably owing to the adultery of his first wife whom he repudiated about 1535, his titles and estates were entailed first on the issue of his second marriage with Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope.

Click here for details of John's family with Dyzory Porter