1
CHAPTER 1
EARLY PASSMORES
Introduction
The surname Passmore has its origins1 as a nickname for one who came from “across the
sea”. It was Old French for “cross” and “mer”. In other words and not putting too fine a point
upon it, they were immigrants. To have originated in Old French the nickname must go back
to the time when that language was the official language in this country. It must have been
some official who first used it. Perhaps he was an early tax collector!
This history does not go back as far as that. It starts with Hugh Passmore who was a
parishioner of Chudleigh in Devon at the start of the 17th century.
Hugh Passmore
Born
????
Married
????
Buried
1642 April 16
Children
Christopher
Mary
Grace
@ unknown
Chudleigh Devon
1604
1606
1610
Chudleigh
Chudleigh
Chudleigh
The earliest reference to Hugh comes with an entry in the parish register of Chudleigh when
his son Christopher was baptised there in 1604. No marriage has been found but if Hugh
married at the age of 20 he would have been born in 1584.
There is earlier mention of a Passmore in Chudleigh. In 1583 one Edward Passmore
married Florence Hunt. She was baptised in 1565 in Chudleigh, daughter of Thomas Hunt,
gent. In 1645 Florence Passmore was buried. It is tempting to believe that Edward was the
father of Hugh but there is no evidence to support this. It is likely that the antecedents of the
Chudleigh Passmores came from the Tiverton area of Devon; there were plenty of them there
but to connect them to Hugh would be pure speculation.
Hugh had two more children baptised in Chudleigh, Mary in 1606 and Grace in 1610. Pity
the vicar did not include the name of their mother.
Something mysterious happened in Chudleigh in 1626 for from that spring until May of the
following year there are no entries in the parish registers2. One entry reads 1626 “Had the
plague, no records”. One theory is that the plague had arrived in Chudleigh. Where the
plague had come from is uncertain but Chudleigh apparently was on the route taken by
soldiers returning to England from Flanders where the English were engaged in one of their
regular continental wars. Whatever the source the epidemic was sufficiently virulent for a
large percentage of the inhabitants to flee the area. From the absence of parish register
entries one presumes that the vicar was in the vanguard of those who left.
The next mention is in the 1641 Protestation Rolls; with Hugh still in Chudleigh and a
Christopher in Dawlish. Dawlish is only about five miles distant and it would be very
reasonable for Christopher(604) to have moved there; he would only have been 37 years old
in 1641. It is unfortunate that early parish records for Dawlish are scanty or non-existent for
this period. Despite careful search no mention of any Passmore has been found.
Hugh was buried on April 16th 1642.
On January 20th 1642 (which under the old calendar was nine months later) the vicar
recorded in the register the burial of Passmore (Mother). Did he not know her Christian
name? Had it long been forgotten? She must surely have been the widow of Hugh and
most likely was known in the village as “Mother Passmore”
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2
Dictionary of Surnames by Cottle
Chudleigh, a Chronicle pp28-9 Crockett (pub 1986)
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner
2
Christopher (604) Passmore
Baptised
1604 Mar 29
Married
????
Buried
1680 Dec 2
Children
Christopher
Jane
Chudleigh
Chudleigh
1641
????
Chudleigh
As previously mentioned the 1641 Protestation Rolls include a Christopher Passmore living in
Dawlish and it would appear that he could be the son of Hugh. Also in 1641, on October
26th, Christopher(604) had a son, again Christopher, baptised in Chudleigh. It may be that
he had moved back to Chudleigh because his father Hugh was ailing for less than six months
later, on April 16th 1642 Hugh was buried.
The Chudleigh Poll Tax Returns of 1660 record Christopher(604) with a wife and daughter
Jane. No record of either Christopher’s marriage or Jane’s baptism has been found.
Chudleigh Hearth Tax returns for 1660-64 do exist and record a Christopher Passmore there
as a pauper. Similarly so in 1674.
He was buried in Chudleigh in 1680.
There are some intriguing entries shortly afterwards in the Chudleigh burial register. On
September 24th 1683 the burial of “Marie Passmore, widow” and March 15th 1684 the burial of
“Joane Passmore” Most probably they were Christopher’s widow & daughter Jane.
Christopher (641) Passmore
Born
1641 Oct 26th @ Chudleigh
Married 1 1665 Nov 25th Ashton, Devon
to Mary Ellyott
(died 1676 Jul 14th Ashton)
th
Married 2 1677 Sep 8
Ashton, Devon
to Deborah Bartlett
(died 1714 Jun 11th Ashton)
Buried
1707 Aug 5th
Ashton, Devon
Children
by Mary Ellyott
Mary
Ann
James
John
1666
1669
1670
1673
by Deborah Bartlett
Christopher
1678
Mary
1681
Ashton died 1676 Mar
Ashton
Ashton
Ashton
Ashton
Ashton
The first mention of “Passmore” in Ashton, a village adjacent to Chudleigh comes in the 1660
Poll Tax returns with the inclusion of a Christopher Passmore. As mentioned above there
was also in the 1660 Poll Tax a Christopher in Chudleigh, with a wife and daughter. The
probability is that they are father and son. Some confirmation for this might be drawn from
the absence of Christopher in the 1662 Ashton Hearth Tax returns. As a single person the
Ashton Christopher(641) did not possess a hearth. In fact on 25th November 1665 in Ashton
he married Mary Ellyot.
She bore him four children but sadly died after eleven years of marriege and was buried in
Ashton churchyard on July 14th 1676. Just over a year later on 8th September 1677
Christopher married again this time to Deborah Bartlett. In her turn she had two children
Christopher, baptised in 1678 and a daughter Mary.
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner
3
No further information has come to light about Christopher other than the record of his burial
at Ashton on 5th August 1707. He was 66 years old. His widow Deborah survived him until
her death in 1714.
Christopher (678) Passmore
Baptised
1678 Nov 19th Ashton, Devon
Married 1 1704 Nov 17th Ashton Devon
to Elizabeth Cribb
(buried 1712 June 30th)
th
Married 2 1713 Nov 8
Ashton Devon
to Elizabeth Jewry
Died
1724
per Will.
Children
by Elizabeth Cribb
Elizabeth
1705
Deborah
1706
Deborah
1710
Ashton
Ashton died 1707
Ashton
by Elizabeth Jewry
Elizabeth
1714
Christopher
1718
Mary
1721
Benjamin
1724
Ashton
Ashton
Ashton
Ashton
Little is known about Christopher except the information given above. He first married in
1704 Elizabeth Cribb and she had three daughters. One cannot be absolutely certain that
her surname was Cribb for there is a blemish at the crucial spot in the parish register. It is
certainly Cri...something. She died early and was buried in Ashton on 30th June 1712.
Just over a year later Christopher married again, confusingly to another Elizabeth, this time
Elizabeth Jewry. She in turn bore him two daughters and two sons Christopher & Benjamin.
It is these two sons, with their relatively rare names that seem to fit best the Christopher &
Benjamin Passmore that are later found in St Sidwell’s Exeter.
The burial of Christopher (678) has so far not been found. However a will, proved in 1724,
once existed of a Christopher Passmore3 of Ashton. Would that this will had survived Adolf
Hitler’s bombing of Exeter in 1942 that destroyed most of the diocesan archives. It would
have surely confirmed, or not, that this is the Christopher we have been seeking.
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Ch 5.5
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner
4
Christopher (718) Passmore
Baptised
1718 April 14th Ashton, Devon
Married
????
????
to ??? Reynolds?
Buried
1794 Aug 19th St Sidwell, Exeter
Children
Christopher
Elizabeth
James
Thomazine
Thomas Reynolds
WILLIAM
[blank]
Thomas
Richard
Thomas
Thomazine
B/Bapt
1750 May 25
1752 Jan 15
1753 Nov 5
1759 Feb 28
1759 Feb 28
1765 Jul 3
Buried
Place
St Sidwell
St Sidwell
1759 Feb 23
1760 Jul 7
1760 Aug 10
1764 Sep 21
1764 Oct 2
1765 Oct 10
1770 Aug 26
St Sidwell
Christopher was baptised in 1718 in Ashton, Devon which is quite close to Exeter. He had a
brother Benjamin bp. 1724 also in Ashton. They were the only two sons of their father, also
Christopher who had five daughters by two wives.
It seems likely that both brothers left Ashton to seek their fortune in Exeter at some time.
Father had died in 1724. Their mother Elizabeth possibly died in 1737. The Ashton
registers record two Elizabeth Passmores dying that year. Maybe the other one was her
daughter. (Maybe the other daughter Mary was buried in 1730)
In this case two boys were left, Christopher aged 19 and his brother Benjamin aged just 13
years of age. After this time there are no entries in the Ashton registers of a Christopher or a
Benjamin. They do however appear in Exeter and so the inference must be that the two lads
moved to Exeter to find work of some sort.
In 1750 there is a baptism of Christopher Passmore, son of Christopher Passmore in St
Sidwell’s Exeter. Would that the vicar had had the common decency to add the mother’s
name; but he didn’t.
He was also less than punctilious when it came to ensuring that all his parishioners had their
offspring baptised. Six children of Christopher were baptised and there are seven entries in
the burial register; they do not coincide precisely. Indeed there is one burial entry where the
child’s name has simply been omitted (poor soul!) It was either Christopher jnr, Elizabeth or
James, as William survived to carry on the family name. In no case did the vicar include the
mother’s name and so far no record of a marriage of Christopher has been found. And we
have tried! The only clue there is and it is rather tenuous, is that one child was baptised
Thomas Reynolds Passmore. Was this the maiden name of the child’s mother? Their only
daughter was baptised Elizabeth. So perhaps mother was Elizabeth Reynolds.
There was a Christopher Passmore in St Sidwell’s in 1757 as shown by a lease 4. He was a
pipemaker who had premises at the “lower end of Paris Street and west of the way leading to
the old workhouse”. (fig 6) According to the lease the premises were formerly occupied by
an Elizabeth Cocker, widow. It may be just coincidental but an Elizabeth Cocker was buried
in St Sidwell’s in 1740. At that time Christopher would have been 22 years old and no doubt
looking for some occupation. Perhaps even he had been working at the premises when the
lady died and grasped the opportunity to go into business making pipes.
Another straw in the wind is that on January 12th 1735 there was a baptism in St Sidwell’s of
Stephen son of Thomas Reynolds, pipemaker. Probably the vicar was no more diligent in
recording all the children of Thomas Reynolds than he was of Christopher Passmore. The
4
Ch 6.3
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner
5
signs are strong that Christopher(718) married a daughter of Thomas Reynolds. Both were
pipemakers living in the same parish of St Sidwell’s. Christopher and his wife christened one
son Thomas Reynolds and made five attempts to perpetuate the name “Thomas” in male or
female form, without success. The Reynolds family were still pipemakers in Paris Street St
Sidwell’s for many years afterwards. In 1803 a later Thomas Reynolds was unfortunate
enough to lose his entire property in a major fire5.
A Benjamin Passmore married a Susan Hughes in St Sidwell’s in 1758. This would seem
likely to be Christopher’s brother. If he were the son of Christopher(678) he would have been
34 years old. Benjamin did not appear to have had a happy life. He and Susan had two
sons Benjamin in 1765 & John Hughes in 1771, baptised in St Mary Steps. Both were two
years old when they died, John in the workhouse. Then in 1784 Benjamin died a pauper and
his widow (Susanna) in 1797.
There are two entries in the St Sidwell register for the burial of Christopher Passmore, one a
pauper on August 19th 1794 and one on April 12th 1801. Most likely the earlier one was
Christopher (718). If his wife’s name was Elizabeth, as seems probable, she was buried May
4th 1780 in the workhouse.
William (759) Passmore
Baptised
1759 Feb 28th @ St Sidwell's, Exeter DEV
Married
1778 May 11th @ St Paul, Exeter Devon
to Mary Chave
Died
????
Children
B/Bapt
Place
William
1780 Jan 7
St Sidwell Exeter
William
1782 Feb 17
St Sidwell Exeter
Francis Wolf
1782 Feb 17
St Sidwell Exeter
Christopher
1784 Aug 4
St Sidwell Exeter
Mary
1786 Nov 5
St Sidwell Exeter
bur 1783 Oct 19
Little is known about William. Even his granddaughter Harriet when she wrote her memories
of the family in 1874 did not know his name. William married Mary Chave in 1778 @ St
Paul’s Exeter and they had five children baptised in St Sidwell’s. The first, William baptised
in 1780 presumably did not live long although no burial has been found. Just two years later
William & Mary had twin boys, one of whom was christened William. This lad only lived for
eighteen months, dying in October 1783. The remaining three children survived although
according to Harriet, Mary “died young”. Actually she was buried in St Sidwell’s on June 23 rd
1801. So she was then 15 years old.
A William appears in the Exeter Militia List6 drawn up in 1803. However the parish was St
Mary Major and so is unlikely to have been William(759). There was more than one “William
Passmore” in Exeter.
We have not found the burial of William but there is an entry in the Exeter South St Baptist
registers of a “Mary Passmore” on 6th December 1813. She was buried in their own burial
ground in Paris St and she is most likely to be the wife of William. Would that her age had
been included in the entry. Harriet believed that her grandmother died of cancer.
William’s son Christopher became a fervent Baptist preacher and is discussed fully in the next
chapter. Another son Francis seems to have followed a similar path into religious nonconformity.
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6
Ch 6.3 Extract from Exeter Flying Post
Ch 6.2
© Gordon and Barbara Faulkner