The RAYMOND Family History

My grandfather, Edward Newman, was very proud of his mother's family - the Raymonds. He used to tell us that the Raymonds came over with William the Conqueror. This is possibly true as Raymond is a Norman name and in the book "My Ancestors came with The Conqueror" by Anthony Camp there is a "Raimond" [later to be spelled "Raymond"] listed at the Battle of Hastings. From some correspondence I have had with a man called Douglas Raymond who has also been tracing his Raymond ancestors I understand that an early Raymond coat of arms had a battle axe in it. The battle axe crest is reputed to have been given by William the Conqueror to his knights. It is thought that all Raymonds in England, and the lands to which the English migrated, are descended from the knight who fought with William at the Battle of Hastings. In William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086 a Giraldus Raemundus is mentioned as a Mesne Lord in Essex, and whose family seat is said to be a place called "Raymond" in the Hundred of Why, Kent (a division within a county). I have been unable to find this person in my copy of The Domesday Book. The actual name of Raymond comes from the old Germanic personal name of Ragimund, meaning "might protection", then the old French which was Raemund, Raemond or Raimond. There is no way that I can trace our family back to that time.

The Raymond family bible, held by Dorothy Pentland, is not really a bible but stories from the bible. It was written in the 17th century at the time of Pepys. One of the sponsors of the translation, listed with Pepys in the front, is a Sir Thomas Raymond. Is it pure coincidence that the Raymonds chose this particular book as their family bible or was there a connection with Sir Thomas Raymond? I have not been able to find one. In the front of this `bible' there are two pages listing births and deaths of the Raymond family. You can view the first page with the family of my great grandparents when you click on Thomas and Mary Ann Raymond, my great grandparents. The second page shows some of the Raymond ancestors although no further back than the 19th century.

It is a bit of a puzzle how this bible came into the possession of Thomas Raymond in Australia as this page was written by George Raymond the brother of Thomas. George and his wife, Jane Eliza, nee Paine had at least one child, George William, who was baptised on 28th June 1843. Eliza Jane died in 1844 and although she died intestate, through Letters of Admonition, she left £900 to her husband, George. Perhaps both George and their son George William also died before Thomas and Mary Ann Raymond emigrated to Australia. Someone else, Mary Ann Raymond, I think, added the name of her grandson, Edward at the bottom of the page.

From the references in the page to "my wife" I worked out that the writer of the second page must have been George, a brother of Thomas when I obtaining a death certificate of his wife, Jane Eliza Raymond. George traces the family back to Peter Raymond, his grandfather, who died on Wednesday 23rd October 1832, aged 85. This would make his date of birth about 1747.

I spent some time searching the Richmond area of Surrey as the only place mentioned in the family bible was Petersham but found nothing. Eventually by searching all the counties of England in the International Genealogy Index of the Church of Later Day Saints (Mormons) I found them being baptised and marrying in Winchester and, after further detective work and visits to the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester, I was able to piece the family together. I expect that is was taken for granted that everyone in the family knew that the family lived in Winchester and Petersham was only mentioned as the place where Louise Bailis, née Raymond died because it was different.

I have verified all the information in this part of the family bible by my study of the parish records at the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester. It is now on the Raymond family tree

At the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester I recently found that a Thomas Raymond of Andover was a pupil at Winchester College from 1421 to 1426. Winchester College is reputed to be the oldest public school in England. It was founded in 1382 for the education of poor boys, like Harrow and Eton, but like them became an establishment for the education of the privileged. I have looked at the parish registers for Andover but not found any Raymond mentioned there. I will have to do further investigations here to see if this man is an ancestor of ours, but the name, Thomas, gives me some hope. At the moment there are over three hundred years between him and a proven ancestor.

During this same session of research I found a Joseph Raymond's marriage to Mary Lainstone on 27th October 1729 who I also hoped would prove to be an ancestor. I found the family of this couple in the International Genealogical Index (IGI). They had eight children and the fifth one's name was Thomas which was the name I was looking for. He was baptised on 5th May 1740. I looked up the dates I had from my Thomas and found he married in 1744. Precocious he may have been but married at four - I think not. One of the many red herrings one experiences in the joys of family history!

So - the earliest Raymond that I can be pretty sure is part of our family is Thomas Raymond(1) who, from the parish registers, lived in Winchester and married Martha Gregory on 27th August 1744. I know nothing more about him. He was most probably the father of Peter Raymond, born c1747 and married to Mary. Peter Raymond was buried on 13th October 1832 at Cheesehill, Winchester. The church at Cheesehill (or Chesil) today is packed tightly between other buildings and has no churchyard. I understand that people buried from this church were taken to a cemetery on St Gile's Hill. The church has been turned into a theatre. Peter's last address was given as "near the Wharf Mill"

Peter and Mary Raymond had two children that I know of, Thomas(2) and Peter. Thomas was baptised on 17th August 1772. He was my great-great-great-grandfather. Peter was baptised on 27th March 1775.

Thomas(2) married Louisa Brown at St Michaels Church, Winchester on 22 October 1792, aged twenty. Louisa Brown was twenty two. Thomas was a fruiterer or grocer-confectioner. He lived and had his shop in College Street, Winchester. College Street is not a very long street. All along one side of it is the high, stone wall around the grounds of Winchester Cathedral and half way along the street there is the famous boys' Public School, Winchester College. That leaves room for about ten houses. At one end of these is the house in which Jane Austen was living at the time of her death (1817). The Raymonds were living in the street at that time and I was fairly sure that it must have been the first house at the other end of the street as the Raymonds were the first people in the street to be listed in the census of 1841. In the Pigot's Directory of Hampshire 1830 I found the Raymonds' residence was actually put as 1 College Street so I am now sure that it was the house/shop on the corner of the street. Thomas Raymond (2), aged 69, was the last Raymond of our family left in the house by 1841. He shared the premises with people of a different name and the shop was a confectioners. The building is still a shop - the tuck shop of the Winchester College. It is part of a three storey, substantial building - shop and dwelling - in what is now a prosperous, historical area. What it was like in Thomas and Louisa's time I do not know. In the Pigot's Directory 1844 we find Thomas Raymond is listed again at 1 College Street but this time under Gareners and Seed Merchants. At 2 College Street there is a George Raymond under Carpenters and Joiners.

Louisa and Thomas Raymond(2) had five children. They were Louisa, baptised 7th Feb 1799, Thomas (3), baptised 9th July 1803, Henry James, baptised 13 January 1805, George, baptised in 1807 and Charles - the only reference to him being in the will of his father, Thomas. The deaths of two of these, Louisa (1845) and Henry (1832) are mentioned in the family bible. I am assuming that George also died. Thomas (3), my great-great-grandfather, emigrated to Australia in 1855.

From the Land Tax records I have found that in 1803 Thomas Raymond(1) was paying £1.12shillings annually for his property. I am not sure whether this was the property in College Street or not. Over the years up to 1822 the Land Tax paid went up to £1.13shillings in order to help pay for the Napoleonic Wars. It was then being paid by Thomas Raymond (2). This would certainly have been for number 1 College Street. This does not seem much by today's standards but it was higher than most of his neighbours.

The children of Thomas and Louisa Raymond were baptised, and later married, at the church of St Swithun-Upon-Kingsgate, Winchester, Hampshire. The Raymond shop was very near to this church which is rather unique. It has been built over one of several stone archway entrances into the ancient city of Winchester - Kingsgate, which was the gate through which the kings of England entered the city to reach their castle there. The church itself was named for St Swithun (died 862), a bishop of Winchester who is the patron saint of Winchester. According to legend it is said that he asked to be buried outside the church "in a vile and unworthy place" where he could feel the rain upon him. This was done at first but later his body was moved to a place of honour in the cathedral. As this was not what he wanted he caused it to rain for the forty days following St Swithun's Day (15th July), the anniversary of the date of his death, if it rained on that day.

This legend has continued on to today and although I know that it has nothing whatsoever to do with St Swithun but may have something to do with weather patterns it does seem to work. I certainly hate to see it raining on 12th July.

During my latest research in the Record Office at Winchester (April 2001) I had time to spare and rather idly looked at a book with the title "Prisoners" not in the least expecting to find anything, but there in the index of the Quarter sessions was the name Thomas Raymond(2) twice. However he was there as a victim not a criminal. When I followed this up I found the following accounts.

"Ann Damper aged 19, convicted Oct. 12 1832 by the Rev. R Wright. Charged with having on the 12th day of October 1832 at the parish of St Swithun feloniously stolen several pairs of stockings, one sheet, a petticoat and other articles, the property of Thomas Raymond - 12 cal. Months' imp to hard lab. In Bridewell."

"Hannah Dumper, aged 39, Committed October 27, 1832, by Rev. R Wright and S R Jarvis, Esq. Charged with having, in the months of October instant, at the parish of Saint Swithin, feloniously received a cap, two pair of stays, and other articles, of and from on Ann Dumper, the property of Thomas Raymond; she, the said Hannah Dumper, well knowing the said articles to have been stolen - 9 cal. Months' imp. To hard lab. in the Gaol and 3 weeks solitary."

The clothes, you may be relieved to know, would not have been the wearing apparel of Thomas but his wife, Louisa. At that time everything a woman had belonged to her husband - even her clothes. Other questions came into my mind after reading this. Who was Ann Dumper? I think that the most likely explanation was that she was a servant in the house and, from the ages given, I would guess that Hannah was her mother. Who can tell why Ann would steal these things? The punishment seems excessive but many young women would have been transported for seven years for such a crime and in fact I am amazed that she wasn't for at this time there was a desperate shortage of women in Australia and most young women who were convicted of a crime, however small, were transported for that reason. Bridewell prison was a dreadful place and she would probably have been better off being transported anyway.

Another question is, how did Thomas Raymond(2) feel about having Ann Dumper convicted? Perhaps, because she was not given the severer sentence of transportation, some leniency was asked for.

A will of Thomas Raymond(2) has now been located. It was made on 5th April 1844 (which was the day he died) and proved on 31.01.1845. In it he left all his "freehold property money goods and effects" to be divided equally between his three (surviving) sons and his daughter (after debts and expenses are paid) - the freehold property having to be sold in order to share it out. So it would seem that he owned the shop and house on the corner of College Street.

Thomas Raymond(2) was the last of our Raymonds living in Winchester. His wife and most of his children had died and his son, Thomas(3) was living in London with his family. Thomas Raymond(2) died on 5th April 1844 and was buried from St Swithuns-upon-Kingsgate on 9th April 1844.