Search between and
BasketGBP GBP
0 items£0.00
Click here to change currency

Downam Surname Ancestry Results

Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'downam'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 9 records (displaying 1 to 9): 

Buy all
Get all 9 records to view, to save and print for £44.00

These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found.

Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site.

Yorkshire Testators and Legatees (1426-1466)
Wills and testaments from the diocese of York (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Hexhamshire, Lancashire north of the Ribble, and southwest Westmorland) registered at York. Richmond and Southwell archdeaconries had their own lower probate jurisdictions, so the wills registered at York are predominantly from the East and West Ridings and the eastern part of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In theory, wills dealt with real property and testaments with personal property, but the distinction hardly applies in practice: most of these wills are in Latin, but some are in English. Being before the Reformation, they commonly start with benefactions to churches, chantries, chapels, &c., and with provisions for the burning of candles ('lights') and saying of masses.

DOWNAM. Cost: £4.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Yorkshire Testators and Legatees
 (1426-1466)
Somerset testators and legatees (1501-1530)
Somerset was almost coextensive with the diocese of Bath and Wells, which exercised local probate jurisdiction through its consistory and archdeaconry courts: but superior to the diocese was the province of Canterbury. Somerset testators who also had property outside the county had their wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC). The Somerset Record Society embarked on a program of publishing genealogical abstracts of the registered copy wills of Somerset testators in the PCC archives, and in 1903 (volume xvi) printed abstracts edited by the Reverend F. W. Weaver from the PCC registers 1501-1503 (register Blamyr), 1504-1506 (Holgrave), 1506-1508 (Adeane), 1508-1511 (Bennett), 1511-1514 (Fetiplace), 1514-1517 (Holder), 1517-1520 (Ayloffe), 1520-1522 (Maynwaryng), 1523-1525 (Bodfelde), 1525-1528 (Porch) and 1529-1530 (Jankyn). In addition, the volume includes abstracts of 48 Somerset copy wills in the registers of the Archbishops of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace Library from 1363 to 1491. The heading of each abstract gives the year of making the will (not the year of probate) and the testator's name in bold. Below that is the quire number and name of the PCC register. Date and details of probate are given at the foot of each abstract. Spellings of surnames are preserved as they appear in the registered copy wills, and may vary within a single document.

DOWNAM. Cost: £4.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Somerset testators and legatees
 (1501-1530)
Tenants of Somerset chantries (1548)
Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and in 1548 the commissioners in Somerset produced this survey and rental. The individuals named are the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income: occasionally an incumbent is named. The survey was edited by Emanuel Green for the Somerset Record Society, and published in 1888.

DOWNAM. Cost: £4.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Tenants of Somerset chantries
 (1548)
Militia in South Petherton hundred, Somerset (1569)
A muster of the ablemen, gunners, light horsemen, pikemen, archers and billmen available from this hundred, compiled by sir Hugh Paulet, sir Maurice Barkeley, sir Ralph Hopton and John Horner in answer to a royal commission of the 11th year of queen Elizabeth. The returns are arranged by tithing. The hundred consisted of the parishes of Barrington, Chaffcombe, Chillington, Cricket St Thomas, Cudworth, Dinnington, Dowlish Wake, Knowle St Giles, Lopen, Seavington St Mary, Seavington St Michael, Shepton Beauchamp, South Petherton and Whitestaunton, northwest of Chard. (The sample shown is from the return for the borough of Axbridge)

DOWNAM. Cost: £6.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Militia in South Petherton hundred, Somerset
 (1569)
Householders of Woodbury, Devon (1591)
The Woodbury Church Ledger or Malt Book contained assessments of householders in the parish, arranged district by district, for the levy of the malt rate. This is the return for 28 June 1591.

DOWNAM. Cost: £6.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Householders of Woodbury, Devon
 (1591)
Official Papers (1603-1610)
The State Papers Domestic cover all manner of business relating to England, Scotland, Ireland and the colonies, conducted in the office of the Secretary of State as well as other miscellaneous records.

DOWNAM. Cost: £4.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Official Papers
 (1603-1610)
Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills: Ballesore: Strays (1658)
William Brigg compiled abstracts of all the wills in Register "Wootton" of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. The abstracts of those proved in 1658 were published by him in 1894. The court's main jurisdiction was central and southern England and Wales, as well as over sailors &c dying abroad. We have re-indexed the whole volume, county by county, for both testators and strays (legatees, witnesses and other persons mentioned in the abstracts).

DOWNAM. Cost: £4.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills: Ballesore: Strays
 (1658)
Tradesmen of Chester (1392-1805)
Lists of admissions of freemen of the city of Chester from the earliest surviving records to 1805 were compiled by J. H. E. Bennett and published by the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society from 1906. These lists were extracted from the mayoral yearbooks (dating back to 1392) and twelve freemen's rolls covering 1538 to 1612 and 1636 to 1805; and a list of admissions for 1505-1506 in Harleian MS 2105 (British Library). The record does not become more or less continuous until about 1490: in all, 12,426 freedoms are recorded. Freedom of the city, necessary to practise a trade in the city, could be obtained by birth (in which case the father's name and occupation are usually given); by apprenticeship to a freeman (the master's name and occupation being given); or by order of assembly. Both the freemen and the masters listed are indexed here. The main abbreviations used are: B, freedom taken up by right of birth; I, freedom taken up by right of indenture; M. B., Mayor's Book; *, freedom granted by order of assembly.

DOWNAM. Cost: £4.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Tradesmen of Chester
 (1392-1805)
National ArchivesSailors and marines awarded the Baltic Medal (1854-1857)
During the Crimean War, a British and French fleet entered the Baltic, and captured Bomarsund harbour and one of the Aland Islands (now part of Finland). Bomarsund is the sound between the islands and the Swedish island of Vardo; and at the fine harbour on Bomarsund, dominating the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, and indirectly that of the Gulf of Finland, the Russians had constructed a northern naval base, and this was destroyed in the attack. The British fleet taking part in the Baltic expedition comprised Her Majesty's ships Aeolus, Ajax, Alban, Algiers, Amphion, Archer, Arrogant, Basilisk, Belleisle, Blenheim, Boscawen, Bulldog, Caesar, Calcutta, Centaur, Colossus, Conflict, Cornwallis, Cossack, Cressy, Cruizer, Cuckoo, Cumberland, Dauntless, Desperate, Dragon, Driver, Duke of Wellington, Edinburgh, Esk, Euryalus, Exmouth, Falcon, Firefly, Geyser, Gladiator, Gorgon, Hannibal, Harrier, Hastings, Hawke, Hecla, Hogue, Imperieuse, James Watt, Leopard, Lightning, Locust, Magicienne, Majestic, Merlin, Miranda, Monarch, Neptune, Nile, Odin, Orion, Otter, Pembroke, Penelope, Pigmy, Porcupine, Prince Regent, Princess Royal, Pylades, Resistance, Retribution, Rhadamanthus, Rosamond, Royal George, Royal William, Russell, St George, St Jean D'Acre, St Vincent, Sphinx, Stromboli, Tartar, Termagant, Tribune, Tyne, Valorous, Volage, Volcano, Vulture, Wrangler and Zephyr. This is the medal roll of the naval and marine claimants who qualified for the Baltic Medal for service in 1854 to 1855. The medals were dispatched in batches from early 1857, the first batch being numbered B A 1, the next B A 2, &c.; then follows the destination (a place or, more usually, a ship) and the date of dispatch. Most of the medals had been sent by the end of 1857.

DOWNAM. Cost: £8.00. Add to basket

Sample scan, click to enlarge
Sailors and marines awarded the Baltic Medal 
 (1854-1857)

Research your ancestry, family history, genealogy and one-name study by direct access to original records and archives indexed by surname.