William Fermor Sir Knight [2909]

   FamilySearch ID: 2NB4-DJC.

  General Notes:

Clerk in Exchequer temp. Hen. VII; clerk of the crown and King's attorn ey KB Oct 1508-Oct 1542; j.p. Oxon. 1511-d., Oxford 1512-d.; commr. subsid y, Oxon. 1512, 1514, 1523, 1524, tenths of spiritualities Oxford and Oxo n. 1535, musters, Oxon. 1539, benevolence 1544/45, relief, Oxford and Oxo n. 1550, goods of churches and fraternities, Oxford 1553; other commission s, Berks. and Oxon. 1513-d.; sheriff, Oxon. and Berks. 1533-4. 1543-4; ste ward, manor of Islip, Oxon. Mar 1540-?d.; custos rot. Oxon. 1547.

William Fermor's father died in 1485, leaving him 200 marks and lands in W itney, and his mother died in 1501, leaving him £100 and further lan ds in Witney. He was living at Witney in 1501 but it may have been soon af terwards that he moved to Somerton in north Oxfordshire, where he made h is home and built a new manor house. In Feb 1504 he paid £287 to William A ston for the reversion to a moiety of Somerton manor which came into his p ossession when Aston died two years later. Sheep-farming was probably Ferm or's main source of income from his estates; an account of the 1530s sho ws him to have been one of the county's largest exporters. He was, at diff erent times, accused of converting arable land to pasture for enclosure bo th at Hardwick and at Somerton.

Even before the reign of Henry VIII, however, Fermor's main occupation w as not farming but the law. He was probably a member of the Inner Templ e, where a William Fermor with another barrister secured the free admissi on to the inn of one Guy Wade in 1537. (The ‘Fermor the younger’ who was m aster of the revels in 1533 may have been one of Fermor's nephews.) In O ct 1508 Fermor was appointed clerk of the crown and King's attorney in t he court of King's bench for life. He had been one of the two clerks ad fo llia et contratallios in the receipt of the Exchequer, as deputy to the 1 st Lord Daubeney, but resigned this office before Jan 1509, presumably wh en he took up his appointment in the King's bench. Apart from the annual f ee of £10 and, no doubt, gratuities from litigants before the court, his o ffice brought him a number of rewards: the second moiety of Somerton man or in 1512, £100 in May 1531, probably for his work in the preparati on of a pardon for Cardinal Wolsey, and an annuity of £20 for himself a nd his wife in 1539. He was involved in several lawsuits apparently arisi ng out of his work. One Star Chamber case, following the violent reacti on to his serving a writ of subpoena in Hertfordshire, Essex, suggests th at it may have been he who was pardoned in May 1528 for accidentally killi ng a man with a knife in Kent: it could, however, have been a namesake, la ter sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, whom the records of Lincoln's Inn sh ow to have been a man of violent disposition.

Fermor served regularly on commissions of all kinds for the city and the c ounty of Oxford from 1512 onwards. He was first on the sheriff roll for Ox fordshire and Berkshire in 1520, but he was not pricked until many years l ater. During the law terms he was in London, his house being in Mugwell St reet, St. Olave's, Farringdon; a porter burgled the house and stole a quan tity of plate and other effects, but obtained a pardon for this crime in A pr 1533. At about the same time he and his brother Richard were involv ed in litigation with Richard Verney over the manor of Easton Neston, Nort hamptonshire. The case evidently ended in victory for the Fermors, and Ric hard and his descendants made Easton Neston their principal seat, having p resumably acquired it by gift or purchase from William, who did not o wn it when he died. He was one of the government's trusted agents in Oxfor dshire, reporting to Cromwell in 1537 and again in 1540 about alleged sedi tious speeches by a priest and a wool-winder respectively. In 1536 he w as summoned to raise 30 men for service against the northern rebels, a nd in Jun 1537 Cromwell commissioned him to inquire into allegations of tr eason made against the abbots of Eynsham and Osney. Cromwell no doubt cons idered him a totally reliable servant of the crown, and secured his retu rn for Oxfordshire to the Parliament of 1539 accordingly.

During Fermor's service in Parliament his brother Richard suffered attaind er; although Fermor evidently supported the royal supremacy as a good cro wn servant should, he stood by his brother, being one of the two sureti es who in Aug were bound in £1,000 each for his appearance before the Pri vy Council. Fermor purchased considerable land during the 1540s, Godingt on manor in Feb 1541 and Nethercote Grange, Steeple Aston, in Mar 1542, bo th in Oxfordshire, being the largest parcels. He also bought for £304 t he manor of Walton in Walton and Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire, which h ad belonged to Richard Fermor and which Fermor clearly intended to resto re to his brother's family. Fermor resigned his appointment in the King 's bench in 1542, perhaps on account of age, and was succeeded by Thomas W hite; but he served his second term as sheriff in 1543-4, was appoint ed in the latter year to conduct ten men to France for the war, and contin ued to serve on all county commissions.

Fermor died on 29 Sep 1552, having made his will 18 days earlier. Apart fr om his wife, whom he made sole executrix and directed to ‘bear and pay a ll my funerals after a convenient degree and order and with no pomp or vai nglory’, the principal beneficiaries were his nephews John, Thomas and Jer ome Fermor . Among other bequests were: ‘to my old good lord the Marque ss of Winchester my cloth of arras of the pictures of the Trinity and S t. John Baptist for a remembrance of my good will towards him’ and a sover eign of 20s. ‘to my good masters and friends’ Sir John Baker and Sir Willi am Portman. A brass in Somerton church records Fermor's burial there and t hat of ‘his last wife’ Elizabeth Norreys.
http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/WilliamFermor.htm

William married Catherine Paulet [3378] [9MPS-DRN] [MRIN: 809], daughter of Sir John Paulet [3367] [LC5J-9W2] and Alice Paulet [3374] [L637-TWN]. (Catherine Paulet [3378] [9MPS-DRN] was born about 1488 in Basing, Hampshire, England and died on 26 May 1510.)

William next married Joan [2913] [MRIN: 810].

William next married Elizabeth Norreys [2908] [MRIN: 807], daughter of Sir William Norreys [2391] [KJDV-7GR] and Isabel Ingoldesthorpe Marquise of Montagu [2888] [LZPB-H5S], before 1539. (Elizabeth Norreys [2908] died after 1552.)