Quartermaine

• Our Quartermain descent
• Ann Quartermain (1746-1812)
• The Quartermains of Oxfordshire
• Quartermain parish register extracts

Our Quartermain descent

• Ann Quartermain, christened 30 November 1746, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, died 5 October 1812, Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire. Married William White, 28 January 1770, Brightwell Baldwin. Their son:
  • William White, christened 21 September 1783, Brightwell Baldwin, buried 21 December 1862, Brightwell Baldwin. Married Sarah Tillin, 25 July 1813, Brightwell Baldwin. Their daughter:
    • Elizabeth White, christened 14 Dec 1817, Brightwell Baldwin, buried 25 Sep 1888, Brightwell Baldwin. Married Henry Woodwards, 28 January 1834, Brightwell Baldwin. Their daughter:
      • Sarah Woodwards, born 1 December 1839, Brightwell Baldwin, died 21 May 1909, Chalgrove. Married Edwin Belson, 20 December 1856, Brightwell Baldwin. Their son:
        • Edwin Belson, born 6 Jan 1858, Brightwell Baldwin, married Elizabeth Dennis, 21 Oct 1876, Britwell Salome, Oxfordshire. Their son:
          • Edwin Henry Belson, christened 26 Aug 1877, Britwell Salome. Married Ethel Maud (Seth) Green. Their daughter:
            • Peggy Belson. Married Gerard Perry. Their son:
              • Michael Perry. Married Megan Arnold. Their daughter:
                • Victoria Frances Perry.

Ann Quartermain, 1746-1812

It is almost certain that the Ann Quartermain who married William White in 1770 in Brightwell Baldwin is the same one that was born in nearby Chalgrove in 1746. Parish registers are the main source for researching your family history at this time and they often don't contain enough detail to be sure that you have the right person. However, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest that these are the same person. Firstly, there is no-one by he name of Ann Quartermain christened in Brightwell Baldwin at this time, so she must have been born elsewhere. Chalgrove is a short walk away. There is no marriage or burial for Ann Quartermain of Chalgrove in the Chalgrove parish registers, so she must have married or died elsewhere. There is another Ann Quartermain in the area who was living about the same time and who married George Jackson in Little Wittenham in 1765. Therefore there was the possibility that this Ann, and not ours was the one that was born in Chalgrove. However, this Ann died in Little Wittenham in 1813, at the age of 79 years, making her approximate date of birth 1834 and therefore unlikely to be the Chalgrove Ann. Additionally, there is an Ann Quarterman born in Abingdon in 1737, only 6 miles from Little Wittenham. Unfortunately, when 'our' Ann died, her age was not recorded so we don't have that information to help us.

So it is likely (but not proven) that Ann Quartermain was christened in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire on 30 November 1746, the youngest daughter of Thomas Quartermain and Mary (nee Lee). Thomas and Mary married in Chalgrove in 1735. Her origins are a mystery, but Thomas had been born in Chalgrove in 1711, the son of Abraham and Mary. This is where the research gets a bit tricky as there is a gap in the parish registers of Chalgrove between 1690 and 1702. Abraham is a common name amongst the Oxfordshire Quartermains and it is impossible to determine which of the several men of the name was our Abraham.

The Quartermains of Oxfordshire

The Quartermain family, with its various spellings, has been in Oxfordshire, and more specifically in Chalgrove, since the 12th century, when William Quatermains was granted 2 hides in the parish of Chalgrove by Gilbert Foliot. William's family had held land in North Weston and are thought to originally have been of Norman descent. According to William Fowler Carter, all descendants of the Quartermains alive today descend from this branch, the elder line of North Weston having died out. They appear occasionally in public records, such as the title deeds and manorial court records preserved in Magdalen College, Oxford. There are also many wills of family members, proved at Canterbury and Oxford and there are dozens of entries for the family in the Chalgrove parish registers, which I have extracted below.

Quartermain parish register extracts