Place:Breamore, Hampshire, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Breamore (pronounced "bremmer") is a village and civil parish in the New Forest District of Hampshire. The parish includes a notable Elizabethan country house, Breamore House, built with an E-shaped ground plan. The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary has an Anglo-Saxon Rood. It is an almost complete example of an Anglo-Saxon church. The building consists of a chancel and aisleless nave separated by square central tower.

The village of Breamore is mainly situated along the A338 road between Fordingbridge and Downton, but the Saxon church and Breamore House are about three-quarters of a mile west of the road. Within the parish is The Marsh (an important surviving manorial green) and the River Avon of Hampshire.

At an early date the manor of Breamore belonged to the Crown, and in 1086 was part of the royal manor of Rockbourne. At an early date, probably by grant of Henry I (1068-1135), Breamore passed to the Earls of Devon, lords of the Isle of Wight, who held it from the king in chief. In 1299, Edward I assigned it to his consort, Margaret of France, but in 1302 Breamore was delivered to Hugh de Courtenay. From that time it descended with the Earls of Devon until it was granted, in 1467, to Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy. In 1475, Breamore escheated to the king, who granted it for life in 1490 to Sir Hugh Conway and Elizabeth his wife. In 1512, it was granted to Catherine of York widow of William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon and her heirs. Her son Henry was created Marquess of Exeter in 1525, but was beheaded in 1538–9, when the manor again passed to the Crown.

The manor was granted in 1541 to the queen consort, Catherine Howard, and in 1544 to Catherine Parr, who, after the death of Henry VIII, married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, to whom Breamore was granted by Edward VI in 1547. On Seymour's execution in 1549 it again passed to the Crown and was granted in 1579 by Elizabeth I to Christopher Hatton. William Dodington purchased from him and died in 1600 leaving a son and heir Sir William. From this date Breamore followed the descent of South Charford until 1741, when Francis Lord Brooke sold it to Samuel Dixon, preliminary to its sale to Sir Edward Hulse.

Research Tips

• Victoria County History of Hampshire, volume 3, chapter on Breamore.
• GENUKI has a list of archive holders in Hampshire including the Hampshire Record Office, various museums in Portsmouth and Southhampton, the Isle of Wight Record Office and Archives.
• The Hampshire Online Parish Clerk project has a large collection of transcriptions from Parish Registers across Hampshire.
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 together with tables listing the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered, along with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The three-storey City Museum in Winchester covers the Iron Age and Roman periods, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian period.
• Volumes in The Victoria County History Series are available for Hampshire through British History Online. There are three volumes and the county is covered by parishes within the old divisions of "hundreds".

A collection of maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrating the English county of Hampshire over the period 1832-1932 (the last two are expandible):

• The Hundreds of Hampshire, a map from HMSO Boundary Commissioners, dated 1832
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts as of 1900, a map from the Ordnance Survey
• Hampshire showing parishes in their Rural Districts after the alterations of 1932, a map from the Ordnance Survey

• A group of maps of the post-1974 municipal districts or boroughs of Hampshire on Wikipedia Commons