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The KEATS Family

The earliest ancestor of our Keats family found, so far, is EDWARD KEATS /KATES  (The name differs on various records. It may be that the name was originally Kates, and members of the family  used both, On the 1841 Census it shows that he was not born in Middlesex, where he was then living; on the 1861 Census he gives Reading, Berkshire as his place of birth. His date of birth varies in the records; 1801 in 1841. 1806 in 1861, and possibly 1800 in 1870. No birth or baptism record has been found for Edward so we do not know who his parents were, but it was in Hurst, Berkshire that he (under KATES) married ELIZABETH MILAM on 10th August 1822. Both he and Elizabeth were shown as being of the parish of Hurst, but does not mean he was born there. A family tree on Ancestry [the McNally family] asserts that Edward was 26 at the time of his marriage, giving a further birth year of 1796. His profession was Musician. Edward and Elizabeth went to live in St. Pancras, Middlesex. Their first ch
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The HEARD Family

As we have seen, Catherine Gillam married WILLIAM HEARD 15th November 1756 at Countesthorpe. The Heard family had lived in the village since WILLIAM HEARD married ELIZABETH ASEN [ASTON] on 22nd July 1680.  I believe that William was a younger son of JOHN and JONE HURD of Beaumont Leys. John was a Yeoman, he left sizeable bequests to his children, who were all under 20 when he died in1671. William Heard named his first daughter Jone in 1685, she could have been named after his mother. A descendant of John and Jone, Jane Heard married a Tilley at Leicester in 1710, and William's son John married a Susannah Tilley of Wigston. There are 2 listed Heard family tombs in Anstey churchyard, they would be the Beaumont Leys branch; John Hurd of Thurcaston, a yeoman, took out a mortgage on land purchased from the Coltman family at Wigston in 1737. This is in Congregational Records; the Beaumont Leys church records are scrappy and some of them seem to have been Non-Conformist. William was a l
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The GILLAM Pioneers

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This is an addition to the Gillam family story. I've added it because I found these two mens' stories fascinating. Thomas Meadows Gillam was born in 1804 and baptised at Shearsby, Leicestershire in 1804. His brother was William and he was born in 1805. They were the first 2 sons of Thomas Gillam (1747-1828) and his wife, Elizabeth Robinson. Thomas senior was the nephew of Catherine Gillam who married William Heard, and so the two boys were her great-nephews.                                                                                 William Gillam and His Family William was the first to leave and it was said that 'he took to the sea as his profession'.                                                                  William Gillam, born 1805 William traded from Sydney and Newcastle in NSW. Later he moved to India; in 1841, the Bengal Directory records that the "Braemar" arrived at Calcutta from Bombay, with Captain Gillam and Mrs. Gillam.  In 18
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The GILLAM Family

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We turn now to the Gillam family of Leicester and Countesthorpe, a family two Brewin girls married into. The first intimation of this family is a tantalising entry in the 1327 Lay Subsidy of Wykingeston which lists an individual called Richard Gylemyn.  It sounds as if it could be Gilman, but i can find no reference to a Gilman family living at Wigston, so was this a very early Gillam in Leicestershire? The first possible Gillam ancestor to our family was JOHN GILLAM. All we know of him is from a Marriage Settlement. He was a Freeman of Leicester in 1500, so saw the transition from the Plantagenets to the first Tudor, Henry VII.  He had 2 sons, THOMAS and Robert, they being born around 1515/1520. Robert married Amy Ward, a member of a notable local family, and founded a parallel line to ours; he died in 1562, leaving a Will. THOMAS married ELIZABETH FRANCIS  of Ticknall, Derbyshire, She was an heiress and would have brought Thomas sizeable wealth at their marriage. [ the Francis fam
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The BREWIN Family

'Sir Anthony Richard Wagner, Garter Principal King of Arms, wrote that "a Yeoman would not normally have less than 100 acres" (40 hectares) "and in social status is one step down from the Landed Gentry, but above, say, a husbandman. " ' Sources seem to agree that the Brewins originated in Leicestershire, or at least their family seat was there. One-Name Studies secretary, Richard Brewin related that: "Centuries earlier they had flourished in their beloved Leicestershire and in London, claiming descent from the ancient Counts of Lusignan with their Crusader and older traditions. Fletcher's Leicestershire Pedigrees  and Royal Descents' refers to an old verbal claim of descent from Sir Guy de Bruyn, a Norman Knight. Certainly a number ofthe Plantagenet descendents married into the Brewins. The Brewins of Leicestershire included Robert, early 19th.Century radical Mayor of Leicester about 1838 and prosperous worsted spinner (Corporation of Leicester
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The Pawley Family

Our family name is Keats. But many centuries must pass before their story can be told; leading up to, and branching off from them is a very interesting lineage which, though the names change, is nevertheless our direct ancestry. we share our blood and DNA with all of them; each has contributed their genes to make us who we are today. The PAWLEY Family ‘A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine, “From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord.” ‘ One theory of the origin of Pawley comes from W. G. Hoskins in-depth research of Wigston. Early references spell the town as Wykingstun and Vykingston. Hoskins found that this place was very heavily Scandinavianised, with many Viking personal names surviving as surnames.To begin this story we must go back to the 9th century. There was much turmoil then, as Danish raiders persistently ransacked our Islands; they were repelled, but returned time and again. in 884, King Alfred signed a Treaty with the Dane, Guthrum and the Danelaw
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