Laurence Fretwell was a history researcher in England. I estimated his age at about 78, plus or minus 1 year (in 2004). He has since passed on. He did extensive genealogical research on the Fretwell line. He also did research on the Frechevill line. He published a book, titled, "The Fretwell Pedigree: Volume I" when he was about 20 years old. I wrote to him trying to get several copies of his book, and we established an interesting correspondence. It deals exclusively with the Fretwell line of old England. I think some of you will find it interesting, particularly because Laurence maintains that all Fretwells descend from this line. We, of course, cannot find our "missing links" back to England, but it is interesting, nonetheless, to investigate the old England line of Fretwells from the perspective that they probably are our ancestors.
Marvin O. Fretwell 29330 SE Hillyard Drive, F-6 Boring, OR 97009-8502 U.S.A. April 20, 2004
Mr. Laurence Fretwell 59 Bermuda Village Nuneaton Warwickshire, England CV 10 7PW Dear Mr. Fretwell,
Some time back you replied to a letter from James Hosford Fretwell and his inquiry about the Fretwell lineage in America. I visited James recently and read your letter and had a chance to see your book, titled, "The Fretwell Pedigree: Volume 1." I found it most interesting, and a wealth of helpful information.
I would like very much to own a copy of your book. If you can tell me the price, and the cost of postage, I will mail you a certified check by return mail for both. I am most anxious to own a copy for myself.
I am particularly interested in the genealogy on page 72 of your book (MS 542 from "Familiae Minorum Gentium"). We think the Richard Fretwell (your #89) and his wife, Alice Beard, are in our family ancestry. A genealogist in Idaho claims to have found record of a son of this couple, named Thomas (b. 1654 in Fenningley, Wooley, Yorkshire, England; d. 1707). I have not been able to confirm this claim. Obviously, if I can then we can extend our ancestry back to England. If you have any record that would show such a son named Thomas (and his descendants), I'd be greatly interested.
Your book shows Robert Fretwell of Hooton Levet (#38) as father of John Fretwell of Nether Milne (#87). Can you tell me what publication or document you used to make this connection?
My wife's father was pure Norwegian, and immigrated to the United States at age 23. He came from a small town called Titland, Norway. His last name was, of course, Titland, as was the last name of everyone else in the town. His father, also surnamed Titland, married his mother, surnamed Titland as well, but they were not blood relations. I have often wondered if the same surnaming practice occurred in England, where everyone living in a town took the same surname? Or were English surnames (such as "de Fretewell") at first reserved just for the gentry? Forgive my ignorance of these things, but we Americans are terribly ignorant of many things well understood in Great Britain.
My wife and I really would like to visit England, and see the village of Fritwell, and spend some time researching our family name. I expect it will be another 4-5 years before such a trip is possible, however.
I hope this letter finds you well.
Sincerely, Marvin O. Fretwell
Marvin O. Fretwell 29330 SE Hillyard Drive, F-6 Boring, OR 97009-8502 mofretwell@juno.com 503-310-3992 June 7, 2004
Dear Laurence,
Thank you so much for your response to my earlier letter. I really appreciated your explanation of the early use of our Fretwell surname. I am so glad to hear that you are putting your book into computer form. I am most definitely interested in obtaining copies when they are available. Here is my email address ( mofretwell@juno.com ) so you can notify me when they are available, and how much they cost. I'll make sure the several other genealogists here are aware of your CD as soon as I hear from you.
As I had suspected from your letter to Stretch, you confirmed in your letter to me that you have much data that did not make it into your book. I don't think it presumptive to presume that you do not intend to write a second book to disseminate this valuable information, since you say your research days are over. Have you considered having your young computer assistant scan all of your unused raw materials to make them available to other researchers? Certainly what you have accumulated can be reacquired by other researchers, but at such a huge time commitment, especially for researchers in America. I can just imagine traveling to Great Britain and pouring over the archives for weeks to reassemble what you have already searched out. I'd love to visit England, but I'd much rather build on what you have than to repeat your research.
I guess what I'm trying to say, rather awkwardly, is that is a terrible shame for your research data to not be disseminated. Even in their raw form, your unpublished records are valuable to researchers of the Fretwell lineage. I certainly would be willing to pay for a CD of your scanned records, and I am certain you'd find a ready market to others as well.
What I am expressing is just my "lusting" thoughts (very strong desire), to have access to your unpublished data which would otherwise be so difficult for me to acquire. You, of course, must decide for yourself whether you want to put the effort into releasing your research data in raw format on a CD or otherwise. I just wanted to let you know that there is definite interest on this side of the pond.
I showed your genealogy of the Fretwells to a branch of the Fretwells who settled in Jerome, Idaho. These (Jerome) Fretwells have well documented ancestry back to Richard Fretwell (number 88 in your book). They were thrilled beyond words to be able to use your research to take their ancestry back another 400 years.
I wish you well, and look forward to hearing from you by email.
From: "LaurenceFretwell" laurence@fretwell999.fsworld.co.uk To: mofretwell@juno.com Subject: fretwells Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 22:57:27 +0100
Marvin,
Thanks for your letter of the 7th June. I hope to have news soon concerning the genealogy volume. In the meantime perhaps I can comment on some of the points you mentioned. I agree about coming to this country to do research in a limited time. The trouble with doing this is that with the name Fretwell there are a number of drawbacks to such an endeavour. For instance, in the book The Antiquities of Warwickshire, we find for the village of Mudgrave in the year 1197 "Anker Frettwel married Juliet Mudgrave who brought to him the manor of Crich".
Again, in the Victorian History of the County of York, for the village of Nuthill, The Fretwells had succeeded to their share by 1515". The trouble is, none of these Fretwells were actual Fretwells at all, they were Frechevills.
The Frechevills were a Derbyshire family who were always known as Frechevills in that county. But every time they ventured outside of Derbyshire they were usually recorded as being Fretwells.
The only explanation I can think of for this is that the name Frechevill was so alien to the English tongue for people to use, or it was always thought to be an alliteration of the name Fretwell.
When researching the genealogy of the Fretwells, I was forced to also research the name Frechevill in order to be able to separate which was which. But it did originally cause me a hell of a lot of wasted time in researching dead ends.
This is why some Fretwells have changed their name to Frechevill in the belief that Frechevill was the original name. Such confusion could quite easily delay any ones research, and if their time was limited could cause failure to achieve much.
If you know of any one thinking of doing this, the best advice is that they go to a decent library and go through all of the volumes of the 'Victorian History for the County of Oxford'. The early Fretwells feature in every single volume. They will also give much of the information that I omitted for lack of space.
Understand that another two such volumes have been published since I did my research into the genealogy. One of these picks up a point that I had missed. This is that in 1272, Roger de Fretwell (No 27) had given the farm holding (tenancy) to the Knights Templars. In the genealogy I merely mentioned an extract from Inqisitions, 56 Henry 111. which stated that Roger was receiving A39 rent from the Templars. I did not realize that Roger had actually given this holding.
Unfortunately, the V.H.C. Oxford gives no further details. Now the point is, families only gave such holdings to the Knights Templars when a member of that family was about to join the Order and become a Templar, either a young son or a young brother.
There is no roll or muster of Knights Templar for that period. There was, however, a very detailed record of the trials of Templars after they were declared heretics by the Inquisition in 1308.
The trial of the various Templars and the confessions they made whilst being tortured on the rack are well documented. But there is no one named De Fretwell among them. Even those who went into hiding and became outlaws are named, but again no Fretwell appears.
This means that who ever it was that became a Templar back in 1272 must have been dead by 1308. Perhaps he died in the numerous battles against the Saracens in Palestine.
Not that this is of importance to the genealogy, because on becoming a Knight Templar he would have taken the vows of chastity, poverty and humility, and therefore would have died without issue. Again, it was quite common for the youngest sons, who inherited nothing, to enter monastic orders. No records exist for all of those who did so. But the fact that they would have died without issue, means that it is no loss to a genealogy. But it does help to explain why so few family branches appeared at that time. This is not just something found in the Fretwell genealogy but is a common feature of most families in those early days. Note the Frechevill genealogy as an example. When the oldest brother inherited, the others, rather than live off that brother, would become mercenaries or enter the clergy or monastic orders. Thus, under Roman Catholic restraints, those who entered the clergy would have died with[out] issue.
Whilst the death rate did not help. I have studied history all of my life, but still could not tell you the average life expectancy for those days. I have heard it described as 23, 29 and even 50 years. I have come to regard all as guesswork. But, what ever it was, it was obviously nothing like that of more recent times.
Another point about my original omissions, was the number of battles in which the Knights of the Honour of St Valery took part. Every battle fought by the king of England, during that period, would have had his son, the Earl of Cornwall, fighting at his side, and of course it goes without saying, where the Earl was, so were his knights. But of course I took this as if it would have been known. The trouble was, which was I writing, a genealogy or a history? I therefore concentrated on the main events and decided to leave out those points of actual history.
By the way, thirty or so years ago, I was corresponding with another Marvin Fretwell. He was from West Virginia. I sent him a volume of the genealogy and an enormous amount of material. The last of heard of him was when he was thinking of retiring and moving to Florida. Unfortunately, prior to him contacting me, he had visited England where he purchased a plaque of the Fretwell Coat of Arms. But it turned out to be the wrong emblazonments. It was that of the fountain rather than the St. Valery Cornish choughs. He was quite upset by the purchase and regarded the incident as if he'd been swindled. Which is quite understandable, after all, he'd come over to England where he thought he could get reliable information and had purchased something that turned out to deny him his true heritage.
Laurence
From: Marvin O Fretwell To: laurence@fretwell999.... Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 12:22:11 -0400 Subject: The meaning of the surname Fretwell?
Laurence,
It occurred to me that you may have at your fingertips the answer to a mystery for your American relatives. We have much conjecture as to the meaning of our surname. We're well convinced (by you) that the origin of our surname comes from the little village of Fritwell, but have no idea what its meaning might be, if any.
I did a search of the book, "The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776", and collected all the surnames ending in -"well" for the British emigrants to America, as listed in this book. Here is the listing: Aldwell, Ashwell, Attwell, Atwell, Backwell, Bagwell, Bakewell, Banwell, Barkwell, Barnewell, Barnwell, Bedwell, Bickewell, Bickwell, Blackwell, Boswell, Bowell, Boxwell, Bozwell, Bradwell, Brangwell, Brewell, Brightwell, Brockwell, Bromwell, Brumwell, Budwell, Burtwell, Butwell, Bywell, Cadewell, Callwell, Cantwell, Chadwell, Chapwell, Chatwell, Cogswell, Cornwell, Cotswell, Cowell, Cranwell, Creswell, Cromwell, Croswell, Culverwell, Dapwell, Dewell, Dowdwell, Drabwell, Eriswell, Ewell, Fardwell, Farwell, Fowell, Foxwell, Fretwell, Friswell, Gladwell, Goldwell, Goswell, Gouldwell, Gradwell, Greenwell, Griswell, Hackwell, Hadwell, Haistwell, Halliwell, Hallowell, Hannewell, Harrwell, Hastwell, Hatchwell, Higwell, Hopewell, Howell, Irwell, Jewell, Karsewell, Kerswell, Kewell, Kidwell, Kingswell, Ludwell, Maidwell, Markhowell, Maxwell, McDowell, Medwell, Newell, Nowell, Orwell, Ottawell, Owell, Pepwell, Pladwell, Pleadwell, Pluckwell, Powell, Pyewell, Radwell, Rathwell, Rimwell, Rithwell, Rockwell, Rodwell, Rosewell, Rothwell, Rowell, Rowsewell, Rowswell, Saiewell, Satchwell, Savewell, Sawell, Saywell, Seawell, Sedwell, Sewell, Seywell, Shadwell, Shallwell, Sherwell, Showell, Sickwell, Stockwell, Sydwell, Thelwell, Timewell, Towell, Tredwell, Truckwell, Warrwell, Wiswell, and Wombwell.
Because "well" is such a popular suffix for British surnames, I strongly suspect it has some special meaning. But I have not a clue as to what it might be. Nearly everyone over here claims it means a water well. I cannot give good rebuttal to this conjecture, but I certainly doubt it.
I also did a search of the towns of origin for these British emigrants, and came up with this list of towns with the suffix "well": Backwell, Banwell, Belchwell, Britwell, Camberwell, Chickenwell, Clerkenwell, Cothelwell, Crickhowell, Crudwell, Dunkeswell, Eastwell, Elmswell, Ewell, Hanwell, Mewell, Nauntwell, Netteswell, Prittlewell, Roxwell, Shadwell, Stanwell, Stockwell, Wherwell, and Wortwell.
Also, three of the ships these folks came to America in were named Hopewell, Speedwell, and Odwell.
This widespread use of the same suffix makes me think it has some special meaning, and that special meaning is not a water well, but I am clueless as to what else it could be.
Further, we have no clue what the prefix, "Fret" might mean. I noted in your book a quote from Oxfordshire Place Names that Alexander (whomever he might be) speculates that Fretwell means wishing well. With the suffix so popular in surnames, I suspect that he is just guessing.
Anyway, as I was pondering this question once again today, it occurred to me that you might have gained some insights in the course of your research.
Marvin
(No answer to this email has been received to date.)
From: "LaurenceFretwell" To: mofretwell@.... Subject: Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 22:01:57
Sorry I have not been in touch, but I was taken on holiday at very short notice.
[Attached to this email was a picture of the Fretwell Coat of Arms, which can be viewed here .]
From: Marvin O Fretwell To: laurence@fretwell999..... Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 23:47:55 Subject: Re:
Thanks for the coat of arms. The full-color version is much nicer than the black and white version I had photocopied.
I hope your being "taken on a holiday at very short notice" was truly a surprise vacation. I was not sure you were not using this as a euphemism for a sudden illness. In either case, it is good to know you are back, and online again.
My wife and I just completed a 10-month counterclockwise tour of the United States and all the Atlantic Maritime Provinces of Canada. We drove 30,000 miles, and exhausted ourselves, and our budget, but we had a glorious time visiting all the early historic sites of the eastern seaboard. Our history is short but intense. And oh so interesting.
Anyway, we are back at our "home" location for 1 month, and I have had more time than usual to review my genealogy notes, and think about them, and about future areas of investigation. Hopefully I can work into next summer's travel plans a long visit to a major Genealogy Library.
I also need to get in touch with Virginia and "Bud" Fretwell--whom you know as Marvin--and meet them. My father has been in contact with them for many years. I have their email and mailing addresses, but have never corresponded with them myself. Dad was never able to find the linkage between their family line and ours. Knowing that you gave them some of your research materials is the impetus for me contacting them.
Please stay in touch, and don't forget to let me know when your student aide gets the CD made.
From: "LaurenceFretwell" To: mofretwell@.... Subject: jousting shield Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:25:19
I don't know if you have wondered why the Fretwell Coat of Arms, as it is displayed on the Forest Witchwood Charter, is a jousting shield? After all, Ralph De Fretwell, to whom the charter belonged, was far too old for jousting. Unless he did so during his younger days.
Some families displayed such a shield because one of their members had gained some kind of recognition in jousting tournaments. The Hastley family is a good example of this. In their case, John De Hastley was challenged, in the King's presence, to a fight to the death, by a French champion. This took place in Paris.
He took up the challenge and killed the Frenchman. One year later, another Frenchman came to England and made a plea to the King that he could challenge Hastley to a fight to the death. The King gave his permission and Hastley took up the challenge.
He killed the Frenchman, a man named Philip Boyle. As a result of this the Hastley family retained the jousting shield on its Coat of Arms. By the way, in the Pierpoint-Morgan Library, in New York, there is a 14th century, 4 panel, painting, in the form of an illustration of this last duel of Hastley's. It shows them fighting with lances, then with swords, then with axes and finally it shows Hastley killing Boyle with a dagger.
Now, there is no record of a Fretwell champion at jousting. However, there is indirect evidence that Stephan De Fretwell (No 24) did take part in jousting tournaments. But it is doubtful if these would have been fights to the death. They would have been sporting tournaments.
The indirect evidence for this comes from German history books. Unfortunately, the only place where I have found this evidence in an English Translation (enclosed in the attachment) is in a small children's history book called, 'Legends of the Rhine' by Wilhelm Ruland.
It tells the story of how Richard, Earl of Cornwall, met the girl he married. This was before he was elected Kaiser through his mother. Stephen was one of Earl Richard's knights. At that time the Earl and his English knights were going around the Continent and attending listings as if they were a professional jousting team. There are several accounts in German of this. As I have said, the enclosed account is the only one I could find in a translated form. Bearing in mind, that it is a children's book and therefore somewhat prosaic in a namby-pamby way.
This account mentions the Earl's jousting only. But other accounts mention his retinue of English knights winning respect. It was in such jousting tournaments that the Earl selected his new German knights by matching them against his well trained English ones. He already knew that, when elected Emperor, he would have to send his English knights back home to England.
Attachments can be viewed: here (1), and here (2), and here (3), and here (4), and here (5).
From: Marvin O Fretwell To: laurence@fretwell999.... Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 18:38:25 Subject: Re: jousting shield
I did not know that the shield cutout made it a jousting shield. What you wrote is very interesting. Clearly, I need to get a good English history book. I was aware that Earl Richard had become the German Emperor, but I never thought about him having to train German Knights as replacements for his English Knights. How obvious, once it is pointed out, but how hidden otherwise.
I have delayed responding to your email, while I tried to learn more about the Forest Witchwood Charter. I'm not near any decent library, so I "Googled" the Internet for "Forest Witchwood Charter" and came up with nothing. I did find one reference to Witchwood, however, as follows: "Hence Windrush, holding on his course, watereth Whitney an ancient towne, and before the Normans daies belonging to the Bishops of Winchester: to which adjoineth Coges, the chiefe place of the Barony of Arsic, the lords whereof, branched out of the family of the Earles of Oxford, are utterly extinguished many yeeres agoe. Neere unto this, the Forrest of Witchwood beareth a great breadth and in time past spred farre wider. For King Richard the Third disforested the great territory of Witchwood betweene Woodstocke and Brightstow, which Edward the Fourth made to be a forrest, as John Rosse of Warwick witnesseth." The reference I found, however, said nothing about the charter. Where do I learn more about the charter, and the Fretwell connection to this charter?
I also delayed replying as I was unable to open any of the picture attachments you sent. Their extensions were ".pspimage", which I shortened to ".psp", the extension for PrintShop Pro. I found a file converter which is supposed to open PrintShop Pro files, but it could not successfully open the files you sent me. I really don't know what is the problem. Perhaps you could resend them in ".bmp" format?
I take it the Fretwell Coat of Arms you sent is directly out of the Forest Witchwood Charter? Is it believed to be authentic, or an artist's reproduction?
From: "LaurenceFretwell" To: mofretwell@.... Subject: charter's arms Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 01:40:02
Sorry for the delay in answering your e-mail but your questions did necessitate a bit of searching through old papers and notes.
You asked about the coat of arms. The Charter on which it appears pertains to Ralph and his job in the Witchwood. By the way, this forest no longer exists. The Charter is incomplete but there is enough of it to show Ralph's coat of arms and his name and position. Ref :-- Cal Pat (Misc Buddle C5) 44 Ed 111.
The coat of arms also appears in monochrome and in heraldic code at Bampton Old Church, and in Vis Co Oxford 1575.
It is also beginning to turn up in quite a few places. (possibly because no one was looking for it before).
For instance, it appears in colour in the book 'Further Examples of Heraldry, by Wagner A.B.
It is also found in monochrome on the large (Poll Tax Accounts) wax seal of Ralph (No 31).
Incidentally, I'm sorry that the quote from the book I sent you was so namby-pamby in its prosaics, but it was designed for very young students and was the only example that I could find in the English language.
It was long after the Cologne tournament that the Earl became elected to the German throne. We know the exact date that he sent his English knights back to England. This was only a few weeks before his Rhine trip and his visit to Gutenfels where his betrothed Guda was waiting for him.
So we know that the story is true. However, other German history books are much more detailed. It should also be understood that the Earl and his knights, in those Dutch and German city tournaments, made such an impression because they were competing against jousting amateurs. most of the German knights were city burgers or young rakes living the life of city play-boys. They only took part in jousting contests very occasionally.
The German historian, Seibe, goes to great lengths to emphasis this in order to show that the English knights were superior to the Germans, it was just that they were getting so much more practice.
From: mofretwell@.... To: laurence@fretwell999.... Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 19:28:01 Subject: Genealogy.
Thank you for the references for the Fretwell Coat of Arms. I will seek them next time we are near a large library. (We are currently spending 1 month in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, which is quite backwards, but nonetheless appealing because it is very warm here this time of the year.)
I have never asked you before, which branch of the Fretwell's (in your book) do you belong to? My interest is partly just curiosity, partly wondering if you are of the same branch as me, and partly because of my recent interest in DNA testing.
I strongly suspect my line is through Richard (#89) Fretwell, but we are having trouble documenting part of our ancestry in Virginia. During the American Revolutionary War, many of our public records were burned when government buildings were put to the torch, especially in Virginia. Later, during our Civil War the same thing happened again. Thus we are left without solid documentation, and little likelihood of gaining it. Circumstantial evidence is strong, however, so we continue to posit our line through Richard.
One of the advantages of doing genealogy research today is that when written documentation is missing, but circumstantial evidence paints a fairly convincing picture, we can use DNA testing to firmly establish an ancestor. What is needed to establish a DNA link is to find a different but well documented branch lineage from the "circumstantial" ancestor to the present time. If, by DNA testing of a modern-day male descendant from that branch, it is shown that he has the same male chromosome characteristics as one of our branch's males, then our "circumstantial" ancestor becomes a "documented" ancestor. We would still have some "missing links" between us and this ancestor, but he becomes a certainty.
One doesn't want to try testing DNA willy nilly, however, because of the expense involved in the testing. It only takes a small swab of saliva to do the testing, but it is real easy to spend $1000.00 quite quickly. So, I obviously will not be doing any DNA tests until I am very certain of the other branch's lineage back to Richard Fretwell.
From: mofretwell@juno.com To: laurence@fretwell999.fsworld.co.uk Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:35:10 Subject: Stephen de Fretewell called an incompetent.
I just did a web search for Stephen de Fretwell, and came up with this URL: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/langdonJ.html
The author claims Stephen was an incompetent. In America those would be fighting words. He could have been highly competent as a Knight, and still be broke. Anyway, I thought you'd enjoy the article.
By the way, I found nothing when searching for Stephen de Fretewell, but got two hits when searching for Stephen de Fretwell.
Happy New Year.
From: "LaurenceFretwell" To: "Marvin O Fretwell" Subject: Re: Stephen de Fretewell called an incompetent. Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 04:09:32
Apparently, the auther has only read the Victorian History of Oxfordshire. This tell how Stephen when into litigation. But he was out of the country at the time. Thus this litigation went on for another three generations. It caused one of the two Stephens to be Excommunicated from the Church.
He was however reinstated.
From: mofretwell@.... To: laurence@fretwell999.... Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 17:52:08 Subject: Your book.
I was busy today reviewing all my notes about the Fretwells of England, and got to thinking about your book. Has your young helper found a way to put it on CD yet? If not, I'm wondering if you'd allow me to photocopy James Hosford ("Stretch") Fretwell's copy of your book, and pay you a royalty for its use? Further, if your young helper is not succeeding in finding a way do copy the book to CD, perhaps I could find a way for you? I would guess that it could be scanned into Adobe Acrobat .pdf files pretty quickly and easily.
It is just a thought, and I am not trying to push you into anything you don't want to do. But I'm willing to help if you need it.
From: "LaurenceFretwell" To: mofretwell@.... Subject: Stephen Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 23:52:07
I was very interested in Chris Dyer's book. The trouble with the early Fretwell records are that they fall into two categories. Royal Records and Civic Records.
Chris Dyer appears to have looked only at the Civic Records.
I do not know whether or not Stephen De Fretwell was incompetent. But Dyer seems to be blaming him for something he did not do.
Miles De Fretwell, Stephen's father, received the town of Woodeaton as a dowry through his wife. He and his wife then gave a large area of Fritwell to the [Anglican] church in order that they could build a monastery there.
The trouble was, the church did not build a monastery but instead rented it out to another family.
Stephen therefore took these lands back into his possession and was excommunicated for doing so.
Now the large Fretwell holdings at Woodeaton only appear in the more spares Civic Records because that were personal possessions of the family.
The family holdings of the town of Brizenorton were not personal possessions but were Knight's Fees (salary) and therefore appear in the more detailed Royal Records of the King's son (Duchy of Cornwall).
Unfortunately Chris Dyer has only studied the more spare Civic Records.
On the other matter of my book, give me a couple of weeks and I will let you know.
From: "LaurenceFretwell" To: mofretwell@.... Subject: Marvin Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005
I would appreciate you duplicating my book to supply others in America with a copy. I understand this has already been done, on a small scale in Canada.
With the dollar/pound exchange rate, at the moment, it would be beneficial for those in America to buy in America.
I do not, repeat NOT, want any royalties or profit from this.
If you need any help or clarification on any point, please let me know. By the way, at the time that I was researching my book. I only scratched the surface of the Royal Records. All I was interested in at that time was obtaining the name and status of each generation. There were some other leads that I did not pursue.
For instance, one generation gave enough land for one Knight's Fee to the monastic order of Knights Templars. Families only did this, as a rule, when one of their younger sons wanted to became a knight in that order.
I have not gone back to that research lead. But I have been through the records of the Templars of 1312 when all of the Templars were arrested by the Inquisition. I have to conclude that who ever that Fretwell Knight Templar was, he must have been dead by 1312.
Most of the Templars who over 50 years of age died under torture by Inquisition. The name Fretwell does not appear amongst these. Nor does it appear amongst those who survived the torture to be tried by the Inquisition.
So, who ever that particular Fretwell was, he must have died in the Holy Land or in England before their arrest by the Inquisition. Unless, of course, he was a Templar serving in Scotland. The Inquisition were not permitted to enter Scotland with the result that all of the Templars there simply became outlawed in English law.
Whilst the St Clair family, in Scotland, continued to secretly run the Templar92s Order. According to legend, they led a number of Templars in sailing the Atlantic (by was of the old Shetlandic [or Norse Greenland] route) in search of a new land. This, however, this is just a legend, unless you believe the St Clair website.
However, from a genealogical point of view, any Fretwell member of the order of fighting monks (Templars) would have been irrelevant because, like those younger members who became priests, monks, or friars, they would have lived a celibate life and would therefore have died without legitimate issue. Occasionally one comes across an exception where one became a Tax Collector, such has happened to Ralph after he ceased to serve the Honour of St Valery This job, however, was probably due to Royal patronage. We also know that Thomas received a position in the church due to such Royal patronage.
Incidentally, if I may change the subject, there was a Joseph Fretwell in California who, in 1996, was about to set up a web site called The Fretwell Honour of St Valery. But, two months later, I received a Christmas card from his wife saying that he had been killed in a road accident.
From: Marvin O Fretwell To: laurence@fretwell999.... Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 Subject: Book duplication.
Thank you for giving me permission to duplicate your book. Because you are not seeking any royalties or profits, I will do the same, and your book will be sold for actual cost of duplication and postage. I suspect you will start getting correspondence from delighted genealogists in America pretty soon.
Virginia indicated that you are now in contact with her by email. I'm glad you were able to reconnect with her and "Bud" (Marvin L.).
Interest in the Knights Templars has swelled here in America following the release of Dan Brown's novel, "The DiVinci Code". According to The Church, the novel is not highly factual, but that has never stopped a gripping novel from raising interest in a topic. The book has been very popular here. I had hoped to spend much of this winter enlightening myself more on the history of the Knights Templars, but we just bought a condominium in Mesa, Arizona, and that squelched my reading plans for this winter. Hopefully I will catch up on my planned reading this summer.
Your comment about a Joseph Fretwell in California planning to set up a website called The Fretwell Honour of St Valery really intrigues me. A lot of Fretwells from the same line as James Hosford Fretwell moved to California in the early 1900s, and settled in Monterey County. I don't have any record of a Joseph Fretwell from that line, but my records for his line are far from complete. It is too bad Joseph didn't get his website up and running before his tragic accident. It would be interesting to see what he was planning to publish.