Sunday 18th September 2011 - Great Manor 3 and the Jordans

Connections! Connections! Here we go again, as my search for Great Manor (see 8 June 2011 blog) and the Jordan family collide spectacularly.

MJ (Jordan researcher, see immediately below) said he "had a certain difficulty in understanding how William Jordan II sold the manor in 1604, yet was in possession of Chitterne Manor house at his death in 1623." Well, this set off a train of thought: what if William sold the manor, meaning the lands he owned in Chitterne, but kept the Manor House? This would mean that the house (pictured just after ther fire of 1852 above) became detached from the manor lands and remained in the Jordan family; and that the new owner of the manor lands would be lacking a house. What if the new owner then built himself a new manor house? This theory might explain the house on the sportsfield; the names "Little Manor" and "Great Manor" and partially explain the glut of large houses in Chitterne All Saints.

William Jordan II's son, William Jordan III, eventually sold the old Manor House in 1682 to John Giles, which presents us with yet another possible connection: Was John Giles related to the Giles family who presently own Glebe Farm, Chitterne?

While we're on the subject of connections, here's another one. William Jordan III married Jane Long, of the Long family of Wraxall, who later on were Lords of the Manor of Chitterne! Can't get away from them: Jane's mother was a Thynne of Longleat!

The Baptism Roll is finally finished with the addition of the two baptisms held on the 4th September and has been hung in the church. Otherwise I've been adding to my alphabetical lists of Chitterne People of the past with the enormous help of J & RR, who have been checking my notes and filling gaps. Now September is here and the query emails have started arriving as folk return to their history research after the summer hols.

I was completely taken aback with this one, because it refers to something I wrote in Chit-Chat back in 2008! But of course all the Chit-Chats are on the web and can be referred to by anyone, anytime, so I shouldn't really be surprised. Here is a copy of the picture that accompanied the little article to jog your memory; it comes from Heraldry and the Heralds by Rodney Dennys published by Jonathan Cape, London 1982, and it's a sketch of the coat of arms and crest awarded to Sir William Jordan of All Saints Manor Farm, in 1604. It was given to me by a neighbour, who had it from a friend interested in heraldry, with the story that the crest contained the only example of a football on a coat of arms until the Football Association were granted their arms in 1949 and that "it clearly shows how footballs were stitched together in the early 17th century."

The new query disputes that it is a football. MJ says that the chief herald confused a "mound" or regal orb with a football, which also explains the strange "stitching." He says: "Just imagine this happening to the coronation regalia!"

It all makes sense to me, who knows next to nothing about heraldry, that it is an orb on the crest rather than a football, although not so much fun. The next step is to put the new theory to the heraldry friend and see what he has to say about it.