One of the important benefits of Y-chromosome Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) analysis for the genealogist is that the technique identifies all the base substitutions or SNPs that have happened in the lineage of the man who has been tested. As discussed in earlier posts, by comparing NGS results for related men, and by using the estimated SNP mutation rate, we can calculate the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) or approximate date at which their most recent common ancestor would have been living. At present seven men with the I-Y33765 mutation have NGS results and the age estimates for phylogenetically important mutations within the clade are shown in Table 1.
One observation that can be made about the figures shown in Table 1 is the relatively late date we estimate at present for the expansion of both the English and Swedish arms of the I-Y33765 tree (for our latest tree see the post published 8 August 2021). The three lineages so far identified in England having a TMRCA based on Y33767 of 1508 while for the several Swedish lineages the TMRCA based on FT250135 is 1650. In this article, using English documentary sources, I will explore my idea that descendants from putative earlier branches may have been "pruned" by medieval plague events, in particular the Black Death.
The Black Death of the mid fourteenth century caused an unprecedented demographic trauma that halved the medieval population of Europe between 1348 and 1351. Subsequent recurrent plague episodes restricted population regeneration for hundreds of years. In England these "plague centuries" were those between the initial pandemic of 1348-9 and the mid seventeenth century when, for example, the "Great" plague afflicted London in 1665-6.
Contemporary accounts suggest that a characteristic of the initial fourteenth century spread was that the disease was "non-selective" killing all social classes, all ages and both sexes with equal ferocity. In Somerset the epidemiology during 1348-9 has been inferred from records for deaths of parish priests and the institution of a new priest at that locality.
As I have explained before, I-Y33765 in England seems to be localized among men with the last name Clement whose male ancestry is within the Chew Valley, North Somerset. The Cult of St Clement and the conversion of Viking Age Scandinavian kingdoms to Christianity may have some significance for the adoption of this saints name by a male line with Scandinavian roots or this may just be an interesting coincidence. Whatever the truth, the earliest recorded use of Clement as an hereditary surname in England occurs in Oxford in a charter dated 1153 by Agnes de Sibbeford, wife of Ralph Clement, which is witnessed by Hugo Clement and by William son of Richard Clement, who is later called Willelmus Clemens, with a brother Robertus Clemens (Reaney,1967). This charter is preserved in The Sandford Cartulary which was compiled in the second half of the 13th century, by order of Robert le Eascropp, Preceptor of the Sandford Templars in this period. It was transcribed by Agnes M Leys in 1938 for the Oxfordshire Record Society and she describes it in her introduction as ‘the only complete record of the estates of any house of the Templars in England’ (Leys, 1941).
Here again,this connection between the Clement surname and an enterprise managed by the Knights Templar would seem an interesting coincidence since the earliest recorded use of the Clement surname in north Somerset is in two deeds which each mention lands at "Temple" Cloud in Cameley parish. According to Faith (2009) "the Templars became lords of the vill of Cameley in 1201-2" and Mills (1991) suggests the affix "Temple" in the name Temple Cloud "probably refers to lands here held by the Knights Templars". One of these documents is an undated marriage settlement drawn-up circa 1274 by Everard le Franceis for "all lands which I have in la Cloude in the parish of Cameley", which is witnessed by "Clemente de Cloude" (SW Heritage Trust; DD/HI/A/48/4) and the second deed is a grant, with warranty, dated 13 February 1283, for a fardel of land in Cameley to John Roger "Atete[m]ple" witnessed by William Clement (SW Heritage Trust; DD/HI/A/47/8) . So, taken together, these two medieval deeds make it certain that the Clement hereditary surname was in use on the southern edge of Chew Valley in the second half of the thirteenth century.
The 1327 Lay Subsidy Roll for Somerset (Dickinson, 1889) allows us to estimate the distribution of the Clement name in the county in the decades prior to the Black Death (red symbols, Figure 1). At this time 60% of Clement name holders who were liable for taxation lived in Chew Valley, specifically in the contiguous parishes of Cameley and Hinton Blewett. The 1569 Certificate of Musters for Somerset (Green, 1904) gives a similar opportunity to estimate the distribution of the Clement name (green symbols, Figure 1) during the "plague centuries".
Figure 1: Clement locations in Somerset before, and after, the Black Death, 1348-9. Prior to the Norman Conquest it is my conjecture that the locus for I-Y33765 in England was the manor of Clutton (blue cross symbol) which was at that time held by Thorkel "the Dane". From 1274 until 1347 thirteen medieval deeds document the Clement family living 1km south of Clutton at Temple Cloud in Cameley parish. The 1327 Lay Subsidy Roll records 60% of the Clement taxpayers in Somerset (red circle symbols) living in Cameley. During the plague centuries documentary sources such as the 1569 Certificate of Musters record 80% of Clement militiamen (green circle symbols) living in parishes a few kilometers north and south of the parish of Cameley.
The two medieval deeds mentioned earlier are included in two deed bundles among the Papers of the Hippisley Family of Ston Easton (SW Heritage Trust; DD/HI/A/47 & DD/HI/A/48) which contain 95 documents relating to property in the parish of Cameley which were written between 1263 and 1398. Thirteen of these deeds, dated between 1274 and 1347, mention members of an extended Clement family who lived at Temple Cloud. The earliest reference, to Clemente de Cloude, is in the fourth earliest deed in this collection and implies the family were in the parish of Cameley from at least the mid thirteenth century. There are no Clement references after the 8th April 1347 although about twenty further documents cover the next fifty years with the last being dated 20 May1398. Perhaps significantly, 1347 is on the eve of the appearance of the Black Death in Bristol & north Somerset.
In the vicinity of Temple Cloud the plague outbreak seems to have been most severe in the winter 1348-9 (Bates-Harbin, 1917). For example the Manor Roll of Ston Easton records that 12 of the 16 tenants of the manor died in 1348 (Janes, 2003). It would seem the Temple Cloud Clement family either succumbed during 1348-9 or, in the immediate aftermath of the plague they were stimulated to move. Evidence for the severity of the contagion in the parish of Cameley is unfortunately lacking but there are circumstantial details that suggest mortality could have been high. For instance, in the adjoining parish of Hinton Blewett the incumbent priest died and was replaced in December 1348, but this replacement died too and was replaced after a few weeks in February 1349 (Bates-Harbin, 1917; Holmes, 1896). Also in February, the priest at High Littleton, who had been instituted in June 1348, died and was replaced (Bates-Harbin, 1917; Holmes, 1896). As both Cameley village and Temple Cloud are located midway between Hinton Blewett and High Littleton it would seem probable that some residents of these settlements would have died about the same time the neighbouring parishes were so afflicted.
On the other hand, in the 1433 Lay Subsidy, the total national tax yield, that had been fixed since the 1334 Lay Subsidy, was reduced by £4000. As a result each county was granted a remission of 10.4% of its tax quota, which was to be applied among ‘poor vills, cities and boroughs, desolate, wasted, destroyed, or very impoverished, or otherwise too heavily burdened with tax’ (Lee, 2002). While in 1433 High Littleton & Hallatrow were given the highest reduction (38.14%) of any parish in the Hundreds of Chewton, Chew & Keynsham, presumably indicating that those villages were still desolate and wasted by the effects of the Black Death, Temple Cloud, Hinton Blewett and Cameley received no reduction on their pre-plague assessment (of 1334), implying perhaps that their economies and population had not suffered as greatly or had recovered.
Figure 2: Historical population of England and I-Y33765 timeline in Chew Valley, Somerset (1000-2000).
So we can be sure that following the original wave of the Black Death in Somerset, and the repeated "ripples" of contagion during subsequent centuries, the size and distribution of the I-Y33765 Clement family in Chew Valley became significantly changed. In Part 2 I will discuss some genetic and historical evidence for their relocation and expansion.
References
Bates-Harbin, E.H.(1917) The “Black Death” in Somersetshire, 1348-9, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, V63 pp 89-112
Dickinson, F.H.(1889) Kirby’s quest for Somerset. Nomina Villarum for Somerset of 16th of Edward the 3rd. Exchequer Lay Subsidies 169/5, which is a tax roll for Somerset of the first year of Edward the 3rd. County rate of 1742. Hundreds and parishes etc. of Somerset as given in the census of 1841. Somerset Record Society, Vol 3. 360pp
Faith, J (2009), The Knights Templar in Somerset, The History Press, Stroud 115pp
Green, E. (1904) Certificate of musters in the county of Somerset, temp. Eliz., A.D. 1569. Extracted, and with notes, by Emanuel Green. Somerset Record Society, Vol 20,370pp.
Lee, J.S. (2002) Tracing regional and local changes in population and wealth during the later middle ages using taxation records:Cambridgeshire 1334-1563. Local Population Studies Vol 69, 32-50.
Leys, A.M (1941) The Sandford cartulary, Oxfordshire Record Society Vols 19 and 22
Well done John.
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