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The surname Freemantle was first found in Yorkshire where they held a family seat as Lords of the Manor. After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, having prevailed over King Harold, granted most of Britain to his many victorious Barons. It was not uncommon to find a Baron, or a Bishop, with 60 or more Lordships scattered throughout the country. These he gave to his sons, nephews and other junior lines of his family and they became known as under-tenants. They adopted the Norman system of surnames which identified the under-tenant with his holdings so as to distinguish him from the senior stem of the family. After many rebellious wars between his Barons, Duke William, commissioned a census of all England to determine in 1086, settling once and for all, who held which land. He called the census the Domesday Book, 1 indicating that those holders registered would hold the land until the end of time. Hence, conjecturally, the surname is descended from the tenant of lands Reginald Freimantel who succeeded the Norman noble who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Freemantle research. Another 59 words (4 lines of text) covering the years 1300, 1360, 1396, 1765, 1766, 1798, 1800, 1819, 1850, 1869 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Freemantle History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Norman surnames are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. The frequent changes in surnames are largely due to the fact that the Old and Middle English languages lacked definite spelling rules. The introduction of Norman French to England, as well as the official court languages of Latin and French, also had pronounced influences on the spelling of surnames. Since medieval scribes and church officials recorded names as they sounded, rather than adhering to any specific spelling rules, it was common to find the same individual referred to with different spellings. The name has been spelled Freemantle, Fremantle, Freimantle, Fremantel and many more.
Outstanding amongst the family at this time was Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle (1765-1819), a highly successful naval officer in the Royal Navy, who was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and received several Austrian and Italian knighthoods; his eldest son Thomas Francis Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe (1798-1890), British...
Another 54 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Freemantle Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Many English families emigrated to North American colonies in order to escape the political chaos in Britain at this time. Unfortunately, many English families made the trip to the New World under extremely harsh conditions. Overcrowding on the ships caused the majority of the immigrants to arrive diseased, famished, and destitute from the long journey across the stormy Atlantic. Despite these hardships, many of the families prospered and went on to make invaluable contributions to the development of the cultures of the United States and Canada. Early North American immigration records have revealed a number of people bearing the name Freemantle or a variant listed above:
Some of the first settlers of this family name were: