Challacombe and Related Families

By Grant Challacombe

This is a book containing a diagram that shows the relationships between the Challacombes and related families in several generations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524511104

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Grant Challacombe.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016910125

ISBN:      Hardcover   978-1-5245-1109-8

                Softcover     978-1-5245-1111-1

                eBook           978-1-5245-1110-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 03/20/2017

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Contents

1.   Challacombe On Exmoor

2.   Origin and Development of Name

3.   Places with Similar Names

4.   Chalcombe, Chacombe, Chaucombe of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire

5.   Milton Manor

6.   West Challacombe Manor

7.   Records of Early Challacombes

8.   From Devon to Oklahoma

9.   Australia, Challacombe Station, and Oxford University

10.   Dr. Wesley Adams Challacombe

11.   Thomas Challacombe Son of George and Sarah Challacombe

12.   Pedigree Chart for Deanne Challacombe F. Grant Challacombe Thos. J. Challacombe, Jr.

13.   Pedigree Chart for Wayne Summers

14.   Pedigree Chart for Cynthia Curry

15.   Pedigree Chart for Kayla Meaders

Challacombe On Exmoor

Challacombe

The Name and the People

In the North Devon region of England, just within the western limits of Exmoor, there is a village. The village is located near the source of a stream which is flanked by three hills, forming a valley. The area has been populated since prehistoric times. Challacombe is the name of the village, and translated from earlier dialects into modern English, it means cold valley. Other places in England also bear the name, but this place seems most appropriate for the name.

Along with Halcombe, Brancombe, Salcombe, Whitcombe, and many other similar names, Challacombe came into modern English from the old English or Anglo-Saxon language. The Anglo-Saxons probably adopted these names from one or more of the Brythonic branches of Celtic languages, which includes: Welsh, Breton, and the now extinct Cornish language. Combe means valley in all of these related names, and particularly a bowl-shaped valley with three steep sides. It is derived from the old English word cumb which is pronounced as koom, and is spelled in various ways, including: combe, coombe, comb, coomb. The corollary portion of Challacombe comes from the Middle English word chele which is derived from an old English word cele meaning chilly or cold.

It is not known how long Challacombe and the other words that mean valley have been used in England. The Brytonic Celts settled in Britain around 300 BC. The Gaelic settled in Britain, as early as, 800 BC; neither had a strong central organization. They were a loose federation of tribes sharing related dialects, a distinctive material culture, and closely related religious ideas. A tribe called the Dumnonii settled in the Cornwall-Devon peninsula. It is in this area of present day England that the place-names from the group Challacombe belong to appear most frequently, although they are not entirely limited to this area.

The Roman period in Britain, 55 BC to AD 412 had little effect on the Celtic languages and customs as far west as Devon and Cornwall, however, the Anglo-Saxon impact extended throughout the country. The name of the country itself became England, and most place-names became Anglo-Saxon. The Celtic inhabitants of the Cornwall-Devon peninsula were pushed back by the Anglo-Saxons during the seventh and eight centuries, but it wasn’t until AD 838 over 400 years after the Anglo-Saxon invasion had begin that Cornwall was conquered. It is due to this relatively late conquest of the West Country that much in the way of Celtic languages and customs survived in this part of England.

William the Conqueror brought the custom of family names from Normandy to England, in AD 1065. After his successful conquest of the Anglo-Saxons, he allowed only Norman noblemen to own most of the land. Usually the Normans took their surnames from their estates, and it is tradition with many Challacombes that the name is among those listed in the Doomsday Book, a survey of land and property ownership which William had compiled in order to facilitate land distribution and tax collection. By the end of the thirteenth century, most people in England, down to the peasantry had begun to use surnames. The common people quite often took the name of the village or a distinguishing geographical feature. Quite often, the common people didn’t make the decision about what their surname would be. When a local priest wanted to differentiate between several people with the same given name on his parish roll, he would simply write the place where each individual came from beside their given name, thus giving them surnames. It is therefore entirely possible that some Challacombes descend from Norman nobility, while others are the progeny of common Englishmen.

In 1538, Thomas Cromwell, the Visor General to King Henry VIII, declared that all marriages, christenings and burials should be recorded on parish records. From the improved records of the sixteenth century, it is known that on June 17, 1566 John Challacombe married Charity Chapely in the village of Braunton, about twelve to fourteen miles north and west of the village of Challacombe. Both John and Charity were born in Braunton in the 1530s, and apparently after they were married they moved to Ilfracombe, a small village on the Bristol Channel about four or five miles north of Braunson. It was at Ilfracombe that their children John, Adam, and William were born. Many Challacombes living today trace their lineage to the union of John Challacombe and Charity Chapely.

Today, Challacombes live in Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia. According to a