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Christopher DE HAVILLAND

Christopher DE HAVILLAND

Male 1519 - 1589  (69 years)

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  • Name Christopher DE HAVILLAND  [1
    Born 19 Jun 1519  Isle of Guernsey, Channel Islands, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    FamilySearch ID 9VG7-125 
    Buried 1589  Parish of St James, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Died 24 Jan 1589  Poole, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Person ID I594772768  Carney Wehofer 2024 Genealogy
    Last Modified 14 Apr 2024 

    Father Justice James DE HAVILLAND, of the Royal Court,   b. 1486, Bailiwick of Guernsey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1540, Lulwoth Castle, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 54 years) 
    Mother Colliche FOUASCHIN,   b. 1491, St Martins, Isle of Guernsey, Channel Islands, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1542, Isle of Alderney, Channel Islands, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 51 years) 
    Married 1511  Channel Islands Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Family ID F536730158  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Cecilia MANN,   b. 16 Nov 1520, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 26 Aug 1586, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 65 years) 
    Married 16 Sep 1544  Church St James, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Children 
     1. James HAVILAND, Sr,   b. 20 Oct 1553, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1613, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 59 years)
     2. Nathaniel HAVILAND,   b. 1545, Poole, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Between 1546 and 1646  (Age 1 years)
     3. Thomas DE HAVILAND,   b. 1546,   d. 5 Oct 1547, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 1 years)
     4. Richard DE HAVILAND,   b. 1548, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1550, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 2 years)
     5. Margaret HAVILAND,   b. 1549, Dorset, England. Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
     6. Matthew HAVILAND,   b. 15 Jun 1550, Poole, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 11 Mar 1619, Somerset, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay, British Colonial America Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 68 years)
     7. John DE HAVILAND,   b. Oct 1551,   d. 6 Oct 1557  (Age ~ 5 years)
     8. Eleanor De HAVILAND,   b. 1560, Dorset, England. Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1639, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 79 years)
     9. William DE HAVILAND,   b. 3 May 1563, Poole, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Oct 1571  (Age 8 years)
     10. Cyssely De HAVILAND,   b. 7 Feb 1564, Poole, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Between 1565 and 1658  (Age 0 years)
     11. Nathaniel HAVYLLAND,   c. 25 Apr 1566, Poole, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
    Last Modified 14 Apr 2024 
    Family ID F536730155  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • First mention of Christopher in the port records for Poole in early 1542 (1541/2) when he is listed as the owner of some cloth and lead on the 'Mawdleyn' of Poole.
      1544: Married Cecily Manne 16 September 1544 at Poole (Poole Parish Register); assessed on ?15 of goods for the subsidy this year (Dorset Tudor Subsidies 1523-93).
      1547: Christoper was assessed at ?15 of goods for lay subsidy.
      1550: Christopher was assessed at ?10 in goods for lay subsidy.
      1553-8: Christopher was mentioned as a juror on a manor roll for Canford Manor, dating from reign of Queen Mary I.
      1553: Christopher was appointed Bailiff of Poole. This means he became an administrator for judges at sessions of the royal court, acted as an executor of writs, assembled juries, collected fines, and otherwise represented the Queen's business in the city.
      CULTURAL CONTEXT: 1553-8: Christopher's appointment to Bailiff of Poole (a position not to be confused with the Bailiff of the isle of Guernsey) might have coincided with the death of King Edward VI on 6 July 1553 and the accession of Queen Mary I, an important piece of context given that Mary I was strictly Catholic and persecuted Protestants. The political climate of this period was marked by a rise of religious intolerance in France and England between the Catholic Church and the reformed Protestants. While the de Havillands might have begun with the Catholic church (having been long associated with the church of St. James in Poole), it is possible that Christopher was sympathetic to Protestants. His son Thomas is alleged to have been staunchly Protestant in the years following Mary's reign [5], and Christopher's apparent grandson William immigrated to the New World [10], probably to seek freedom from religious persecution like just about everyone else who arrived there. William and his descendants became Quakers there. [11] The so-called Heresy Acts had been revived during his period, and as a Bailiff and Juror Christopher might have found himself in the uncomfortable position of "judging" or administrating cases against Protestant reformers. Executions against Protestants commenced in this precise period, what history calls the Marian Persecutions. (See List of Protestant Martyrs of the English Reformation. Of note is an absence of martyrs from Poole.) Also note the burning of the three "Guernsey Martyrs" in 1556 at St. Peter Port, supported by then Bailiff of Guernsey, Hellier Gosselin. This might have had an emotional and political impact on the family, being that the de Havillands on Guernsey had been Jurats (a station that reports to the Bailiff on Guernsey) before, but apparently not during, the Marian Persecution period. It is not unreasonable to assume that the horrific Guernsey Martyrs episode incited a move of the de Havilland family toward Protestantism, which impacted not only Christopher's eventual fate in Poole but even the decision to remove the Nobiliary particle "de" from the surname of Christoper's and other English branches, including his descendants, in order to disassociate themselves from the Catholic-aligned French. Thus "de Havilland" became just "Haviland" in the years that followed, except for those branches on Guernsey. While we have no evidence to support these speculations, it's not possible to dismiss this cultural context as having an impact on the de Havillands, as well as their footprints (or absence thereof) in the official record, especially given their political and social stations.
      1558/9: Christopher was assessed at ?15 in goods for the lay subsidy.
      1559: On 24 February, Christopher was one of the men on of the jury for the Court of Admiralty at Poole.
      1563: Christopher paid 7s 4d for house and various pieces of land in Poole, the third highest amount in the town. (Chief rent, 28 April 1563).
      1568: Christopher was one of many men who signed to authorise certain members of the town council to spend money on behalf of the rest in obtaining the new charter for the town of Poole.
      1569: Elected Mayor of Poole for the first and only time. For mysterious reasons, he either did not take the office or did not hold it long, for the record indicates he was replaced that same year by his associate William Constantine (whom is also named as a Godfather for some of his children). There is another instance of two mayors serving in the same year in the list from 1490-1590, and in that case the new Mayor, or Mayor Elect, had died. (The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, John Hutchins, London, Bowyer & Nichols, 1774 ? also more recent editions.) However we should not assume that Christopher simply died in 1569. He may have returned to Guernsey for some period between 1569-1586. Or, records might have simply been lost.
      CULTURAL CONTEXT: As above indicated, there are signals in the record that members of the de Havilland family were converting to Protestantism, and Mary I was executing known Protestants during this time. Poole being a prominent port city, receiving ships from France, would have placed Christopher in a precarious situation in his years in office if he decided to support Protestants, or at least not persecute them. We have potential evidence that he stayed in line with traditional Catholic alignment (see 1586 below).
      1571: Lay subsidy list for Poole does not mention Christopher Haviland
      1574: The 1574 Poole 'Census' lists 1373 people who were living there at this time. Christopher Haviland and his family are not there. (Poole Census 1574)
      1578: Named in the Will of father-in-law John Mann of Poole, Dorsetshire, proved 1578 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. (It is possible for a Will to be written prior to the death of a named inheritor. However that is not likely here, given the wording of the Will and social class of the family, and we must cite this as evidence that Christopher was probably still alive but possibly no longer located in Poole. He might have gone back to Guernsey, where Catholicism faded since the end of Mary I's reign. But we need supporting evidence of this.)
      1586: The following is from secondary source material only, and no primary evidence has been cited nor found to substantiate it. Per Josephine Frost, Christopher "was one of those who obtained the Municipal Charter of Queen Elizabeth in 1586, this being considered as the foundation of the Municipal Franchises of Poole. From its dissolution in 1550 until 1586, Christopher was a Trustee of the property of the Guild of St. George.



  • Sources 
    1. [S1160] FamilySearch Family Tree (http://www.familysearch.org), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ((http://www.familysearch.org)), accessed 14 Apr 2024), entry for James Haviland, person ID LHC8-TSD. (Reliability: 3).

    2. [S1160] FamilySearch Family Tree (http://www.familysearch.org), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ((http://www.familysearch.org)), accessed 14 Apr 2024), entry for James de Havilland, person ID L1QZ-LS4. (Reliability: 3).

    3. [S1160] FamilySearch Family Tree (http://www.familysearch.org), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ((http://www.familysearch.org)), accessed 14 Apr 2024), entry for Christopher de Havilland, person ID 9VG7-125. (Reliability: 3).