The Millennium Year Story of the Dymotts

This seems unlikely since the name was in use in England in the sixteenth century, well before the major periods of Huguenot immigration in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The first record of the name I have come across was a Joan Dymott who died at Ringwood in Hampshire in 1561. (The family crest illustration, above, is copied from Brian Dymott's cigarette case, but there is no information as to the origins of the crest. See note at end of family history. William Dymott of Oxford recently (Sep 2001) forwarded a copy of his family crest taken from a canteen of cutlery, hallmarked 1880ish. Crest illustrated with entry for William Dymott, Gaoler)

Unfortunately, but probably unsurprisingly, I have not been able to find the definitive origin of the name. It could be an English derivation of the common French name de la Motte or de Motte, meaning of the mound or more specifically of the castle mound. But it could just as easily be of entirely English derivation. It could be a local Hampshire variation of the name Dymoke or Dimock, since some records use the spelling Dimock for people who elsewhere call themselves Dymot or Dymott.

The geographical origin of the family, or at least our branch of it, was easier to find than the meaning of the name. Traditionally, the earliest known member of our part of the family was a William Dymott who lived in Southampton at the beginning of the nineteenth century and who was a gaoler of the local gaol. He was the grandfather of the George Dymott who had nine sons and who was my own great great great grandfather. This may seem complicated but hopefully the family tree simplifies matters.

William Dymott seems to have been the first member of the family to forsake farming and move to the city. He was apprenticed to a tailor in Southampton in 1766 for £13, a reasonably large sum of money in those days. He apparently prospered and on Friday 25 Oct 1799 became the Sergeant at Mace, or mace bearer in the town, as well as a gaoler at Southampton Gaol.

A History of Southampton records – the tower or South Castle as a 'castelet welle ordinauncid to bete that quarter of the haven'. This was in 1546. No subsequent notes of interest have been found about it.

The old tower, known as God's House Tower, became the town gaol in 1755. It was ill adapted for the purpose, and the condition of the borough gaols became a subject of frequent complaint within a few years. The establishment at the South Castle embraced a gaol for felons and debtors and a bridewell, the gaoler in each case being one of the sergeants-at-mace, who by ancient custom received the prisons to eke out their salaries. A Bridewell was a prison for petty offenders, after St Bride's Well, London site of such a prison. The bridewell was over the gate, and had been settled here since 1707. The keeper's salary was £2 in addition to his payment of £15 as sergeant-at-mace. There was a surgeon, but no chaplain. Prisoners were allowed the usual sixpence a day, and a bushel of coals weekly among them all. The premises – subsequently they embraced Solent Cottage and Platform House – consisted in 1810 of three rooms, a dayroom about 15 feet square, and two bedrooms each 12 feet by 9 feet. There was also a room in the keeper's house for those who paid four shillings per week. The borough allowed a crib bedstead, straw-in-ticking bed, two blankets and a rug for each. There was no courtyard, nor any employment for the prisoners, nor a proper division between the sexes.

The debtors' prison was in the tower. The gaoler received no salary, but was paid by fees, these being: entrance, four shillings; discharge, two shillings of first action; ten shillings the second, and every other action; and two shillings to the turnkey. A surgeon was sent by the mayor when wanted. The allowance to paupers was sixpence a day, and a bushel of coals per week served for the whole prison. The wards consisted of two rooms, with glazed windows and fireplaces, 16 feet by 12 feet each, to which the Corporation allowed a bedstead with woollen mattress, two blankets and a rug. The room at the top of the tower was furnished by the keeper, for which he charged two shillings and sixpence per week. There was a small courtyard (46 feet by 36 feet) attached; it was well supplied with water, not paved, and ducks and fowls were kept in it.

The felons' gaol, in Winkle Street, was within the gallery, between the tower and the gatehouse. The gaoler, who at the beginning of this century was also a tailor, received a salary of £20, in addition to £15 as a sergeant, but he had no fees. There was no chaplain, nor was a divine service ever performed; there was, however, a surgeon. The allowances were sixpence a day each, and one fire for all, a bushel of coals being apportioned for the week. A narrow slip, 34 feet by 7 feet, immediately behind the front wall, was the courtyard; it was furnished with a stone sink and a pump, frequently without water, especially in summer. There were four small rooms for prisoners, each about 11 feet square, with iron grated and glazed windows and fireplaces. Each of these had a bedstead with straw-ticking bed, two blankets, and a rug; but there was no proper separation of men and women. The entrance to the prison was through a small square door inserted in the wall. Over the door was painted, 'Pray remember the poor prisoners box'. With the increase of population the evils of the old gaol were intensified. The Commissioners of 1835 reported its condition as very bad and it was finally abandoned upon the erection of a new and spacious gaol at Golden Grove in 1854-55, but this was closed under the operation of the Prisons Act, 1877

William died on the 30th January 1825, aged 72, and was buried in Holy Rood church, Southampton, which means he was born in 1753. Evidence as to where he was born and brought up is a little circumstantial as is usual in these cases, but a William Dymott who was a tailor in Southampton was the guarantor of his sister Betty's estate in 1797. Betty Dymott came from Kinson, or Kingston, which is now a nondescript suburb of Bournemouth but which was then a poor and thinly inhabited area of Dorset notorious for smuggling.

William Dymott probably left a depressed part of the countryside to make a living, if not his fortune, in the nearby City of Southampton. South East Dorset was not in those days a network of sprawling suburbs for holiday-makers and the retired, but an area of poor agricultural land with few inhabitants. Bournemouth was a nineteenth century creation built on the sandy soil and narrow little chines, or valleys, of South Dorset between Christchurch and Poole. Because of its position and relative isolation, Christchurch was a traditional centre for smuggling, and the coast west of the town was also used for landing contraband since the sparse local population meant that spirits and tobacco could be moved easily inland into the New Forest. Kinson church is much older than the surrounding town and the churchyard still contains a fake grave which was supposedly used by smugglers for storing contraband. Unfortunately as yet I have not been able to prove that any of my ancestors were smugglers. None of them seems to have been hanged for the offence nor is it the type of occupation mentioned in church registers. However, Kinson was very well known as a resort of smugglers, in particular a man named Gulliver, and it was a small place. It was not even a parish on its own, but part of Canford parish which covered an area of 25 square miles, showing just how few people lived in that part of Dorset in those days. Whether fortunately or unfortunately for the family, the real heyday of smuggling was towards the end of the eighteenth century, after William Dymott had left for Southampton.

The Dymotts are unlikely to have owned much, if any, property in Kinson. In the 1780 Land Tax assessment no Dymott is shown in the return for Kinson. In the statement sworn by her brother it is detailed what Betty left but it was said to be less than £100. Although other Dymotts living in the village were leaving their children sums up to £100, none of them seemed to have owned land. They were certainly not poor, since £100 in those days was a reasonable sum of money. However, it is a great pity none of them bought land locally, since it would have been worth very little in the second half of the eighteenth century, but considerably more at the end of the nineteenth century after the development of Bournemouth, and even more towards the end of the 20th century!

William Dymott was born in 1753 and as his sister was living in Kinson, it is reasonable to suppose he was born there. There is a slight problem however. There is a record in Kinson parish register of a William and Betty being born there in 1753 and 1758 respectively, but their name is shown as Dymock and their parents' names are shown as Thomas and Ann Dymock. However I feel that this William Dymock was in fact really a Dymott and was the William who moved to Southampton to become a tailor. Spelling was fairly vague in the eighteenth century and in Kinson registers up to 1772, all the names are spelt Dymock but after that date they become Dymott. A number of those written Dymock in the Kinson registers spelt their name Dymott elsewhere, for example in their Wills. Hence the spelling Dymock may have just been the preference of the local vicar or churchwarden rather than the family.

I feel the William Dymott who went to Southampton was born in 1753 and his father was Thomas, and his mother was Ann, and their name was Dymott, despite what was written in the parish register. Anne Nowell and Thomas "Dymock", both described as being of Kinson, were married on 2nd December 1752. As there is no record of any Dymotts or Dymocks in the area prior to this date, but there were Nowells. Thomas probably came to Kinson, his future wife's home, from elsewhere.

In the second half of the eighteenth century a number of families called Dymott lived in Kinson, but their relationships are not clear. In one family three generations were called Ambrose Dymott. Because the combination of names and its continued use from grandfather to grandson are very unusual, this family seems to be the same as one which was in Gorley, near Fordingbridge, early in the century. It could well be that after Thomas moved to Kinson, his cousins came along later. Although it is not possible to be certain, the Thomas who moved to Kinson could be the same as a Thomas Dymott who was born in Harbridge in 1730. Harbridge is only two miles from Gorley, and the two small villages are situated on the edge of the New Forest, just South of Fordingbridge, and close to the River Avon about 10 miles from Kinson. Kinson is on the North side of what is now Bournemouth. Then it was an isolated village on the small river Stour which joins the Avon just before it reaches the sea at Christchurch. The part of the Avon valley between Fordingbridge and Ringwood, in particular the villages of Fordingbridge itself, Harbridge, Ibsley and Ellingham, seems to have contained numerous Dymotts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and probably before, although the records prior to 1650 are limited.

As already mentioned there was a Joan Dymott living or at least dying in Ringwood in the middle of the sixteenth century. Although it is guesswork, it seems likely William Dymott was born at Kinson, and his father and ancestors came from Harbridge and the area south of Fordingbridge, where they lived in the seventeenth century and probably well before. But what the name means and where it came from remains a mystery.

Perhaps a member of the Dymoke family came to south west Hampshire in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, and the spelling of the name was changed by the local scribes. Certainly in the local dialect the last syllable of the name would not have been emphasized, so whether it was –ott or –ock would have been unimportant in speech. There was a Thomas Dymok who was mayor of Southampton at the end of the 15th century.

On the other hand the name could have been French brought over to England by an immigrant who came to Southampton, since the town had close links with France in the Middle ages. The 1881 British Census records a Norman Demet, Professor of Languages born 1831 in Paris, as a lodger of William Bowkett at 11 Darlington Street, Cheetham, Lancashire. Wherever the family originated, it left its rural farming origins when William Dymott was apprenticed to a Southampton tailor in 1766. He would have been 13 at the time, a normal age then for starting an apprenticeship.

William's son Thomas, presumably named after William's father, was also a tailor and born in Southampton in 1783. In a directory of the town of 1811, he is listed as living at the Felons Gaol, hopefully with his father the gaoler, rather than as an inmate. His father in the same directory is listed as being the sergeant at mace. In the town directory of 1853 Thomas is listed as a tailor and draper at 25 French Street, William DYMOTT is listed as an innkeeper, Northam, and William DYMOTT, senior, as a beer retailer, Northam, Southampton. In the Great Census of 1851, Thomas is listed as living at 25 French Street in Southampton with his wife, son, two daughters, brother and female servant. His wife was Mary Ann Truss who, according to family records, was the daughter of Geoffrey Johnson Truss and Mary Ross who were married at Holy Rood church, Southampton. Geoffrey Truss was also a gaoler at Southampton Gaol. The business seems to run in the family since his son George married Mary Ann Lang whose father was gaoler of Exeter Gaol. Being a gaoler was not a particularly savoury job, at least in London, where there were many accusations of corruption. Hopefully by the end of the eighteenth century the position had improved.

Family records list William as the Gaoler of Nelson's Gaol but do not make it clear if this is another name for Southampton Gaol. They also state Thomas had two brothers, one John who was unmarried and presumably the one listed living with him in the 1851 Census, and the other, James, is listed as a "Ne'er do Well" but unfortunately with no details. According to the IGI records there were two other brothers, William and Joseph, and also a sister, Mary. The same records show that James married a Sara Frith at West Tytherley on the 8th September 1817, and that they had two children, Nancy and Jabez. Most of William's children were christened at Southampton above Bar church. Thomas had three sons and four daughters but only one of the sons, George, had children. George was born in 1817 and married Mary Ann Lang in 1843. She had nine sons and a reputation in the family for being a very strong character who pushed her sons' careers. Her husband George was a Customs Officer and perhaps his ancestral connection with smugglers in Kinson was a help in his job.

The 1853 directory lists Dymott, George, of HM Customs, Belmont-villa, St. Denis, Southampton, whilst the 1881 British Census records George DYMOTT, 1st Class Clerk HM Customs, together with Sidney E DYMOTT, Solicitors Articled Clerk, and Lavinia J COOK, Gen Serv Dom at Glenluce, South Stoneham, Hampshire. Mother, Mary Dymott was away visiting Francis and Sophia in Lewisham, Kent. His sons followed a variety of careers. The eldest, William, was in shipping in Cape Town. He married, by special Licence, a Polish girl, Lizzie Leo of Kimberley, on 4th October 1881, his occupation being given as Hotel Keeper. His Death Notice dated 13 May 1921 records his Condition in life as Shipping Master. The next two, Alfred and Robert, were an Oxford Street bank manager and a Royal Navy paymaster, respectively. Two middle sons died young. Of the younger sons Francis was a dentist/chemist, Donald an Army doctor in the Orient, Sydney in the Church, and Herbert Nono, the ninth and last was a Royal Navy Paymaster Captain.

Again, the 1881 British Census is interesting as it details Robert L DYMOTT as Asst Paymr on HMS Asia, Portsmouth, Francis, Pharml. Chemist residing in Lewisham with Sophia DYMOTT Chemists Wife, Charlotte COOK Domestic Servant, Davis REED Chemists Asst. Herbert N DYMOTT is recorded as a Clerk on HMS Kingfisher, at sea or in a foreign port. In 1894 he is recorded as Paymaster on HMS Philomel. William, the eldest son, was born in 1845 and died in 1921, whilst the youngest, Herbert, was born in 1862 and died in 1937.

Only three of the brothers had children – Frank, Donald and Herbert – but between them they had 18 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren who themselves now have grandchildren. Thus from the latest descendents, it is seven generations back to the William Dymott who moved from the Dorset countryside to Southampton, and eight back to Thomas, who moved to Kinson in the middle of the eighteenth century from his New Forest village.

As we have already discussed, despite being listed in the Kinson parish register as Thomas Dymock, it is highly likely he was William's father. Some records show Thomas Dymot in a similar context to Thomas Dymock, which may indicate the era when our name changed to its present form. The spelling Dymock seems to have been a preference of the local vicar or whoever wrote the parish records, rather than the spelling used by Thomas himself, who may well have been illiterate, not unusual in those days. Intriguingly, the Queen's Champion was, and is a – Dymock! The third incumbent of Dymock Parish church in Gloucestershire was Roger de Dymoke. An Alice Dymoke is recorded as being born in 1398 at Scivelsby in Lincolnshire, and a David Dymock was born at Willington, Flintshire in 1338.

The basic problem for the genealogist in Kinson is the numerous people called Dymott. There seem to be two or even three separate families with the name, and their relationships, if any, are unclear. They are unlikely however to have been totally unrelated, even though the name is fairly common. The first family to appear in the Kinson registers is Thomas and Anne Dymock who produced a son, William, in 1753, having got married in 1752 according to the Canford Magna register. Thomas and Anne had three more children – Mary, Betty and John – born in 1756, 1758 and 1760 respectively. However, according to the statement sworn by William Dymott, tailor of Southampton, at the time of Betty's death in 1797, he was then her only brother, so John and probably Mary must have already died before that date, possibly even in infancy. Also mentioned in the statement as a bondsman with her brother William, is Thomas Dymott, who married Ann Cull on 13 Jan 1776, whose relationship to Betty is not given. He could not have been a brother and so may have been a cousin, or possibly an uncle – although this is unlikely since William and Betty's father was also called Thomas. He is described as a dairyman of Honeybrook in the parish of Wimbourne.

The largest family of Dymotts in Kinson seems to have been one headed by the Ambrose Dymott already mentioned, who originated from Gorley near Fordingbridge. He had three children, a son named Ambrose, another son called Thomas and a daughter Ann. Both sons seemed to be either very conservative with regard to names, or lacked imagination, since they both called their sons after themselves. Family records of the period show that this was not an uncommon practice as mothers and fathers after christened their daughters and sons after themselves. All this information comes from the Will of the eldest Ambrose, who died in 1770 in Kinson, having been born c. 1690. His grandson Thomas died in 1778, apparently leaving nine orphan children, his wife having died four years before. Interesting though this family is, it does not seem to provide the Thomas who was a bondsman to Betty Dymott's estate in 1797. The Thomas Dymott with nine children would have been dead by then, as presumably would his father Thomas, otherwise the father would have been appointed guardian to his grandchildren whereas in fact a family friend was appointed. As Ambrose's family turned up in Kinson after Thomas' marriage to the local girl Anne Nowell, they were probably related to Thomas. All that can be said is that there were plenty of Dymotts in Kinson, as there were just across the border in Hampshire, and they were probably all cousins of various sorts. Searching for Thomas' father and birthplace is speculation, but as Ambrose Dymott's family came from around Fordingbridge, it would not be surprising if Thomas originated from the same area.

If this is true, Thomas could be the Thomas who was born in 1730 to Water and Mary, or the Thomas born in 1731 to Rechard and Rebecca, all spelling as shown. This is pure speculation but the name does seem to have been found first in the area between Fordingbridge and Ringwood.

There is now a ‘DYMOTT CLOSE’ in Southampton SO15 3HG, and also a ‘DYMOTT SQUARE’ in Trowbridge. Wiltshire.

William DYMOTT Gaoler was born in 1753 in Kinson, Dorset. He died in 1825 in Southampton. He was buried Sunday 30 Jan 1825 in Holy Rood church, Southampton. Sergeant at Mace, Gaoler and Tailor of Southampton.