FAMILY GROUP RECORD OF FELIX CARTER AND
MARGARET TREDWELL
Felix Carter was born in about 1550 of Claydon. He was a yeoman of
Claydon. Felix married Margaret Tredwell 20 April 1573 in Steeple
Aston, Oxfordshire, a parish about fifteen miles south of Claydon,
and ten miles south of Banbury.
Marriage record for Felix Carter and Margaret Tredwell in
Steeple Aston: "1573 - In the yeare of our Lord 1573 the 20th day of
Aprill were Felix Cartar and Margarett Tredwell maryed"
A researcher shares this information about Felix: "Felix was one
of the more prosperous men of the village, evidenced by the fact
that in the Lay Subsidy (tax) of 1610, only two Claydon residents
are listed, one of them Felix, and they each paid a tax of two
shillings eight pence on their lands. Most of the Carter
children grew to maturity and married. The youngest, Richard, in
1616, at the age of twenty-four, had not yet taken a wife, when he
became ill and made known his will concerning his goods. He
divided them among his brothers and sisters, his sister Julian's
children, his father, and friends. The inventory of his estate
suggests that he had been hard-working and successful. He owned a
mare and her filly, a heifer, sixty-eight sheep, a "bridel &
saddel," and wearing apparel." (www.familysearch.org, contributor
Neal H. Jorgensen)
Felix is mentioned in British History Online: "The
medieval tax returns do not suggest a poor village...Even so,
among a selection of probate inventories, may be mentioned those
of Richard and George Knibb, Fulk Stacey (d. 1606), Felix Carter
(d. 1619), and William Martin (d. 1667), all of whom left
personalty at their deaths worth more than £130. In general they
were mixed farmers, their wealth lying in both crops and stock."
In Hall Ancestry this information about the Carters is
told: “Felix Carter and Margaret his wife, of Claydon,
Oxfordshire, England, were the maternal grandparents both of
Samuel Boreman of Claydon, who emigrated in 1638 and settled in
Wethersfield, Conn., and of Thomas Boreman who settled in Ipswich,
Mass. Mr. Carter’s name first appears in the Claydon records July
28, 1577, when the baptism of son Peter is recorded. Possibly at
that time he had but recently come to Claydon, the baptism of his
older children not being recorded there, and no person of his age
appearing in the record before his own. In 1580, he was one of the
appraisers of the estate of the first Thomas Boreman. In a Lay
Subside list for Claydon the 7th of James I (1610), he is taxed
upon real estate, from which it appears that he was a freeholder,
and in this respect better situated than the Boremans, who held
only leasehold estates. In his will, made May 29, 1619, he devises
an estate in fee to his daughter, Julian Boreman, “the Dunes house
with thaulf the auchead to shee and her heres begotten of hir
body”…His inventory, in which he is described as “yeoman”, taken
on the 31st of the same month, considerably exceeds that of the
other members of the family living in Claydon. At the time of his
death in 1619, he must have been not far from seventy years
old. His widow survived him about a year and a half, dying in
1621.” (Hall Ancestry)
Felix Carter's home in Claydon
Felix and Margaret's home was mentioned in a history of the
Boremans: "There is every reason to believe that the house of
Thomas Boreman is still standing at Claydon. It adjoins the house
and yard of Felix Carter, whose daughter, Julian, became the wife
of Christopher, the son of Thomas Boreman. This house dates far
back of 1600, and was probably the house of Thomas Boreman's
father." (The Ancestry of William Francis Joseph Boardman)
Felix was mentioned in the will of John Tredwell of Steeple Aston in
1588: “I geave & bequeathe to my godsonne Ffelixe Carter his
sonne vis viijd and to evrye of his other children xxd a peece.”
Felix died and was buried 29 May 1619 in Claydon.
Burial record for Felix Carter in Claydon: "Ffelyx Carter was buried they xxixth daye of May 1619"
Felix left a will dated 1619:
Will of Felix Carter of Claydon, 1619
The 29 day of May anno Dm 1619 I give to the church of Cleydon xijd. I give to the pore of Cleydon ijs. I give to o Frannces Carter wife of Peter Carter
vs. I give to Sara wife of George Carter vs I give to my godson Felix Swadling vs. I give to to goddaughter yeads poly ijs, vid. I give to to every other god child I have on shilling a peas
I give to my son Peter Carter alle the goodes he now
hath of mine at his house I give to my daughter Jonne Ward all the
impliments that I have lent her. I give to Felix Bourman the sonne of Thomas Bourman
xijl I give to Sara Bourman the daughter of Thomas Bourman
iiijl I give to Thomas Bourman and to my daughter Elizabeth
Bourman 30l to be stoe upon ther other chyldren. I give to An Goode my daughter xl. I give to Henry Goode her sunne xl. I give to the other children begotten of my daughter Ane
Goode xxli equally devided. I give to m To my daughter Jolian Bourman xli &
Dunes house with thaulf the aurcheard to shee and her heres
begotten of hir body. I give to my daughter Ales Garner xli & the other
moety of orcheard being on the west side to shee & hir heires
begotten of hir body forever. All the rest of my good unbequeathed I give unto Margaret
my wyfe whom I mak my executor. I ordaine for my overseeres Thomas Borman Thomas Goode
& George Carter & to each of them give five shillings . Item the said Felix Carter did give unto his wife all those
house, orchards, backside purtenances and all other things
belonging to the house in his possession unto the said Margeret
his wife during her natural life and then to his two daughters and
their heires according as it is expressed in the will. These words
did he affirm in the presence of us whose names are underwritten.
John Mayoe, Elizabeth Borman, Dority Pratt, Phillip Gardner
Margaret died, leaving a nuncupative (verbal) will dated 1621:
Will of Margaret Carter, widow of Claydon, 1621
Margaret Carter of Cleydon in the Countye of Oxford,
wydowe, beinge syck in bodye but of good and pfecte remembrannce,
thanks be to God for it, uttered these words as her will, the
xiiijth daye of October anno 1621. She gave unto her sonne
George Carter her carpet which was on the onge table. Item
she gave unto her sonne Peter Carter a coffer. Item she
gave her daughter Elzabeth Borman a wyndd stole and a
joined chayre. Item she gave to her daughter Ann Goode a
coffer. Item she gave unto her daughter Jone Ward a bed
with all the furniture to it. She gave unto her daughter Alice
Gardner her best gounde and her best petticote. The rest of
her goods unbequethed she gave unto her daughter Julyan Borman,
then she did acknowledge and confesse in the hearing of those
whose names are underwritten that the xxl which was in the hands
of her sonne George Carter she did not nor would not give
it him, but he to gave it during her lyffe, paying in the use for
it, and after her decease to be distributed amongst her fyve
daughters.
Witnesses; William Sanderson, Alice Dun the wyffe of Willm
Dun
Felix and Margaret had the following children:
1. George, married Sara.
*2. Elizabeth, born in about 1560; married Thomas Boreman;
buried 12 May 1631 in Claydon.
3. Peter, christened 28 July 1577 in Claydon; married
Frannces; buried 15 February 1635/6 in Claydon.
4. Ann, christened 25 September 1579 in Claydon; married
Thomas Goode 3 August 1602 in Claydon.
5. John, christened 21 October 1581 in Claydon.
6. Julian, christened 20 December 1583 in Claydon; married
Christopher Boreman 19 November 1603/4. Julian Carter was “daughter
of Felix and Margaret Carter of Claydon, and sister of the
Elizabeth Carter who was the mother of Thomas Boreman of Ipswich”.
(Hall Ancestry) In One Life at a Time: “Julian
(Carter) Boreman’s father, Felix Carter, a yeoman, was one of only
two in Claydon who owned land by his own right, not by leasehold.
Towards the end of his life, Felix Carter urged his daughter and
her family to return to Claydon, and when they did, Felix Carter
gave his son-in-law some land. Felix Carter died in 1630.
Christopher Boreman died and Claydon and was buried April 1, 1640.
By this time, Samuel Boreman was in New England and his mother
Julian (Carter) Boreman moved to London to live with her married
daughter Elizabeth Boreman Middleton, with whom she lived for
another two decades.” (One Life at a Time: A New World Family
Narrative)
7. Jone, christened 10 November 1585 in Claydon; married
Francis Ward.
8. Alice, christened 17 July 1589 in Claydon; married
Phillip Garner.
9. Richard, christened 6 November 1591; died and was
buried 17 April 1616, leaving a will.
SOURCES: Will of Felix Carter of Claydon, 1619; will of Margaret
Carter, widow of Claydon, 1621; will of Richard Carter, 1616.
