Re: Origins of Yorkshire Armitages - the first Armitages
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In reply to:
Origins of Yorkshire Armitages - the Hermitage
Ian Goddard 8/18/11
The first recorded appearance of what may be the Armitage family appears in the Subsidy Roll or Poll Tax of 1379 where Willelmus del Ermytache et Agnes uxor ejus appear under North Crosland.They paid 4d in tax which was the most common amount.
The Hermitage as we have seen it as being immediately south of Dean Brook would have been in South Crosland which is called Crosland Fosse in this document.Surnames at this time were becoming hereditary so William may have inherited his name from some ancestor who was a tenant of the Hermitage.However as the brook was the boundary between South & North Crosland it could simply mean that he lived adjacent to the Hermitage but just across the brook but I think this is less likely.
William and Agnes were the only Armitages mentioned.There were none in South Crosland.
Frances Collins gives us three Armitages in the C16th.In 1422 Thomas held an acre in Almondbury parish which had previously been held by John Armitage and in 1462 Richard Beaumont of Whitley demised a tenement in Crosland for 20 years to William Armitage of the Armitage.