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THE CALLAWAY FAMILY ASSOCIATION Volume I No. 4 INTRODUCTION Welcome to the 4th issue of Bulletin 2000. We now have
more than 250
recipients of this e-mail bulletin, including about 15 prospective members.
Of the 184 CFANETers from last year, 140 have renewed, but we are still
hoping to hear from the other 44. If you are one of them, please send your
renewal to Martha Winkler A.S.A.P. Amazingly, there are nearly 70 new e-mail MEMBER BIOGRAPHY - (Removed from CFA Web Site Archives) To respect the privacy of our members, none of the biographies submitted to CFA will be posted on the CFA Web Site Newsletter Archives.
================================================================== During our trip in 1997, we spent a weekend with Douglas and Priscilla Callaway at their lovely home at Broadway, Worcester in the very beautiful Cotswold area. On Monday, Douglas drove us to Cornwall where we had arranged to work in the county record office at Truro. On the way, we stopped for lunch at Jamaica Inn of Daphne du Maurier fame, on Bodmin Moor. What atmosphere! - on an overcast, misty day. The Smuggler's Bar at Jamaica Inn still has an old parrot in residence, for those of you who have read Daphne du Maurier's books. After lunch, we drove to the parish church at St Neot's. This church is famous among Callaways because of the beautiful stained glass windows, one window being a memorial to the Callaway family of this parish. Three windows on the south side of the church are of special interest - the Callaway window, the Tubbe family window, and the Motton family window. The Tubbe and Callaway families were related. The Mottons (Muttons), if not related, were certainly Callaway neighbors. This church is beautiful on the interior with its ornately carved woodwork. But, in May with rhododendron in full bloom amongst the ancient tombstones in the churchyard, it was breathtaking. If you ever get to visit this church, plan to go in May when the churchyard is at its best. Leaving the church, we drove over the Callaway Water (Callaway Creek to us). Near the place where we stopped to view the "water" were ruins of an old Roman bridge that had once spanned it. Somewhere along the Callaway Water must have been the home of the Callaway family of St. Neots, thus giving their name to the creek, but nothing remains to mark the spot. We then were driven to the manor house of the Motton (Mutton) family. The Motton manor house was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is today a working farm. In 1998, we stayed two weeks at Taunton, Somerset County in southwest England, doing our research at the Somerset Record Office. We were on the trail of two Joseph Callaways in Somerset County. One turned out to be an unfortunate man, having been hung for treason in 1685 for his participation in the Monmouth rebellion. This Joseph Callaway was one of eight men who were hung at the market house in the town square of Somerton. We actually, quite by chance, got to see the market house at Somerton. On a side trip to Wincanton, compliments of Pat, to see the place where her Vining ancestors had lived, our taxi driver was listening to our chatter about "poor old Joseph, hung at Somerton." On the return to Taunton, our driver chose an alternate route, right through the middle of Somerton, and showed us the market house where the hanging had occurred. Taxi drivers in the small towns rural England are one of the national treasures. They all seem to know the history of their area, and the locations of the historic sites. After leaving Somerton, we were surprised to pass by the Kellaway Nursery at Langport, a large plant growing operation that is well over a hundred years old. We had learned also about a Joseph Callaway who married Ann Morgan in 1674 at St. Decuman's Church in Watchet. Looking over our tourist brochures for something interesting to do on a Sunday, we found the West Somerset Railway. This railroad is no longer in service commercially, but excursion trains are run along twenty or so miles of the track from Bishop Lydeard (just outside of Taunton) to Minehead on the coast of Bristol Channel. The old and interesting train cars are pulled by steam engines. The trains run about every hour, all day. Stops are made at villages along the way, and passengers are allowed to get off the train at the villages of their choice, then catch another train to resume the journey. This worked out just great, because one of the stops was at Watchet. We had found a way to get to Watchet and we set out to ride the train. What a delightful little town Watchet is. It was, in Saxon times, an important port, and was invaded by the Danes. Today, it has no importance as a port. When the tide is out, all the boats in the harbor are sitting on dry land. We walked all over this town, ate lunch, visited the interesting museum and debated over climbing the hill (Pat says it's a mountain) to visit St. Decuman's church, overlooking the town. Pat and Cary decided to walk up the hill to the church. I elected to sit on a bench at the train station and watch them go. After all, they are descendants of Joseph Callaway, and there were no records of Peter Callaway at St. Decuman's. Needless to say, after the hard climb, Pat and Cary were thrilled to be at that church. If any of you have seen the British film, "The Land Girls," you have seen some of the scenery we saw from the West Somerset Railway. Some scenes of the movie were filmed at Crowcombe Heathfield, one of the village stops on the excursion trip. The entire movie was filmed on location in Somerset and Devon in southwest England. This movie is currently being shown on US cable TV movie channels. Last year, 1999, we spent our last ten days back in Taunton, Somerset, once again working at the Somerset Record Office. Dr. Bruce Callaway of Sydney, Australia had told us about Athelhampton Mansion in Dorset. He hoped we could visit it and take pictures of some stained glass windows that were supposed to display the Callaway coat-of-arms, featuring the four pears and glazier's snippers (glass cutters). So, on the next to our last day in Taunton, we hired Boris, our Taunton taxi driver, to take us the nearly 90 miles to Athelhampton, located at Puddletown, just outside of Dorchester, on the River Piddle. Don't laugh! This lovely place, with its beautiful gardens, has been the home of the Martyn (Martin) family for centuries. The Callaway connection to this house began when Sir Robert Martyn, Esq. married Elizabeth Callaway, daughter of Sir John Kellaway/Callaway of Rockbourne Manor, Hants. After Robert Martyn died, his widow Elizabeth married Sir John Tregonwell, in the Puddletown Church. The church is located across a road, in back of the gardens of Athelhampton. Cary and I readied our cameras, hoping that we could spy a stained glass window displaying the Callaway arms. Never fear! - we were overcome. The Callaway arms were everywhere. Every room, every hall, every stair landing with a window displayed the Callaway arms with pears and glaizier's snippers, along with other coats of arms related to this family. The windows were countless. Amateur photographers that we are, we managed to get some really good pictures of the windows. It was very exciting to see all of these in this lovely mansion house. It was the perfect climax to our trip. Now I am excited about what new place of Callaway significance we will
find
during our Millennium trip in the year 2000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - Copyright © 2000 Callaway Family Association |