THE CAILLOUET KELLAWAY CHRONICLES
THE EARLY YEARS           1100-1600

A Precis Version of the Original Treatise 

The name Kellaway/Kelleway/Kelloway/Kelway/Callaway/Calloway/Callway/Callow/Kellow, and other variants seen today, is reasonably considered to derive from the village of Caillouet, in Eure, northern France.  As the story of the family has unfolded, it has become apparent that most, if not all, of the names often seemingly so different now, are related. 

CAILLOUET: 

Although located beside a Roman Road, and therefore potentially being much older, the village of Caillouet, east of Evreux in Eure, was probably established after the arrival of invading Viking/Norsemen, who moved up, and settled along, the rivers of northern France about the 9^th century.  The area, later called Normandy, produced the Normans, and William the Conqueror.  The available information about the village begins in those Norman times. 

THE BEGINNING: 

There was initially no evidence that a knight, or anyone from Caillouet, crossed to England with William in 1066, and no reference to the name has been found in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The first recorded matching family name so far discovered, is that of Roger de Kaillewi in Gloucester in the reign of King Henry I, about 1120.  His name was however also spelt de Cailli. Earlier there had been a Guillaume de Cailli, described as a Companion of the Conqueror, and was said to have crossed with William.  While it appears his father Osbern de Cailli may have been in England before the Conquest. 

The villages of Caillouet and Cailli sur Eure are only a few km apart in Normandy, and it appears now that there may well have been some family relationship between the people of the two places.  Caillouet could possibly have been the home of a “younger” family.  Individuals would use both versions of the name for the next two centuries, before the families finally separated. 

The variations used of Roger’s name indicate the difficulties in determining the family in this and later periods.  In the past 900 years there have been over 400 name variants, some seemingly with no apparent phonetic relevance, and it appears that other families today, such as Cayley, who descend from de Cailli, and confirm the connection, Kell(e)y, Callow, and Kellaw, are related, or have mixed in some way. 

The reasons for the variations are the low level of literacy at the time, the language conversion from French to English, French remaining the language at Court for several centuries, dialectic differences between different parts of the country, and the interpretations of clerics of the time.  Differing versions of the name could occur in the same legal document, well into the 1500s. 

C and K alternatives of the name, for the same person, even well into the 1800s. 

PHILIP AND HAWISA: 

While there are new records appearing of family members about the same time, the first dated record of the family is accepted to be in the Gloucester Pipe Rolls of 1165, with Philip de Chailewai holding land in Wiltshire.  It can be stated therefore that, because of this fact, and that the family was later to be related by marriage to the House of Plantagenet, while people from Caillouet were evidently in England earlier, the establishment of the family was confirmed with the arrival from Normandy of Henry Plantagenet as King Henry II, in 1154. 

Somewhere about 1150-65, Hawisa, the widow of Philip de Kayleway, married William, Earl of Gloucester, and cousin to the King.  Hawisa, was a Beaumont and as daughter of the Earl of Leicester, she was descended from the Royal Houses of France, Sweden and Denmark, as well as other ruling families.  Philip’s family therefore must have had some standing when they married.  The de Caillis were in that position, with a pedigree themselves back to the early 1000s, giving further support for the relationship between the two families.  Continuing research now suggests that there was an association with the Counts of Meulan, the Beaumont family, both in France and England.  And very early with the Leicesters in England.

While most of the later recorded family history occurs in the south, the early references in the north seem to explain the presence of the de Cailli family around Norfolk and probably also the de Kellawe family in Durham. 

In 1189, Hawisa and William’s daughter Hadwiga/Isabella married Prince, later King, John. 

She was discarded eleven years later, technically because of blood relationship, but Hawisa and Philip de Kayleway had earlier had a son Philip, presumably the man referred to in 1165, and at least one daughter, who therefore became related to the Royal House.  A Philip was recorded in Worcester in the 1160s.  Hugh, possibly another son, was recorded with regard to the property of Ayleworth in 1189, the year King Henry II died. 

THE GIFFARDS: 

The Beaumonts definitely supported William the Conqueror's invasion of 1066.

Another, Walter Giffard, had been the standard bearer for William at the Battle of Hastings, and the Baronnial Giffard family was to be powerful in England for nearly 300 years.  There were at least two family marriages to Giffard daughters in the early years of the 1200s and, after the execution of John Giffard for treason in 1327, John le Calewe was for a time considered his heir.  This was as a consequence of forebear Elias de Kaillewey’s marriage to Bertha Giffard, before 1200.  The first Elias appears to have held a position of considerable importance around 1200, and there was to be a series of Eliases and Johns recorded in the family from that time. 

WILTSHIRE AND GLOUCESTERSHIRE: 

The manor of Terintone, Wiltshire, later called Tuderintone/Kaylewent, and other variations, known today as Kellaways, had been the property of the Giffard family from the Conquest. 

It is presumed to be the manor referred to in 1165, and was held by William and Elias de Kaillewey in the early 1200s.  It was lost, apparently due to dispute, about 1394. 

The small castle of Brimpsfield in Gloucestershire, earlier held by the Giffards, and the manor of Side nearby, both probably marriage settlements, were also in family possession until the 1300s. 

DEVON: 

At the same time Philip was referred to in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, Nichol/Nicholas de Chaillocia/Cailloe appears.  By that time it seems he held Muxbere/Mokesbeare in Devon.

It is very likely that he was a brother of one of the Philips. 

The next relevant name in Devon is William, possibly his son.  As William de Caillewey, he may have held the Wiltshire manor earlier, but by 1238, as William Cailleway, he was in Devon.

Mokesbeare, also connected to the Earl of Gloucester, was later confirmed to have a close family relationship with the Wiltshire/Gloucester branch.  Family members at Wellington, Somerset, about this time, are presumed to have come from Mokesbeare. 

Philip, said to be a “younger son” of William, and probably the same Philip who killed Anketill de Dugheltone in 1238, moved to the manor of Stafford Barton at Dolton, Devon., somewhere about 1270.  There is now evidence that the family was well established around Dowland, St Giles in the Wood, Roborough and Broadwoodkelly, about the same time.

The two families, commonly referred to separately as Dorset and Devon, were clearly closely related, particularly concerning Mokesbeare, and the relationship continued.  The Stafford Barton family, perhaps less so.  Later known as Stowford and Stafford, they were better recorded in the later legal records, and the Heraldic Pedigrees. 

It is now thought that the Kell(e)y family of Devon, said to have lived continuously in the same location since the time of Henry II, when Nicholas held Mokesbeare, may also be related. 

DORSET AND DURHAM: 

By the early 1200s, family members appeared at Dunes Weston in Dorset, and at Durham in the north.  It is possible that men at these places were sons, or close relatives, of the first Elias, although it is interesting that two names, Radulphus/Ralph in Dorset, Alexander in Durham, matched others in France about the same time.   Suggesting the possibility that family members may have crossed the Channel at different times. 

The Dorset manor known as Dunes Weston, later as Calewe Weston, was probably today's Stalbridge Weston, and assumed prominence as the home of John le Calewe, who was apparently acknowledged as the family head in the early 1300s.

At this time however the family seems to have been numerically more prominent in Dorset around Wimborne, the Gussages and Critchels, in eastern Dorset. 

John le Calewe's family retained the family name, to some extent because they built and held the patronage of St Giles Church at the Wiltshire manor.  Some family members who remained in Dorset used the de Weston name.  Later to become Weston. 

From 1311-16, Richard de Kellawe was the powerful Prince Palatine Bishop of Durham, his family having lived in Durham for at least 50 years, probably more.  The Bishopric was actually largely temporal, and had a standing army to protect the northern borders against the Scots.  Richard’s brother Patrick was the senior knight in Durham before the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn, and the family was important in the town for many years, before and after. 

Whether the family had generally supported King John or the Barons in the civil conflict before and after Magna Carta, we do not know, but the diverse locations, from Durham to Devon, could have had strategic significance.  It is difficult to determine, but the principal family seems to have moved about, perhaps from Gloucester to Wiltshire, to Devon and then Dorset, by 1300, before returning temporarily to Wiltshire.  Thence to Devon and Dorset, about 1400. 

Thomas de Cailly was made a Baron by Edward II in 1308, but was to die soon afterwards. 

THE NAME: 

Names now came to designate the place of abode, rather than the particular family, with, initially, de Stoford in Devon, and de Weston in Dorset.  In Devon, members of the Dolton family became Stoford, then Stafford, and some members of the Dorset family became Weston.

Later remnants of the Durham family appear to have assumed the name Kellaw, or Callow. 

The prefix “le” was used for some reason during the 1300s instead of “de”, causing further name confusion, particularly as “calo” was said to mean in Old English “the bald”, and suggesting a different source for the name.  Possibly one was so unadorned. 

The will of John le Calewe in Dorset in 1308, presumed father of John, the Giffard heir, is the first we have. 

PEARS: 

During the reign of Richard I from 1272-1306, the Court garden contained Cailhou/Caylowel or Cailleway pears.  Presumably of French origin, they later appeared on the family coat of arms. 

TROUBLE AND TOIL: 

The family did not escape the murder and mayhem of the period, and had its share of misfortune and misdeed, as well as honour and success.  About 1220 Elias’s daughter Matilda had a hand in the murder of her husband, Richard Butler.  Only escaping serious retribution by having very powerful connections – she was sent to a nunnery. 

In 1238 Philip de Kaillewai escaped penalty for murder by producing “letters close to the king” (this episode may have preceded the later occupation of Stafford Barton.).  Robert le Calewe lost part of an ear in 1278, Adam de Calewe was killed in 1296, Michael le Calewe in 1309.

For his services, William de Kaylweyt received one year’s protection from the king, in 1269, as did John Calewy, for service in Ireland, in 1321.  The latter probably John le Calewe of Dorset.

They became involved in trade and shipping in early times, exporting wool, cloth, and tin, importing wine, from 1300, if not earlier. 

Many joined the Church, as was the custom for younger sons, and the Bishop’s Registers of the period may offer more family names than surviving civil records. 

In 1304, the Church of St Giles was founded at the Wiltshire Parish of Cayllewey (now Kellaways), suggesting support if not involvement by Bishop Richard in Durham.  We have a list of the family patrons of the church until the last John left in 1429, presumably for Chawleigh and Cheldon in Devon. 

CHAWLEIGH: 

Edmund de Cayleway, the second to last family Patron of St Giles Church in Wiltshire, moved to Chenstone Manor, Chawleigh, Devon, also taking the patronage of nearby Cheldon Rectory, after losing the Wiltshire manor about 1394.  He built three chapels at the manor, one for St Giles.

Chenstone, not far from Stafford Barton, had been held by the family from much earlier times, and after seven generations the family was said to have moved west.  

Edmund is the presumed father of the Thomas Kayleway who married Joane Bingham about 1410, thereby acquiring Bingham and Ramsay inheritances, such as Sutton Bingham near Yeovil in Dorset and Rockborne in Hampshire, for the family.  By this time the family was established at Sherborne in Dorset, and Dorset was to figure more extensively in the story from then on. 

Thomas and Joane evidently lived at the Bingham manor at Sutton Bingham. 

Edmund apparently had two sons, Thomas and John.  John, probably the elder, seems to have “retrieved” the patronage of St Giles from 1405-29.  He may have lived at Sherborne, while holding that patronage, and possibly, slightly later, that at Cheldon until 1440. 

The prefix “de” was now totally discarded, probably because the family was no longer recognised as being “from” the manor in Wiltshire. 

It had not been used by the Devon, and other families, who were living away from Wiltshire. 

THE JOHNS AND WILLIAMS OF SHERBORNE: 

The two families, that of John, and that of Thomas and Joane Bingham, were well recorded over the next 200 years, and there were some important people. There were several Williams, and several Johns, in Dorset in the 1400s.  Their actual relationship has been difficult to determine, but is now considered to be as follows: 

The first John is thought to have been the brother of Thomas and, after leaving Wiltshire in 1429, may have been patron of Cheldon Devon until 1440.  He could however have lived at Sherborne.

A John Kayleway, presumed to be this John, was present at the burning down of Sherborne Abbey in 1436.  The 40 years of rebuilding could have involved the family with the new stained glass windows.  Glazing grosing irons are seen, with the pears, on the family COA. 

John's son William Caleway of Sherborne is presumed to have been born around 1400-1410, and we have his 1469 will.  He was a Parliamentary Representative for Dorchester, and Commissioner of the Peace for Dorset. 

He, his father John, and cousin John, were important in Sherborne and Dorset in the first half of the 1400s. They also seem to have retained a close association with the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon. 

From his marriage to heiress Joane Barrett, William Cayleway, presumed to be the son of William and grandson of the above John, acquired Dorset and Wiltshire properties for the family. 

He is listed in the Heraldic Pedigrees as the progenitor of the later Dorset and Wiltshire families. 

The family of Thomas, William’s eldest son, thus returned to Wiltshire.  But to Whitparish and Bapton, not the old Kellaways manor.  Other members later went to Stalbridge, Dorset, probably the old manor of Dunes Weston, and to Stoford and Lillington, near Sutton Bingham in Dorset. 

The name Stoford, although geographical in source, seems to have had particular relevance for the family.  Perhaps relating to Stafford Barton in Devon, there was yet another in Wiltshire. 

John's brother Thomas, husband of Joane Bingham, had died before 1422, but appears to have had a son John, who died in 1467.  That John himself had a son John, who apparently died at a relatively young age.

He evidently also had a son William, who therefore inherited many of the Bingham and Ramsay properties of grandparents Thomas and Joane, which included Rockbourne.  William was created Knight Commander of the Bath upon the wedding of the Prince of Wales in 1501. 

THE KNIGHTS OF ROCKBORNE: 

In 1507, John, Sir William's son and heir, inherited the manor of Rockborne along with extensive other properties.  He was Sheriff of Hampshire, and was also knighted, about 1530.  On his death in 1547, he left properties from the Scottish Marches in the north, to Calais in France. 

Sir John’s son William attended the Court of King Henry VIII, and was a member of his personal bodyguard.  Also a Commissioner of the Peace for Dorset, he was made a Knight Bachelor by Queen Mary at her coronation in 1553. 

His son ffrancis, and grandson Thomas, however were continually in trouble, and eventually, despite the efforts of ffrancis’s brothers, lost the family fortune, property, and the manor of Rockborne itself in 1608. 

FOUR SONS: 

Sir John’s second family produced four sons.  Gyles was captain of a galleass, and mischievously captured a Spanish ship in 1545.  England was not then at war with Spain – he had to return it.  He lived at Stroud and Bridport, south Dorset.  John settled on the Isle of Wight, and is considered to be the progenitor of some families there.  Henry was captain of 147 troops, and also spent some time defending the Isle of Wight against the threat from the French.  He settled at either Berry Pomeroy, Devon, or Ilminster, Somerset.  George possibly lived at Ilminster.  They all probably benefited considerably from the Dissolution of the Chantries, carried out by cousin Robert Keilway, although it appears Henry and George died in France, when England lost the last French possessions there. 

ROBERT: 

Perhaps the most important, most recorded person of all, Robert Keilway, is assumed to have been a member of the family, however his pedigree is for some reason never stated. 

He had a close association with the Rockborne knights, but may have descended from an earlier branch in Dorset.  He and his father, also Robert, and possibly another son of Sir William, were Mayors of Salisbury, as earlier had been a William Webb, alias Kellowe.  (The use of aliases around this time has not assisted the determination of family connections, and their reason, here or elsewhere, is not known.  The name Clarke alias Kellaway, or Kellaway alias Clarke, continued in Dorset for some 300 years.  It may have had an occupational basis.) 

During his long life Robert was regarded as the leading legal man in the country.  Although there were confusingly other Roberts at the time, he had, as Surveyor of Wards and Liveries under young King Edward VI, joint charge of the Dissolution of the Chantries.  Evidently Commissioner of the Peace for virtually the whole of south east England, he had many notable positions.  He was credited with important legal treatises.  Born in 1497, at his death aged 84, he was Master of the Inner Temple, the highest legal position in England, and left a considerable fortune to his only daughter Anne, later Lady Harrington, and to other relatives. 

COAT OF ARMS: 

The accepted family coat of arms today dates from about 1450-1500, and comprises four pears between crossed glaziers snippers/grosing irons, thereby combining the craft of stained glass with the variety of pear then popular. 

Evidence, which also indicates links with other families, suggests that there could have been earlier family arms, of a chevron and three leopards faces.  These include the names Callow, Kelley, Kaloway, and Weston. 

JOHN OF CULLOMPTON: 

Among other notable people in the family, John of Colyton/Cullompton in Devon, was a “merchant of the staple”, and apparently very wealthy, with extensive property in the south.  When he died in 1531, he however left only a family of daughters, of some 14 children.  His widow Jane Tregarthin lived on for a further 53 years, remarried, and produced, in all, as many as 20 children. 

TUDOR FAMILIES: 

The daughters of John of Cullompton married into some of the important families of the Tudor period, among them Lyte, Cooke, Codrington, Harewood, Trengoffe and Grenville.

The Stowford/Stafford family was also prominent in Devon, while members of both families held positions of importance throughout the counties of the West Country. 

In 1594 Nicholas Kellaway, of Forston and Charminster in Dorset, evidently a prosperous merchant, but whose exact origin is yet to be determined, produced a will naming his six sons. 

Some of the sons, and descendants, in turn produced their wills, and gave an indication of the families that were to reside in Dorset in succeeding centuries. 

1600 AND AFTER: 

The Elizabethan Period of 1558-1603 was one of increasing wealth, power and importance for England, but also continued religious conflict.  Following the death of Queen Elizabeth, the new century would not see the same level of importance for the family, as the wealth and property had largely gone, and the descendants, although more numerous, were scattered, principally among the villages of the West Country. 

Some were later to leave for other lands. 

JWK                                                                                                                December 2007

Among numerous research areas, some of the principal references have been: 

·         The Registers of the Companions of the Conqueror

·         The Domesday Book

·         Heraldic Visitations of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire from the 1500s and 1600s, which include family pedigrees

·         List of Church Patrons of St Giles Church, Kellaways

·         The Register of Bishop Bek of Durham

·         The Registers of Bishops Edmund Stafford and Edmund Lacy of Exeter

·         Inquisition Post Mortems for Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire

·         Feet of Fines for these Counties

·         From the Public Record Office:        Court Rolls

Patent Rolls

                                                            Close Rolls

·         Exchequer Subsidy Rolls

·         Muster Rolls

·         Dorset and other County Wills

·         Ordinance Survey and other earlier Maps

·         Published Histories of the time

·         Hutchins History of Dorset