Pomeroy The
name is most anciently associated with the castle of Berry Pomeroy, a
few miles east of Totnes, Devon. An estate — the "beri" or defended
place — is first recorded in the Domesday Book as being formerly owned
by a Saxon called Alric (Alricius) at which time it was more valuable
than the settlement that became Totnes. After the Norman invasion of
England in 1066 it was granted to Ralf de la Pomeraye. Ralf probably
made the manor at Berry his home with a wooden keep on an area protected
by a wooden palisade and a dyke. A survey in 1283 describes the manor
house at Berry as situated next to the village church. While a deer park
is mentioned in records as early as 1207 the first reference to the
castle at Berry does not occur until the mid-fifteenth century. When Sir Thomas
Pomeroy fell into debt a century later in 1547, after some complex
transactions it passed into the hands of Edward Seymour, the first Duke
of Somerset. It was a ruin by the early 1700s. Our
reconstruction project hopes to reveal whether all Pomeroy name-bearers
are related within a single family tree, or whether the surname arose
independently in different places at different times. There are around
1,800 name-bearers living in the UK today. Included in the study, on an equal basis, are the following rarer surnames:
| Pomroy | Traditionally
seen as a variant spelling of Pomeroy, our research shows that the
majority of Pomroys belong within a single, large family tree that is
currently researched to have its origins in Wiltshire in the 1600s. The spelling is
also found commonly in trees with links to east Cornwall. There are
around 500 name-bearers living in the UK today. | | Pomery | While
Pomeroy and Pomroy account for around 90% of name-bearers in
the UK, the surname Pomery is linked almost exclusively to a handful of
Cornish trees which the DNA evidence suggests are part of a single
family tree. There are around 200 Pomery name-bearers living in the UK today | | Pummery | This rare variant seems to belong within a single tree whose roots we still cannot trace outside of south London. | | Pumroy | Recorded in England in previous centuries, the only living bearers are today found in the USA within a single tree. | | de Pomerai | Held only by a single family, with links to the Channel Isles, and which
adopted this form at some point in the nineteenth century. | | de Pomeroy | Held only by a single family, now found only in Australia. | | Pummeroy | Held only by a single family, now found only in Australia. | | Others | Many
dozens of other variant spellings have been found in the course of our
researches in original records, but as far as we know none are held by living persons. The
number of 'deviant spellings' — defined as variant spellings created as
the result of transcription errors — runs to several hundreds.
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