♂Richard Trott

Richard Trott (buried 14 November 1570) was a landholder in the manor of Taunton, in Somerset, England, whose holdings at South Trendle and Otterford passed in 1571 and 1572 to Robert and John Trott on the same condition, written into the manor roll: neither man might sell or surrender any part of the land to anyone but a person of the surname Trott. He was the eleventh great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his son Robert Trott (buried 1599).

Land in the manor of Taunton

The manor of Taunton was divided into hundreds and those again into tithings^W, and its land passed from one tenant to the next by surrender in the manor court^W. A Richard Trott, probably the same man, appears in the calendar of its rolls at Staplegrove in 1510, at Otterford in 1527 and 1540, and at Poundisford in 1534.

In 1571 Robert Trott was admitted, on Richard’s surrender, to a messuage and half a virgate^W of bondland, a cottage and four acres of overland in the tithing of South Trendle, in the hundred of Poundisford, land that Hugh Hollwell had once held. Richard had made that surrender before he died. In 1572 a second holding he had surrendered, a messuage, a furlong and five acres of bondland, two cottages and four acres of overland in the tithing of Otterford, once William Bowbye’s, went to John Trott. Both grants carried the condition that kept the land in the family name.

Family

He is said to have married Joanna, whose surname is not known. They are said to have had five children: two sons named John, one buried at Pitminster on 16 October 1544 and the other living until about 1595, and Robert, William and Tamsen. Richard was buried at Pitminster on 14 November 1570. Treat suggests that she was perhaps the Joanna Trott buried at Otterford in August 1577, but the Otterford register transcription gives “Grace Tratt, widow” for a burial on 9 August 1577; another transcription gives Joane.

Notes

Sources

His family, the land grants and the burials come from The Treat Family (1893), by John Harvey Treat, which prints the Pitminster and Otterford parish registers and extracts from the Taunton manor registers, the latter in Latin with translations. The Latin of the 1571 and 1572 entries names the man who surrendered the land as “Rici Trott” and “Rici Trotte”; it does not say how he was related to Robert or John. Treat makes them his sons and gives the date of his death as about 1571; Hale, House and Related Families (1952) gives the same line of descent. Treat himself puts Joanna’s burial at Otterford as a “perhaps”. His burial at Pitminster on 14 November 1570 comes from the Pitminster register transcription on FreeREG (freereg.org.uk).

The date of his death

Treat dates his death about 1571, the year of the surrender to Robert. The Pitminster register transcription on FreeREG gives his burial on 14 November 1570, so he died on or before that day. The surrender to Robert, which the court entered in 1571, had been made while Richard was alive. The surrender of the Otterford land to John is entered under 1572.

His wife

The name Joanna comes from Treat, who prints the marriage with no surname and says she was “perhaps” the Joanna Trott buried at Otterford on 14 August 1577. Treat cites no record that names Richard’s wife, so the name and the marriage rest on his account. The Otterford burial is transcribed on FreeREG as “Grace Tratt, widow”, on 9 August 1577, and another transcription gives Joane. The name Grace does not match Joanna, so the burial does not settle who she was.

The calendar entries

The calendar of the Taunton manor rolls gives only the name and the year. Treat gathers the entries of 1510 to 1540 under this Richard, and through the same name runs makes William Trott of Staplegrove, found in 1503 to 1510, his likely father, and John Trott, found from 1458 to 1479, his likely grandfather. No surrender links William to Richard, and Treat calls these two generations probable.