Thomas Stronge

Notes:

A tailor. Married to Joanna BAGGE. They had five daughters: Maria, Elizabeth, Lavinia, Jane and Sarah, and one son, the Rev. James Strong.

Rev. John Pitt, Vicar of Chardstock (1627-1645), Warden of Wadham College, Oxford befriended James Stronge 'a poor tailor of Chardstock who wrought for a groat a day, his pottage and bread and cheese". Rev. Pitt sent him to New Inn College, Oxford. In 1645, James returned to Chardstock and turned his mentor out of the vicarage and carried off his books and goods to his own living.

SOURCE: http://www.geocities.com/sfaapage/

Notes:

It appears that George Strong, a Tailor, originally resided in Chardstock, Dorset, later moving about five miles north to Chard, Somerset. Dorset and Somerset are both maritime counties in the southwest of England. According to Peskett, Chardstock was in Dorset until transferred to the county of Devon in 1896, but remains in the Diocese of Salisbury.

MANOR COURT ROLLS--CHARDSTOCK

Sept. 1596 - Paying homage to the manor court.

May 3, 1604 - George Strang - Assessor to view commons

July 13, 1604 - "The water in George Stronge's ditch is not able to pass but run out in the way and he must scower the same."

1629 - "We do present George Stronge for that he dothe sell fuell furses in the commons and carry them into another parish and burn them contrary to the customs of the our manor, therefore he is fined ten shillings; and that George Stronge hath pulled downe a barne builded upon posts upon his cottage and carryed the tymber into another manor and hath also rooted upp certayne apple trees growing uppon his said cottage and carryed the same out of the manor".

1631, 1632, 1633 - Fined for not cleaning his ditch.

May 20, 1635 - Presentment of the death of George Stronge since the previous court and that he was tenant of TWO COTTAGES in Chardstock towne, to which Thomas Stronge was thereupon admitted as the next tenant. [Robin Bush, pub. By M&J Clearinghouse]

1636 - "That George Stronge, tenant since the last court to the cottage in Chardstock town and doth happen to the lord for a death duty, and that Thomas Strong is the next tenant".

MANOR COURT ROLLS--CHARD

1614 Manor Court Jury

1625-1628 Subsidy (DD/HT 465, Somerset Record Office)

Will of George Stronge of Chard dated, 20 Nov. 1627, proved 13 Feb. 1635/36, "I George Strong of the parishe of Chard....tayler.... I give unto THOMAS STRONG MY SONNE 6 shillings 8 pence. I give unto JOHN STRONGE MY GRANDCHILD, 6 shillings 8 pence. I give unto WILLIAM STRONG MY GRANDCHILD, 20 poundes due to me from George Cookney and Nicholas Staple.... I give unto the said William Strong ffive pewter platters, two pondgers, one bason, ffower sawcers, two saltsellers, and two brasse candelsticke. I give unto MARIE STRONG MY GRANDCHILD DAUGHTER of WALTER STRONG MY SONNE, 10 poundes which Thomas Parris oweth me....and more I give her my best brasse crocke, and my lesser brasse pann. I give unto JOANE STRONG, DAUGHTER of the said WALTER STRONG, 10 poundes. I give unto ELIZABETH STRONG, DAUGHTER of the said WALTER STRONG, 10 poundes. I give and bequeath unto my said SON WALTER STRONG whome I make, and ordayne sole executor of this my last will and testement. I desire MY GOOD FRIENDS THOMAS LEGG THE YOUNGER and THOMAS BOWDITCH OF WICKCRAST to be my overseers. Witnesses - Thomas Pitte, Sir John Rives, Richard Ray, THOMAS BURRAGE. [Abstracted by J. Osborn] (PCC1636, Pile 15)"

Source of the above: http://www.geocities.com/sfaapage/eldjohn.html (June 2005)

The March 2000 SFAA Newsletter contains a brief article by Doug Strong (gnorts@erols.com) about the "Possible Huguenot Background of Chardstock Strongs." As a professor of church history, he discussed his suspicions with a local historian (H. Mary Parmiter) in Chardstock, England. It seems that the Strongs were likely Huguenot refugees who had earlier fled France due to religious persecution. The Huguenots, along with the Puritans, were both groups of Calvinistic Protestants who held very similar theological views. Thus, though not proven definitively, it appears that the Strongs were Huguenots who left France, became Puritans in England, and then left for New England--people who were compelled to flee two times for their faith. In support of this theory, Mary Parmiter wrote a letter to Doug Strong in which she noted that "The earliest spellings of "Strong" in our records are "Strang" or "Strange," so there seems little doubt it comes from "Stranger." [The old French word for foreign or alien is "estrange."] The Huguenot massacre of 1572 certainly triggered off the arrival here [Chardstock] of many refugees but, by their very wish to keep anonymity, detailed records are just about nonexistent.