THE BRAMSHOTT-FARNHAM LINE

The Will of John CHYTTIE the elder of Bohunt, Liphook, Bramshott, Hampshire, husbandman, was proved in the Chichester Consistory Court in 1549. The Bramshott Parish Register does not begin until 1560, and we do not know what became of John's son and executor John the younger; but the other son, Richard, made his will and was buried, in the winter of 1586/7, leaving a widow and ten children, of whom one daughter was already married and only one appears in the baptism register - in 1581/2. Richard's personal estate was valued at £46.16.0 but debts of £30 had to be met out of this. Most of the legacies to children and others consisted of sheep.

Richard's family illustrates the custom of giving the same name to two children living at the same time. His daughters included two Elizabeths and two Joans. For this practice, often noticed until about 1600, perhaps the most satisfactory explanation is that a child was given its chief godparent's name; Richard and his wife may have wished to honour two Elizabeths and two Joans among their friends or important neighbours. Confusion in the home was easily avoided by using different familiar forms, as Betty and Lizzie.

When Richard's widow, herself named Joan, died in 1609, seven of the children and eleven grandchildren survived her. The three sons Richard, John and Giles are found at Bramshott, Headley and Passfield. Some of Giles's children were baptised at Headley, but his two sons, both husbandmen, died as of Liphook and Alton.

John, yeoman, was buried at Headley in 1637 (there had been CHITTYs there earlier, including two Johns in the 1540s) when the inventory of his goods amounted to £344. One of those who took this inventory was Edmund CLEER, and in the same year John's son John married a Joan CLERE. His son John in turn had his will witnessed by Crusophilus CLEERE and named a sister Elizabeth CLEERE - either a maternal half-sister or a married sister. The rare name Chrusophilus probably came into this line of CHITTYs from their connection with the CLEEREs.

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