Fattifer family?

Question

Just a point of curiosity:

John Chisledon, born about 1370 according to his profile and certainly before 1428 according to my personal calculations, appears in a Bluett family pedigree in the Visitations of Devon. He is shown to be the grandson of a Joane Fattifer, daughter of Walter Fattifer.

Google tells me this word does not exist, in any context. Does anyone familiar with medieval England families have any input into who this family might be, or what name it may be a creative spelling for?

Thanks for indulging me! :)

Comments

I don't know about medieval, Ashley, but if it's any help Ancestry has about 50 modern records for surname Fettifer.

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Interesting. That's not far off. Google didn't want to give me any results for them either, but it did give me a Warwick Visitation with a single mention of a Pettifer in 1600's London.

I don't know why I'm so curious about this. Thanks for the idea, Jim.

edit: Oooh, looks like we have a healthy population of Pettifers here on Wikitree. They don't go further back than the 1600's though, alas.

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I dare you to say Fattifer 10 times fast.

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Lol, it's tough one for modern mouths, that's for sure!

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I'm wondering if a lot of these variations are simply the result of misinterpreting poor handwriting or mistakes in transcriptions made from damaged documents. Normal words in context are relatively easy, but personal names, especially surnames are the hardest thing to interpret. Making out the handwriting in these ancient documents has always been a challenge.

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That's certainly likely, Monica. Lord knows even a lot of modern handwriting is hard to work out! Plus, the farther back you go in English history, the more variations you have, not just in spelling, but in the sounds different letters are associated with.  It's a lot.

Answer 1

Wikipedia in an article about the Manor of Holcombe Rogus gives the name as Tantifer, citing Pole, Sir William (died 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791.

In Mapping the Medieval Countryside, about medieval inquisions post mortem, there is someone referred to as Walter Tantefer but either I'm having internet problems or the site is, because I can't seem to open the actual document to definitely confirm this is the right person.

Comments

The name Tantefer occurs several times in Feudal Aids:
Geoffrey Tantefer
Richard
Walter

https://archive.org/details/inquisitionsasse01grea/page/568/mode/2up?view=theater

I didn't check all the references, but there is this one with a Chesilden in 1346, Devon:
Ricardus  Chusildene  tenet  in  Herdeford  et  Radewaye  di.  f.  de  honore  de Ockampton,  quod  Walterus  Tauntefer  quondam  tenuit.
https://archive.org/details/inquisitionsasse01grea/page/408/mode/2up?view=theater

Edit: this Richard must be the son of Joan and grandson of Walter shown in the pedigree chart.
 

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Tantefer, that sounds more familiar. Thanks, guys! This is super helpful. :)

Sadly, it doesn't look like anyone from the family is on wikitree yet, unless there's yet another spelling we haven't worked out, lol. Guess it all just goes in my personal spreadsheet until some kind pre-1500 cert takes it up, or I get there myself someday.

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I can look into that over the next few days. 

It looks like Walter Tantefer was from Exeter. There was a Walter Tantefer who was bailiff and mayor of Exeter 1296-1310. Before that there was a Richard Tantefer going back to the 1260s.
https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12024/A45839/A45839.html?sequence=5&isAllowed=y

But I'll see what I can find over the next few days.
 

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Fascinating. Careful, y'all are gonna build out a whole new branch of my family tree here. :)

Answer 2

See

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1577692/chesilden-and-tantifer-enough-info-to-create-profiles

Comments

Thanks, Janet!

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Thanks for the link.