Preamble

This site provides the researched history of the SEAMONS family, originally from WEEDON, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, from the mid - 1400s to the present time.  

The Seamons Family History is the story of a yeoman family, farming in mid - Bucks for eleven generations, and details how that family widened throughout Bucks, and then in the 1800's dispersed to America, Australia, and New Zealand.

For 300 continuous years, from 1653 to 1953, the name Seamons always existed in the Hardwick Parish within Bucks, yet with the passing of John Griffin George Seamons in 1953, the name Seamons is no longer to be found in these Bucks districts.. 

In the 1841 census of Hardwick cum Weedon, there were 18 residents named Seamons; In 185l when the census was taken, more than twenty of the residents were named Seamons. At times, in the 18th century, the number had been even more. By 1901, the total was around half a dozen. Twenty years later it had shrunk to two - George and his father David.  When David died in 1923, only his son was left bearing the surname. So for thirty years it hung on the thread of a single life. Old George’s funeral indicated that the single thread had finally snapped.  Possibly, there may have been an old inhabitant who may have remarked, "Nobody remembers Weedon without a Seamons", but nobody would have grasped that the family was so deeply rooted in their parish history.

In fact, the story goes back far before the birth of John in 1653, for his great-great-great-grandfather, whose name was also John, was there in 1493. At that point certainty passes into conjecture.  The spelling of his surname was variously given as Seman, Seyman and Symons. Never, after 1493, had the parish lacked an assured descendant of John of that period, who carried the family name, and whose life had been spent there.  From 1953 it was different; after 1953, there was no Seamons left in the Hardwick Parish.

The ancestry continues however, through both the male and female lines, and Seamons' descendants with the names of Goss, Rolls, Bates, Watkins, Judkins, Dancer, Burnard/Barnard abound both in England as well as in other countries. 

This website documents one single family line through sixteen generations. Information on other family lines is mentioned in providing additional information to complement the overall family history. A linkage to the rise of Methodism in Aylesbury is also provided, as Methodism played such a large role in many generations of the Seamons' family.  

Further linkages provides details related to the emigration of members of the Seamons' family to Australia during the gold rush period in the mid 1800's, as well as to North America.

Finally, there are some transcripts of a series of letters written to and from family members, both in Australia and in England.

Note that linkages to all pages are provided at the bottom of each page.

Although a large amount of time was spent researching this information from IGI information, census records, gravestones, family bibles and other family record sources, the greatest amount of the content of this document, particularly in relation to the early Seamons' years in England, is a result of years of dedicated, thorough research that was personally carried out by the late Rev. E. Ralph Bates of England, himself a Seamons’ descendant. In obtaining such information, Rev Bates had privileged access to further records such as , the Manor Court Rolls, New College, Oxford; Parish Registers; Bucks Record Office at Aylesbury, and more. Hence, there is a lot of supporting evidence on the history of the early members of the Seamons' family.

More recently, further additional information has been kindly provided by Jill Crawford, Carol Judkins and Owen Seamons in Australia, and Paul Seamons in America, with many other Seamons' descendants providing snippets that have been used in further developing my own copy of the Seamons' Family Tree (which now contains over 1,850 names, spanning 16 generations).

A very brief introduction to the family history is currently included in this page, however far greater detail of the family history (including a Word version of Rev. Bates' work: "The Seamons Family of Weedon")  that I do have is freely available for anyone who is interested and requests the same via my email address as below. My sincere thanks for this information go to both the children of Rev Bates, Douglas and Elizabeth, who have kindly provided me with copies of their father's original hand typed records, as well as the many Seamons' family members who then helped in transcribing these records into something that is now readily accessible.

Although currently concentrating on a single family line, it has always been intended to widen this website to provide details on other lines of the Seamons' family, with a  particular concentration on those Seamons' family members who emigrated to Australia during the 1850s, and their descendants.  The page on the Call to Australia now has has some further details of the descendants of those other Seamons' family members who emigrated to Australia during the mid 1800's. Similarly, a new page has been added which details information on those Seamons' family members who migrated to America. To assist in the further expansion of the web page, contributions of family stories, photos, etc are always welcomed.  At the same time, if you believe you are descended from the families listed in this page, or if you believe you have any further information related to any of the lines of the Seamons' descendants, I would be grateful if you could please forward this to me at my email address.

SEAMONS LIST:

For the sharing/seeking of information related to the Seamons' family a List has been established through the Rootsweb site. This List was established to specifically focus on the surname spelling of "Seamons", and especially those that originated in Bucks UK. Hence, if you are interested, you can subscribe to this list by forwarding an email to SEAMONS-L-request@rootsweb.com with the word “subscribe” in the subject and body areas of the message. 

I’m hoping that this list will become a good way of further sharing any information related to any aspects of the Seamons family lines, and all are more than welcome to join the list (and contribute!!) so that we can widen the availability of any information about the Seamons' family members, and their many descendants scattered around the world.  

 John Leslie Seamons

Keilor, Victoria, Australia.

This website was last updated on 20th September 2008.