www.cheevers.org
The Cheevers
a short history, by john@cheevers.org

Last modified: August 23 2009.


Introduction
Surnames, also called family names or last names, appeared at vastly different times around the world. Two extremes; in parts of China, surnames were first required by law in 2852 BC, while in Turkey, a similar law was not in place until 1935 AD.

For most of western Europe, family names did not come into general use until about the 18th century. In England, family names were adopted gradualy, around 1000 AD, stimulated in part by a paucity of first names, and in part by the influence of the Celtic custom, and in part by the transition to feudalism and it's reliance on pedigree. Celts (Scots, Welsh, Irish, and some French and Spanish), have had last-name for a longer period, some for thousands of years.

The surname Cheevers (also Chevers,Chievers,Chivers) is a Cambro-Norman surname derived from "goat" ("chevre" in French, "capra" in Latin).

Origin of the Name and Family
The Cheevers line started in Flanders C.960 with Roger Chievre La Maniche and wife Petronilla. Their children were William Chievre, Beatrix Chievre, Ralph de la Pommeraie and Hugue de la Pommeraie.
Source: Calendar of Documents Preserved in France Illustrative of the History of Great Britain and Ireland, AD 918-1206 Published in London (1899) by the Public Records Office.

1066 - The Norman Invasion
Guillame Le Chievre and Roger de La Pommeraie were brothers who accompanied William the Conqueror in the invasion of England and who fought at the Battle of Hastings. Although brothers, and Ralph de Pommeraye came to have different surnames. Note that it was just at this time that surnames were being adopted. The heavy reliance on pedigree within feudalism, especially as practiced by the Normans, required them. Guillame Le Chievre translates to 'William the goat', de La Pommeraie translates to 'of the apple grove'.

Sources: The Battle Abbey (also known as Battell Abbey) was erected on the site of the Battle of Hastings where King Harold and his army were defeated. The Abbey was erected at the instruction of William the Conqueror, with the monks instructed to preserve a record of those who shared in the victory and to pray for those who died in battle. The result was the 'Honor Roll of the Battle Abbey'. The roll contains about 368 names, thus only the gentry, and only a very small percentage of the 10,000-13,000 men who accompanied William. These are the men who provided the ships, horses, and troops for the invasion. The original 'Honour Roll of Battell Abbey' was lost to fire, but copies have survived. Copies tend to vary; there was much to be gained by having one's name within this list, and no doubt some were 'enhanced'. The Roll is thus considered unsatisfactory as a source document. However, with respect to many on the list (and certainly for Guillaume Le Chievre and Roger de La Pommeraie), the lordships granted (and documented in the Domesday Book, below) corroborates their role in the Norman Conquest.

Related is a bronze tablet over the entrance to the Church of Dives (St. Pierre-sur-Dives), near Caen, in Normandy, which contains the names of about 500 'companions of William the Conqueror'. Dives was the starting point for part of William's fleet. The first church was built here in 1012 by Countess Lesceline, William the Conqueror's aunt. The Dives list was compiled in 1866, for the 800th anniversary of the Conquest, by Lepold Delisle. The tablet contains about 500 names, including Guillaume La Chevre and Raoul de La Pommeraie. There is a similar bronze memorial in the chapel of the castle of Falaise in Normandy (Faliase is the birthplace of William the Conqueror). This list (the 'Falaise Roll') contains 315 names, and the memorial was erected in 1931. This list again contains Guillaume Le Chievre and Raoul de La Pommeraie.

The book 'The Roll of Battle Abbey', annotated by John Bernade Burke, published by Genealogical Publishing co. contains transcriptions of five different versions of the Battell Abbey Roll, as well as critical analysis, and identification of the origin of each of the companions (when known).

The book 'The Conqueror and His Companions' (J.R. Planche, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1874), contains similar information for a subset of those on the list. The book is out of print (and also out of copyright), but is available in part on the web at http://www.patpnyc.com/conq/withwm.htm

Also on the web, a list of the Roll (without notes) can be found here: www.infokey.com/hall/norman.htm

1087 - The Domesday Book
The Norman Conquest occurred in 1066, and redistribution of land to the Norman nobles was completed by about 1068. In 1086, William the Conqueror decreed that the redistribution be recorded in a survey to be taken of all of England. The survey would record the dimensions of each estate, it's current holder, the current value, the pre-invasion holder, and it's pre-invasion value. In term of it's detail, and the speed at which it was carried out, the Domesday Book stands out as the most remarkable administrative accomplishment by a government in Europe during the Middle Ages.

The Domesday Book was recorded in Latin, and the 'Terra Willelmi Chievre' included 47 lordships in barony in Devonshire. The 'Terra Radvlfi De Pomerei' included 60 manors, most in Devonshire, the remainder in Somerset. Together they held over 45,000 acres under cultivation, as well as thousands of slaves (serfs), and hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep, and goats.

[ Comings soon: Images of the Domesday Text. ]

Sources: The text of Domesday Book has been printed and translated several times. 'Domesday Book: History from the sources' (Chicester 1975) includes the Latin and translation, in some 15 volumes.

In 1986 (the 900th year anniversary), the original Domesday Book (784 parchment pages) was disbound and photographed, and a "perfect facsimile version" was published. Unfortunately, this book seems to be almost as rare as the original; I've only been able to find one copy within a 400 mile radius of Chicago.

Sibil, daughter of William Chievre married Robert II Burdet de Cullei (now Rabodanges, Orne), whom she accompanied to Tarragone.

The fief of Ralph De Pomerei remained in the possession of the Pomeroys for 500 years, but the fief of William Chievre, later known as the honour of Bradnich, escheated and was regranted to William de Tracy, a natural son of Henry I. William de Tracy was also one of the group of four knights who, on December 29 1170, murdered Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, for King Henry II. (The others involved were Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Murville and Richard le Breton).

Sources: 'The Domesday Book: England's Heritage, Then and Now' (Hutchinson, London, 1985) provides information on key places and people, including William Chievre and Ralph Pomeroy.

The book 'Domesday People: a Prosopography of persons occurring in English documents 1066-1166' (Keats-Rohan, Boydell Press, Rochester NY, 1999), as it's title suggests, derives additional biographical data from period documents. Some of the source documents are included in the appendix. This book in turn references 'English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327 (I.J. Sanders, Oxford Press 1960), 'The Victoria County History' (unpublished?), 'The Ecclesiastical History of Oderic Vitalis' (6 vols, ed. M Chibrall, Oxford Press, 1969-80).

Note: The book above is the one that uses the word 'escheated', and the use of that word raises some questions. Normally 'escheated' means 'reversion of property to the crown when there are no legal heirs'. 'Escheated' is also sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for 'confiscated'. The former use would would challenge the prevailing view that William Chievre had a son Gosfred, and Gosfred's son William accompanied Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare in the Norman Invasion of Ireland below. Interpreting 'escheated' as 'confiscated' however would put the Chievre family into a parallel situation as the fitz Gilberts. Namely, it's well known that Richard's father, Gilbert de Clare, had had his fief confiscated by King Stephen (who succeeded Henry I) because his uncle supported Empress Matilda as the rightful successor of Henry I. The loss of fief is what led Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare to seek greater fortunes in Ireland. Since there is some doubt on what happened to the honour of Bradnich, it is worth mentioning until I find more information.

1172 - The Norman Invasion of Ireland
In Ireland, earliest record of the surname is of Cheevers who were companions to the warrior Strongbow (Richard FitzGilbert, also known as Richard de Clare, second Earl of Pembroke), who invaded the Wexford coast from Wales.

Source: This claim is second hand, and I haven't yet found what was the primary source. There are two surviving first-hand accounts of the invasion. The first is 'Expugnatio Hibernia' (available in print under the title "English Conquest of Ireland, A.D. 1166-1185") by Giraldus Cambrensis ("Gerald of Wales), a close relative of the leaders of the Norman Invaders. The second is 'Le Chason de Dermot e li quens Richard FitzGilbert', usually attributed to Maurice Regan, King Dermot's official interpreter. Both accounts give detailed accounts of the invasion, including names of several dozen participants, but the Cheevers name does not appear in either. We do know that the Cheevers received land grants when lands in the baronies of Bargy and Forth were parceled out after the invasion. However Irish land was parceled out both to those who took part in the invasion, and to others afterwords for the purpose of plantation. I'm still investigating this to see whether the Cheevers were of the former group or the later. I am following two leads. The first is from Norman Davies' 'The Isles': "...the King (Henry II) decided to award the lordship of Ireland to his youngest and landless son, Jean (Jean sans Terre, also known as John Lackland). The decision was implemented by the Council of Oxford in May 1777, when the fiefs of the leading barons in Ireland wer also confirmed." The second is from Richard Roche's 'The Norman Invasion of Ireland': "Strongbow granted these two baronies (Forth and Bargy) to Hervey de Monte Marisco who colonised his holdings with Norman, Flemish and Welsh soldiers and followers, dividing the lands between the Suttons, Prendergasts, Roches, Sinnotts, Rossiters, Furlongs, Hays, Keatings, Cheevers, Codds and others."

1172-1485 - Assimilation
For the next 300 years, the Norman-Irish were left mostly to themselves; England was distracted by war (the Hundred Years War and the War of the Roses) and other concerns. The Norman invaders of Ireland adopted the culture of their new land quickly and thoroughly. It is said that the Norman-Irish spoke Gaelic before the Normans of England spoke English.

It was at this time that Balyhaly (Balyheally/Balyhealy) and Balyseskin were settled as Cheevers family seats. Balyhaly and Balyseskin are on the Wexford coast roughly halfway between Waterford and Wexford.

BalyHaly can be found on the Irlandia Regnum, the definitive atlas of Ireland published in Amsterdam circa 1606, as part of the Mercador-Hondius. The town is roughly at the center of the detail below. Slighly to the east (down on this map) is BalySeskyn. - Source: All maps are taken from the Map Collections of the United States Library of Congress

Ballyhealy Castle was built by the Cheevers circa 1247. This castle is still standing, in good condition, and is "one of the oldest habitable Norman Tower Castles of Ireland". The current owner has done some restoration work and has made it available for rent as a Bed and Breakfast.

In this period there is also a record of Milo Cheevers, and his son, Geoffrey, who was born in 1296. Geoffrey Cheevers was an ancestor of Walter Cheevers, who was Commissioner of Meath in 1463. - Source: Secondary sources. I am searching for the original source.

(Circa 1330) "...and in addition to the lands of Dundrum, [ the Fitzwilliams ] acquired those of Ballinteer, anciently called Cheeverstown, from a family of that name." - Source: Ball's "A History of the County Dublin".

(Ballinteer is a half mile south of Dundrum, which itself is three miles due south of Dublin city center.)

There appears to have been another town to the West of Dublin, near Tallaght, which was also briefly known as Cheeverstown. That placename survives today in the name of an institution located near Tallaght; "Cheeverstown is a voluntary orginisation dedicated to the provision of services to children and adults with a mental handicap."

John Chever was mayor of Wexford in 1403 (possibly until 1440).

1485-1607 - Ireland under Tudor England
The Tudor Dynasty took many steps to reverse the independence of Ireland, and the independence of the Norman Irish Lords. Poynings's Law of 1494 stated that all acts of the Irish Parliament must be approved by the English Parliament. In 1537, the Anglican religion was made the official religion of the Church of Ireland. In 1531, Henry VIII declared himself King of Ireland.

In 1539, the Castle of Monkstown and its lands were granted by Henry VIII to Sir John Travers. John Travers son Henry Travers had two granddaughters; Katherine, who would go on to marry John Cheevers of Macetown, and Mary, would would marry James Eustace. Mary and James were childless, and the Monkstown estate was passed to the Henry Cheevers line, while the Macetown estate continued with Baronet Christopher Cheevers' line. Christopher himself had a son he named John, who was later exiled to Killigan by Cromwell. ("Killigan" possibly should be "Killian"?).
- Source: Most of the information above has been found in "A History of the County Dublin", a monumental compilation of records by Francis Elrington Ball, published in six volumes between 1902 and 1920. (Currently viewable on Google Books, as well as at http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofcountyd01ball/historyofcountyd01ball_djvu.txt.

Macetown is roughly halfway between Drogheda and Dublin, and can be found on this map of 1797, labelled as "A New Map of Ireland, Civil and Ecclesiastical, by The Rev. Daniel Augustus Beaufort, Member of the Royal Irish Academy". Macetown (and Cookstown, which will be mentioned later) are at the center of the detail to the right.

During the same period, there is an Edward Cheevers of Wexford, listed in a compilation of Irish Confessors and Martyrs, as having been hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1581 for conveying priests out of Ireland.


1608-1640 - Prelude to War
James I, the first Stuart King of England, greatly accelerated the plantation of Ireland, especially in Ulster. The Celtic Irish were not the only to lose land; 'Discoverers' were employed to find defects in the land titles of the old Norman-Irish and to claim the land for the Crown (one more reason why the pedigrees Norman-Irish families are so richly documented). Irish discontent grew.

In 1610, Monkstown Castle passed from Sir Gerald Aylmer into the hands of Henry Cheevers, by nature of the following inheritance: Henry Cheevers was the son of John Cheevers and Mary Pipho. Mary Pipho was the sister of Katherine Pipho, who was married to James Eustace, who was the son of Viscount Baltinglas, who's wife, the Viscountess had taken Sir Gerald Aylmer as her second husband.

Monkstown is 4 miles southeast of Dublin city central, Dublin city central, on the way to, and a mile short of, Dun Laoghaire. It can be found (labelled as Moncton) on the Irlandia Regnum.

Henry Cheevers died in 1640, and Monkstown Castle passed to his son Walter Cheevers. Walter Cheevers married the daughter of his neighbor, Sir Richard Fitzwilliam. Sir Richard Fitzwilliam was of the Fitzwilliams who acquired Cheeverstown in the 14th century, and an ancestor (female line) of the Earls of Pembroke. Recall that the Cheevers first came to Ireland in the 12th century with Strongbow, second Earl of Pembroke.

( If it seems like characters are starting to reappear in this story, note that circa 1750 the population of the seven parishes of Dublin was recorded as only 2428 persons. )

1639-1649 - The Wars of the Three Kingdoms
An account of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and its causes is beyond the scope of this article. For the point of this narrative, the important facts are that (Presbyterian) Scotland went to war with King Charles I in 1639. The Puritan Parliament, with military forces led by Oliver Cromwell, would ally with the Scots and go to war with the King in 1642.

In 1640 Ireland, seeing England weakened, attempted to have the Ulster plantation ceased and other grievances redressed, at first through parliamentary action. Garret Cheevers, a Catholic, was a Member of the Irish Parliament (Commons) during some of these 1640 sessions.

The Dublin Parliament was unsuccessful, and the Irish Rebellion broke in Ulster in October of 1641. By 1649, the Parliamentarians had executed King Charles I. Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland in a brutal campaign of terror meant to crush resistance to English rule and to eliminate the Catholic faith in Ireland.

1649-1653 - The Confiscations
To decimate the Catholic power base in Ireland, Catholic land in Ulster, Munster, and Leinster was confiscated, and landowners were assigned new homes in Connaught.

In winter of 1653, Walter Cheevers was ordered to vacate the castle and his ancestral home and to transplant to Connaught. He left with his wife (a daughter of Viscount Netterville), five children, the eldest of which was only seven years of age, six men and four women servants, four tenants who elected to share their landlord's fortunes, and by their horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs.

1660 - Restoration
The Monarchy had been abolished and for nine years (1649-1658) Oliver Cromwell attempted to run the country as a Parliamentary Republic. With no balance of power, the results were folly. It became accepted that a monarchy was necessary in England. After Cromwell died of natural causes (1958), the Monarchy was restored (1660). Charles II's was crowned in 1661. Many Parliamentarian regicides were themselves executed. Oliver Cromwells body was disinterred and ritually mutilated.

After the restoration in November, 1660, Walter Cheevers was restored to his estates. At the time, the population was recorded as eleven English and fifty-three Irish, of whom fifteen besides Cheevers were householders.

The fate of the rest of the party which left with Walter is not recorded, but at the time of Walter's death in 1678, he had only one living child, a daughter, the wife of John Byrne. Monkstown Castle was thus passed to the Byrne family.

As for the John Cheevers of Macetown, who was exiled to Killigan, it's not clear if his property was restored, or if he remained in the west. Edward Cheevers, Viscount Mount Leinster, and son of John Cheevers, was "the great exiled Jacobite outlaw".

1700-1799
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1800-1899
During the famine years, the administrative unit 'poor law union' was created. Landowners within a given union would be taxed to support the poor within that union. Sir Richard Griffith executed a survey in 1857, now known as Griffith's Valuation, to determine the taxable property in each union.

Recorded in this survey are John and Christopher Cheevers, landlords in the townlands of Lisnageeragh, Balling, Kilcolumb, Oughtagh, Curraghmulmurry, and Toberroe East in Parish Ballynakill, Barony Ballymoe, County Galway.

Also during this time (from 1788-1868) were the transportations of Irish convicts to Australia. Many of the transportation records were destroyed. Also, in cases where families elected to join in travel with the convict (as free settlers), the family information is often missing or incomplete. Many records do exist, and a few Cheevers were among those transported. Note that the administration of justice to the Irish by the British Government was often a political or 'racial' affair, with harsh sentences handed down for trivial offenses. In fact, three of the convicts below are children (ages 15, 16, and 17).

- John Cheevers, Dairyman, born 1789 Co. Meath, was tried in 1817 in Dublin City and sentenced to 7 years, and transported on the Minerva I in 1818 to New South Wales
- Patrick Cheevers, Labourer, born 1801 in Dublin, was tried in 1817 in Dublin City and sentenced to Life, and transported on the Minerva I in 1818 to New South Wales
- Michael Cheevers, born 1821, was tried on March 3 1836 in Dublin City and sentenced to 7 years for Felony handkerchief (masked?), and transported on ship unknown.
- William Cheevers, born 1834, was tried on June 7 1850 in Co. Tyrone and sentenced to 10 years for Larceny, and transported on the Lord Aukland.

1900-present
The Cheevers family name is most often found in The United State, Canada, Australia, and of course Ireland and Great Britain. In the 1990 United States census, there were about 500 Cheevers, making it the 47,956th most popular name in the US. (There were 2500 with surname 'Cheever', and that name ranks 10,647). Recent additions to the Cheevers stories can be found in the following forums:
Genforum: genforum.genealogy.com/cheevers
Familyhistory.com: www.familyhistory.com/surnames.asp?surname=Cheevers"