William Bill

1505 - 1561  (56 years)    Has no ancestors but more than 100 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	William Bill  [1, 2]
  Birth	1505	Ashwell, Hertford, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	15 Jul 1561  [1]
  Burial	Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England
  Person ID	I210487	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	27 Sep 2011

  
  

  Family	NN,   b. Aft 1500   d. Yes, date unknown
  Children	+ 1. Charles Bill,   b. 1550, London, Middlesex, England d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F87271	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Mar 2001

  
  

• Notes

  William Bill was Master of Trinity, Provost of Eton and Dean of Westminster. Dean Bill, who wrote the statutes of Westminster, was buried in Westminster Abbey in what is known as the Deans' Chapel, named entirely in his honor." Musgrave's Obituary lists a William Bill, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge . Prov. Eton and Dean of Westmr., died 15th July 1561 (Neve's FASTI, 362, 364, 437; Mon. Westm. 53, 226; view London, 500; Carter's Cambridge 267, 317, 330, 410. Doris Hagberg of Jamestown, New York writes that a Bill relative of hers is buried at Westminster Abbey near the souvenir stand,' "The Bill family of England has an ancient and honorable record, extending back almost to the beginning of the use of surnames in that country. The name means a kind of weapon, and the progenitor doubtless took his surname from his occupation in war, a bill man. A bill was an ancient battle ax. The family is from Denmark originally, according to the best authority. The family has been prominent in Shropshire for some five centuries and is numerous also in Wiltshire and Staffordshire. Dr. Thomas Bill, born about 1490, was a prominent physician, an attendant of Queen Elizabeth. I'm not certain of this relationship to our family - but it is very probable. SEE: Harleian Society - Musgrave's Obituaries, London, England LDS Ancestral File, MTTP-XN. Bill Family Memoirs History of the Bill Family by Ledyard Bill. A Topographical Dictionary of England A Topographical Dictionary of England: Volume 1 A Preface page 55 ASHWELL, a parish in the hundred of ODSEY, county of HERTFORD, 4¼ miles (N.N.E.) from Baldock, containing 915 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £22. 3. 6½., and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious edifice with a tower supporting a lofty spire. Ashwell is a place of great antiquity, and was a market town at the time of the Norman survey. Within the parish is an entrenchment, supposed to be Roman; and urns, coins, and other antiquities have been found in the neighbourhood. A small manor here was held by Walter Somoner, in petit serjeantry, by the service of providing spits and roasting meat in the king's kitchen on the day of his coronation. The only trade carried on is in malt, the barley produced in the neighbourhood being of a peculiarly excellent quality. There are a free school with an endowment of £14 per annum, for the education of fourteen boys, and endowed alms houses for six inmates. HERTFORDSHIRE "Hertfordshire (or Herts), an inland Co. in SE. of England, bounded N. by Cambridgeshire, E. by Essex, S. by Middlesex, W. by Bucks, and NW. by Bedfordshire; greatest length, NE. and SW., 35 miles; greatest breadth, E. and W., 26 miles: 465,141 acres, population 203,069. In appearance the county is hilly, but interspersed with fine pasture lands, arable farms, and picturesque parks and woods. The Lea, the Colne, and the Ivel are the principal rivers; the Grand Junction Canal likewise passes through a part of the county. A large number of the inhabitants are employed in husbandry, and in addition to grain of choice quality, hay, vegetables, and numerous fruits and flowers are extensively cultivated, especially for the London market. The greater portion of the commerce of the county is supported by the trade in corn and malt. Manufactures are few; paper-making silk-weaving, and straw-plaiting being the principal industries. Railways penetrate to all parts of the county; no place is at a greater distance than 5 miles from a station. Geologically the greater part of Herts consists, of Lower, Middle, and Upper Chalk; in the S. is the London clay. The minerals are of no commercial importance. Herts. comprises 8 hundreds, 138 parishes, and parts of 3 others, and the municipal boroughs of Hertford and St Albans. It is almost entirely in the diocese of St Albans. For parliamentary purposes it is divided into 4 divisions, viz., Northern or Hitchin, Eastern or Hertford, Mid or St Albans, and Western or Watford, 1 member for each. It sent 3 members till 1885." (Transcribed from Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887. -C.H.)

  
  

• Sources

  [S867] Sir William Musgrave, 6th Baronet of Haydon Castle, County Cumberland, Edited by Sir George J. Armytage, Baronet F.S.A. Honorary Sec. of the Harleian Society, The publications of The Harleian Society, (Vol XLIV for the year MDCCCXCIX; Volume 1 London, 1899). [S868] Editorial Staff: William Richard cutter, A.M.; Edward henry Clement; Samuel Hart, D.D., D.C.L.; Mary Kingsbury Talcott; Frederick Bostwick; Ezra Scollay Stearns, Genealogical and Family History of the State of CT, (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1911), p.283 (Reliability: 2).