Historic Events

54 BC, Written history begins with the arrival of the Romans. It was recorded that the inhabitant wives shared the men in groups of 10 to 12 men. The women led armies, and married Romans. During the Roman era the population reached between 4 and 6 million. There were large scale developments of villas in the Cirencester area. The prosperity and population did not reach this level again until the 1600's.

The Saxons came between 400 and 600. They did not replace the existing population. They augmented a population in decline.
800's - The Saxon manor of Eycote is created by charter. Possibly by bishop of Worcester. Essentially it was land grant to someone.
1066 - William the Conqueror brings 4000 knights to England. 36 Baronies were created that lasted until 1327.
1086 - Domesday census. Villains held 45% of the land, another 41% were free men. Yet 14% of the population held 20% of the land. Cottagers held 5% of the land but comprised 32% of the population. Serfs were 10% and held no land at all. Ordvic held Eycote from the Bishop of Worcester.

1000 - North Cerney, Bagendon churches were in existence
1264 - Bishop of Worcester supports Simon de Montfort against Henry III
1314 - Battle of Bannockburn, England defeated by the Scots.
1316 - Simon de Eycote master of St. Giles Hospital, Durham appointed by Edward II
1319 - English defeated in North Yorkshire by Scots, Simon de Eycote ceases to be master.
1327 - Subsidy roles for taxation recorded the names of taxpayers in different places. The first large scale records of existing persons. Eycotts recorded at Cirencester and North Cerney
1337 - Hundred Years War begun, Edward III is king, the wool trade is good with a demand in Europe for the high grade wool. Flocks are now smaller. Villeins often pay cash rather than carry out feudal duties. It is the peak of the feudal times. Parliament is raising money from tax on wool and controlling the king who is spending much on French wars.

1342 - John Eycott signs petition as a townsman to get the Abbott out of medaling in their affairs, Also to keep town free.
1346 - Thomas Neel of Purton sub leases Eycote
1348 - plague arrives repeats in 1361, 1374 and other times. Back of feudal system broken because labour is scarce and expensive. Labourers are at a premium, farms are vacated. The population is cut in half. Cloth manufacturing is begun. Huge flocks of sheep are held by few landowners including the
Thynnes and the Bishops. 2 rectors of North Cerney die in plague.
1362 - Norman french abolished in courts etc. English spoken in recognizable form, Chaucer writes
1370's - wills have come into fashion
1376 - Burgesses and gentry hold first Commons, Oxford University flourishing, clock built for Salisbury cathedral. Wycliffe preaches the reformation.
1377 - Richard II is king

1381 - peasants revolt over taxes as there is another set of poll tax rolls
1382 - company of weavers of Cirencester are given Bagendon but they give it to priests in Cirencester
1394 - John Eycott does Wardstaff duty at Berrefordbrugge. (Perrott's Brook)
1413 - Henry V captures lands in France
1416 - John Eycott witnesses a grant
1421 - John and Thomas transfer land, John Warre gives Eycote to Winchcombe Abbey
1429 - Joan of Arc
1430 - knights loose voting rights given to all freeholders who are worth 40 shillings( a large sum)
1453 - English loses last of French lands
1464 - John Eicote is curate of North Cerney church, War of Roses , Church is with Yorkists, Brick and Stone manor houses are in style. Eycote window placed in church.
1470 - Worst of great plagues over, population begins to rise until epidemic of 1557-9
1485 - Battle of Bosworth ends war of Roses, N. Cerney church new window has Yorkist badge
There are 55 peers in the aristocracy and there is no change until 1597

1509 - Henry VIII is king to 1545
1510 - A great increase in the value of Cotswold wool for the next decades.
1525 - Wyllyam Eycott witnesses will of Thomas Foxley
1538 - Churches ordered to keep records of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths. Many earlier records lost because of Dissolution.
1540 - Edmund Tame of Fairford and wife Catherine Stafford acquire Eycote manor, after Dissolution it becomes part of Rendcomb Park estate. Monasteries all destroyed 1536-40. Feudal laws on land holding abolished.
1551 - There are 881 freemen of the City of London
1552 - Registration of the poor by parish begun, enforced until 1834 (the poor laws)
1558 - Elizabeth I is queen, 1559 Anglican Church becomes the legal church.
1560 - College of Heralds grants 6000 coats of arms from 1560 to 1640. None to Eycott or Eacott
1564 - Berkeley family hold Eycote Manor
1566 - Rendcomb parish established
1570 - Age of great country houses being built lasts until 1620
1569/79 - Ales and others born to John, Thomas, Robert. This is a time of great wealth because of weaving and sheep rearing, the start of enclosure of fields. Catholics are rebellious, Drake circles world. 1572 Thomas Eycott is churchwarden at Bagendon, only 7 families attend
1581/3 - wills of Thomas and Richard show them to have been very well off. The first Ecott.
1588 - Spanish armada defeated, time of Shakespeare
1594/ 1605 - many Ecott references
1600 - By this time about half the population could read and write. Literacy began to decline after industrialization began and population rose rapidly. Population in 1600 about 4 million. There were few illegitimate births before 17th Century. Marriage was most common in mid 20's.
1603/23 - James I is king, Barons and Abbots brought low, the gentry and burgesses wield more power, a time of mansions in country, many are now Puritans and not Anglicans.

1605 - Gunpowder plot, state church
1608 - Thomas Coots fit for Militia, Eycotts not included in lists so may have antigovernment

feelings.

1611 - Marquis of Bath, John Thynne builds Longleat
1619 - Eacott of Rendcombe, 3 brothers, 3 sisters in Joan's will
1630 - earliest Bagendon parish register
1632 - Charles I abolishes Parliament, Richard Ecut, roughmason dies at Bagendon
1635 - Guise family assumes ownership of Eycote till 1864
1638 - Long Parliament meets
1642/6 - Civil war leads to Kings overthrow. Over 100 000 killed during war. Cromwell takes over with a strong Puritan government. Gloucester a weaving town is a puritan stronghold. Many schools begun. Newton born.
1646/60 - The Commonwealth under Cromwell, Ministers of Bagendon appointed by Cromwell and are Puritans
1653 - Thomas Vyner, goldsmith, from North Cerney is Lord Mayor of London. Cromhall parish register records begin.
1655 - England divided into parishes and districts under a Major General. Cromwell begins to deport convicts to America. Bristol is now second largest city and remains so until overtaken by Liverpool in mid 1700's
1661 - Richard Eacott living at North Cerney, Charles II is King, American colonies are growing rapidly, great wealth coming from West Indies, half the land of England owned by 160 peers.
1662 - New poor laws force poor to go back to home county. A big increase in number of poor has begun and creates problems.
1666 - Great fire of London, Pepys diary, Richard of Woodmancote is indicted for legal matter.
1665 - The goldsmiths start to become bankers and begin mortgages that lead to many failures in early years of the next century.
1672 - Robert Vyner has become partner in Hudson's Bay Company and also in the newly formed slave trading company.
1673 - Dissenters (nonconformists, the non Anglican protestants) excluded from political office.
1681/8 - James II leans to catholic restoration
1688 - Royal powers of the king are limited and king rules by invitation of parliament.
1689 - revolution makes parliament supreme, religious Toleration Acts allows freedom of worship to Protestants but only Anglicans can hold office. William of Orange made king followed by Anne
1696/7 - Eacotts now at South Cerney, Cromhall, and Warminster.

1701 - act of Settlement and rights of citizens established
1703 - Eacotts at Purton
1707 - Union with Scotland
1710 - Eycott and Eacott at London and on April 19, John Eacutt was a juryman at Southham Manor. A leet Court, the business was to order some ditches cleaned and repaired.
1714 - George I
1715 - North Cerney Eycotts swear oath of allegiance as papists(Catholics), Thomas is made constable of Bagendon. Must be influential person. Berkeley Eycott was sequestrator of Bagendon church, in 1714 an attempt to trade 5 acres of Berkeleys land for some church land

was made to raise some money for repairs to church.

1719 - Richard of Tetbury charged with name calling
1727 - George II
1734 - rioters destroy toll booths at Cairncross house. F. Eycott of Oakfields rebuilds the gates.
1735 - John Eccutt and two others of Uphaven charged with stealing a furnace from Roger Jarvis.
1736 - William Ecott served as juryman at Westbury Wilts.
1740/50 - Thomas Eycott of North Cerney ends line there and John Eycott of Cirencester is a goldsmith both are catholic. The lordship of the Woodmancote Manor goes to "Diamond" Pitt father and grandfather of William Pitt Sr/Jr both Prime Minister of England for most of last half of century. They bring in the Closure Acts ending in 1792 the ancient field patterns.
1753 - Marriage Act only Anglican marriages valid except Jews and Quakers. Lasts to 1837
1755 - John Eycott is trading with the Creek Indians in Tennessee and South Carolina
1759 - Martha Eacott deported to America
1750 - Bath is a centre of culture and style
1760 - George III - Industrial revolution begins, migrations to Lancashire, Midlands and the welsh mines. Cottage industries in villages begin to die as factories grow. Sanitation and science improve life. population of 7 million in 1760 doubles in 40 years. Cotswold loses textile industry to northern mills, fields greatly enclosed
1774 - William Eacott of Gloucester, mason, and wife settle in Jamaica West Indies.
1776 - William Ecutt of Cromhall leaves to several sons an estate with Messuage, tenement and cottages. William born this year grows up and goes abroad to West Indies.
1778 - Thomas of Chippenham and brother John Eacott of Wooton Bassett are plumbers and glaziers.
1792 - Closure Act. Narrows strips of Saxon origin land holding eliminated along with the common pasture land. Fields are enclosed so they can be ploughed. Many Yeomen freeholders are tempted to sell their farms and become tenants because of the effects of these laws.
1797 - Henry Eycott appointed an officer in city of Gloucester, troop of gentlemen and yeomen, cavalry group to defend from Napoleon if invaded

1800 - Henry Eycott running prosperous Bond's Mills at Stonehouse.
1810 - William Eacott a weaver for two years with J & T Clark of Trowbridge
1821 - Thomas Eacott tried in Wiltshire, found guilty and sent to Australia for life.
1830 - Charles Eacott settles in Euphemia Twp Ontario Canada
1830 - Thomas Eacott of Sutton Veny Wilts. arrives in Western Australia on the Rockingham.
1837 - Government takes over registration of marriages.
1841 - First UK census with individuals ages rounded down to 5 or 0. John Eacott, 65 lived in Purton Stoke Wilts. has 2 brothers in America. His age between 65 and 69
1851 - First Census of UK in which significant data is available.
1860 - to 1863 Thomas Eycott, furniture dealer, Gloucester city, lived behind shop which was located in the right angle formed by King St. and Oxbody lane.

1863 - Rendcomb mansion built.
1881 - major detailed census records freely available and each 10 years after, once a hundred years has passed.

William I 1066 -1087 -    Alric
Edward II 1307 -1327 - appoints Simon de Eycote master of St Giles Kepier Hospital
Edward III 1327 -1377 - 1342 petition
Richard II 1377 -1399  -   (minor until 1389, deposed 1399 -last of Plantagenets) Johannes does Wardstaff duty 1394
Henry V 1413 -1422   -    (won Agincourt battle) - 1416 john witness grant
                                        1421 John/Thomas land transfer
Henry VI 1422- 1471 -   (deposed 1461 died in tower) 1464 John Curate of North Cerney Church

Edward VI - 1547 -1553

Mary I 1553 - 1558

Elizabeth I 1558 -1603
The Tudor rose is featured in the N. Cerney church Thus the local empathy was with Elizabeth I
1558 to 1603 - all Eacotts from 1569 to 1603 -Names: John, Robert, Thomas, Richard, William, Alice, Edith, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, Margett, Katherine, Eedie, Eleanor,

James I 1603 - 1625
In the record taken in 1608 for men fit for Militia duty a description is given of Thomas Coots, (eycott-Ekot) this is the only reference to males in Gloucester by this surname. It is obvious that there were others with the family name alive in the area. Therefor they were not considered fit for duty for religious, political or other reasons. James I - son of Mary Queen of Scots - assumption is the Eycotts opposed the king
Names: Thomas, William, Joseph, John, Elizabeth, Richard

Charles I 1625 - 1649   - (beheaded Jan 30 1649)

Cromwell 1653 -1658    - Thomas Vyner Lord Mayor London in 1653
Charles II 1660 -1685    - Robert Vyner Lord Mayor of London, Berkeley Eycott goldsmith apprentice in London, Robert Vyner may have been great uncle of Berkeley

James II 1685 - 1701     - (deposed 1688)
William III /Mary 1689 - 1702
Anne 1702 - 1714
George I 1714 -1727
George II 1727- 1760
George III 1760 -1820
George IV 1820 - 1830     -    Charles Eacott, and Thomas Eacott leave for Canada and Australia respectively
William IV 1830 -1837
Victoria - 1837 -1901        -    Census and other records collected.