By Lester Warren Fish
2 THE FISH FAMILY
in meadow, "in the territory of Huntewick" in Yorkshire, which
Hugh De Towleston at that time, "for health of his soul and all
his ancestors and survivors," granted and confirmed to God and
the Church of St. Oswald's of Nostell, according to the Nostell
Priory Coucher, and the canons of the same place. Although
the records of consecutive generations are lacking, it would seem
that the Fish family were numerous in Yorkshire for three and
a half centuries previous to the introduction of Parish registers.
In 1310 John Fische was an alderman of the town of York,
and a few years later a John Fische, undoubtedly the same per-
son, was a bailiff of York. His wife Alice is mentioned in 1323
as having a son, William. This William was a bailiff of York
during the years 1333 and 1338, the year of the beginning of the
Hundred Years War, and again in 1342. (Our word "blanket"
originated in 1337 in Bristol, England, when Thomas Blanket
set up looms and began making comforters.) In 1367 he was alder-
man of York. (On the American continent, as yet undiscovered
by white men, Oraibi was established by the Indians in Arizona
in 1370, and is the oldest permanently inhabited settlement in the
United States.)
SIR EDMUND FISCHE, KNIGHT (OF YORK), TAILLIOUR
In 1444 Edmund Fische of this family was admitted to citizen-
ship as a "Tailliour." (It was two years later that the hand gun
was invented in England, in 1446.) Apparently he was prosperous,
and a loyal adherent of King Henry VI, who knighted him Sir
Edmund Fyshe at the battle of Hexham, in 1464 (nine years
before the birth of Copernicus who was the first to demonstrate that
the earth moves around the sun). He was killed in this battle
which was fought betwen the followers of Henry VI and Edward IV,
terminating the struggle between the houses of Lan-
caster and York. Henry VI and his consort preserved their lives
by flight, but disastrous indeed was the fate of his adherents.
The Duke of Somerset and four of his retainers were captured
first Parliament of Edward IV forfeited to the King, "all the
messuages, lands and tenements of Edmund Fyshe, 'tailliour,'
late of York," and in 1465 granted them to "Elizabeth Gyrlington,
widow of Nicholas Gyrlington, for his good service to King
and to the King's father." (The year 1454 marked the beginning
of modern printing, one of the most important dates in the history
of all Christendom, when Gutenberg printed the Bible by movable
type).
EARLY FISH FAMILIES IN ENGLAND 3
EDWARD FYSHE
Head of Family in Great Bowden, England
Contemporary with Richard Fysh and Rothland Fyshe of
Braybrook was Edward Fyshe of Market Harborow, four miles
distant, but we do not know of any direct relationship. He was
the first of the name to live in the parish of Great Bowden, and
it was from Market Harborow that the earliest Fish emigrants
left for America, a little over one hundred years after his death
in 1518.
In September 1508 the location of the tenement of Edward
is mentioned in the parisk records as lying on the northerly side
of a messuage in Haverburgh. In his will, proved in 1518, his
wife Agnes, one son Richard, and his other brothers and sisters
are mentioned. (His death occurred one year before Cortez began
his conquest of Mexico and one year before Magellan circumnavi-
gated the globe.)
ESTABLISHMENT OF PARISH REGISTERS
It was not until in 1538, after Henry VIII had thrown off the
yoke of Rome and had re-established the independence of the
Anglican church, that he ordered the adoption throughout the
kingdom of the system of Parish registers of baptisms, marriages
and burials which is in use up to the present time. In many
places this order was not complied with at once; the registers of
Great Bowden commence only with the year 1559, and from this
period only we clearly and certainly construct the family
pedigree, yet it would seem that the Fish family had been num-
erous in Yorkshire for three and a half centuries.
GREAT BOWDEN PARISH
The Parish of Great Bowden (having an area of about 3,120
acres and a population of 7,735 souls in 1901) is located in Leices-
tershire, which is about in the center of England. Great Bowden
lies in the midst of a fertile farming district on the southeasterly
border of Leicester, separated from Northamptonshire by the
River Welland. Its chief community is the town of Market
Harborough, which is a thrifty business center 75 miles north
of London, and here dwell at least three-fourths of the inhabi-
tants of the parish. On its southwest border Great Bowden is
separated from Warwickshire by an ancient Roman Road,
Watling Street, which forms the boundary line between them.
This Imperial Highway, extending from Dover through London
to the border of the Empire on the Welsh coast, was constructed
4 THE FISH FAMILY
by the Romans soon after their occupation of Britain in the first
century, as was their custom in every Roman Province.
In 1645 King Charles fixed his headquaters at Market Har-
borough, adjoining Noseby, just prior to the battle where he
was decisvely defeated by the Parliamentarian army. (This was
two years after Torricelli invented the barometer.) (Market Har-
borrow is now a favorite hunting-ground for English sportsmen
to ride to the hounds.) In the days of papal supremacy in Eng-
land, the ancient parish still bore the Roman name of Bowden
Magna. A tablet on the porch of the present parish church con-
tains a list of the priests and rectors of the parish commencing
with the year 1215, and coming down continuously to the present time.
THE OLD PARISH CHURCH
The present parish church, standing on the north side of the
public green in the little village of Great Bowden, is dedicated
to Saints Peter and Paul. It is a long, low, picturesque building
of stone, a square tower at the west end, surmounted by a short
octagonal spire. The chief entrance is through the south porch,
which is reached by a path fenced in on either side by rows of
old tombstones, elaborately carved, their inscriptions now al-
most undecipherable. Inside on the north wall of the chancel is
the Fish tablet, erected to the memory of Henrietta, wife of
Augustine Fish, Gentleman, and daughter of Sire Edmund Farmer
of Middlesex, Knight, who died in 1703. Upon this tablet are
engraved the Arms of the Fish and Farmer families. This Augus-
time was a great grand nephew of William Fish who settled in
Windsor, Conn., in 1642.
EARLY RELIGION OF THE GREAT BOWDEN FAMILY
As a rule, in the old Catholic days, the members of the Fish
family were loyal and faithful supporters of the Roman Catholic
Church, and some of them entered the priesthood of became
members of the religious houses. After the establishment of the
English Church on the Protestant basis by King Henry VIII,
however, they easily adjusted themselves and their religious
life to the new conditions. Every generation furnished its share
of church warders and officials. The parish registers contain
more than two hundred entries of baptisms, marriages and burials,
down to the latter half of the nineteenth century, when as the
present Vicar of the Great Bowden Church told recent visitors
the last of the Fish name died, in 1888, before he came to the
parish. There are also many Fish records in neighboring parishes,
where members of the family have lived.
EARLY FISH FAMILIES IN ENGLAND 5
DESCENDANTS OF JOHN1 FYSHE
THE ANCESTRAL LINE of the early immigrants to New England,
as now certainly known, begins with JOHN1 FYSHE of Market
Haborow, Great Bowden Parish, who was probably born not
far from the year 1555. (The first Life Insurance Policy was
issued to William Gibbons June 18, 1583, for 1800 pounds.) John, who
was of the yeoman class, m. Margaret, whose maiden name there
is much reason to believe may have been Cradock. The record
of this marriage is not found in the parish but all their children
were baptized there. Most of them reached maturity and mar-
ried, and their families are well accounted for in the wills of John
and Margaret. He d. Feb. 19, 1622. She d. 1630/31. (The watch
was invented in Nuremburg, Germany, in 1590.)
There were dwelliing in the parish in the interim, however,
some of Edward's children and grandchildren, no doubt, and
they constituted the connection between Edward in 1518 and
John1 who was born about 1555, four years before Great Bowden
parish records were first officially kept. (San Marcos University
at Lima, Peru, the oldest university in the Western Hemisphere,
was established in May 1551.) There were five of that name
buried in Great Bowden. The earliest entries on the Great
Bowden registers were the records of these burials, as follows:
"Augustine Fyshe, 1560 7 may, Edward 1560 30 may, Tobye
1563 8 oct., Thomas 1570 4 jan., Augustine 1579 26 aug." They
doubtless relate to the disappearing second or third generation
between Edward, the first of the name in Great Bowden, and
John1. We may surmise that Augustine Fyshe who died 1579
26 Aug. was the father of John1, and the other four may have
been his uncles or perhaps his older brothers or cousins.
WILL OF JOHN FYSHE
FILED 1622
Leicester wills No.102
Will of John Fysh of Bowden, Magna, proved 1623/24 2 jan. (sic): I, John
Fysh of Bowden Magna, county of Leicester, yeoman, being sick of body do
ordain and make, etc. To William Fish my second son and his heirs, one old
cottage with two cow pastures and ten sheep, commons adjoining unto his
dwelling house, which I purchased of Sir Thomas Gryfin. To Francis Fish
my fifth son, one cottage with a close and orchard now in the occupation of
Richard Winant, laborer. To Robert2 Fish of Market Harborough, my son-
in-law [who married Alice2 Fish], one piece of meadow in little Bowden field,
called Stony Holme. To Thomas3, eldest son of Robert2 and Alice2, Five arable
lands in Lubnam brook, now in his occupation. To Elizabeth Ashton, my
niece, one cottage with two cow pastures and ten sheep common, she paying
6 THE FISH FAMILY
yearly for the same unto John2 Fish my youngest son 6s.8d duriing her natural
life providing that John2 shall have power to cut, lop and carry away wood.
To John Fish my youngest son and his heirs, three closes which I purchased
of my kinsman William Cradock of Farndon, one lying west of town betwixt
the land of John2 Fish and Richard Kirbie, another in the middle of the town,
next to the land pf Jeffrey Parsons and John Mason, and one in yeast and
next to the lands of Francis Fish and Thomas Wells the younger, also the old
cottage after the death of Elizabeth ashton, my neice, and all my timber
except pne tazletre and a squared piece of my myle, which I give unto my
eldest son Austin (Augustine) Fish further except the mylln post, and give
it unto Austin2 Fish my eldest son, he paying his mother 40s., residue to
Margaret my wife, whom exectrix.
seal
Signed: John Fysh I.F.
(divided by a spray
of roses)
Witnesses: Augustine Fish
William Hallick
Proved 9 mar. (sic.) by relict and executrix.
Children:
+ 2 Augustine2, bapt. June 11,1578; d.Apr. 29, 1646; m. Christian
_______.
+ 3 William, bapt. Mar.9,1580/81; d.Sept. 13,1658; m. Ann Parsons,
1620.
4 Kathryn, bapt. Apr. 15,1582.
+ 5 Thomas, bapt. May 8,1584; d.Jan. 12,1673/74; m. Mary Sprigge.
6 Sara, bapt. Apr. 11,1586; m. John Johnson, 1604.
7 Ambrose, bapt. July 6, 1588, Market Harborough; d.1628.
8 May, bapt. Dec. 20, 1589.
9 Elizabeth, bapt. Nov. 15,1591; m.Edward Marston,1616.
10 Francis, bapt. Oct.29,1593 (five years after the defeat of the Spanish
Armada).
11 Anne, bapt. June 2, 1596.
+ 12 Alice, bapt. Nov 6, 1597; m. Robert Fyshe, 1617/18.
13 Mary, bapt. Dec. 8, 1599.
14 John, bapt. Jan 26, 1601/02.
We know nothing of the descendants of (7) Ambrose, (10) Francis
or (14) John.
Ambrose received his B.A. at Christ College, Cambridge
University, in 1608 (the year of the founding of Quebec by Cham-
plain), and his M.A. in 1612 (only one year after the completion
of the translation of the Bible, "the King James Version," and one
year before the first trading-post was established on the Island of
Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson). In 1616 he was ordained
Priest in London. On June 16,1619 (the year of the arrival of the
first negro slaves at Jamestown, Va.), he was instituted as Rector
of the Parish of Raunds in Northamptonshire, King James being
the Patron of the Living. He remained in London until 1623,