Edmund Custis (abt. 1568 - abt. 1620)

Born about 1568 in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England

Husband of Brigett (Smithier) Custis — married 1591 in Bibury, Gloucestershire, England

Descendants

Died about 1620 at about age 52 in Bibury, Gloucestershire, England

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Biography

Edmund or Edmond Custis, was aka Edmund ‘Cliffe’. Edmund was born in Minchinhampton, Gloucesteshire about 1568. He was a clothier living in Arlington, Bibury, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. ^[1] His parents maybe Edmund and Tabitha.

Marriage

Edmund married Bridget Smithers, also known as Mary, about 1590.

Edmund married secondly, Alice Groves on 15 April 1616 in Bibury. ^[2]

Children

Edmund and Brigett were the parents of several children of whom Edmund, Nicholas, Mary, Elizabeth, Henry, William and John are named in Bridget's father, John Smithier (1550-1626)'s will, written about 1618. ^{[3] [4]}

1. Captain John Custis baptised 1 May 1592 in Bibury; ^[5].
2. Joan Cliff alias Custis filius of Edmund Cliff alias Custis of Arlington was baptised 10 August 1594 in Bibury ^[6]
3. Henry Custis (1596-1661) baptised 27 September 1596 in Bibury; ^[7]
4. Elisabeth Cliff alias Custis baptised in Bibury 20 July 1599 ^[8]
5. William Cliff alias Custis baptised in Bibury 10 January 1600 ^[9]
6. Mary Cliff alias Custis baptised in Bibury 28 December 1610 ^[10]

Life Story

He lived in Arlington, part of Bibury in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Arlington Row, Bibury, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, where Edmund and Bridget were from, is a 'chocolate box' image of Cotswold cottages. Once a former wool store built circa 1380 and then converted to weavers’ cottages in the 16th century. Today some are owned by the UK's National Trust.^[11]

Edmund's descendants who went to Virginia used the arms of the family of Cliffe of Ingatestone, Essex, confirmed to them in 1619 - 'Argent a chevron between three popinjays vert beaked and membered gules'. No link has ever been established between Edmund and the Essex Cliffe family. ^[12]

John Custis, a descendant, in the 17th century built a mansion called 'Arlington' in Northampton County, Virginia and this was the inspiration for the naming of the US national cemetery in Washington. ^[13]

Edmund is named in the 1626 will of his father-in-law, John Smithier (1550-1626) (albeit he and Bridgett aka Mary pre-decease him). ^[14]

Death

Edmund died in Bibury about 1620.

Briggett wyfe of Edmond Cliffe alias Custis was buried the 23 February 1611 (taken from Parish Record entry). ^[15]

Research Notes

The Search for your Virginia Ancestors’ Buried Past Posted on April 2, 2008 by Arlene. ^[16] (This blog references two Custis books written by James B. Lynch, Jr., a Custis descendant. The Custis Chronicles - The Years of Migration was published in 1993. The Custis Chronicles - The Virginia Generations was published in 1997). (Excerpt below:) A restless mobility, then is characteristic of the Custis family beginnings. It may well have been inherited from their Cliffe ancestors, whose surname they abandoned at some point during the late years of Queen Elizabeth. Those forebears, appearing first in Yorkshire not long after the conquest, spread over a period of about three hundred years in a north-east to south-east arc from Yorkshire to London to Gloucestershire to Devon.

This transition from Cliffe to Custis, incidentally, is an historical problem which, although conscientiously and methodically addressed in these pages, may never be fully explicable…

Whatever the genetic legacy inherited by founder Edmund Cliffe alias Custis I from these Cliffe forbears, he was probably none the worse for it. On the whole, Edmund and his descendants of the 17th and 18th centuries produced their own distinctive traits. Among these an inclination to be in the right place at the right time: the Netherlands for those who stayed in Europe, and America for those who left.

Perhaps I can shed some light on these two research challenges:

Restless mobility. The Custis family was a mercantile family with a family business which Lynch calls “the Custis Company.” They maintained business offices in London, Gloucester, Dublin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Bruges, Barbados, and Virginia. There is a distinct possibility that the Custis family begins in Scotland–an early example of what we later designate as Anglo-Scottish. Restless mobility is a core characteristic of merchant families–they go where the business and thus, the money are. Restless mobility is also a core characteristic of the Anglo-Scots.

Edmund Cliffe alias Custis I. In this time period, when the English nation is shifting its allegiance from their Roman Catholic origins to a newly-established Protestant polity, families converted slowly. In this setting, “alias” was a means of protecting the lives and property of unconverted families. Their Protestant relatives, sitting in Parliament and in the King’s councils, established buried legalities. Cliffe is the original Catholic family name. Custis is the newly accepted surname by which the family becomes known in legal records. Justice is blind. She can only see the last surname. It represents the surname carried by Edmund Cliffe’s nearest Protestant kinsmen who would inherit whatever was due to Edmund in the normal course of events.

John Smithier's Will (his father in law) Copied from a screen view (3.5.2021) of website, Gloucestershire Wills Abstracts of Gloucestershire Probate Records; 1626 Will of John Smithiers (Edmond's father-in-law), which names his Custis grandchildren et el - exerpt: SMITHER, John - of Arlington, Bibury [1] (various spellings of surname, including SMITHIER) Named in this will, often with nothing to identify relationship:

1. his sister Joan or Jones;
2. daughter Anne - married ______ Howse, and their children: Thomas, William, Richard, James, Margaret, Bridget;
3. his daughter Mary (also called Bridget) [2]- married Edmund Custis, [3] and their children: Edmund, Nicholas, Mary, Elizabeth [5], Henry, William and John [4] who married Joane Powell, and their children: Mary & Elizabeth;
4. John Smithier I's son, John II & his children John III, Henry & Thomasine; Thomas Smithier & children;
5. Mathew Smithier & children;
6. Richard Smithier;
7. Willaim Smithier of Northleach, a London merchant;
8. Eleanor Pierson & children.

Probate 1626. [1] John b.1550 Arlington; d.1626 "Arlington Castle", Bibury, Gloucester. [2] Mary/Bridget b. 1575; d. 1 Feb 1612. [3] She mar 1590 "Edmund Custis, alias Cliffe" (he b. 1570). He was willed the lease of Camdens. [4] John b. ca 1595 d. in Arlington, Virginia. Joane & John Custis establish the connection to the Custis/ Parke family of Virginia, with marriages to George Washington and General Robert E Lee. What is now Arlington National Cemetery was the Custis-Lee home until Lee was forced to forfeit it during the Civil War. [5] Both Mary and Elizabeth named in Will; another child, Edmund was b. 1630 ^[17]

An unreferenced pedigree of Edmund's descendants is set out by Bill Wilkins in his web notes, The Old Families of the Shore. The Descendants of Edmund (Cliffe) Custis ^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ The Heraldry Society. The Coat of Arms Vol 11 part 2 No 230, Autumn 2015. pg 121-122.
2. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813 Marriage records Bibury, 15 April 1616
3. ↑ Gloucestershire Wills. Abstracts of Gloucestershire Probate Records. John Smithiers 1626. accessed 3 May 2021. [1]
4. ↑ Williamsburg Foundation, US. A Colonial Williamsburg Archaeological Dept. Story Map.[2]
5. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813. for Edmund Cliff, Bibury 1551-1665 John baptised 1 May 1592. Viewed original document on Ancestry.co.uk
6. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813. for Edmund Cliff, Bibury 1551-1665, Joan baptised 10 August 1594. Viewed original document on Ancestry.co.uk
7. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813. for Edmund Cliff alias Custis of Arlington for son Harry baptised 27 September 1596, Bibury, Cirencester Parish Record. viewed on Ancestry.co.uk
8. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813. for Edmund Cliff alias Custis of Arlington for Elisabeth baptised 20 July 1599, Bibury, Cirencester Parish Record. viewed on Ancestry.co.uk
9. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813. for Edmund Cliff alias Custis of Arlington for William baptised 10 Jan 1600, Bibury, Cirencester Parish Record. viewed on Ancestry.co.uk
10. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813. for Edmund Cliff alias Custis of Arlington for Mary baptised 28 Dec 1610, Bibury, Cirencester Parish Record. viewed on Ancestry.co.uk
11. ↑ UK National Trust [3]
12. ↑ The Heraldry Society. The Coat of Arms Vol 11 part 2 No 230, Autumn 2015. pg 121-122.
13. ↑ Wikishire.co.uk. Arlington, Gloucestershire. downloaded 4 May 2021 [4]
14. ↑ Gloucestershire Wills. Abstracts of Gloucestershire Probate Records. John Smithiers 1626.[5]
15. ↑ Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813 for Edmonde Cliffe 1551-1665. viewed on Ancestry.co.uk
16. ↑ Virginia Genealogy Blog. com [6]
17. ↑ Gloucestershire Wills. Abstracts of Gloucestershire Probate Records. John Smithiers 1626. [7] accessed 3 May 2021.
18. ↑ Wilkins, Bill - Old Ghote. The Old Families of the Shore. The Descendants of Edmund (Cliffe) Custis 2004. accessed 4 May 2021. [8]