Notes |
- (Research):Father may be Richard Pye of Stone, Staffordshire, England
Radulfo Pye family listed in 1379/1380 Staffordshire tax records in the Offelowe Hundred,
listed un Allerwas, Orgrave, Frodeleye, et Edynghale. Listed as a serviente (Servant).
Other Pye families noted living in Norfolk, England during the 1379-1381 timeframe.
Some Pye families went to Australia -
Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal 12 June 1858 (Saturday):
On the 11th instant, at his residence, Seymour Cottage, Bathurst, Thomas Pye, sen.,
late of Campbell's River, 82 years of age, leaving a large circle of friends to deplore
his loss.
A ancient Pye family dating back to a Thomas Pye, b. Abt 1370, of, Saddlebow, Much Dewchurch, Herefordshire, England may be connected to this Staffordshire family.
According to Charles Gordon Pye, the first Pyes of Herefordshire, England, may have been of Viking origin. They can be traced back in time, to Fitz Thorir Thobard (Herbert), a steersman in the fleet of Rolf the Ganger, who helped to defeat the French in 912. As a reward, Thobard was granted the Fiefdom of Maera in Normandy, and became known as the Sieur de la Mare (Lord of the sea). A Son or grandson, William Fitz Norman in turn served under his kinsman, William the Conqueror, at the Battle of Hastings, after which he was awarded the castle of Kilpeck in the former small Welsh Kingdom of Erging (Archenfield) near Much Dewchurch in Herefordshire.
William's son, Hugh (Pye) de Kopeck served in the first crusade (1095-1099). According to legend, he was captured and imprisoned by the Emir Mohammed Amiraud. He is said to have fallen in love with the latter's daughter, who soon became the mother of a girl named "Susan Pye"(b.1097), and arranged Hugh's escape from his captors. Susan Pye is said to have eventually married Gilbert Becket, who sired Thomas Becket (b.1117), the famous archbishop who was assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. The story of Susan's romance (in which Susan perhaps is confused with her mother) is recorded in the old English ballad "Young Beckie". According to legend, in memory of his Saracen mother, Thomas Beckett is said to have had a gold scimitar hung over the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral It was Hugh de Kilpeck who had the present Church of St Mary and St. David built at Kilpeck following his deliverence from captivity and return from the Holy Land.
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