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Chapter One -- ORIGINS

The Casebolt family is an English family of long standing, albeit neither wealthy nor of the nobility.

The earliest Casebolt record which I have been able to identify is that of Stephen Casebolt who is listed as paying a subsidy in Ikelyngton (modern: Ickleton) in the Hundred of Witlesford (modern: Whittlesford) in 1327 on the Subsidy Rolls of the county of Cambridgeshire.1 Ickelton and other parishes in which early Casbolts resided are shown in Map 1.2, page 1-6.

The Whittlesford Hundred is small, about 24 square miles, and is due south of the university town of Cambridge. It has contained the same five parishes since 1066 and has been mainly open farm fields since the Middle Ages. Barley was the main grain and sheep were widely kept. By the time of Stephen in the thirteenth century, although there were many small landowners, big manors dominated the Hundred.2

The parish of Ickleton is the southern-most on the river Cam in Cambridgeshire. All to the south is Essex county. The village is on the west bank of the Cam, sited on a pre-Roman road, the Icknield Way,3 running from Cambridge to London. The parish has been mostly unforested, open land since prehistoric times. The village has existed since Saxon times and in 1086 had 43 tenants; 115 by 1279.4

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   1 Muskett, p. 27. Stephen is mentioned in Reaney, p. 62.

   2 Wright, VI:199-200.

   3 Westfall, pp. 20-21.

   4 Wright, VI:230.

CASEBOLT -- An American Family                  Copyright 1992- RAK
Chapter 1 - Origins                                        Page 1-1
Last Revised: 19 April 1992

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