The Scudamore Family

I came across the baptism of Susanna West Scudamore in Draycot Cerne 1789; two other Scudamore children were baptised together in 1798. The latter two children had the relatively exotic names of Tamar Clementina Scudamore and Henry Blachford Paoli Scudamore. I wondered who this family was, and what they were doing in Draycot Cerne. Their father was Henry Blachford Scudamore, who the internet shows was a member of a landowning family from Gloucestershire; he had married Susanna West at Draycot Cerne in 1787.

One connection is through the name ‘West’ – Susanna was the daughter of the Reverend Dr Francis Marias West; he was Rector of both Draycot Cerne and Daunstey – although he almost certainly lived at Dauntsey, where there is a Memorial to him. Because he had two parishes, he had to employ a Curate at Draycot Cerne – this was the Reverend William Toke. Unfortunately, this does not explain why the Scudamore family was in Draycot or where they were living. Another mystery which may never be solved?

Postscript. Coincidentally, William Toke also married a daughter of Reverend West. The baptism register shows that they had five children between 1796 and 1802. One - named Eleanor West Scudamore - was baptised in the same year as Tamar and Henry Scudamore.

The Reverend Toke and his family probably lived in the original Draycot Rectory throughout the 1790s, when it was in the parkland south of the church, while Reverend West lived at Dauntsey. However, a new Rector – Reverend Andrews Windsor – arrived at Draycot Cerne in 1800 / 1801. There is a note with the baptism of the Tokes’ fifth child, in 1802, that he was ‘born in the parish of Sutton Benger.’