Fettiplace

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Fettiplace Surname Genealogy

The surname Fettiplace probably comes from the old French faites place, meaning “‘make room,”
a shout given by bodyguards of the French Kings and nobility.
Current spellings are Fetterplace in England and Phetteplace in
America.

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Fettiplace Resources on
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Fettiplace Ancestry

England.
The Fettiplaces are said to have first arrived in England with William
the Conqueror.  The first notable recorded family member was Adam
Fettiplace who was Mayor of Oxford for eleven terms between 1245 and 1268.  His family’s estate was North Denchworth in
Berkshire.

The Fettiplaces became prominent at court.  Family members were
knighted during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.  During
the latter’s reign, Sir Thomas Fettiplace of Compton Beauchamp in
Berkshire accompanied the King to the Field of the Cloth of Gold to
meet the French King in 1520.  Another Fettiplace was part of the
entourage that escorted Anne of Cleves to England.   John
Fettiplace of Besselsleigh was an MP in the 1550’s.

Most of the family supported King Charles in the English Civil War and
suffered as a result.  The main branch of the family then died out
in the early 18th century.  Still, there remain the monuments to
them at Swinbrook church in Oxfordshire.   One commentary on
their contribution ran as follows:

“It has sometimes been said
of the Fettiplaces that they never distinguished themselves in the
field, the forum, or the senate, but, notwithstanding this, the family
constituted a kaleidoscopic and very interesting group of
individuals.  They illustrated the best traditions of the life
lived by English country gentlemen and, residing as they did on their
hereditary estates, the villages and neighborhoods around them long
felt the resulting benefits.”

America.  The US
Phetteplace spelling was originally a misspelling – dating back to the
time of Phillip Fettiplace arriving in Rhode Island around 1680.
According to Rhode Island records, fifteen members of the Phetteplace
family were enrolled for service in the Revolutionary War.  Many
Phetteplaces later headed west to Wisconsin.  Edward Phetteplace’s
1983 book Genealogies of the
Phetteplace Family has traced the lineage.


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Fettiplace Names

Adam Fettiplace was a prominent civic leader of Oxford in the
mid 13th century.
Sir Thomas Fettiplace was an
English courtier at the time of Henry VIII.

Select Fettiplaces Today

  • 100 in the UK (most numerous
    in London)
  • 200 in America (most numerous in Wisconsin)

 

 

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