Quantum Gypsies

The Pomeroys conquer England

Pomeroys in the news

screenshot of a newpaper headline about the Pomeroy family

This headline appeared in the Daily Mail on Monday, June 30th, 1997. The hook for the story that followed was a gathering of Pomeroys that had taken place at Berry Pomeroy castle, in Devon, the previous weekend. Pomeroys had apparently travelled from the four corners of the Earth to attend, which is odd, given that the Earth is spherical.

A few famous Pomeroys were then mentioned including the inventor of an exploding bullet used to bring down Zeppelins, the sculptor who fashioned the statue on the front of the Old Bailey and a designer of Vauxhall sports cars in the early part of the twentieth century. Not exactly a world shaping crew, but I kept the cutting as a memento and thought little more about my family name until a couple of years ago, when I received an email asking if I would take part in a genetic research project.

Chris Pomery was trying to match DNA samples for a single surname and was contacting every Pomeroy, Pomery, Pomroy and Pumery he could find. I of course took part, just in case I turned out to be the long lost son of someone rich and rather frail. Since then I have dug a bit further into the Pomeroys, but I haven't found any really interesting black sheep yet, still, it's early days.

The Pomeroys invade

Etching of Berry Pomeroy castle made around 1822

The Pomeroys came over with William the Conquerer in 1066 and were given lands in South-west England. The family seat was Berry Pomeroy castle, which is now such a wreck that even Tommy Walsh would find it difficult to restore; so I don't suppose that they will miss the stone I nicked whilst visiting. I now have a scrap of my baronial heritage and trip over it quite often.

Apparently, the Pomeroys were well known for never finishing anything and not paying their taxes on time, although the Inland Revenue has never really accepted my genetically based excuses. The destitute Pomeroys eventually had to sell up to the Seymours and the family scattered to the four winds, well to Dorset, then London and Ireland and eventually America and the Antipodes.

The Iranian connection

The Pomeroy family originate from North West France, fairly near to where one branch of a tribe of barbarians called the Alans finally settled. Given that my first name is Alan, is this a coincidence? I think not. The Alans came from northern Iran, so my current research is directed towards proving a direct link from me back to the Persian Emperor Xerxes. I can then write a best seller called the Da Pomeroy code and ask president Ahmadinejad for a slice of Iranian oil revenues.

If you are interested in finding out more about the family with the "great" that enhanced your currency from BP to GBP and thus saved you from having to accept change in unleaded, then here is the web site of the Pomeroy Family Association

Last updated 4 January 2009