The family of Pepys is one of considerable antiquity in the east of
England, and the Hon. Walter Courtenay Pepys
[Mr. W. C. Pepys has paid great attention to the history of his
family, and in 1887 he published an interesting work entitled
“Genealogy of the Pepys Family, 1273-1887,” London, George Bell and
Sons, which contains the fullest pedigrees of the family yet
issued.]
says that the first mention of the name that he has been able to find is
in the Hundred Rolls (Edw. I, 1273), where Richard Pepis and John Pepes
are registered as holding lands in the county of Cambridge. In the next
century the name of William Pepis is found in deeds relating to lands in
the parish of Cottenham, co. Cambridge, dated 1329 and 1340 respectively
(Cole MSS., British Museum, vol. i., p. 56; vol. xlii., p. 44).
According to the Court Roll of the manor of Pelhams, in the parish of
Cottenham, Thomas Pepys was “bayliffe of the Abbot of Crowland in 1434,”
but in spite of these references, as well as others to persons of
the same name at Braintree, Essex, Depedale, Norfolk, &c., the first
ancestor of the existing branches of the family from whom Mr. Walter
Pepys is able to trace an undoubted descent, is “William Pepis the
elder, of Cottenham, co. Cambridge,” whose will is dated 20th March,
1519.
In 1852 a curious manuscript volume, bound in vellum, and entitled
“Liber Talboti Pepys de instrumentis ad Feoda pertinentibus
exemplificatis,” was discovered in an old chest in the parish church of
Bolney, Sussex, by the vicar, the Rev. John Dale, who delivered it
to Henry Pepys, Bishop of Worcester, and the book is still in the
possession of the family. This volume contains various genealogical
entries, and among them are references to the Thomas Pepys of 1434
mentioned above, and to the later William Pepys. The reference to the
latter runs thus:--
“A Noate written out of an ould Booke of my uncle William Pepys.”
“William Pepys, who died at Cottenham, 10 H. 8, was brought up by
the Abbat of Crowland, in Huntingdonshire, and he was borne in
Dunbar, in Scotland, a gentleman, whom the said Abbat did make his
Bayliffe of all his lands in Cambridgeshire, and placed him in
Cottenham, which William aforesaid had three sonnes, Thomas, John,
and William, to whom Margaret was mother naturallie, all of whom
left issue.”
In illustration of this entry we may refer to the Diary of June 12th,
1667, where it is written that Roger Pepys told Samuel that “we
did certainly come out of Scotland with the Abbot of Crowland.” The
references to various members of the family settled in Cottenham and
elsewhere, at an early date already alluded to, seem to show that there
is little foundation for this very positive statement.