Hillmorton

A lot of us who are descended from the Perkins family of Ipswich, Massachusetts know that we can trace our ancestry back to the Hillmorton parish which is on the outskirts of Rugby in Warwickshire, England.

I've been working on a project at work where we are downsizing our reference collection and came across a duplicate copy of a reference work, which, of course, meant that the duplicate would be withdrawn from the library's collection.  I decided that it wouldn't hurt to look to see if there was an entry for Hillmorton in the volume since it was coming across my desk. To my delight there was!

Ekwall, Eilert. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1947.

[p.228]
Hillmorton Wa [Mortone DB, Hulle, Morton 1252 Fees, Hullemorton 1265 Ch]. Originally two places HILL and MORTON, later thrown into one called Hillmorton.

Obviously, the Wa is the book's abbreviation for Warwickshire. DB is the abbreviation for the Domesday Book, so obviously the Morton part existed in 1086.  Fees is the abbreviation for The Book of Fees.  It appears we are dealing with two separate locations in 1252.  Ch is the abbreviation for Charter Rolls. The two locations had merged to form one place by 1265.

It's a rather interesting entry that tells me a little more about a place my ancestors lived.