It seems that every living Fremlin is descended from one of two brothers; William Fremlin, born 1755, and John Fremlin, born 1756, both from a family long established in the village of Kemsing, west of Maidstone in Kent. The earliest record which has been found of the family refers to a Michael Fremolyn who served on a jury at Kemsing in 1275. Until 1558 the records remain fragmentary; but from the accession of Elizabeth we have a fairly complete set of parish registers of births, marriages and deaths from Kemsing and the surrounding villages which, complemented by occasional wills, make it possible to compile a family tree which has some chance of being largely correct. A version of this tree, compiled piecemeal over many years by many people, may be found in the following pages. There are undoubtedly many errors and omissions, and I should be grateful for any corrections and additions.

Any family tree, just by carrying names and dates, has the potentiality to embarrass or dismay or recall grief. For this reason I have suppressed all records of persons born in the last hundred years unless I have some reason to believe that they, or their nearest living connexions, are happy to be included here.

The tree is broken up into some twenty sections, each giving descendants over a few generations from some individual. The sections are linked by a skeleton. The tree lists only people who were born with the name Fremlin with their husbands and wives. I regret that so far we have no search facilities for individual names.

I am told (20.4.05) that the Fremlin Carpet, a famous carpet made for William Fremlin (1607-1646), is now on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

David Fremlin.

5.3.10

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