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The Parmenter Blazon:
"Azure, a chevron or between three fleur-de-lis
d'argent" Which means; [a (Azure) blue blazon with gold chevron
between three silver (d'argent) fleur-de-lis]
Pioneering Parmenters of America makes no
claim to the authenticity of this Parmenter Blazon; nor
any sanction to display heraldic symbols. The 'Parmenter Blazon' is displayed symbolically to honor all
Parmenters,
including the various spellings of the surname.
In heraldic law, one is
only entitled to Arms by
inheritance if one can prove a direct male line decent from an ancestor
who is himself on official record as being entitled to Arms. There
is no such thing as a "Coat of Arms for a Surname. It should
be noted that only the English Heraldic standards are presented.
First Parmenter to
the New World In 1639 John Parmenter emigrated from the Sudbury area of East Anglia
(England) to The Colonies (New England) with his wife Bridget and children, Mary and John
Jr.. In his party were the widow Elizabeth Loker and her children. The
name of the ship, its captain, or port of departure, are not known. John Parmenter was
one of the original proprietor to Sudbury, MA, and was assigned lands
May 1640 by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony [Suffolk
court files, vol. I, No. 304, microfilm #A360, Univ. MA, Amherst]. John
was an early Selectman, Deacon, Commissioner, and he made Freeman 13
May 1640. [NEHGS Reg. Vol 13, 261] The Parmenter
Name: The name Parmentier is an occupation. Parer or
Parmentier means to ornate,
to embellish and/or a maker of facings and trimmings. It is also is a technical term for working linen in order to soften it up so it is nicer to wear - something like stonewashing
Levi pants. In French they are called Parmentier, in the English dialect
it became Parmenter. This may indicate that there is no single progenitor
to search back to - just as with the occupational surnames of: Smith, Miller, Chandler, etc.. As
surnames became the custom, it is very likely that there would have been both Parmentiers &
Parmenters in any of the linen cloth producing districts. Normandy (Nord) - Pas de Calais, Flanders and Holland, and the
whole "foot" of England were of one economic region for centuries. Parmentiers and Parmenters are found
to day all along
the coastline, and they all may well be related - if not by blood, by ancestral occupation and mutual
economic interests.
The English Channel [French La Manche] was the main highway, not a frontier, in that economic region. One of the most important
things to remember when studying history is that distance isn't measured in miles, but in hours. From Dieppe, Southampton is 12 hours away, Bruges (rather
Zeebrugge the port of Bruges), a whole day - Paris is three days away, about as far as London.
Therefore William Parmenter, Guillaume Parmentier, Willem Parmentier, Wilhelmus
Paremment, etc.
may well knew of each other, if not personally acquainted. Dieppe was a Protestant strongholds in
North France.
An internet site for the white pages of the telephone book gives the following number of hits:
3339 Parmentiers for France - 2084 Parmentiers for Belgium, mostly from Flanders
- 339 Parmenters for Britain, mostly in Southern England
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