RIMMER OF NORTH MEOLS
RIMMER (or previously RYMER) is a common name in the coastal parish of North Meols, which now includes the seaside town of Southport, in Lancashire. It is also an ancient name.
The origin of the name?
According to Peter Aughton's "North Meols and Southport", the water table was known as the "ream" and it is possible that those who dug the ditches and built the dykes were called "reamers". It is also claimed that the name has an older, Norse origin from the name "Grim" or "Grimr", but the earliest mention of the name comes from another part of the country, and the name may not have originated in the Lancashire coastal parishes at all.
PETER HODGKINSON'S RIMMERS
There are so many Rimmers in the North Meols registers that inevitably any researcher is going to get stuck, unable to identify which is their ancestor for sure, there being so many with the same christian name to chose from.
Peter Hodgkinson's RIMMER descent (RIMMER being his mother's maiden name) is the following, (the proof lacking for the first 4 generations):
ROBERT RIMMER (? - ?)
ROBERT RIMMER (1604 - ?)
WILLIAM RIMMER (1637 - ?)
ROBERT RIMMER (1663 - ?)
WILLIAM RIMMER (? - ?)
(The evidence for William Rimmer being Peter Rimmer's father is strong, being based on wills, although William's children do not appear in the North Meols registers)
PETER RIMMER (? - 1784) = MARY HOOTON
PETER RIMMER (1770 - ?) = MARY HOWARD
THOMAS RIMMER (1810 - 1892) = ELLEN COOTON
PETER RIMMER (1834 - 1878) = MARY KIRKHAM
JAMES RIMMER (1864? - 1938) = ROSE MAWDSLEY
PETER RIMMER (1893 - 1958) = JESSIE HILL
NORMA RIMMER (1923 - ) = ALAN HODGKINSON
Click on each underlined RIMMER name to take you to the tree of that family. You will find brief notes about the family and the names linked by marriage.
A BRIEF ACCOUNT ...
The Peter Rimmer (i) who married Mary Hooton, was married previously, to Ann Dickonson. They had a unsuccessful family in Birkdale - unsuccessful in that virtually all the children died, and they moved to the very northeast of the parish, to the Wyke House farm, close to Scarisbrick. Wyke refers to land too wet and boggy to cultivate. Wyke House farm was close to the inland water of Martin Mere. Here Anne died, and Peter Rimmer remarried to Mary Hooton.
Their son Peter (ii) remained at Scarisbrick, but his son Thomas (iii) moved to the adjacent parish of Halsall. From this Thomas onwards, a most unusual feature of this branch of Rimmers emerges - they all had only one child, this in an age of large families.
Peter (iv), the son of Thomas, moved away from agriculture, being a blacksmith, but his son James (v) remained an agricultural labourer in Halsall. His son Peter (vi) was the first to move away, becoming a motor mechanic and chauffeur and ended up in the west country - Devon and Bristol.
OTHER SURNAMES ASSOCIATED BY MARRIAGE:
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