General Notes

The name is first recorded as belonging to a Roger Tempest round 1100
when as an adult he witnessed a number of charters in the Craven
district of North Yorkshire.
This Roger appears to have been closely associated wth the Norman ,de
Romilly family , who were influential at the time in the founding of a
number of abbeys in the region.
It is suggested that the Tempest's were also
Norman , the name itself being a nickname referring to some
incident on the voyage to England. Whatever the factual basis this
latter appears to have become rooted in family legend !
More certain is that Roger held lands in the villages of Bracewell and
Stock (small villages in Craven near Skipton) and that the senior male
line of the family was afterwards referred to as Tempest of
Bracewell.They must have liked the surname as it was adopted at a much
earlier date than many in the UK.
Roger may be identical with a Roger of Poitou also mentioned in charters
of the time.
From Tempest of Bracewell descend the following.
In the senior male line Tempest of Bracewell. This continued unbroken
until around 1650 when the last Richard Tempest died a prisoner for debt
in Westminster having partially pulled down Bracewell Hall one of the
Tempest's main homes for the preceeding 400
years. This was largely as a consequence of supporting the Royalist
claims in the Civil War and "quarrelling with his wife"!
Highlights and lowlights in the intervening years saw Tempests fight at
Crecy , Agincourt and Bosworth field and command at Flodden. During the
Wars of the Roses the fugitive Henry VI was captured at the Tempest's
house at Waddington.During the reformation the
Tempest's played a leading role in the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536) , a
rising against Henry VIII. Following the failure of this the head of
the Bracewell Tempests Sir Richard (Sherif of Yorks) died a prisoner in
the Fleet (London) prison. A cousin Nicolas was tried for
treason and martyered at Tyburn (now Marble Arch, London).
The Tempests of Bracewell intermarried with an heiress of the Bolling
family in the 15th century acquiring Bowling Hall near Bradford Yorks and
later Tong Hall.The line of Tempest of Tong continued in the known male
until the early 19th century becoming Baronets.There are still Tempest
tombs in Tong church though the hall belongs to a firm of accountants!
Bowling Hall is a museum run by the local council and has several windows
depicting the Tempest's arms.
Diverging from Tempest of Bracewell around 1300 via another Sir Richard
(Constable of Berwick and Roxburgh ,wife carried off by the
Scots) are the Tempests of Studley near Ripon (Yorks). Their further
descent is traced from a Roland Tempest . From Roland descend
branches resident in County Durham and Newcastle to the present day. The
senior male line was Tempest of Holmeside , this is a farm /manor near
Stanley (Co. Durham) It was acquired by marriage and purchase from the
Umfreville family (Earls of Angus).The Tempests held the manor
until 1569 when the Holmeside branch rushed into the Northern Rebellion
against Elizabeth I. Failed again I am afraid and Robert and Michel
Tempest the family heads were attainted for treason. Both fled abroad to
Spain, Italy and Flanders where they are often mentioned in the reports
of the head of the MI5 of the day Francis Walsingham.
Junior branches of Holmeside founded branches of the family in
Oxfordshire and Kent /London. Those branches remaining in Co Durham
included the branches of Stella , Thornley and Old Durham/Wynyard. The
Stella branch were active in the Newcastle
coal and merchant trade providing the mayor on at least one occasion.
They were recusants (Catholics who refused to conform) and the house at
Stella (demolished in the 1930's only garden and summer house remains)
was a centre for the Catholic faith. The
head of the family during the Civil War (1640's) was Sir Richard Tempest
who commanded the Royalist cavalry in the Nor