Did you know William Shepard Wetmore (1801-1862), the original owner of Chateau-sur-Mer, could trace his ancestry to 1086? That’s the year of William the Conqueror’s “Domesday Book,” a survey and census of England listing a Richardus Forestarius as a resident of Whitmore, Staffordshire. Over the centuries, the family name became “Whitmore,” then “Wetmore.” The name is derived from the Old English “Whytemere,” meaning white lake or pond. #ThrowbackThursday #NewportMansions #Chateausurmer #tbt #gildedagehbo #gildedage #gildedagemansions #gildedagemansion #gilded #DiscoverNewport #history #architecture #preserve