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What's In A Name?*

© David Ramsey

*Name Clusters Around Groby, Leicestershire.

This week I would like to introduce guest writer David Ramsey. Author and historian, David has written several publications with regard to the history of Leicestershire. Click here to read David's impressive bio.

We are fortunate to have records in abundance listing the names and labouring occupations of families who worked the land in Leicestershire. Tracing family roots backwards does however cause difficulties as once the earliest church registers have been used c1580, early Poll Tax returns, Pardon Rolls and Subsidy Rolls have to be used to extend our knowledge back into the fourteenth century.

Sometimes we find that writers have already done most of the hard work by locating, reading and transcribing existing ancient documents and better still, some writers have published their efforts for all to use. G.F.Farnham's work on Charnwood Forest, Its Historians and The Charnwood Manors (1930) & Quorndon Records (1912) and John Nichols huge volumes which make up, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, are extremely helpful.

Noting villages together with the surnames reveals clusters of a particular name and once a date is added it becomes easier to trace the movements of a surname from one village to another. My recent research - aided by access to the original estate documents of The Earls of Stamford 1740 -1845 - has centred on the villages surrounding Bradgate Park, Leicestershire. A close look at the villages of Anstey, Cropston, Groby, Markfield, Newtown Linford, Newtown Unthank, Ratby, Thurcaston, Swithland and an area called Whittington - half way between Ratby and Markfield has proved extremely fruitful.

As the alphabetical listings came together and were ordered it was found that the Abell family of Groby, who until recently had a very flourishing building and contractors business in Groby village, had established roots in the village certainly as early as 1296 and most likely well before this date also. Furthermore it can be seen that the male members of the Abell family have rarely ventured far from their home village of Groby over the last 700 years. When the watermill at Ulverscroft/Newtown was run by the Abells in the mid 18th century this appears to be their furthest excursion from their extremely well established Groby base.

Another Groby family name of long standing is, Chaplin. This surname written as Capp'll'no appears on a Subsidy Roll for the Manor of Groby written in the year 1327(Edward III). The male members of this family were later wood keepers and gamekeepers, tailors and grocers. Robert Chaplin in Whites directory of 1877 is listed as a grocer, draper, butcher and postmaster. Thomas Rudkin had also run a similar business in Groby c1861 and in addition he had building works and leased slate quarries towards Bradgate Hill, Markfield.