Topics

• About the Capon One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Historical occurrences
• Frequency of the name
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• DNA project
• Contact Details

About the Capon One-Name Study

Like most one-name studies, the Capon search began with a personal genealogy in 1985. As software became available for serious searchers my general searches became first county-wide for Suffolk, then, realising the shortcomings of Surname 'authorities', a world-wide study.

Variants

Variants of Capon are those of of the bird itself; in Middle English sources Capun and Capoun are used for Capon, and they are the only variants found. In East Anglia and the Southeast Capon is almost invariable.

De Capon and le Capon occur rarely in France, and have not been found elsewhere.

Capen does occur outside the Eastern and Home counties, especially in Bedford and the southwest. It may simply represent a difference in local pronunciation.

Capin is a Scottish name derived from Gaelic and the Appin district, and is not part of my study.

Origin of the surname

The continental origin of the name is old Flanders, linguistically it is Wallonian. Capon was an undifferentiated surname when it first appeared in English records in the 13th century.

The bird provides the basis for the name, in whatever context; however it is ancient enough that the existence of a 'populated place' called Capon close to the Belgian/French border may be a locative source.

Historical occurrences

Immigration to England began in the early 13th century, mostly as weavers but sometimes as mercenaries; possibly Bigod's Flemings helped to establish the local clustering.

The Capon family of Yorkshire, holding land of the Percy family and being the only armigerous branch, are frequently mentioned in 14th century documents. Robert assumed arms of Gules, three birds or, a border engrailed argent. Later documents refer to 'merchants of York' and they are not recorded later than early 15th century lay subsidies.

John Capon, bishop of Sarum during the Reformation, is reputed to have been the original 'The Vicar of Bray'. He is notorious as the despoiler of Hythe Abbey; in contrast his brother bishop William founded grammar schools and supported similar undertakings. They were from East Anglia and proteges of Cardinal Wolsey.

Most Capons lived as yeomen, tradesmen, merchants and smallholders, and their disputes form a significant number of historical documents.

Frequency of the name

In England the name is rare in most parts of the country, but not uncommon in the South-east.

It is listed as 3607th in frequency.

In Nord, France it seems to be about equal to the English, and in Belgian Wallonia somewhat greater.

Distribution of the name

European Capons are plentiful about the region of origin and there has been wide dispersion to regions outside France.

For England Guppy came close; Suffolk has the greatest incidence,with Kent close behind. Density maps show this clearly, with East Anglia and the 'home counties' containing the majority.

Bedford and Dorset also have high densities but with a higher proportion of 'variants' than elsewhere.

Capons emigrated to most of the British dominions and colonies with ANZ being the favoured destination.

Some of these departures were involuntary.

Data

With the IGI, Pallott and Boyd supplying the basis, my databases have doubled in size over the years.

Several of the census, and especially the 1881, are as complete as possible with the others exceeding 60% coverage. 1911 is just being started.

The GRO indexes are all complete into the 1980s with deaths leading the data entry sequence.

Many wills have been transcribed with others being added as they are accessed.

Hundreds of miscellaneous entries are recorded and more than forty family groups constructed.

DNA project

My several collaborators over the years have predeceased me; without assistance no DNA project could be considered.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr John W Capon
870 Uplands Court,
Kamloops,
British Columbia
V2C 6M8
Canada
E-mail:
Telephone: 250 573 4818

This page last updated 13 January 2012.

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Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.