Chandler One-Name Study

(Click on picture to enlarge) Coat of Arms of the Tallow Chandlers' Company incorporated in London in the year 1463

Chandler
One-Name Study

Topics

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

About the Chandler One-Name Study

This page is for genealogy enthusiasts who wish to research their Chandler surname family history.

The Chandler One-Name Study was started by Robert Walter Chandler, an early member of the Guild Of One-Name Studies. With great accuracy and neat hand-writing, he amassed a great deal of mainly British paper-based Chandler genealogical records, and helped many other researchers with their Chandler family history. When he suffered a stroke and realised he could not continue the study, he contacted the Guild, who arranged for Richard Winston (Dick) Chandler, a member studying a less frequently encountered surname, to take over the Chandler Study. Sadly, Robert died soon after the handover took place. Since then Dick has been computerising Robert's records, collecting new data from around the world to fill the gaps, and continuing to help others trace their Chandler roots.

Variants

A great many possible variations of the Chandler surname have been observed, including Chandelar, Chandeler, Chandeleur, Chandelor, Chander, Chanders, Chandlar, Chandlen, Chandlers, Chandles, Chandless, Chandley, Chandlor, Chandly, Chandor, Chanelar, Chaneler, Chaneley, Channeller, Chanelor, Chanler, Chanley, Chanlor, Channellor, Channiler, Chansler, Chantler, Chantller, Chaundflower (probably a mistranscription/mistranslation of Chaundeleur i.e. Chaundeleur becomes Chaundfleur becomes Chaundflower), Chandeler, Chaundler, Chaundeler, Chaundeleur, Chauntler and Chawner. The Study aims to record all occurrences of these names, because they are frequently interchanged with Chandler, either by accident or intent.

Although its origins are probably the same as Chandler, the surname Candler is phonetically sufficiently distinct to be considered deliberately different, and therefore to be treated as a separate surname rather than a variant of Chandler. The surname Candler is registered separately by another member of the Guild.

Origin of the surname

Most people born with the surname Chandler in modern times are descended, in the male line, from men in England whose occupation was a chandler, who made and sold candles. Until about 1350, surnames were only used by the wealthy, and were usually inherited by only the eldest son, along with the family property. The poor - most people at that time - had no need for a surname because they had no land to inherit. It was during the years 1350 to 1450 that the use of hereditary surnames became common throughout the English population. This naming - often by trade (e.g. Baker, Smith, Chandler), sometimes by location (e.g. Hill, Marsh, or the name of a town or village), occasionally by appearance (e.g. Long, Small) - would have happened village by village throughout England. Consequently, most of the people acquiring the surname Chandler in this way would not have been related to each other - they would only have been occupied in the same trade.

Candles - of vital importance in an age without electricity - were made either of wax (for churches) or tallow (for general use). Tallow is obtained from suet (the solid fat of animals such as sheep and cows), and is also used in making soap and lubricants. The Tallow Chandlers, like many other tradesmen, formed a guild in London in or around 1300 for educational, promotional and charitable purposes. Their corporate Coat of Arms - formally granted by the College of Arms in 1456 - is reproduced above with the Company's permission. There are two crests at the top. Both are chargers (serving plates), each bearing the head of John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Tallow Chandlers. The repetition of the image is intended to emphasise the fact that John was made a Saint on account of his beheading. The angels are crowned with stars as a token of light, a tallow chandler's 'product'. At the foot of the Arms is the motto Ecce agnus dei qui tollit peccata mundi - 'Behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world' (John I 29). This replaces the Tallow Chandlers' earlier motto Quae arguuntur a lumine manifestantur which can be translated as 'Things which are in dispute are made clear by the light', again referring to the vital light produced by a chandler's candles.

The Tallow Chandlers also dealt in vinegar, salt, sauces and oils. Later, the term 'chandler' was used for corn chandlers, and for ships' chandlers who sold most of the fittings and supplies for boats, as well as the candles. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the term 'chandler' was often used simply to mean a grocer.

A small minority of people born with the Chandler surname may descend from followers of William, Duke of Normandy, who ruled England from 1066 to 1087 - bearing names like Reginald le Chandeler, who appears in a survey of London conducted in 1273. The origin of the name is the same - the French for candle being chandelle.

The Chandler DNA Project (see below) has so far identified 15 genetically distinct lines and 25 as yet unmatched individuals each of whom may represent another line. It is highly probable that - at least as far back as the 1200s - the ancestors of all these testees lived in England. The term 'England' is used deliberately, in preference to 'Britain' or the 'United Kingdom', because the geographic origin of the surname Chandler is firmly in England. We have been wondering how many genetically distinct lines we will ultimately find there. A definitive answer can't be given now, but a general feel can be obtained from the following analysis.

As stated above, some Chandlers - a minority - descend from one or more le Chaundelers who came over to England from Normandy around the year 1200. Most Chandlers, however, descend from people who gained their surname because they were candle-makers in the period 1350 to 1450 when hereditary surnames became common in England. This adoption of surnames was a slow process, taking around 100 years, spreading from the towns into the countryside, and from the south of England to the north. The types of names favoured for adoption varied from area to area - some regions, especially in the west and north of England, tending to prefer locative names (e.g. Hill, Marsh or the name of the village or town where they lived), others favouring occupational names (e.g. Baker, Butcher, Chandler), others selecting patronymic names (e.g. Johnson, Jackson, Richardson) - and the choices made also varied between social classes.

By the time the Black Death had had its effect (about 1350), the population of England had reduced to 2.5 million. The 1881 Census of England (before significant immigration from Britain's colonies) shows that Chandlers were 0.0355% of the population. There seems no good reason why this should not be about the same percentage as in 1350, which would yield 888 Chandlers. Assuming a 50/50 split, 444 of these would be male Chandlers. Assuming that 44 of these descend from a single Norman named le Chaundeler (or several related ones) and his (their) descendants during the 150 years they had been in England, around 400 males got their surname from the Chandler trade (in areas where that was the practice - not every candle-maker in England took the Chandler surname - he might become, say, a Johnson if that was the regional or personal preference, even though he made candles). Now, the question would be, in a household where the main breadwinner was a Chandler by trade and chose to give his family the surname Chandler, how many males, of all ages, would have been in that household? We don't know the answer, but feel that the range is 2 to 4, in which case we would have 100 to 200 different genetic lines plus the le Chaundeler line. And it would probably be at the low end of that range, because some of them would have been related but moved away to another village or town to ply the trade they had learned at home. And other lines may have since become extinct for want of male offspring. And the families acquiring the name may not have been the nuclear families we know today, more likely to be extended families including older males who would also pick up the 'family' surname.

Analysis of the names in the 14th Century English Poll Tax returns suggests that the number of genetically distinct Chandler lines, now spread around the world, is closer to 100 than 200.

Historical occurrences

At the age of 10, John Chandler and a number of other passengers sailed from England on the Hercules and landed at what became known as Jamestown, Virginia in 1610. These were not Pilgrims like the Mayflower passengers who landed in Massachusetts 10 years later seeking religious freedom - this was a group of merchant venturers who made the voyage for profit. There are now thousands of people who trace their ancestry to that John Chandler, mainly in south-eastern USA. A number of them belong to the Chandler Family Association (CFA) and have participated in a DNA project to help identify their origins in England (see Web page link below).

Perhaps the most well-known bearer of the name is author Raymond Thornton Chandler, whose detective Philip Marlow has entertained millions of adults, while their children were thrilled by the stories of Uncle Remus and others, written by Joel Chandler Harris; the tales of the Boxcar Children written by Gertrude Chandler Warner; and by the many books for children written by Christine Chaundler. The character Chandler Bing was popular with many viewers of the TV series ‘Friends’. Actor Ira Grossel decided that his career in movies might fare better if he used the name Jeff Chandler. Chandlers controlled the Los Angeles Times for nearly 100 years.

Veterinary surgeon Dr Alexander John Chandler founded the city of Chandler in Arizona. Other places called Chandler exist in Queensland, Australia; Oklahoma and Michigan in the USA; and Québec, Canada. Astronomer Seth Carlo Chandler Jr discovered the Chandler Wobble, a movement in the earth’s rotational axis which some believe is a factor in global warming. Dr Robert Chandler did great work for the world’s hungry. Murray Chandler is a chess grand master who beat Gary Kasparov twice and never lost or drew against him. There have been a number of well-known Chandlers in the English Church, the US Navy, and in politics. Congressman Ben Chandler represents Central Kentucky, following in the footsteps of his grandfather A.B. “Happy” Chandler. Edward Barron Chandler was a new Brunswick politician and lawyer, and is known as one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation.

In America there were Chandler automobiles, and in England there are Chandler guitars. USS Chandler was a US Navy destroyer, and Chandler is the name of a suite of computer programs aimed at helping groups of people to work on projects.

And if you think the Chandler name is limited to planet earth, there is a crater on the moon named Chandler.

Frequency of the name

The Chandler surname occurs on average at the rate of about 35 for every 100,000 of the population in English-speaking countries.

Distribution of the name

The Chandler surname is now widely distributed throughout the English-speaking world. In England, it occurs most frequently in the southern counties. It is relatively uncommon in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Data

English records:

All General Register Office (GRO) birth, marriage and death indices from September 1837 to date. All census records for 1851, 1881 and 1901 and many for other census years. Most christening and marriage records from English parish records.

The Study's English records are gradually being placed online and made searchable at /cgi-bin/archive/frontpage.cgi?study=Chandler.

Other countries:

Please refer queries to Dick Chandler.

DNA project

The CHANDLER DNA project http://tinyurl.com/yp4dow already has more than 160 testees, and some very exciting matches have been found, spanning three continents. For example, an English participant's DNA matches closely the DNA of a number of American participants whose ancestor migrated to America in the 1600s. We urgently seek more participants (who have to be Chandler male-line descendants), especially British Chandlers. The ultimate aim is to understand which of the thousands of individual Chandler families belong to each of the genetically distinct lines which are being identified by the project, and to help individuals with their own research along the way.