Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Hexter
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/groups/hexterofukorigin/about
Contact: Mr Nick Hexter
I am carrying out a One-Name Study of the name Hexter worldwide. I am keen to hear from anyone with this name in their family and will endeavour to provide information where I can. I have collected a considerable body of data and may well be able to provide short-cuts in your research. Nearly all individuals bearing the name have been assembled into an extensive pedigree.
I am interested in any Hexter worldwide even if they do not relate to my own Hexter line.
Surname dictionaries often refer to the name Hexter as coming from Exeter, indeed nearly all Hexters are descended from Robert Hexter and Joan Tapper who married in Tedburn St Mary on 16th October 1642. Tedburn St Mary is a village some seven miles from Exeter and it is likely that when Robert's predecessor first moved into the village he was referred to as Hexter (i.e. he of Exeter).
There are several Hexters in the USA who were not born into the name. They originated in Germany with the name Hoexter but when entering the USA changed their name to Hexter.
Very few.
Antonia Fraser in her book The Gunpowder Plot, Terror & Faith in 1605, reports that Sir Edward Hexter, in the House of Commons in reply to a statement made by the King about the gunpowder plotters moved that the Speaker of the House 'should make manifest the thankfulness of the House of God, for his [the King's] safe Deliverance'. However, I have been unable to find any evidence of an Edward Hexter being a member of parliament or of his being knighted. I suspect that the person of whom she writes might be Edward Hext.
In more recent years Jack H Hexter was an eminent historian in the USA. A specialist in British History he conducted research and taught at major American universities for more than 60 years, including Queens College in New York (1939 to 1957), Yale University in New Haven (1964 to 1978) and Washington University for two extended intervals. He died, aged 86 at his home in St Louis on 8th December 1996.
That Tedburn St Mary is the original source of the majority of the Hexter families is supported by the distribution of events from the IGI which radiate in density and time from that area.
By the start of parish registration the name had however migrated from Devon to Cornwall, Somerset, Gloucester and London but over the next couple of decades to Monmouthshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire but also Australia.
The DNA Project was started in December 2020, I feel sure it will be a fascinating component of my research.