Kendrick
One-Name Study

Topics

• About the Kendrick One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Historical occurrences
• Frequency of the name
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• Links
• Contact Details

About the Kendrick One-Name Study

This One-Name Study grew out of my earlier attempts to trace my ancestry back beyond the Thomas Kendrick and John Kendrick who were living in the adjoining Srtaffordshire villages of Gayton & Sandon respectively in the 1730s. I still don't know their origins, but the many Kendrick families I encountered proved to make a fascinating study in their own right. Exchanging information with others researching the same name is a most rewarding excercise for all interested parties.

Variants

The registered variants are Kenrick and Kenwrick. The first of these is still widely used, but Kenwrick, which is probably an older version, is not often found today. There are probably many other names which come from the same root, including MacKendrick, MacHenry, Kenwright, etc.

Origin of the surname

Most Kendricks of English or Welsh origin are probably descended from families living in North Wales or the adjacent English counties.The Welsh personal name 'Cynwrig' was recorded by English clerics as 'Kenwrek' or something very similar in documents of around 1300. This changed over time to 'Kenrick' and 'Kendrick' before it came to be adopted as a surname - which was much later in Wales than in England.

Other possible origins of the name include the Anglo-Saxon name 'Cenric', and the Scottish/Irish names MacKenrick etc., which are thought to be derived from 'MacHeinrich' or 'Son of Henry'.

Historical occurrences

Three John Kendricks are worthy of special note:-

John Kendrick of Reading (1575-1624). The 'Benefactor' whose name is perpetuated in the Kendrick Girls' School, Reading.

John Kendrick, Lord Mayor of London in 1651-2, a Puritan described by John Evelyn as 'a fanatic Lord Mayor'.

John Kendrick, 'The Navigator', (c.1740-1794). Commander of a privateer who fought against the English during the American War of Independence, and later established trade routes between the West Coast of the USA and China and Japan.

Also of note is the Kenrick family of Birmingham, prominent Unitarians, business men, and public figures.

Frequency of the name

The numbers and frequencies of the Kendrck name in England & Wales in 2002 were:

Kendrick 5956 0.0107%

Kenrick 582 0.0011%

Kenwrick 101 0.0002%

Distribution of the name

The origin of a family name is usually associated with the area which had the highest proportion of people with that name in earlier records. From the 1881 Census the proportion of Kendricks in Flintshire was 14 times the national average and that in Denbighshire was over 10 times the national average. Some Registration Districts showed even higher frequencies. These were mostly mining areas, suggesting that many of Kendricks were mining families originating in North Wales.

Data

Birth, Marriage, Death Index, 1837-1900 Kendrick Indices.

IGI & British Isles Vital Records:- Kendrick entries indexed

Census data for for several Staffordshire districts.

Parish records on fiche for several Staffordshire parishes

National Burial Index. References to publications relating to Kendricks.

Links

Kendrick Mailing List: e-mail KENDRICK-L-request@rootsweb.com with 'subscribe' in Subject & Message

Kendrick List Archive

The Kendrick DNA Project

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Edward Kendrick
Driftway,
York Road,
West Hagbourne,
Didcot,
Oxfordshire
OX11 ONG
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 25 February 2008.

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