Winney
One-Name Study

Topics

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

About the Winney One-Name Study

The WINNEY One-Name study was started in April 2006 in anticipation of my retirement in 2007 and in support of my own Winney Family History research using information gathered since 2003.

The main objectives are to:

• Collect and cross-reference available data about past and present holders of the name WINNEY, WHINNEY, WINNIE, WINNY, and WHINNY.
• Identify and document family trees.
• Make this data available to genealogical researchers and family historians researching their Winney ancestors.
• Exchange data with other researchers of the name willing to share data
• Analyse the data to establish regional links and origins.

Variants

Are WINNEY, WHINNEY, WINNIE, WINNY, and WHINNY broadly in order of frequency of occurrence. Spelling has varied over the centuries. More than one spelling can appear on the same record and some individuals changed the spelling that they used during their lives. Antique spellings include WHINNE, WHYNNE, WYNNE, WYNEUE and WYNY.

Origin of the surname

The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames suggests a possible origin for WINNEY as old English “Joy (of) Battle”, and for WHINNEY a place name “Dweller on the whin covered hill” perhaps Winnew in Thursley (Cumb) or from Whinnah in Lamplugh Cumb). Early examples of the surname given in the dictionary from subsidy rolls are Robert WYNEUE and Benedict WYNYEUE 1327 (Suffolk) and John de WHINHOW 1332 (Cumberland) and it is likely that these are the earliest recorded instances of the surname in England and indicate at least two possible origins.

In the USA the name is considered to be of Dutch origin from the earliest European settlers. More recent immigrants with the surname are recorded as originating from England, Ireland, and even Germany.

Place names in England include Winney’s Down on Dartmoor (grid square SX 6381) and Whinnyfield Wood in Suffolk (grid square TL9841), although the latter may be an indication of past land use rather than any connection with the surname.

Historical occurrences

• Cornelius WINNEY, of Dutch origin - Indian trader, lived in the Buffalo area around 1789-91 and may have been the first European to settle in the area. Nancy Blumenstalk Mingus. Colonel Proctor found him there in 1791, describing WINNEY as a Dutchman from the Hudson River Country, therefore his residence may be firmly dated from that year. Stephen R Powell - The Buffalonian.
• Mr WINNEY - lion and tiger tamer. Keeper of the lion, tigress and their offspring the 'liger' cubs in the menagarie of Thomas Atkins. Journal of Sir Walter Scott 1825-32.
• Two Presidents of the Institute of Chartered Accountants: Frederick WHINNEY - 1884-1888 and Sir Arthur Francis WHINNEY KBE - 1926-27. Ernst & Young. Sir Arthur WHINNEY was appointed receiver and manager of the Austin Motor Company Ltd and it’s Longbridge works on 26 April 1921. Making cars at Longbridge - Gillian Bardsley & Colin Corke.
• John Triggs WINNY - soap maker of Nayland, SFK. Registrar of Bures sub-district of Sudbury 1845-81, parish clerk, and census enumerator. Made his last Register entry only 7 days before his own death. Sudbury Register Office.
• Thomas Edmund WINNEY (aka WINNY) - member of the Vesta Rowing Club from 1884 until 1951, in which he was known as 'Guy'. His racing career was of almost unparalleled duration, for he took part in the Veterans’ VIIIs in 1937 at the age of 77, while the previous year he was in the winning crew in the Club August VIIIs. Obituary - VESTA Rowing Club 1951 Annual Report and Fixtures 1952.
• WINNEY - US Marshal for the Eastern District of Michigan - Cosgrove v Winney is a significant case relating to extradition arrangements between Canada and the USA. US Supreme Court 174 US 64 - 7 Nov 1899.
• Challis Frederick WINNEY - campanologist. Peals rung include one of 3 hours and 50 minutes on 9th August 1902, Peels at Queens Tower, and on 21 May 1923 the peal of 12,675 changes in 9hrs 47mins at Southwark, believed to be a record until 13 years later a close study of the published music revealed a repeat and the peal was declared 'false'.Ancient Society of College Youths.
• Harold WINNEY - wrongly accused of murder in 1914 in Jackson, Michigan, was convicted and served 20 years in prison. Deaf to Evidence by Peter Jackson.
• A B WINNEY - Founder President of the Teeside and District Union of Golf Clubs (founded 29th May 1956). The North Yorkshire and South Durham Amateur Championship is played annually for the “A B Winney” Trophy. Teeside and District Union of Golf Clubs.
• WINI - bishop of London and Winchester (about 660). “For at that time Wini was the only bishop in all Britain who had been canonically consecrated“ Bede - A History of the English Church and People - translated by Leo Sherley-Price - Penguin Classics edition. Basis of a 20th Century family joke 'Our lot were here before the Conqueror.'

More Recent Occurrences that may be found on the internet include:-

• Dr Robert WINNEY - retired in May 2005 after a career in nephrology and transplantation in Edinburgh.
• Harriet WHINNEY - creator of Pearl Jewellery
• Steve WINNEY - artist.
• Margaret WHINNEY - writer on the subjects of art, sculpture, and architecture.
• Dr Bruce WINNEY - pharmacologist, creating a control group of DNA samples at the Cancer Research and immunogenetics laboratory, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.
• James WINNEY - writer and editor of books about the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare.
• Ross WINNEY - plays rugby for Macclesfield and combines this with being the Rugby Union Development Officer of Greater Manchester.
• WINNY (also known as WinNY) - A Japanese peer-to-peer file-sharing program developed by Isamu Kaneko, convicted in Dec 2006 for enabling copyright infringement. The software takes its name from WinMX, where the M and the X are raised one letter in the Latin alphabet, to N and Y. Which is why you get all those Japanese references when you search for the name on the internet.

Frequency of the name

The name is uncommon but not rare. The England and Wales censuses indicate totals of all variants of about 250 in 1841, 440 in 1881, 550 in 1891 and 600 in 1901. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has records of 25 men killed in the two World Wars, including a civilian casualty. ONS statistics for 2002 indicate that at that time there may have been about 900 people living in England and Wales with the name (of whom over 2% were my close relatives). Registered births from 1984 to 2004 are about 270 (of whom over 3% are my close relatives). Frequency of the name in the US 1990 census was less than 0.0005% of the total population and so too small to show a total, but this percentage of the total US population could be as many as 1700 people. Ancestry.com reports over 4000 entries in all the released US censuses and nearly 1400 matches in the US immigration records, but these also include WINNE.

Distribution of the name

In the England and Wales 1881 census, using the surname atlas software, the major clusters of the name are in Suffolk and Essex; Gloucester, Herefordshire and the Welsh borders; and across the north of the country in Cumberland, Northumberland and Durham. These three concentrations also appear in the Boyd’s marriage index of the 16th and 17th centuries. In the London 1881 census most originated from Essex and Suffolk, but also from Oxford and other near Counties. The variant with the H predominated in the North Country and variants without the H appeared more frequently in the South. Other records of the name are in Scotland and Ireland. Present day distribution of the name also includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the USA, and Germany.

Data

At present relatively little data is held and much of this is of WINNYs originating in the Dedham Vale area (popularly known as Constable Country) of south Suffolk.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Peter Winney
94 Broadmoor Lane,
Upper Weston,
Bath,
NE Somerset
BA1 4LB
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 8 March 2008.

This page has been viewed 1183 times. Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here. Page layout © Guild of One-Name Studies 2005 © Guild of One Name Studies 2007 This page last modified 8 Mar 2008, 19:36 Page owner: