Seckingtonfamil y edited and published by

THE SECKINGTON FAMILY


The Total Number of Seckingtons 1200-1996
There were, in 1996, 1030 records on the computer file referring to Seckingtons. This figure represents the total number of Seckingtons who were known to us at that time. This breaks down into

772 Seckingtons by birth

258 Seckingtons by marriage.

Over the period of 800 years covered by the family records there are bound to be a number of people who have gone unrecorded.

The 800 year period divides into the medieval and the modern eras. The medieval period extends, roughly, from 1200 to 1550, about 350 years. The modern period from 1550 to the present day, covering 450 years. In the modern period detailed records have been kept by the churches from 1550, and by the state from 1838, showing every birth or baptism, marriage, and death or burial. Very few people can have been missed in the research. In the medieval period the records were not nearly so complete but the family numbers at this time were much smaller.
The best estimate of the total number of Seckingtons ever to have lived is 1210 males and females.
It may be interesting to explore whether the Seckington family is increasing or decreasing in numbers. The question asked was how the number of Seckingtons alive in 1996 compared with the number alive in 1900. In considering this question some judgment has had to be made whether certain people, whose date of death is not recorded, were alive or not at the cut-off dates.
The total number of Seckingtons alive in 1900 was 214. The total in 1996 was 343. The family therefore increased by 129 people in 96 years, an increase of 60%.
The figures may be compared on a regional basis. In 1900 there were 148 Seckingtons in Europe. In 1996 there were 184. In 1900 there were 60 Seckingtons in North America. By 1996 this had increased to 123. In 1900 there were 6 Seckingtons in Australasia and in 1996 this had grown to 36.
The Seckington family is therefore increasing in all areas of settlement although it remains a very small family.


THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE SECKINGTON FAMILY

The General Line of Descent
The genealogy of the Seckingtons may be divided into three periods. Prior to 1040 our ancestors were living in France. From about 1042 to around 1200 they lived in England under various names. The first use of the Seckington name by our ancestors occurs in 1206.

In France
Before 1000 our predecessors lived in Anjou. The best guess at this time is that they came from the Loire valley around Saumar. The Angevins were not Normans but Franks. The Franks were a race that occupied Germany and France in the period after the collapse of the Roman Empire. In France the Franks amalgamated with the Gauls to form the French people. Very little is presently known about the Angevin family that preceded the Seckingtons.
By some means, probably by marriage to a Norman heiress in the 10th century, a branch of the family became counts of the Avranchin and Hiemois in Normandy. The elder line became Earls of Chester early in the 12th century. At the beginning of the second millennium our branch of the family was living in Normandy in the St.Lo region of the Cotentin. From Normandy they emigrated to England about 1042 or soon after. Richard Scrob or Scrope was our first ancestor to settle in England.
Richard Scrob appears to have been a close friend of Edward the Confessor, when Edward was in exile in Normandy. When Edward became king of England in 1042, Richard accompanied him to England and settled there. Our family then became English rather than French, although the links with Normandy, Anjou, and Flanders were maintained for another 100 years.
A historian of the County Palatine of Chester gave his opinion that Richard Scrob was descended from Ralph Tesson, Lord of Chaquelez, who held a third of Normandy in fee, and was himself descended from the Counts of Anjou. The Counts of Anjou in later years became the Plantagenet kings of England. Another historian thought that Richard was closely related to the Earls of Chester, who in Normandy were also Counts of the Avranchin who were also descended from the Counts of Anjou.
Richard married a daughter of the Count of Flanders, who was a descendant of Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the West. The Seckingtons are therefore descendants of Charlemagne in the maternal line. Richard was an uncle of Matilda of Flanders, the queen of William the Conqueror, and his children were cousins of the Conqueror's family.

The Genealogy of the English Predecessors

of the Seckingtons
The following list gives the descent of the ancestors of the Seckingtons from Richard Scrob to the first of the line to call himself "de Seckington". This list shows the first English ancestors of every member of the Seckington family.

It can be seen that the land in Seckington village was obtained by the seventh generation after the first arrival of our ancestors in England.

1. Richard Scrob (c1000-1071)

2. Osbern FitzRichard (c1025-1100), son of Richard.

3. Hugh FitzOsbern (c1050-1119), son of Osbern.

4. Simon FitzHugh le Scrope (c1075-c1140), son of Hugh.

5. Robert le Scrope (c1100-1170), son of Simon.

6. Simon le Scrope (c1125- 1205), son of Robert.

7. Henry le Scrope of Seckington (c1150-1226), son of Simon.
The 'c' indicates 'about', 'around', or approximately. Where there is no 'c' the actual date is given by the old records.
England before the Conquest
Richard Scrob, our first ancestor in England, was a friend of King Edward the Confessor in the days when that prince was exiled in Normandy. When Edward succeeded to the English throne in 1042 Richard Scrob accompanied him to England and settled there. An early document described him as a housecarl of King Edward. The housecarls were the king's bodyguard. Later he appears to have been stationed on the Welsh border as part of the defences against King Gruffydd of Wales, an aggressive and successful enemy of the English and Normans. In 1051 he built a castle between Herefordshire and Shropshire, within a few miles of the border with Wales. There is no record of Richard's castle ever being attacked by the Welsh, which probably indicates that Richard followed the Mercian policy of non-provocation of the Welsh.
Richard Scrob was later Sheriff of Shropshire and there is some justification for the claim that Shropshire was named after him. Its original name was Salop and it is still occasionally called by this name. In Richard's time it was called Scrob's shire and later softening of the c and b produced Shrops shire. A historian, born in Shrewsbury shortly after the Conquest, called his birthplace Scrobesburie. Shrewsbury is pronounced Shrows bury.

Richard's son, Osbern, succeeded him as sheriff of Shropshire.

England after the Conquest
In 1066 the Normans and Bretons invaded England. By that time the family of Richard Scrob had been in England for 24 years and were well-established. Although they took no part in the invasion they did well out of the Conquest. They spoke Old English and Norman French and were able to read and write Latin. They held a number of administrative posts and acquired a considerable amount of land.
By 1071 Richard Scrob was dead. His sons and grandsons were spreading around England. The family of Richard Scrob held lands in several counties of England. The FitzRichards were in the county of Chester in the 1070s and by 1100 the Scropes, a branch of the FitzRichards, appear in Lincolnshire records. In Lincolnshire they held land of Gilbert de Ghent, Earl of Lincoln. Gilbert de Ghent was a son of a Count of Flanders, and Richard Scrob married a daughter of one of the Counts of Flanders. It may be seen therefore that the descendants of Richard Scrob held their lands in Lincolnshire through family associations.

Great concentrations of land were a target for kings and others and the family seems to have operated two policies to protect their land assets.

Their solution was to divide the land among succeeding generations. They also followed the practice of inter-marriage between different branches of the family to keep the land within the family. The result was that they did not possess vast landholdings but as the population grew their land became more valuable and they remained wealthy.
Richards Castle and its estates, known as the Honour of Richards Castle, were lost around 1200 when the then lord of the Honour was killed in a battle with the Welsh, leaving a young daughter as his heir. She was married to a Mortemer, and Richard's Castle passed out of the family.

The Descendants of Richard Scrob
Richard died in 1071, leaving four sons, Richard, Thurstan, Osbern, and William. Richard's Castle appears to have been divided in a way that Osbern inherited only a share of it. Osbern was the successor of Richard Scrob in five manors and therefore did not inherit all his father's property.

Osbern, the son of Richard, married Princess Nesta, the daughter of King Gruffydd of Wales. Gruffydd was the son of Prince Llewellyn of Gwynedd, and, in a very aggressive military career, he had conquered all the principalities of Wales. He was assassinated at the peak of his success and his conquests were divided between his half-brothers. Princess Nesta's mother was Edith, the daughter of Alfgar, Earl of Mercia. She was the first and last Queen of Wales, and by a later marriage to King Harold, she became Queen of England.

There is no evidence that the Seckingtons are descended from the kings of England, but they are descended from a king of Wales and a queen of both Wales and England.
Through her father's Welsh ancestors, Princess Nesta could trace her descent back to 541, according to chronicles kept by Welsh monks. Through her mother's English ancestors, she was descended from Earls of Mercia back to 721, according to the evidence of old English charters. Her sister married Alan FitzFlaald and her descendants included the Scottish and English Stuart kings.
Osbern appears to have had five sons, Hugh FitzOsbern (alias Hugh Blund), William Blund, Robert Blund, Adam FitzOsbern, and Thurstan FitzOsbern. Osbern FitzRichard died around 1100 and was succeeded by his son Hugh FitzOsbern.
In a record of the end of the 12th century Hugh FitzOsbern was called Hugh Blund to distinguish him from his grandson, another Hugh FitzOsbern. Blund means blonde or fair. He had two sons, Osbert and Simon. Osbert, the elder, succeeded him. To Simon, his younger son, he gave seven bovates of land in Moreton, near Timberland, Lincolnshire. This Simon took the name of le Scrope and was the ancestor of the Scropes and the Seckingtons.
The Scrope Family
Simon le Scrope had at least three sons, Richard, Robert, and Hugh. The eldest, Richard, married a daughter of the Earl of Pembroke and was the brother-in-law of the Earl of Lincoln. Robert le Scrope, the second son, had two sons, Philip, and Simon. Philip le Scrope was dead by 1197 when his two daughters, both childless, granted their father's land to their uncle, Simon le Scrope. Simon died in 1205. He left a son, Henry le Scrope, who married Juliana le Brun of Thornton. Henry and Juliana acquired a quarter share in the manor of Seckington before 1206. This quarter share included the Hall at Seckington. The old rule was that the possessor of the Hall was entitled to use the name of the manor as part of his name. By 1206 Henry was calling himself Henry de Seckington.

Henry and his descendants held a number of landholdings and did not reside permanently at Seckington until Gerard de Seckington took up residence around 1312.

Henry le Scrope of Seckington was the seventh generation from Richard Scrob and the first to own land in Seckington village. The family of Henry's wife Juliana, the Bruns or Browns, were descendants of Engenulf the Cook, a Domesday landholder in Seckington village, and so the Seckington family can trace its descent in the maternal line back to 1086 in Seckington.
Notable ancestors
The Seckington family is descended from

* Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the West

* The Counts of Anjou

* The Counts of Flanders

* The Counts of the Avranchin

* The Princes of Gwynedd

* Gruffydd, the first and last King of Wales

* The Earls of Mercia

* Queen Edith of Wales and England
Our family was a mixture of Frankish, Norman, Welsh, Old English, and Flemish ancestries. By settlement it was English.

COATS OF ARMS


The Arms of the Scrope family was a blue shield with a gold bend. The same coat of arms was used by the family of St. Lo in Normandy.


Seckington Coats of Arms

seal used by Simon Seckington seal of Thomas Seckington

1354 AD 1404
Simon Seckington, in 1354, used a seal bearing the coat of arms of Ralph Scrope. This showed 3 garbs, or wheat sheaves, on a bend. The garb was the emblem of the Earls of Chester. There was a family connection between the Earls of Chester, the Scropes, and the Seckingtons.
Thomas Seckington, in 1404, used a seal showing a coat of arms which had three chevronels on the bend.


William Seckington, who died in 1460, had the same coat of arms as Thomas Seckington. This coat of arms is on the ceiling bosses of Norwich Cathedral.
The reason for the change in colour from blue to red is probably the need to distinguish between families. Scrope descendants who were tenants of the Earls of Chester generally used the red shield.
The College of Arms
In England, the College of Arms decides who can have coats of arms. In 1983 an inquiry was made to the college about the possibility of modern Seckingtons using the old Seckington coat of arms.
Michael Maclagan, Richmond Herald said that

“A right to arms may be proved in two ways: by having a new Grant of Arms from the King of Arms (the three senior heralds at the College of Arms) who are empowered by the Sovereign to grant Arms to ‘eminent men’ on behalf of the Crown; or alternatively by proving one’s direct male line descent from an ancestor already on official record as having a Coat of Arms.”

Since present day Seckingtons do not appear to qualify, the possibility of obtaining the right to use the Seckington coat of arms by the Seckington Family Society was discussed. There were expenses involved, and members of the society were not interested. The matter was not proceeded with and the Seckington Family Society in England is now defunct.
It may be noted that the College of Arms does not enforce its rights against illegitimate use of coats of arms in England, and has no authority outside Great Britain.
The Scropes were prominent in medieval warfare. Richard Scrope was with the army that invaded France in November 1355 and was in the army of Edward III that recovered Berwick from the Scots in 1356. Richard Scrope was one of six members of the Scrope Family, the others being Henry, William, and Geoffrey, knights, and Stephen and Henry, esquires, who served in the 1359 expedition into France. On that occasion Sir Richard Scrope was challenged by an esquire of Cornwall, named Carminow, as to his right to bear the arms, azure, a bend or. The dispute was settled by a commission which adjudged that they might both bear the same arms since Carminow was of Cornwall, which was formerly a separate kingdom, and the Scropes had borne the arms since the Conquest.
In 1385 a dispute arose between Sir Richard Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor, a knight of Cheshire, as to the right to bear the arms Azure, a bend or, to which the heads of each family conceived themselves legitimately entitled by long usage. By the laws of heraldry, the blazon being a distinguishing mark of blood, the same arms ought not to be borne by distinct families. In the expedition to Scotland in 1385, Sir Robert Grosvenor had appeared in these arms, on which his right to bear them was immediately challenged by Lord Scrope.
At the first dispositions taken on 16 June 1386 at Plymouth, the Duke of Lancaster testified “that at all times when we were armed in battles and other journeys in divers countries, we have seen and known that the said Sir Richard hath borne his arms ‘Azure, a bend or’, and that many of his name and lineage have borne the said arms with differences, as branches of the same, on banner, pennon, and coat-armour; and that we have heard from many noble and valiant men since deceased that the said arms were the right arms for his ancestors and himself at the time of the Conquest and since. But we have not seen or heard that the said Sir Robert Grosvenor, or any of his name, bore the said arms before the last expedition into Scotland with our Lord the King”. Backed by such a testimony, it is not surprising that Sir Richard Scrope’s title to the disputed arms prevailed.
In 1390, when Grosvenor’s appeal against the decision of the High Constable was heard before the King in person, it was determined that the arms should wholly remain to Sir Richard Scrope and his heirs.
THE MEDIEVAL SECKINGTONS

In the 12th century the ancestors of the Seckingtons called themselves 'le Scrope'. At the beginning of the 13th century they had acquired part of the manor, or village, of Seckington in Warwickshire. From that time they called themselves 'de Seckington' when they were in Warwickshire. They did not use the name Seckington exclusively until the 14th century. The Seckingtons originally held a quarter of the manor of Seckington, but later acquired a further quarter by purchase.

The Descent of the Manor of Seckington
The Domesday Book shows the holders of the various parts of Seckington village in 1086.

The part of the manor of Seckington held at Domesday by Engenulf the Cook was granted by him to Nicholas le Clerk around 1100. When Simon the son of Nicholas died about 1160 this portion of Seckington passed by marriage to William le Brun of Timmor. William's son Reginald was murdered in 1199, and the land passed to Juliana le Brun of Thornton, who was married to Henry le Scrope, and it thereby passed into the hands of the Scropes and the Seckingtons.

The Descent from the Scropes
The pedigree of the early Seckingtons starts with Henry le Scrope de Seckington, the seventh generation in descent from Richard Scrob.
1. Henry le Scrope de Seckington (c1150-1226)

2. Simon de Seckington (c1175-c1245), the son of Henry.

3. Ralph le Scrope de Seckington (c 1200-1254), presumably the son of Simon.

4. Nicholas de Seckington (c1240-c1310), the son of Ralph.

5. Geoffrey de Seckington (c1265-c1300), the son of Nicholas.

6a. Gerard de Seckington (c1290-1368), son of Geoffrey.

6b. John de Seckington (c1290-c1360), son of Geoffrey and brother of Gerard.
Henry le Scrope married Juliana de Thornton in the second half of the 12th century. The Bruns or Browns held land in several parts of England. This included land in and around Seckington village. Some of this land came into the possession of Henry le Scrope between 1199 and 1206.
The amount of land held by the Scropes and Seckingtons in Seckington village appears to have been a quarter part of 5 hides. A hide was nominally 120 acres and so the Seckingtons held 150 acres.
5 hides constituted a knight's fee so the Seckingtons held a 1/4 Knight's fee. A man who held a knight's fee of 5 hides was compelled to render personal military service in time of war. Holders of lesser amounts of land were taxed at the rate of 40 shillings per 5 hides which meant that the Seckingtons paid 10 shillings each time the king was granted scutage by Parliament. Scutage was a tax given to finance a war. This was fairly infrequent; possibly once in several years.
The Seckingtons do not appear to have ever been knights. The Seckingtons of Seckington are frequently described as clerks, which indicates that they were educated people. The Seckingtons of Southwark were landed merchants. The term 'landed merchants' implies that they held real estate but their main income was derived from trade.
Neither Henry le Scrope nor his son Simon appears to have lived at Seckington. Henry seems to have resided mostly in Oxfordshire. Simon de Seckington appears in the records only once and it seems probable that he resided in, and called himself after, some place not yet identified as belonging to the Scropes.
Henry's grandson Ralph lived at Seckington where he was killed in 1254. Ralph's son Nicholas, and his grandson Geoffrey lived elsewhere and it was not until around 1312 that Geoffrey's son Gerard took up residence at Seckington, where his descendants remained until 1549.

Ralph, who died in 1254, was the last to use the Scrope name. Thereafter, the family appears to have settled on the name Seckington.

The History of the Early Seckingtons
Henry de Seckington first occurs in the records for 1206 when he was involved in some legal proceedings, the details of which are not given. He occurs again, before 1210, as a witness to a conveyance of real estate to Lichfield Cathedral.

In 1221 Henry de Seckington, alias Henry le Scrope, was prosecuted for infringing the trading laws. Reading between the lines, Henry, as a London merchant, had a supply of Bordeaux wines which he was trying to sell in Warwickshire. He was attempting to sell the wine without a licence from the authorities in Tamworth and was infringing the legal monopoly of some Tamworth merchants and so they prosecuted him. Henry probably held the fishmongery business in Southwark at that time. The fishing fleet used to bring back wine and other goods from Europe, as well as their catch of fish. The import business was not illegal provided the king's customs were paid.

Henry was dead by 1226 when his son Simon claimed his land. Simon sued William Petitpas and Joan, his wife, concerning 30 acres of land at Seckington which Simon claimed by right of inheritance. The court proceedings do not mean that a dispute existed between Simon and William. It was merely a formal way of recording the agreement between them. William became the lessee of 30 of the 150 acres that Simon held in Seckington. Joan was associated with the agreement probably because she was a relative, possibly a sister, of Simon, and the reason that William obtained the grant.
Ralph de Seckington, also known as Ralph le Scrope, married Avice Cook who was a descendant of Engenulf the Cook, the Domesday landholder. She was probably the daughter of Ralph's superior lord. Ralph was killed in 1254 by a William Bishop. This was probably accidental and William Bishop received the king’s pardon at the request of Philip Marmion of Tamworth Castle. Marmion was the overlord of Jordan de Whitacre who was the overlord of Ralph de Seckington.
Ralph's widow, Avice, and her son, Nicholas, moved to her property in Sussex. Ralph Bassett of Drayton was sued in 1264 for depriving Jordan de Whitacre of the custody and profits of Nicholas's land at Seckington, which belonged to Jordan as Nicholas's overlord. There was a long association between the Scrope and Bassett families which may explain Ralph Bassett's actions.
Nicholas de Seckington was prosecuted in 1271, along with Philip Marmion and others for taking venison from Cannock forest without authority. The forests belonged to the king and game was protected.

Nicholas de Seckington was back at Seckington in 1294 to claim his mother's property in Tamworth. By that date she was dead. He sued John de Picheford and Alice his wife at the king's court at Westminster. Tamworth was an ancient demesne of the king and all legal actions had to be sued in the king's court. He recovered the property. His successor was suing for the same property in 1430.

Nicholas had a son, Geoffrey, who died in his father's lifetime. Geoffrey left at least two sons who inherited Nicholas's properties in Warwickshire and Southwark in London. They were Gerard Seckington of Seckington, and John Seckington of Amington.