Benbrook

Benbrook One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Benbrook

Variants: Banbrook, Bembroke

Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.

Website: www.benbrook.org.uk

Contact: Mr Howard Benbrook

About the study

My father's immediate family comes from the East End of London, and they'd been living there for at least 9 generations (since approximately 1750). I'd been doing so well, researching my family, until I reached my 'brick wall' and, because the name is reasonably uncommon, I thought it would be a cunning strategy to collect all the occurrences of the name that I could find. At that moment the BENBROOK one-name study was born. It's been a long and often frustrating journey but which has led ultimately to some satisfying results, and which continues...

Variant names

As with a lot of surnames, the capacity for variant spellings of BENBROOK is huge. I've often been called 'Mr. Bembridge', or 'Mr. Benbow', and letters frequently arrived at my house addressed to someone with a name like: 'Mr. Pembroke' or 'Mr. Bembrooke'.
In order to control the scale of the research needed, I've chosen to limit the scope of variants to the following spellings: BENBROOK, BANBROOK, BEMBROOK, BAMBROOK, BENBROKE, BANBROKE, BEMBROKE and BAMBROKE The first 4 of these variants are formally registered with the Guild.
I think it's possible that one or several of the following names are also variants: BENBRICK, BEMBRICK, BANBRICK, BAMBRICK, but I'm not yet ready to examine whether they should be included. I'm fairly sure, though, that PEMBROKE is *not* a variant.

Name origin

After a considerable period of research, I came to believe that the surname was likely to have originated in Warwickshire. The distribution of the variants using 1881 census data shows very clearly that, for all the presence of my direct ancestors in the East End of London, there was a distinct concentration in Warwickshire, particularly in the area around Warwick.
There was other evidence that supported this theory. I noticed, when I was researching the Warwickshire BENBROOKs, that another name, BARNBROOK, would often appear in the same parishes. The distribution of BARNBROOK is very similar to BENBROOK, with perhaps a slight shift in emphasis to the North West - on the Worcestershire/Staffordshire border. It just so happens that in this same border area there is a small village called Bournbrook, now absorbed into the south west corner of Birmingham.
It seemed a plausible explanation, therefore, that BENBROOK and its variants had a locative origin - the village of Bournbrook - and that over many hundreds of years the name had progressively been corrupted from Bournbrook through Barnbrook to Banbrook, Benbrook and the rest.
But, as so often in research, new findings have changed my perspective. I managed to get a copy of the transcriptions of the Hearth Tax for Warwickshire, dated in the 1660s. There are NO Benbrooks - or anything like. This drives a coach and horses through my Warwickshire theory. In addition, online resources became available which further supported the idea that there were no Benbrooks, or any of the other variants, in Warwickshire before the late 17th century.
Now, stimulated by DNA evidence that I may have ancestry in Buckinghamshire or Northamptonshire, I'm pursuing my own family origins there. It's clear, for instance, that a group from Northamptonshire that migrated to New Jersey in the USA in the 19th century is somehow related to me. However, this doesn't preclude the notion that the surname has multiple origins - for instance, someone who lived by the 'bend in the brook' could occur anywhere, and there are certainly interesting occurrences in places as diverse as Staffordshire and Essex which I've yet to explore fully.

Historical occurrences of the name

The earliest reference I've uncovered so far to any of the variants of the surname is in a Deed of Gift, dated 26th January 1456 and discovered at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon. It reads: "Gift with warranty from Alice Merston of Killyngworth to Thomas Barnebroke of Selley and Richard Chaumbre of the same of lands, tenements, rents and reversions with meadows, pastures, feedings, waters and woods in Norfeld, Worcs., which she inherited after the death of Richard Meddelton; to hold for ever from the chief lords of the fee for due and customary service. Dated at Norfeld, 26 January 25 Henry VI".
It's unusual, in websites like this, to cite a document from the 15th century and it would be foolish to make too many assumptions based on that one document. However, it's important to note that, even online, where we're dependent on someone making a transcription of an original record, there are records of BENBROOKs, no more than a century later, in other parts of the country.

Links

I'd be really very interested to hear from you if you have any connection with someone who has a name that sounds like BENBROOK. And, especially if you're interested in helping with the research, please get in touch with me using the contact below.

Contact Details

Mr Howard Benbrook

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Benbrook in the Guild Indexes

(Click on the number to view the search results in each index. Indexes marked by * are only accessible by logged in Guild members.)

Global Marriages (public) 61
Global Marriages (members)* 78
Inscriptions Index 1
Datastores 267
References to the name Benbrook in the Guild Journal 63

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