Welcome to the Mockford One Name Study page.  My interest in family history started in 1992 with a family tree drawn up by my late father, dating back to his grandfather Abraham Mockford born in 1845.  Having traced my line back to my 6 x great grandfather Thomas Mockford born in 1669 at Brighton, I had by then collected an increasing number of Mockford entries, and decided to commence this One Name Study.

Although still very much work in progress, the overall aim is to research, record and analyse information, to enable construction of family trees and histories showing the worldwide distribution of the Mockford name.

Spelling of the name has remained remarkably consistent over the centuries and there are no registered variants.

Moxford which appears in Kent in the early 19th century is derived from a Mockford family. I am gradually building up a database of Moxford references, and need to undertake further research before registering this as a variant.

Mockford appears to be derived from the Old English personal name 'Mocca'. One 'Mocca' owned a ford at the now lost place of Mokeford in Henfield, West Sussex, recorded as Mokeford in 1373 and deriving from the Old English 'Moccan ford'.

Mockford was (and continues to be) a late medieval farmstead, situated between Mockbridge and Cowfold, in the grounds of Parkminster Farm, not far from Henfield, and is now listed as Grade II.  The Victoria County History suggests that the property was perhaps named after a tenant originating from Henfield.

The earliest reference to Mockford occurs in the 1327 Lay Subsidy Roll, where Radulphus Mockford was assessed in Henfield, and also Henry Mokeford at the same place in 1332.  In 1373-4 the Custumal of Stretham, Sussex refers to a house and 'furlyng' lately of Richard Mokeford and formerly of William Mokeford.

In 1473 a court makes reference to John Mokeford holding 'Aylmers' in 'Beding' ( a few miles south of Henfield), and by the 16th century the name begins to appear on the Sussex coast, with a John Mokford of Fysshersgate in 1524 and Jerome Mockford of Lancing in 1549.

According to gbnames.publicprofiler.org the frequency of the Mockford surname in 1881 was 500 - 18 occurrences per million names, however by 1998 it had dropped to 14 occurrences per million names.  It had a rank order of 6620 in 1881, which had changed to 8686 in 1998.

The Mockford surname is predominately Sussex based, in particular around Brighton and Rottingdean.  51% of Mockford entries across the census returns from 1841 to 1911 occur in Sussex, with the next highest distribution seen in London with 16%.

One family line appearing in Bedworth, Warwickshire is actually descended from a misspelling of the Mogford surname which is based in Somerset and Devon.

All of the Mockford Birth, Marriage and Death entries from the General Register Office for England and Wales have been recorded for the period 1837 - 2005.

All Census entries across 1841 - 1911 have been collected.

All Probate entries covering the period 1858 to 1953,

Numerous entries from Parish Registers, IGI and overseas relating to Australia, New Zealand and Canada, together with wills, photographs and military records.

So far 8 main family lines have been constructed, 6 of them originating in Sussex.

There is no DNA study for this surname.

For more information please contact Catherine Wickens at mockford@one-name.org