Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Walkland
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
Contact: Mr Stephen Walkland
Thank you for visiting this Web page.
As the Walkland surname is so rare, the purpose of this page is to serve as a focal point for anyone interested in the surname. I am very happy to share what information I have.
My intention in researching the Walkland surname has never been an attempt to pry into the private lives of any living persons. It has simply been to see how far back in time I can trace back the surname.
Over the course of the last 40 years, I have pieced together a relatively complete family tree of all the Walklands that I can find back to one family living near Retford in Nottinghamshire around 1600. This is where the trail currently ends. The websites Ancestry.com and Myheritage.com host my family tree so please feel free to request access via those sites.
I am writing this in December 2025 as I am now winding down my research because I can’t find any further evidence to trace the origin of the surname before the year 1600, despite all my best efforts and with all the information now easily available online. What I believe hasn't already been put online will be very difficult to uncover.
And I need to tidy up all my research material, so it doesn’t end up in a skip after I've gone…..
I am now therefore concentrating on writing up all my notes and updating my data files on Ancestry.com and Myheritage.com and hopefully also finding a physical home for my research papers in either the Nottinghamshire or Sheffield archives (if they’re happy to have it of course…..).
I am convinced that the surname originated out of a corruption of another more common surname, for example, Wakelin, Walkling, Wakeland or their variants. The absence of Walkland from most surname dictionaries could well be proof of this. The earliest Walkland I have traced (born circa 1600) was recorded in different sources as 'Wakelin' and 'Wakland'. This family originated in Sutton-cum-Lound (near Retford, Nottinghamshire) around the early to mid-1600s.
Given that the original family seems to have been grounded in agriculture, working as tenant farmers or labourers, it seems safe to assume that with movement between different settlements being relatively limited before the 1600s and with illiteracy common, that the Walkland surname has arisen from a corruption of a more common alternative surname, such as Wakeman, Wakeland, Wakland, Walkden, Wakelin, Wakelyn, Wakeden, Wagland etc and that the one family in Sutton-cum-Lound were the first to use the "Walkland" spelling.
There are Wakelands in the villages near Sutton-cum-Lound in the mid-1600s and my current suspicion falls on the surname Wakeland being the origin. But then Wakeland, in turn, could easily have also originated from one of more of the above alternative names.
There could be a possible link back to the Wakeden entries for Walesby in around 1595 or to Walkdens in Wellow (and to other surnames in and around Bothamsall) but nothing new seems to be coming online to give me any solid evidence of whether a link exists to these families or not. There are also references to Wakelins/Walklings in Nottingham in the 1400's, but finding a direct link to these may be impossible.
So I have not, so far, found any conclusive evidence to make a direct link with my earliest Walkland family to other families or individuals with the above surname variants, in the Retford area around the 1600's.
So, this is where the trail ends at present. Did the surname originate from this one family in 1600 or is the surname much older? As all the Walklands I have found relate back to this one Retford family, the search must surely be concentrated around Nottinghamshire. However, it could be the case that the family moved to the area in the 1600's from somewhere else, possibly Derbyshire? (See the "Historical occurrences of the name" section below regarding the Walkland Coat of Arms).
Could DNA be the answer? I have done a DNA test and my results are stored in Familytreedna.com and also uploaded to Myheritage.com. However, as of December 2025, I am unaware of any individuals with similar surnames to Walkland who have participated in DNA tests. Increasing participation of people in DNA testing is my remaining hope that ultimately evidence could be obtained from these tests that might show that the Walkland surname may be related to other similar sounding surnames, so that the history mystery of where the Walkland surname came from can be solved. I hope this is within my lifetime….!
As the conclusion to my family tree research, I will summarise below a brief story of the Walkland family and the main branches starting from 1600. I must apologise that the history narrative is related to male Walklands only since (for time constraints only) I have not extended my study to follow the female branches of the family. However, there are many female Walklands who deserve further research. Consequently, the story below is very male centric. I hope you forgive me for this.
Robert born c1600, died in 1657 (was recorded as Wakelin on marriage....) is the originator of the surname (according to me!). He is assumed to be a tenant farmer. He lived in the area of West Retford, close to Sutton-cum-Lound where the family first appeared in the 1600s. Information on their occupations is sketchy, mainly coming from wills, which were rare then. It seems, however, that the family lived off the land, possibly with their own smallholding, but were unlikely to have owned their own land.
Of Robert's 4 sons, no male lines survived from William b1639, Robert b1635 or John b1634 (although John did have a son William whose family may have moved to Shenstone (Staffordshire) and thence to Wolverhampton before the surname died out. However, there are Wakelands/Wakelins/Walkdens etc in that area of the country so I can’t be 100% sure if the Staffordshire Walklands are actually descended from the Robert (born c1600), or not. However, one son of Robert, named Francis (b1643), survived to produce male heirs. Francis had several sons but only one, Robert b1676, survived to produce male heirs.
This Robert had one son, John b1702. He married 1725, but his first wife died 3 years later, probably through childbirth shortly after the birth of her second child (neither of whom seem to have survived). John remarried in 1728 and had several sons but only one, John b1743, continued the male line.
So, because infant mortality was high, for several generations after 1600, only one male Walkland survived in each generation to produce one son, who survived and in turn produced one surviving son. So, the Walkland name could very easily have died out altogether in the period 1600 to 1770!
It was not until the 1770's that John (b1743) fathered sufficient sons who survived to maturity to ensure the expansion and survival of the surname.
At this time, the Walkland families still seem to be rooted in agriculture in the West Retford area (presumably still as tenant farmers) and John's occupation of "Corn Factor" (corn salesman) was shown on at least one of his son's trade indentures.
The "West Retford (Nottinghamshire) Inclosure Act of 1774" must have led to great changes in the Retford area in the years following. It is described as "An Act for dividing and enclosing certain Open Arable Fields, Meadows, and Stinted Common Pastures, in the Parish of West Retford, in the County of Nottingham". It certainly had a great impact on the Walkland families at the time.
John (b1743) died in 1781 when his sons were John (aged 10), Robert (aged 7), William (aged 5), Thomas (aged 3) and James (aged 1). It seems that around this time, members of one Walkland family moved to Nottingham to the Basford area, before dying out around 1850. His son John, b1771, remained in Retford (his line also died out in the 1850s) but the remainder of his father's family moved to Sheffield in the early 1780s since sister Anne (b1767) was in Sheffield in 1781, and sister Mary (b1769) married in Sheffield in 1787.
So, it would appear that as for many agricultural workers at the time, the Enclosure Acts forced a mass movement to find work in the cities and in our family's case meant a move to Sheffield, only a few years after the West Retford Act of 1774 and presumably precipitated by John's death and the family's loss of income.
Following the family's move to Sheffield, Robert b1774 became a potter in Attercliffe and the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire has records of indentures in 1792 and 1793 for entry into apprenticeships as cutlers for Thomas, William and James as "makers of knives" in Sheffield.
I cannot find what happened to James (who I assumed died young), but Robert, Thomas and William went on to marry, have families and are the ancestors of all the Walklands living today.
Their brief family histories are as follows:
1) Robert b1774. He became a potter in Attercliffe, his surviving sons were John b1798 and William b1806.
John was also a Potter and married twice, though both wives pre-deceased him. He died aged 50 and his seven orphan children went to live with brother William (see below). Of these seven orphans only one son (Robert b1832) carried on the male line raising a family in Attercliffe, Sheffield, from which one branch still has a presence in Sheffield today, with other branches forming when part of the family moved to Northallerton and Scarborough.
Robert’s other son William, born 1806, became a successful Wheelwright and Joiner at Hill Top in Attercliffe. It’s probable that the nearby Walkland Road (sadly no longer in existence) was named after him. Over the course of his life, he married three times. As well as taking on the 7 orphans of his brother John he had 10 children of his own, although only three reached maturity. What tragedies he must have seen in his lifetime….. His surviving son moved away from Sheffield initially to Manchester and then emigrated to Newark, New Jersey after a second marriage in 1891. His sons did not produce any male heirs with the surname dying out in New Jersey in 1940. Whilst searches of records on family history sites do show evidence of other Walklands in America, I believe them all to be mis-spellings and are not true Walklands.
2) William b1776. His family continued as Cutlers and in the Steel industry, with sons keeping the surname going into the present day with branches of the family still remaining today in Sheffield.
3) Thomas b1778. His family continued in the steel /silversmith industries but one son became a Lacemaker in Calais (to where Thomas would eventually move after his wife's death). Another son, James, having spent some time in Calais, set up a Steel Electroplating business in Sheffield. He married twice and it is from the first wife that my branch of the family is descended. Some members of my Grandfather's family emigrated to Canada in the early 1910s where a Walkland branch still survives. The link to Sheffield no longer exists with my branch. The second line of Walklands led to a strong branch in Sheffield, but in recent times, families have moved further afield and the link to Sheffield on that side of the family is now much reduced.
Whilst pottery and steel were the initial occupations, after 1850's the growing number of Walkland families worked in an increasing variety of different jobs as the census records tell.
Up to the early 1900's all the Walkland families were all based in Sheffield and there was probably regular contact between the various branches of the family as they all lived within a relatively small area of Sheffield.
This section deals with the Walkland Family Coat of Arms and Crest.......
I have in my possession a copy of a Coat of Arms, bearing the motto 'Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum'. My Great Grandfather (George Thomas born 1845) did some research in this area and below is what is written by him (copied from an earlier document, possibly the original Coat of Arms) in a note pinned to the back of my copy:-
"The Arms of Walkland, a very ancient family in Derbyshire dated 1330 is thus handed down to posterity. Barry of six parts Gules and vert (that is red and green) and over all a Lion rampant - Erminis - this division of the field represents strips of land brought into cultivation from a former untenable condition by industry and art on the part of your forefather and consequently called 'Walkland' and sometimes Wakeland, but Walkland is the proper name - the Lion rampant as in this arms shows a valiant man ever ready on all occasions for noble enterprise and being spotted with ermine stamps it with greater dignity."
"The Crest of this peculiar name and arms is a gold coloured lion holding in his right foot a red tulip stalked and leaved - vert."
My great Grandfather then adds:- "Motto in Latin 'vestigia nulla retrorsum' translation 'no steps backward'. There is no pedigree of the family preserved only the Coat of Arms is handed down except what I have traced from about the latter part of the last century".
I know that other branches of the Walkland family have this same Coat of Arms and presume that at some time in the past this was copied and passed to family cousins. Whether it was my Great Grandfather who copied it, I do not know, but it seems possible. If you have a copy of this Coat of Arms in your family, please do let me know!
I was keen to learn more about the family Coat of Arms, especially the claim that the origin of the name could be traced back to 1330 in Derbyshire. I therefore contacted the College of Arms in London for a definitive check-up on whether the Coat of Arms was genuine. Their reply was "There appears to be nothing officially recorded by the Heralds for families of Walkland or Wakeland as so spelt. However, there are pedigrees recorded for a family Wakelyn (Wakelin) of Derbyshire and Northamptonshire. The arms granted to this family were ........................exactly the same as your illustration". "There seems to be no trace of the arms......in our artificial records... but Burke's General Armory quotes these Arms for the Walkelin family of Derby" (but not officially registered).
So, what I think this basically means is that the Walkland family coat of arms and crest is a piece of Victorian snobbery cobbled together from arms and crests from the more illustrious Wakelyn/Wakelin and Walkelin families and nothing that is linked to our Walkland family from 1600 onwards.
Shame.....!
To preserve confidentiality, I do not intend to include any individual Walklands or their relatives on this Web page.
I hope the above is of interest. If you would like to contact me for any further information, then please do not hesitate to contact me by email (see below). Good luck in your own research.
Regards
Stephen Walkland
Stephendwalkland@gmail.com