FAMILY TREES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22098, 31 October 1933, Page 3

FAMILY TREES

NORMAN CONQUEST TRADITIONS BOGUS ANCESTRY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 13. In an address before the Anthropological section of the British Association Lord-Raglan dealt drastically with those families who cherish the belief that they have an unbroken and recorded ancestry back to the time of the Norman Conquest. “ There are in this country,” said Lord Raglan, “ many families whose ‘ traditions ’ take them back to the time of the Norman conquest, when their ancestors are alleged to have distinguished themselves either on the side of the Normans or of the Saxons, “ It can be said without fear of contradiction from those who have studied the subject that not one of these is a genuine tradition. All are the work of pedigree makers, wljo have flourished from very early times, and there is not a word of truth in any of them. “No English family can trace a genuine descent to the Saxons, and though there are a few families with a genuine Norman descent, this in no case goes as,far back as the eleventh century.” “One of our oldest families is that of Wake, of which the present head is Sir Hereward Wake, thirteenth baronet. The family ‘tradition’ is that it is descended in the direct male line from the famous Saxon hero, Hereward the Wake.

“About 1360 the family of Wake, having attained to wealth and importance, thought itself entitled to a more highsounding pedigree, and having discovered that a Saxon called Hereward had once owned a small part of the lordship of Bourne, decided to adopt the great Saxon hero ns ancestor.

“ For this purpose a pedigree was forged, conferring titles, ancestors, and descendants upon the’ Hereward who lived at Bourne, and to make this pedigree more convincing there was conferred upon the Saxon hero the hitherto unheard-of cognomen of ‘the Wake.’ / “ Hereward was never called * the Wake’ till he was adopted as ancestor by the Wake family about the middle of the fourteenth century; the Wake family has no traceable connection with Hereward or any other Saxon; and the first Wake to be christened Hereward was born in 1851.”

“TALKING THROUGH HIS HAT.” Commenting on this statement, Admiral Sir Drury St. Aubyn Wake said: “ I have never been troubled by any statements about our family, and I should think that Lord Raglan was talking through his hat.” The Lancaster Herald (Mr A. G. Blomefield Russell), of the College of Heralds, said:— “ I am afraid Lord Raglan is talking rather wildly. It is common knowledge that many family trees have been forged in the past, but, on the other hand, many are genuine. There are at least a couple of dozen families who can trace their descent to Norman days, and a few still further back to Saxon times.

“ The College of Heralds have investigated the Wake pedigree with the help of contemporary records, and it is beyond doubt.”