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Saturday, August 27, 2016

Hampshire and the First Henwood, A Saxon; History and Ydna

Nadene Goldfoot                                            
There are about 8,546 people in the world bearing Henwood as a surname.  They are living in England, the USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia 

Could it be that the first Henwood was Hengist, a Saxon?  Saxons came from Saxony in NW Germany who had settled in southern England where I found Henwood ancestors in Hampshire.  The tribe of the ATREBATES had lived in Hampshire.  "This was a British Celtic tribe occupying modern Berkshire and Hampshire, along with areas of West Sussex, western Surrey, and north-east Wiltshire." "Closely related to the north-western Gaulish tribe of Atrebates, they were at their most powerful in the first and second centuries BC. The name Atrebates means 'settlers' or 'inhabitants.'"
                                                                               
The Saxons' entrance happened in or just after 410 AD.  What had happened was was a leader of the British at that time, Vortigern,  invited the Saxon Hengist to protect him against some Picts of Scotland who were attacking him. "Hengist (or Hengest) and Horsa (or Hors) are figures of Anglo-Saxon history, which records the two as the Germanic brothers who led the AngleSaxonFrisian, and Jutish armies that conquered the first territories of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist (through his son, whose name varies by source) as the founder of the Kingdom of Kent.  The shingle beaches of Kent have yielded to the keels of Saxon warships.  

Vortigern was a treacherous tribal chieftain.  After the death of the rightful king, Constantine, Vortigern  needed to protect himself against a coming war, so had recruited this outside help.  He sighted the 3 ships in the Channel that were manned by the Saxon leader, Hengist who had been sent to seek settlements of their own.  Their homeland was no longer able to support them.  This happened at least once every 7 years.  They were promised land on which to settle for their military support and they would in return also get part of Lincolnshire, but then Vortigern wanted Hengist's daughter, Rowena in marriage.  In return he would give Hengist the earldom of Kent.  The Earl of Kent of course was not happy to hear about this! 

 The Britons were so angry when they heard about this offer that they made Vortimer, Vortigern's son from his 1st wife,  their king and expelled the Saxons from the shores.  Rowena was so angry that she ordered Vortimer to be poisoned and Vortigern is made king once more.  Hengist calls together many British earls and barons under Vortigern's patronage to  plan a peaceful blending into their societies  of his Saxons in Britain. 

 Everyone came unarmed.  Hengist  was treacherous and had his men carry a long knife hidden in their clothing.  At his signal,  the Saxons pulled out their knives and killed the Briton standing next to him.  Vortigern is banished by the Saxons to Wales and they took possession of England.   This is considered mythology and not accurate history of how the Saxons arrived and was completely transformed in later centuries.  .  

The monk, Gildas, was a recorder of history in about 540 with his "THE RUIN OF BRITAIN" and wrote, still showing hatred of Saxons, "To hold back the northern peoples, they introducted into the island the vile unspeakable Saxons, hated of God and man alike....of their own free will, they invited in under the same roof the enemy they feared worse than death."

Much later,  the West Saxons of Wessex , in a division of the southern part of Britain, divided southern
Britain into Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset.

The Saxons were different from the "barbarians" who finally defeated the Roman Empire within Europe.  The Saxons came from well outside the frontiers of the Empire and had completely different customs and social organizations to emphasize kinship and loyalty to relatives.  Their Gods were Norse ones; Tiw, Woden, Thor, Freya and are remembered in our days of the week-Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.  They are also remembered in English place-names such as Tuesley in Surrey and Wednesbury in Staffordshire.

The Brits showed a strong resistance to the Saxons which culminated in the British victory around AD500  at Mons Badonicus where Geoffrey had King Arthur lead the Brits.  The Saxons moved north and were successful in taking land.Cornwall, where another branch of Henwood have been from, resisted the Saxons until the beginning of the 9th century, so it should be possible that the Henwood line was younger there than in southern England.

The language of English gets nothing from its Celtic roots but almost everything to its Germanic roots.  The Celtic language was replaced by English because the English Celts were simply wiped out or driven to the hills according to Bryan Sykes, researcher of DNA.
                                                                             
Saxons were then fighting against the Danes who had invaded and went on endlessly when King Aethelred ordered a massacre of all Danes in England in 1002.  It was an impossible task in those days but caused hysteria and violence.  The Danes living in Oxford, took refuge in a church which the citizens burned down, causing all the deaths.  The King of Denmark, Sweyn,  intervened at this attempted ethnic cleansing,  so then invaded England in 1013.  His son, Canute or Cnut, crushed the Saxon resistance in 1016 and became King of England!   He had to divide his time between Denmark and England.  Cnut died in 1035 and his son Harold took over for a few years until his death when his brother Harthacnut reined for 2 years before dying in 1042.  Then the Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, was king.  On October 14, 1066, King Harold's Saxon army were attacked by William, Duke of Normandy and his  heavy cavalry. This was the famous Norman Conquest.   Harold was killed by an arrow.  His men did not surrender but fought to the death and were all killed.  William had been given a claim to the English throne by Edward who had no children and had promised it to William.
                                                                                 
After the Norman Conquest of 1066, estates had insisted that men adopt surnames. 
 The reason given was so they could be told apart and that inheritance of land tenancies from father to son could be properly controlled.  By the end of the 13th century, the practice had spread throughout the land, and practically everyone in England had a forename and a surname.
                                                                             
"The surname Hen was first found in Sussex where the family held a family seat before the Norman Conquest of 1066.  The first Hen family lived in the parish of Heene, part of Worthing in the county of Sussex.  it could also be from HENRY.    "It's an English name, a habitational name from any of various places so named, as for example Henwood in Cornwall, in Linkinhorne parish, which is named from Old English henn ‘hen’, ‘wild bird’ + wudu ‘wood’, or Hen Wood in Wootton, Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire), which is named from Old English hiwan ‘religious community’ (genitive plural higna) + wudu.
Source: Dictionary of. " 13, Oxford University Press

                                                                           
The Ydna haplotype of our Henwood  whose grandfather was Charles Ernest Henwood of Hampshire is R1b1a2 or R=(M 269), now called R-L48.  It is the Western Atlantic Model Haplotype WAMH.  The farthest we have gone tracing the ancestor is  to John Henwood of 1538 in Medstead, Hampshire, England..


 Charles Ernest Henwood

1   Charles Ernest Henwood b: February 06, 1897 in Winchfield, Hartley Wintney Row, County of Hampshire, England
.. +Queenie Dorothy Disney b: December 25, 1899 in Hornchurch, Romford District,  Essex County,  England

Resource; Book:  Saxons, vikings, and Celts-the genetic roots of Britain and Ireland" by Bryan Sykes
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England
https://www.houseofnames.com/hen-family-crest




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