|
![Show Contents]() Bencraft History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
- Origins Available:
 England
Bencraft is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived at or near an enclosure at a slope deriving its origin from the Old English phrase of the bank-croft. 1 Early Origins of the Bencraft familyThe surname Bencraft was first found in Cheshire and south east Lancashire in the vicinity of Manchester where William and Henry Bancroft established estates, and erected monuments to the Bancrofts at various locations. Early records revealed that Bancroft was located "near Warrington, Cheshire" and the family were "a branch of the Lords of Boteler of Warrington." 2 Whilst this ancient local has been lost, today there is a Bancroft in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire but this is a recent residential district. "The well - to - do family of the Bancrofts of Chellaston resided in that village for more than 300 years, and from this stock came Bancroft the poet, who flourished in the reign of Charles I. " 3 "The Cheshire Bancrofts have their principal homes in Cheadle, Stockport, and Marple, in which last place they have held land since the time of Elizabeth. " 3 Early History of the Bencraft familyThis web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bencraft research. Another 123 words (9 lines of text) covering the years 1449, 1544, 1545, 1548, 1570, 1574, 1595, 1596, 1600, 1603, 1604, 1610, 1613, 1620, 1640, 1658, 1669, 1696 and 1764 are included under the topic Early Bencraft History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible. Bencraft Spelling VariationsSound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Bencraft family name include Bancroft, Bancrofte, Bamcroft and others. Early Notables of the Bencraft familyDistinguished members of the family include Richard Bancroft (1544-1610), Archbishop of Canterbury in 1604 who supervised the production of the authorized version of the Bible.
Thomas Bancroft (ca. 1596-1658), was a minor 17th-century English poet who attended to St Catharine's College, Cambridge (1613.) He was a native of Swarston, a village on the Trent, in Derbyshire.
John Bancroft (died 1696), an English surgeon, best known for his work in drama at the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane.) He "was...
Another 75 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Bencraft Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible. Migration of the Bencraft familyFor political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Bencraft surname or a spelling variation of the name include: John Bancroft who settled in Lynn Massachusetts in 1632; another John and Jane settled in Boston Massachusetts in the same year.
| Contemporary Notables of the name Bencraft (post 1700) | + |
- Cyril Bencraft Joly MC (1918-2000), British Army officer
- Harrison, Henry, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary Baltimore: Geneological Publishing Company, 2013. Print
- The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States Of America. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1975. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0636-X)
- Guppy, Henry Brougham, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. 1890. Print.
|
