The name Cannfield reached English shores for the first time with the ancestors of the Cannfield family as they migrated following the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Cannfield family lived in Yorkshire. The Cannfield family descended from Richard de Camville, who owned estates in both England and France after the invasion in 1066, and gave his name to the area of Yorkshire in which his family settled. In the centuries following the Conquest of England by the Normans, the languages of the natives and their conquerors intermingled and the surname Camville changed to the more English sounding Canfield.
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Early Origins of the Cannfield family
The surname Cannfield was first found in Yorkshire where they had been granted lands by William the Conqueror for their assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. Today, Great Canfield is a village and a civil parish in the Uttlesford District of Essex, home to the Great Canfield Castle. Little Canfield is a village and a civil parish which is also located in Essex.
Early History of the Cannfield family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Cannfield research. Another 161 words (12 lines of text) covering the years 1066, 1455, 1563 and 1611 are included under the topic Early Cannfield History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Cannfield Spelling Variations
Anglo-Norman names tend to be marked by an enormous number of spelling variations. This is largely due to the fact that Old and Middle English lacked any spelling rules when Norman French was introduced in the 11th century. The languages of the English courts at that time were French and Latin. These various languages mixed quite freely in the evolving social milieu. The final element of this mix is that medieval scribes spelled words according to their sounds rather than any definite rules, so a name was often spelled in as many different ways as the number of documents it appeared in. The name was spelled Canfield, Camville, Canville, Canfeld, Cannfield, Camnville and many more.
Early Notables of the Cannfield family
Benedict Canfield (1563-1611) Capuchin friar, whose real name was William Fitch, the second son of William Fitch, owner of the manor of Little Canfield in Essex, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of... Another 33 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Cannfield Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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Migration of the Cannfield family
Because of the political and religious discontent in England, families began to migrate abroad in enormous numbers. Faced with persecution and starvation at home, the open frontiers and generally less oppressive social environment of the New World seemed tantalizing indeed to many English people. The trip was difficult, and not all made it unscathed, but many of those who did get to Canada and the United States made important contributions to the young nations in which they settled. Some of the first North American settlers with Cannfield name or one of its variants: Matthew Canfield and his brother Thomas landed in North America in 1620 and settled in New Haven. Matthew was a representative at the General Court in 1654 until the union of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies, and Thomas was one of the first settlers of Milford in 1646..
