Duke origins

A theory on the origins of The Duke families of England...


This is an opinion...a calculated guess if you like, on the origins of the Duke families of Southern England...

First, lets look at Normandy, this is where I believe the English le Duc family originated ..crucially this is an important factor in the search for our progenitors.
During the late 10th and early11th centuries bastards of the Dukes of Normandy were no longer recognized and afforded the benefits of lands and titles they had aquired
in the previous century... of course they were retained at the ducal court and many were drafted in to the vast Norman administration machine...so post conquest, when we first find le Duc's in England, they are mostly court administrators,later the Plantagenet kings still thought very highly of them... Roger le Duc was High Sheriff of London in the 1190s his son and possibly grandson also followed in his footsteps as Sheriff.

The Duke family of Northern England well, at least a good proportion of them are descended from the Maelmadoc clan...The Marmadukes of popular literature!...these were Gaelic
not Norman families..also some of the european Duke families have different genetic markers from the English families.. quite possibly because the ducal families in other parts of France had
their own bastards doing the same administrative work in their courts too

The Richardides...dukes Richard the first and second of Normandy are possibly are the ancestors of The Dukes of southern England
as we all know Robert the Magnificents son conquered England...but his minority in Normandy was tenuous to say the least.

....of course
Duke Robert Curthose is another possible candidate...but I believe the le Duc's were already established in England either during or
close to 1066...Rogers family are very likely to be the ancestors of the Dukes in London,Kent,Essex,Sussex,Hampshire,Dorset,Devon...Norfolk, Suffolk, Bucks, Berks,Oxon and Surrey.all these counties show Dukes in abundance in the records.....also as I have mentioned earlier.. there are a few Duke families in the north of England who originate from the Roger family group.

The Duke as a nickname theorists.. who claim people with the surnames Duke,Bishop,Lord and Earle etc are descended from Mummers or individuals who had 'airs and graces' thus earning their epithet from this source, I don't hold with.. medieval life was pretty brutal and anyone saddled with these surnames under those circumstances would probably end up having to appear before the local dignitary to explain himself...likewise those who christened him....with dire consequences!

No, as I have already outlined the explanation is far simpler....

Thus the Dukes were one of the ancient families of England and of Ireland. They are among the earliest recorded by Burke in his pedigrees of the nobility and of the landed gentry. The first mention made of them by this authority was the aforementioned Roger le Duc, sheriff of London. The names of Duke and Dukes have been well-established in the Americas, with one of the earliest arrivals to New England being one Captain Edward Duke in 1634. Humphrey Dukes sailed to Barbados with his wife and servants in 1680.

The other main family spread itself in the South of England, and claim descent from the first Mayor of London, commonly called Henry Fitz Alwynne, but by John Ross, Henry Duke, or Dewke; they settled first at Sherborne in Dorset: an early marriage with Cicely, daughter of Roger le Poer of Poerhayes, Devon, brought that barton into the family; the lineal descendant of this marriage, wedded Julian, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Cossington, be whom the estate of Cossington in Kent came into their possession, whose eldest son George Duke sold the Barton of Poerhayes to his kinsman Richard Duke, whose father had held civic office at Exeter; the lineal descendants of George Duke continued at Cossington and Maidstone till the close of the 18th century.