Duncalf Duncalfe Duncuff Duncuft

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Comment by Anne Cole on July 19, 2009 at 7:42am

Hi Des, and then there were three! No need to ask which family you belong to, cousin! Thanks for joining.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 19, 2009 at 4:20am

Welcome, welcome Ashley. I have been so lonely here for the past few days. Now which group below do you think you might belong to? Unfortunately they are bottom up - the first family is on page 2 of the comments!

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 5:39pm

Family 24. This family is built from some of the earliest records that I have found, including Heralds' Visitations and other early pedigrees, plus articles in newspapers, and the notes written by three well known Cheshire historians, Ormerod, Earwaker and Renaud. Many of these records do not agree with each other, and errors have been found in some of the pedigrees.

These pedigrees begin in the 14th century, with a James, or Thomas, and the story is told of how a marriage between a Duncalf and Elizabeth Foxwist, the heiress of her father, Vivian de Foxwist, brought the manor of Foxwist into Duncalf hands. The moated mound on which the old wooden manor stood is still visible near Hill Top Farm, not far from Prestbury in Cheshire. I have a transcript of the document whereby most of the Duncalf land in Foxwist and Butley was sold to Urian Legh of Adlington in 1609.

It has been impossible so far to research this very early family, but the 15th to 16th century information is easier to come by. It has been possible to follow Urian Duncalf (died 1597) from Cheshire to Ottringham in East Yorkshire, where his burial and those of his children are to be found. His will names many relatives, but unfortunately he calls most of the "kinsmen" and the relationships are not obvious.

Living with Urian was a certain John Duncalf who married Margaret Hall, the daughter of the Vicar of Patrington, in 1607, who was buried in that church in 1637. There is a brass plaque on the wall of Patrington church that bears the Duncalf coat of arms, as shown above, but with a difference. John must therefore be a descendant of the Foxwist family. John's descendants became aldermen of Hull and had numerous children. The last female descendant of the family married in London in 1753 and emigrated to America with her husband.

There is another set of pedigrees for another branch of this family. Although the exact relationship is not shown, the branch begins with the marriage of John Duncalf to Cicely Mather. Their son John (died 1592) married Margaret Ratcliffe and their son John married three times, the third time in Manchester Cathedral in 1596/7. His son Alexander lived near Moberley and the family can be traced for some generations from Mobberly into Lancashire and possibly to Wigan and Burnley. Favourite names in the family were Samuel and Ralph.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 5:15pm

Family 22 is a collection of American families that I have not yet placed into the English trees. Among these are two Duncuffs that appear in the New York census for 1850. One was a grocer, and the other a watch case maker. Putting together the spelling of the name, Duncuff, and the latter occupation, it seems likely that they came from the Birmingham area. However, I have been unable to find these two in England. Perhaps they were brothers, the eldest, John, born about 1813 and the younger, Joseph, born about 1831.

A Duncalf family in Seattle has also been included in family 22, but is unlikely to be related to the Duncuffs mentioned above. It is more likely that the Seattle family is descended from a Canadian family that is, in turn, descended from a Yorkshire branch of the Duncalf family. However, there is scant proof of this connection at present.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 5:07pm

Family 21 comes from Wednesbury in Staffordshire and the name is spelt here in many different ways - Duncalf, Duncoff, Duncuff, Duncomb, Duncum to give but a few of the variations. It has not been difficult to build the trees as they never seem to have moved out of Wednesbury.

At the top of the tree are Thomas and Mary Duncalf born about 1789 and 1791 respectively. Most of the information about this family has been gleaned from census returns. It has helped that some of the forenames are unusal - Daniel and Levi being good examples.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 5:01pm

Family 18 (there is no family 17) is from the Birmingham area. These Duncalfs became Duncuffs, and the name carries on today.

One large family that can be put together begins with a Charles Duncalf, who also appears as Charles Webb Duncan, and who was possibly the illegitimate son of a Susanna Duncalf. His descendants are known well into the 20th century. Popular names in this family are Charles, Samuel, Edward and Martin.

Some of this family moved to Middlesex during the 19th century, but most stayed in Birmingham.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 4:53pm

Family 16, or rather a collection of as yet unconnected families from Cornwall.

There has been some investigation into why Duncalfs appear in Cornwall in the 16th century, and these Duncalfs were well off. During Richard III's reign (1483-1485) there were uprisings in Cornwall and some loyal people from Cheshire and Lancashire were apparently transplanted to the south west. This is one possible explanation.

The earliest families are in St Neots and Gunwalloe on the Lizard Peninsula. The Gunwalloe family has been put together from wills and the few entries from Bishops Transcripts and parish registers that are available.

Popular names amongst the Cornwall Duncalfs are William, Christopher, Oliver and Hanibal.

The earliest families cannot at present be brought forward to meet some of the later ones that have been reconsituted. The later (18th-20th century) families are mainly in Penzance, Redruth and Mevagissy. Descendants of the Redruth family, from Thomas Duncalf and Alice Trestrail (married 1784) emigrated to Victoria, Australia and the USA, Michigan and Colorado.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 12:02pm

Family 15 is another family from the Macclesfield area. James Duncalf, son of Thomas, was born in Pott Shrigley in 1721. The family lived in and around Butley, again giving them a connection with the old Foxwist family, but no connection can yet be proved.

Daniel, a descendant of James, married his wife Mary in India, where he was in the army, and his children were born in Bombay, Madras, Bangalore and Burma. Two of Daniel's sons also became soldiers.

This is another small family tree of only 132 members.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 11:55am

Family 14 (there is no family 13) is a large family from Yorkshire, with several Roberts in each generation.

The earliest known ancestor of this family is John Duncalf who married Sarah Chambers in 1713 in Campsall, Yorkshire. Where John came from is as yet unknown.

His son, Robert, was orphaned by 1726, when he would have been 7 years old, and he next appears in the Easingwold area, where he was a flaxdresser. He married Mary Brown at Brafferton in 1752. He held land from the manor of Helperby. The family moved between several parishes during the 18th and 19th centuries - Easingwold, Raskelf, Brafferton, Sessay and Coxwold among them.

In the 19th century one of the Roberts emigrated to New York with his wife and children. Their descendants now live in Iowa and Minnesota.

The family tree holds 441 people.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 11:49am

Family 12

This family has only 37 members at present. Joseph, at the top of the tree, was born about 1690 and died in Macclesfield in 1763. The family always lived in or around Macclesfield, including places such as Bosley, Pott Shrigley and Rainow. The family had money, and two female descendants in Macclesfield were annuitants in the late 19th century.

The family also had connections with Butley which places them firmly within the possible ancestors of the Foxwist family.

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