Duncalf Duncalfe Duncuff Duncuft

Comment

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 11:43am

Family 11 (there is no family 10), perhaps the most interesting and diverse of all the families.

The baptism of Edward, son of Henry (born about 1560) and Joan is recorded in the Penkridge, Staffordshire parish register in 1589. In succeeding generations the favourite forenames are Henry, Abraham, Isaac and Simon. The last of the Duncalfs to live in Penkridge was Isaac who died there in 1816.

Several of the sons of Simon Duncalf (1645-1690) were sent to London where they were apprenticed to freemen belonging to, mainly, the Cutlers Company. These families remained in London, but there were few male descendants. One descendant is possibly a certain Henry Duncalf, an organist who also wrote a hymn that can be found today in the Methodist Hymnbook.

Another branch of this family went to live in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, where the third generation Isaac (1747-1819) was a stonemason. He married twice but had only one daughter illegitimately by quite another lady.

Francis, the illegitimate son of Elizabeth Duncalf, moved to Southwark where he and his descendants lived into the 20th century. Most were hatmakers, but there is also a Lighterman amongst the family. Many of the hatmakers emigrated to Australia in the 19th century, and there is to this day a building in Brisbane with "Duncalfe & Co" written across it. These Duncalfs continued the hatmaking and became tailors and outfitters.

The family boasts a bigamist, Abraham, who married his second wife in Birmingham in 1885 whilst his first wife was alive and well and living in London in 1891! Abraham died on a ship in the Suez Canal in 1887, whilst on his way to Australia, presumably to join his brothers and their families.

This family now spell the name Duncalfe.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 7:36am

Addenda to Family 9

I must not forget to mention that there is a large family in Wisconsin, USA, that is descended from Family 9. Thomas Duncalf emigrated with his wife Ann (Jackson) and their children from Macclesfield to Wisconsin in 1865.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 7:32am

Family 9

This is the family most likely to be directly descended from the early Foxwist family as described above in connection with the coat of arms.

The earliest proven ancestor is Gowen Duncalf, born about 1590, father of another Gowen Duncalf born about 1613. The family can be put together in these early years through wills. There was at least one Gowen Duncalf in the family in every generation; a female descendant who was given Gowen as a third forename died in 1989.

This is also the family some of whose members became Duncufts. But to begin at the beginning.

The first Gowen lived in Butley, near Prestbury, in Cheshire. The family was well off and mobile, and different branches moved to Siddington, Hale in Bowdon parish and Ashton on Mersey. Their movements are recorded both in parish registers and in manorial records and leases. Another branch moved to Adlington, also in the parish of Prestbury.

Isaiah Duncalf, born at Hale and baptised at Bowdon in 1700 made the move to Oldham in Lancashire, and almost from the time of his move his name became Duncuft in the parish registers. This spelling has persisted down to the present day; descendants of this family live in the Stalybridge area.

This particular branch also boasts John Duncuft, MP for Oldham, who unfortunately died of cholera at his country house in Cheshire (Alvanley) in 1852, a few days after he was elected for the second time as member for Oldham.

Another large branch of this family moved into the Newton Heath and Bradford areas of Manchester in the 19th century. These, however, kept the Duncalf spelling. A few members of the Manchester families have been found as Duncliffe.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 7:19am

Family 8

George Duncalf, the present head of this family, was born, according to all the census returns on which he appears, in Kingsley, Cheshire. On his two marriage certificates he names his father as George Nicholls, but his baptism has never been found and it is presumed that he was illegitimate. Search of the various sources for bastardy records have drawn a blank, but I have narrowed down his possible mother to two ladies, and he should eventually fit into either Family 1 or Family 2.

George appears in Alvanley, Cheshire in the 1841 census, a servant. By 1851 he has married Eleanor Proffitt and is living in Liverpool where he remained for the rest of his life. Many of the present day Liverpool Duncalfs are descended from George and Eleanor. George married secondly to a widow, whose previous husband is a member of Family 1.

Very few members of this family moved away from Liverpool, but there are Duncalfs from Family 8 in Kent, Yorkshire and the Manchester area.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 7:12am

Family 7

A small family that began in Staffordshire with William who married Mary Serjeant at Wolstanton in 1771.

Of the 251 members of this tree most have remained in Staffordshire, living in the Norton, Stanthorne, Hanley and Stoke on Trent area, working in the potteries and the coal mines. Many descendants still live in the area. There is, however, a branch in Australia.

It is very possible that this tree may merge with Family 6 as a sister of William Duncalf belonging to Family 6 married a man from Norton in the Moors! William is the right age to be the William mentioned first above. The names of the children are very similar in the same generation of the two families.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 6:21am

Family 6 (family 5 has been merged with family 1) currently has 272 members.

The earliest known ancestor is John Duncalf, son of Thomas, baptised at Prestbury, Cheshire in 1707. Thomas was "of Butley", a small hamlet near Prestbury, and the association with the Foxwist family is very probable.

After a sojourn in Allostock, the family lived in Congleton, and some descendents are still in the area. One branch lived in Macclesfield, and various sources show that they owned land in both Macclesfield and Congleton. Many of their gravestones survive in the churchyards of Congleton and Astbury.

Branches of this family are found in Derby, Salford and Kent during the 19th century. A John William Duncalf emigrated to New York with his wife Ruth in the 19th century but they appear to have had no descendants. John W died in Manhattan in 1904.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 6:07am

Family 4

This large family, which adopted the Duncalfe spelling, originated in the area around Tong in Shropshire. There are 448 people on this tree at present. The earliest linked ancestor was a Richard Duncalf who married Isabel, their first child being baptised at Tong in 1652. This family left many wills, and an earlier family using the same forenames in the Albrighton area are probably related, but so far the link has not been found.

The family boasts a knight (Sir Roger Duncalfe), and a member of the Long Range Desert Group during WW2 (the late Roy Duncalfe). The early Tong family were coopers through many generations. Other descendants have dispersed throughout the UK and to other parts of the world, a large contingent living in Manitoba, Canada.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 6:00am

Family 3

This small group with only 34 members is first found in Wharton near Davenham in Cheshire in 1800. The Davenham registers at this time follow the "Dade" system and give the tantalysing information that John, the father of William baptised in 1800, was the son of John and Nancy Duncalf of Liverpool. However, no trace of a John and Nancy has been found there yet. It seems likely that some early (18th century) members of Family 1 migrated to Liverpool and therefore Family 3 may become part of Family 1 in the future. There do not seem to be any male descendants of the family after the end of the 19th century, but a descendant through the female line lives near Bristol.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 5:54am

Family 2

Earliest known ancestor: Joseph Duncalf born about 1744. He married Ellen Mear at Warrington in 1762 and had a child baptised in Great Sankey near Warrington in 1763. He next turns up in the parish of Weaverham, Cheshire in 1786 and he died there in 1809. He married again in Weaverham to Mary Whitby in 1787. Mary gave birth to four daughters, three of them triplets who all survived. These daughters had many illegitimate children between them and descendants of the triplets and other members of this family now live in New Zealand, Australia, Burnley in Lancashire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Hertfordshire and East Yorkshire.

Comment by Anne Cole on July 18, 2009 at 5:48am

Which Duncalf family do you belong to?

There are many separate families that may one day be merged. Two such families were merged into one last year, and with a little more evidence another two should merge shortly. To begin with, this is family 1 (one) to which I belong.

Earliest known ancestors: John Duncalf born before 1586 probably in the Middlewich, Cheshire, area. His son John, born 1604 in Middlewich married Elizabeth Wright at Middlewich in 1632. The family stayed in this area until William Duncalf, my direct ancestor, moved to Weaverham (1760s) and then to Kingsley in Frodsham parish a decade later. My family stayed in Kingsley until the 19th century.

A branch of this family moved to Witton in the 1740s and founded a family that now has descendants in Australia and Staffordshire.

Other branches can be found in Liverpool, Bolton, Wales, Sussex, Manchester and many other places in the UK including, of course, Cheshire. There are 933 people on this particular tree (July 2009).

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page