SOME NOTES ON THE FAMILIES OF HUNNINGS OF S01JTH LINCOLNSHIRE, LONDON, AND SUFFOLK. BY W. E. FOSTER, F.S.A. EXETER: WILLIAM POLLARD & Co. LTD., PRINTERS, NORTH STREET. 1912. ~omt 4,Ftotts on tltt J!familits of ~nnnings. PREFACE. The South Lincolnshire Family of Hunnings was a fairly typical one of the middle class. They were for many centuries landowners, and held a good position in the County. They resided in Algarkirk and Fosdyke and inter-married with the W el bys and other leading local families. Like too many other Lincolnshire families, who made that County their home, times in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries told hard against· them, for the County suffered severely, not only from the ,vars of the Roses: but even more so from the rule of Henry VIII, who hated the County because the inhabitants let him know, they not only did not approve of his conduct towards his first Queen, but detested his brutal robbery of their beloved monasteries, and his cruel overthrow of their religion. The Parliamentary Wars completed the ruin of a large number of the old landowning families, who in very many cases became farming tenants of land they had previously owned, or they had to migrate to London and enter into trade, or went to America, where they formed a God-fearing and industrious population, who frequently named the towns they formed after the places they had left and loved so well in Lincolnshire. What has been England's loss has been Canada's and the United States' gain. When we lose sight of the Hunnings of Algarkirk in the seventeenth century, there can be little doubt that they settled at Holbeach and Whaplode in the first instance, and soon after­ wards a member of the Holbeach branch, Edward Hunnings, went to live at Moulton. His family soon afterwards left Moulton and went to reside at Boston, where members of it held many public posts. From the Boston branch the Hunnings of Tottenha1n are descended. For nearly a century the Hunnings family has died out in Lincolnshire for want of males. The only known repre­ sentatives on the female side are the Clarkes, of Snaith, York~hire, formerly of The Goddards, Moulton; the Fosters, of Moulton and Aldershot ; Mrs. Price, of Spalding~ descendant of the late John Tatam, of Moulton. There are other descendants of John Tatam, but none reside in Lincolnshire. W. E~ F. Aldershot, September 14th, 1912. CORRIGENDA. Page 15, line 16, for '' Abraham Rigs," read "Abraham Riss.' ,, ,, ,, 35, for ".t\..ngers," read "Myers." CON~rENTS. PAGE. NOTES ON THE HUNNINGS FAMILY I THE HUNNINGS OF ALGARKIRK, Co. LINCOLN - 19 HoLBEACH 20 " " WHAPLODE 22 " " ,, MOULTON AND BOSTON 24 " LONDON (TOTTENHAM) 25 " " LONDON AND SUFFOLK 45 " " PEDIGREE OF THE ROY AL DESCENTS OF JOHN HUNNINGS OF HoLBEACH AND HIS ISSUE 37 .. N EWCOMEN AND HUNNINGS FAMILIES - 40 " " " SANDERS FAMILY, OF WESTON, Co. LINCOLN 44 -,,0 ~~ 7 /L.., LrNDUM HousE . ' ALDERSHOT. ~-~ 47 ~~ .· J.. r ~--- ~ ~~~- r:~ /0~~~~"~-~ -2.. n /_ z~,,,,.~ -✓~/ ~~ - ~~e--cJ~L"c::JK-r~ §0c--/;?.. .,l{AA ~ L-- NOTES ON THE HUNNINGS FAMILY, OF ALG.ARKffiK IN THE COUNTY OF LINCOLN. PART I. The Huning, Honing, or Hunnings family, who probably derived their name from the parish of Huning in Norfolk, may certainly be ranked as one of the older Lincolnshire families, having been resident in the neighbourhood of .Algarkirk, in the Holland division of the county, from at least the time of Edward II, until the early part of the nineteenth century. · In the seventeenth century the family appears to have gradually moved from .Algarkirk and Fosdyke, and, so far as Lincolnshire is concerned, divided into three branches: the Holbeach Family, the Whaplode Family, and the Moulton Family. The latter family left lfoulton in the next century and went to reside at Boston, where they took a leading part in the municipal and other public affairs of that borough. In the next century the family left that well-known eastern county seaport and went to reside in London. This branch is now a very numerous one-a skeleton pedigree will be given from information furnished by one of the family. The Holbeach and Whaplode branches, so far as I can ascertain, are extinct, through the failure of male heirs. The last male being John Frotheringham Hunnings, a solicitor, who was born at Holbeach in the year 1789, and died at Donington in South Lincolnshire in the year 1823, leaving four daughters by his wife Susannah (Procter), whom he had married in London (St. Martin-in-the-Fields) in the year 1812 :- .Ann Saunders Hunnings, who married Charles Hanslip, of London, solicitor, at Holbeach. Dorothy March Hunnings, who married William Simpson Clarke, of "The Goddards," Moulton, a captain in the South Lincolnshire Militia. Susannah Mary ij:unnings, who married, at Holbeach, Thomas Foster, of the l\ilanor House, Moulton.· Margaret Elizabeth Hunnings, who married Newcome Rogers, of Grantham, surgeon. John Frotheringham Hunnings, through the marriage of his grand­ father, Thomas Hunnings, of Whaplode, with .Anne Newcomen, of .Authorpe, in the county of Lincoln, claimed royal descent. This marriage took place at the parish church at Surfleet, co. Lincoln, on the 1st January 1751, but I have been totally unable to ascertain the reason of its having taken place in a parish, with which neither fa.milies were in any way connected, nor is it believed any member of either family resided there at the time. B 2 NOTES ON THE HUNNINGS FAMILY. This royal descent-eight lines from Henry III and Edward I-was first pointed out to me by the Rev. W. G. Dymock Fletcher, F.S.A., a well known authority and writer on royal descents, and is given in the appendix to these Notes. There is another branch of the Hunnings family to which I s4ould here like to call attention, that of London and Sufiolk, which during the early Tudor period rose to wealth and position, and which I believe were connected with the Algarkirk branch of the family ; for the reasons I have given in the account of that "stem." For over four centuries the Hunnings had their principal seat at Algarkirk, holding properties at Kirton and Fosdyke, but like too many of the old Lincolnshire families they had to part with their estates during the troubles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They gradually migrated from the Algarkirk and Kirton district into the parishes of Holbeach and Whaplode, in the Elloe division. In these two places the family became somewhat numerous, and spread into Moulton parish, where members of the Hunnings family had lived two centuries previously. The first mention of the name of Running I have met with is in the Pipe Rolls, in the year 1176 (23 Henry II):- Co. Salop. De placitis Bertranni de Verdun et sociorum ejus. Hunningus redd. comp. de xxs pro habenda recognitione versus Warinum Senem In thesauro liberavit et quietus sit. Vol. 26, Pipe Roll Soc., p. 38. Whether this Hunningus was an ancestor of or in any way related to the Hunnings family of Algarkirk it is impossible to say, all we can speak with any certainty is that the name of Hunnings is rarely met with, that in the days of the early Plantagenet kings several of the great Shropshire families owned large estates in Lincolnshire, and married into Lincolnshire families. liay it not under these circumstances be probable that a men1ber of the Shropshire family migrated with some noble family as a military retainer, or even in some fiduciary position in relationship with some of the large manors or estates. The Hunnings family does not appear in any of the Heralds' Visitations for the county of Lincoln, nor were they of high enough rank for any genealogist to trace their descent through the time of the war of the Roses ; indeed, few families, even of the highest rank in the kingdom, can satisfactorily trace their pedigree during that dark period of English history-they have to be content with many "missing links " i~ the family tree, or rely only on the early Heralds' Visitations. The first member of the family we meet with residing in South Lincolnshire was John Hunnyng, of Algerkirke, and "Senicla," his wife. This was in the year of 11 Edward II (1317-1318) when John Hunnyng of Algerkirke and Senicla his wife were deforciants in a suit in which Richard son of Sarra de Welleby claimed 6 acres of NOTES ON THE HUNNINGS FAMILY. 3 land in Multon against John Hunnyng of Algerkirke and Senicla his wife, William Prest of Spalding and Nichola his wife, Matilda and Margaret daughters of Athelard Welleby. De Banco Rolls, 11 Edward II, m. 337. It would appear that Senicla, the wife of John Hunnyngs, was a daughter of Athelard de Welleby. The next member of the family of whom we find mention is Alexander Hunnyne~ who was bailiff of property at Kirton (near Boston) in 47 Edward III (De Banco Rolls, 47 Edward III, 452, m. 337). He, like John Hunnyng, must have occupied a good position in the district. In the More collection of charters is a deed dated 13 Richard II :­ " Doms John de Warre miles to Alicia late wife of Alexander Hunnyng, Rendeltoft, 4 acres for 7 years, rent 20s." There is a seal attached to this charter. This John de Warre was lord of Swineshead. From the reign of Richard II we find frequent mention of the family of Running residing at Algarkirk and the adjoining parishes of Fosdyke and Kirton. The names of various members of the family are of con­ stant occurrence, either as parties to or witnesses of deeds relating to land and houses in the locality until the eighteenth century.