The founders and genealogists of the Mendenhall Family Association (MFA) have done a fantastic job of uncovering the paternal lines for our shared surname way back over three quarters of a millennium; see the MFA dataset. Focusing on the medieval village of Mildenhall and its hinterland in the English county of Wiltshire, our most distant common forefather known to be from this area is Ralph de Mildenhall who was born about 1240. Following our descendants down through the generations, the most recent common ancestor of all American and English Mendenhalls is Thomas Myldenale. He was born about 1460 and is the fifth-great-grandson of Ralph.
Although the names of our male-line ancestors going further back in time before Ralph are unknown, their ancestry is not. Together with others, Gerald Mendenhall and I had some DNA tests performed on our Y-chromosome. Only this chromosome is consistently passed from fathers to sons so it is used to validate paternal descent within families. As Thomas Myldenale is a paternal-line ancestor of Gerald and of me, the DNA tests needed to show that we share the same Y-chromosome if our forefathers are who we believe them to be. According to the MFA dataset, Gerald is my fourteenth cousin once removed and happily our Y-DNA tests did indeed confirm us as genuine cousins. Genetic genealogists describe our heritage as being of ‘Germanic’ origin. In England, where Our Y-DNA later ended up, our Germanic genetic markers signify that we are descendents of invaders from the northern coasts and lowlands of Europe. The Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Danes and Vikings from (modern-day) northern Germany, Denmark, southern Sweden and coastal Norway are the Germanic peoples of Nordic Europe from which our Y-DNA derives.
Presently, geneticists estimate that the particular I1a version of our Y-chromosome originated roughly four thousand years ago. At that time, the Nordic tribes were still resident in their native homelands. From then until the Romans arrived, it was the Celtic tribes that populated the islands that later became known as the ‘British Isles’. The expanding Roman Empire conquered much of modern-day England almost two thousand years ago. The Romans called this territory Britannia and referred to the indigenous Celts over whom they ruled as Britons. Our Y-DNA does not derive from either of these resident Celtic or Romanic ethnic groups. The first invaders from the ancient Germanic tribes that arrived in Britannia came during the ‘Migration Period’ that followed the departure of the Romans in the early fifth century.
These early settlers here were the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The Angles formed their kingdoms in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria in what had been the northern part of Britannia. Further south, the kingdoms of Essex, Sussex and Wessex were established by the East, South and West Saxon peoples respectively. The Jutes made their kingdom in Kent. These seven kingdoms covering England from about 500 to 850 were later known as the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.
The Mildenhall, Ramsbury, Chisbury and Bedwyn villages in Wiltshire were very much in Wessex. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between a local West Saxon nobleman and the Anglian King of Mercia, the kingdom just to the north of Wessex. Later, the West Saxon King Alfred the Great, in his last will and testament, left his estate covering Great and Little Bedwyn to his elder son Edward.
The Old English names of all these villages are definitely of Anglo-Saxon origin. Bedwyn is recorded as Bedvinde in 1086 and comes from the old word bedwinde for ‘bindweed’. Neighbouring Chisbury is Cheseberie in 1086 and Cissanbyrig before that. These names refer to a ‘fortification associated with a man called Cissa’. Ramsbury was Ramesberie in 1086 and similarly means ‘fortification of the raven or of a man called Hraefn’. Mildenhall is spelt Mildenhalle in the Doomsday Book of 1086 and likewise also derives its name from Old English. This spelling probably means a ‘nook or corner of land of a woman called Milde or of a man called Milda’. Like these two personal names, the modern name Mildred is equally derived from the old word mild for ‘gentle’ that described the original person’s temperament.
The Wessex village of Aldbourne is where Thomas Mildenhall and Joane Stroud (parents of the founding US Mendenhalls) were married. Its Old English name around 970 was Ealdincburnan and it refers to ‘a stream associated with a man called Ealda’. All Mendenhalls also have a strong familial association with their ancestral home at Marridge Hill. The first syllable here mar is a corruption of the Old English word mearc and means a ‘mark’ or ‘boundary’. So Marridge quite simply and very accurately refers to the boundary ridge (long narrow hilltop) that marks the division between Wiltshire and Berkshire.
As the Jutes have no history of settlement in or surrounding Wiltshire, it is very unlikely that we share our male-line ancestry with them. Although the Mildenhall village name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and hence our surname is too, that does not mean that everyone living there after the place was initially settled was necessarily Anglo-Saxon as well. Our heritage might well be Anglo-Saxon but there are other Germanic peoples that we could be descended from instead and so they need to be considered as alternatives.
In the ninth and tenth centuries, following the Migration Period when the Anglo-Saxons had embedded themselves into England, it was then that the Vikings invaded and dominated many of the lands and islands neighbouring Scandinavia. The Norwegian Vikings mainly but not exclusively focussed on the North Atlantic, Ireland, Scotland and northern England. The Swedish Vikings essentially headed east of their homelands towards Finland, Russia and other countries even more remote from England. In addition to western Europe, the Danish Vikings invaded large parts of eastern and central England. Here these Danes established their ‘Danelaw’ occupation displacing the previous kingdoms that had ruled there.
Wessex, including Wiltshire, was attacked by the Danes but King Alfred the Great eventually managed to repel them. Furthermore, as the leader of the increasingly mighty West Saxons, he also gradually forced the Danes to temporarily withdraw from England. Other Anglo-Saxon peoples then accepted him as their ruler although he never used the title King of England. As these Danes were unable to conquer, subdue or colonize Wessex, it is quite unlikely that our Mildenhall males were from this lineage either.
Not only did the Danish Vikings set up their Danelaw region in England, they together with some Norwegian Vikings also raided the French side of the English Channel during the tenth century. Under the command of the Norwegian nobleman Rollo, the French King was forced to allow the Vikings to stay and populate this part of northern France and to defend it from further external attacks. Rollo, now Duke of Normandy, and his followers became Christians at this time and he was baptised Robert. This dukedom was called Normandy as these very distinctive Vikings came as North- or Norse-men. After having settled into their newly acquired homeland, these Normans adopted the French language and the feudal system of France. The naval ability of the Normans and the merging of the Norse and native populations contributed to the creation of one of the most powerful feudal states of western Europe.
As every English school pupil knows, William Duke of Normandy successfully invaded and conquered England in 1066 to become King William I of England. Only around eight thousand Normans settled in England that had by then a population of about one to two million. He consequently took various measures to consolidate his victory. Numerous castles and other fortifications were quickly constructed to quell rebellions. Land was taken from the vanquished nobility and awarded to his own followers. The Anglo-Saxon elite were systematically replaced by Normans and the language of this new ruling elite displaced Old English.
William’s supporters expected to receive and indeed got titles and lands in return for their service in conquering England at the Battle of Hastings and in suppressing later dissent. Obviously, he had to confiscate lands from the defeated English hierarchy in order to award it to his followers. Such lands were given as feudal tenures in return for their ongoing military support. As a largely absentee King in England, William the Conqueror relied on the embryonic system of administration in England where written documentation became increasingly essential. The Doomsday Book of 1086 is one famous example of such land and asset record keeping. This book highlights the colossal expropriation of land that took place. Over four thousand Thegns (Anglo-Saxon noblemen) lost land to less than two hundred Norman Barons. The elimination of native landholding was virtually complete in Wiltshire and the rest of southern England.
The old English aristocracy was also essentially eliminated as a consequence of their loss of lands, titles and other privileges. Further, the English lost control over their native Christian church too. Anglo-Saxons were consistently removed from high governmental or ecclesiastical office at times of renewal or through expulsions. Even by the end of William’s two-decade reign most of the officials of government and of the royal household were Norman. By then too, there were no English bishops at all.
The new elite kept their own northern dialect of Old French so Anglo-Norman became the official language of the country (until 1362) although of course the native populace continued to speak Old English. As foreign words slowly entered into everyday speech, the shift towards modern English gradually evolved. Indeed, male Norman names like William, Robert and Richard soon became common while female ones like Ydania changed or died out more slowly.
For some time after the Conquest, it was unusual for Norman men to marry English women. However, within a century, intermarriage between the native English and the Norman immigrants had become commonplace. This intermingling between the Normans and the local population was similar to what happened previously in Normandy. During this time the position of women in society changed; especially in relation to the laws governing the inheritance of land and other assets.
So, reflecting on the aftermath of the Conquest, our ‘Mildenhall’ Y-DNA is very likely to have come from either the Viking ancestors of the Norman invaders or the earlier wave of Anglo-Saxon immigrants into England. Both these peoples derive from the Germanic tribes of Nordic Europe.
We know from our genealogical research that our earliest Wiltshire paternal-line forefather is Ralph de Mildenhall and that he was born there in England about 1240. At this time the Anglo-Norman dynasty was still firmly in charge of the country and no further mass migrations either directly or indirectly from Scandinavia into England occurred after their post-conquest arrival. From our Y-chromosome genetic testing, we also know that our male-line ancestors evolved out of Africa, progressed through Asia, eventually arrived in northern Europe and were still dwelling there around four thousand years ago. From within or near Denmark they then completed the journey to Mildenhall in England. Today, the bulk of this descendant Y-DNA is in the United States, much less remains in England while elsewhere it has largely died out.
As outlined so far, the most likely explanation based on recorded European history is that our Germanic ethnic group is either Anglo-Saxon or Viking→Norman. At present, geneticists have not yet accumulated enough samples of our specific Y-DNA type to distinguish between such ancient tribal groups. In order to speculate as to which of the two is the more likely to have been our ancestral source, we need to assess all the other available clues and review the relevant probabilities of these alternative origins.
For the Anglo-Saxon case, there is the clear linguistic evidence that the surname and village name of Mildenhall are of this origin. The Norman invasion had little impact on place-names that had changed significantly after the earlier Anglo-Saxon influx that displaced the Celts from much of England. So, prior to the Norman Conquest, the villagers of Mildenhall would almost certainly have been of Anglo-Saxon descent. Indeed, it would have been their own immediate ancestors who first named their settlement using the language that they themselves spoke.
However, there is linguistic evidence for the Norman case too. All our earliest known ancestors had the ‘de’ prefix attached to the front of their surname. This prefix is of Norman French origin and means ‘of’ in English. Many within the new Anglo-Norman elite were gifted lands by the King that had been confiscated from the English nobility. Some of these immigrant magnates kept their original French-derived name where ‘de’ meant they were lords of old and ongoing fiefdoms in France. Others chose to drop or adapt their original Norman ones and to employ surnames that reflected their newly acquired holdings or settled locations in England as the ‘de Mildenhall’ families apparently did.
Ydania de Mildehal (Ydania of Mildenhall) was the mother of Ralph. Her Norman first name was more commonly spelt as Idania and both variants are derivative of the Germanic personal name Ida that comes from īd ‘labour, work’. This name and its variants died out in the latter Middle Ages but Ida was revived in the nineteenth century and was recently one of the most popular female names in Scandinavia.
Upon the death of her husband, Ydania was given a dower by Eustace Blowe and his son Hugh. Their precise relationship to her is unclear but they would have been very close male blood (DNA) relatives so she would have been born Ydania Blowe. This surname comes from the Old Norse word Blá and means ‘pale, livid (bluish leaden colour)’. When referring to a British place-name, this Old Scandinavian word Blá infers that the geographical feature is ‘dark, cheerless, exposed’.
The name Eustace is from the Old French form of two Late Greek names. This name was introduced in this form to England by the Normans, among whom it was popular as a result of the fame of Saint Eustace, a Norman nobleman who was said to have been converted to Christianity by the vision of a crucifix between the antlers of the stag he was hunting. Hugh is from an Old French name of Germanic (Frankish) origin and is derived from hug ‘heart, mind, spirit’. It was originally a short form of various compound names containing this element. This was borne by the aristocracy of medieval France, adopted by the Normans and introduced by them into England.
The first name of Ydania’s son Ralph is from a Norman French name Raulf and is a contracted form of the Germanic (Old Norse) personal name Radulf that derives from rād ‘counsel’ + wulf ‘wolf’. All the known descendants of Ralph that used the ‘de’ prefix either had first names of Norman origin or names that were common throughout Christendom such as John and Thomas.
The names Geoffrey, Richard, Robert and of course William were all introduced into England by the Normans. Geoffrey is of Germanic (Frankish) origin despite its precise derivation being in dispute. The name was in regular use among the counts of Anjou, French ancestors of the English royal house of Plantagenet, who were descended from Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou in the twelfth century. Richard is also of Germanic (Frankish) origin and comes from rīc ‘power’ + hard ‘strong, hardy’. The Norman French name of Robert derives from the Germanic elements hrōd ‘fame’ + berht ‘bright, famous’. The names Richard and Robert have always been popular in England from the Conquest to the present day. Perhaps the most successful of all the Old French names of Germanic origin that were introduced by the Normans into England is William. It is derived from wil ‘will’ + helm ‘helmet, protection’.
Although Ralph and his immediate descendants consistently and exclusively used such names from Normandy that predated the conquest of England, it does not necessarily follow that they were of Norman ancestry since many Old English personal names either disappeared or were supplanted by their Norman equivalents following the Conquest. For example, the Old French name of Germanic (Frankish) origin Walter (wald ‘rule’ + heri, hari ‘army’) superseded the Old English form Wealdhere. Incidentally, our forefather Walter had at least two descendants called Francis whose Christian name derives from the Italian Francesco that originally meant ‘French or Frenchman’. However, some other Old English names like Edward (ēad ‘prosperity, riches’ + weard ‘guard’) not only survived but indeed thrived. Despite not being conclusive, there is nevertheless compelling linguistic evidence in favour of our ancestors having Norman roots.
It is clear from their entries in the MFA dataset that sons John, Geoffrey and Richard of Ralph de Mildenhall and John’s own sons Thomas and Robert were all very well connected to the English royal court and to King Edward III, his Queen Philippa and their son Edward (the Black Prince) in particular. Our ancestors benefitted greatly from such royal patronage and were sufficiently prominent to be documented during this quite early period in English recorded history; luckily for us. Although not of noble birth themselves, they were nevertheless well-entrenched members of the fourteenth century Anglo-Norman ruling elite in England.
Ralph’s mother Ydania received an endowment upon her husband’s death. This dower, her full birth names and those of her wider family suggest that she was indeed Anglo-Norman. Ralph’s son was Sir John, a knight. Such titles would only be bestowed on dependable fellow defenders of the royal Norman inheritance. John’s son Robert was Chancellor of Cambridge University and Master of two of its colleges before becoming the King’s Clerk and Keeper of the Jewels, Exchanges and Other Things in the Tower of London. He too was eventually knighted by King Edward III. As the King’s Clerk, he would of necessity have been fluent in Norman French as this was still the official language of England during his period of service to the King. Given this historical dominance of our male family members relative to the ordinary people of the country and in their Wiltshire homelands, their social class strongly indicates that they were likely to have descended from the post-conquest Norman settlers.
Although our surname is undoubtedly of Anglo-Saxon origin, it seems significantly much more probable that our male ancestry is of Norman descent. The high rank, status and hence wealth of Ralph and his descendants as likely Anglo-Normans, the ancient Germanic (Frankish or Old Norse) origin of most of their personal names and their use of the Norman French language and ‘de’ prefix all appear to point towards our forefathers being Vikings who left Nordic Europe to settle first in France and then as Normans to migrate across the channel and establish themselves in England. I hope advances in the genetic sciences will eventually clarify the precise route from our earliest origins to today but our male Mildenhall/Mendenhall lineage is definitely Germanic and I think most likely Viking→Norman rather than Anglo-Saxon.
Sources:
My Paternal Pedigree:
Descendants .......... Surname List .......... Name Index .......... Our Journey to Mildenhall .......... Our Y-DNA