Fay Sampson’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)
HUGH WHITING (24)
HUGH WHITING. [1] The origins of the Whiting family of Woode in Kentisbeare cannot be traced earlier than 1310 with certainty. But it seems likely that Nicholas Whiting, who was the first of this name to live at Woode, was descended from a Somerset family and that his great-grandfather was Hugh Whiting of Cranmore in that county.
Cranmore, originally Cranmere, was ‘the Lake of the Cranes’. It lies 4 miles east of Shepton Mallet, under the Mendip Hills.
Hugh was probably descended from Roger Witen, who held lands at Blackford, Saltford, Cranmore and elsewhere in Somerset, under the Conqueror, William I.
The dates of Hugh’s children suggest that he was born around the beginning of the 13th century. He was probably a teenager when King John signed Magna Carta in 1215.
There is documentary evidence that Hugh had at least three children.
His eldest son and heir was Hugh junior , who married Eva de Bridport. From them the Somerset line of the family descended. A second son Nicholas flourished around 1267-97 and was perhaps born around 1240. He married Alianor Clyvedon, from another prominent landed family. From them descended the Devon Whitings in the next century. There was also a daughter Margeria.
Nothing is known about Hugh’s wife.
[1] Richard Whiting. Whiting of Wood: A Mediaeval Landed Family, 1974 (MS in DRO).
NEXT GENERATION: 23. WHITING-CLYVEDON
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: