JOHN DAVENPORT 1330-1401

[Ancestral Link: Harold William Miller, son of Edward Emerson Miller, son of Anna Hull (Miller), daughter of William Hull, son of Anna Hyde (Hull), daughter of Uriah Hyde, son of Ezra Hyde, son of William Hyde, son of Samuel Hyde, son of William Hyde, son of Robert Hyde, son of Jane Davenport (Hyde), daughter of William Davenport, son of William Davenport, son of John Davenport, son of Robert Davenport, son of Robert Davenport, son of John Davenport.]

John DAVENPORT
Birth About 1320 Of Wheltrough, Cheshire, England

Marriage about 1364 to Alice BRAMHALL
Age: 44 in Stockport, Cheshire, England
Death Before 1401 in Bramall, Cheshire, England
ParentsThomas DAVENPORT 1283 – 1350
Elizabeth DAVENPORT 1295 – 1355
Spouse and ChildrenAlice BRAMHALL 1340 – 1403
Oliver DAVENPORT 1367 – 1430
George DAVENPORT 1369 – 1397
Robert DAVENPORT 1371 – 1436
Thomas DAVENPORT 1371 – 1397
Margaret DAVENPORT 1373 –
from ancestry.com

Notes on JohnJohn Davenport of Wheltrough was born about 1320 in Wheltrough, County Cheshire, England and died after 1397 and before January 1403/04 in Henbury cum Pexall, Macclesfield, County Cheshire, England.

From George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale Royal and Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities (2nd ed., revised and enlarged by Thomas Helsby, Esq.: George Routledge and Sons, Ludgate Hill, London, 1882), vol. 3, p. 823: "Geoffrey de BROMHALE, called a knight by the pedigrees, whose daughter an co-heiress, Alice, according to Dugdale's and other pedigrees [and also according to original evidences,] married.John DAVENPORT, [third, not] second, son of Thomas DAVENPORT of WHELTROUGH, 22 Edw. III."
and on page 827:"John de DAVENPORT [of Bromhale, 48 Edw.3, third] son of Thomas DAVENPORT of WHELTROGH, 22 Edw. 3, living 20 Ric. 2, [ob. ante Jan. 1403-04.]"
and on page 824:
"20 Ric. II. Hugh de Toft, chaplain, obtained of John de DAVENPORT, and Alice his wife, the manor of Bromhale, half the manor of __________, and the 20th part of the barony of Nantwich. [This was, doubtless, in pursuance of licenses granted the same year, one of which is enrolled in the Plea Rolls, and enables the said John and Alice to grant to the chaplain a twentieth part of the barony of Wich Malbank, with power to re-enfeoff the grantors in tail (excepting the premises mentioned in the account of Nantwich), with successive remainders in tail to Robert, Oliver, George, and Thomas, sons of the said John and Alice, with remainder to 'the right heirs of the said Alice;" and as to the excepted premises, in special tail to the said Robert, and Joan his wife, with successive remainders to the said Oliver, &c, and final remainder as before."
and on page 721:
"John de DAVENPORT, [jun. 3d] son, ancestor of DAVENPORT of BRAMHALL, 5th [or 6th,] in the Henbury entail, 39 Edw. 3."
from ancestry.com

Davenport Surname OriginsThe surname of DAVENPORT was a locational name 'of Davenport' a township in the parish of Astbury east Cheshire. Local surnames, by far the largest group, derived from a place name where the man held land or from the place from which he had come, or where he actually lived. These local surnames were originally preceded by a preposition such as "de", "atte", "by" or "in". The names may derive from a manor held, from working in a religious dwelling or from literally living by a wood or marsh or by a stream. Following the Crusades in Europe a need was felt for a family name. This was recognized by those of noble blood, who realised the prestige and practical advantage it would add to their status. Early records of the name mention Richard de Dauenport, 1203 Cheshire. Ralph de Davenport was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Ralph Davenport of Prestbury, Lancashire, was listed in the Wills at Chester in 1574. Baptised. Thomas Davenporte at Prestbury Church, County Chester in 1594. During the Middle Ages, when people were unable to read or write, signs were needed for all visual identification. For several centuries city streets in Britain were filled with signs of all kinds, public houses, tradesmen and even private householders found them necessary. This was an age when there were no numbered houses, and an address was a descriptive phrase that made use of a convenient landmark. At this time, coats of arms came into being, for the practical reason that men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of surnames, becoming hereditary in the same way. In many parts of central and western Europe, hereditary surnames began to become fixed at around the 12th century, and have developed and changed slowly over the years. As society became more complex, and such matters as the management of tenure, and in particular the collection of taxes were delegated to special functionaries, it became imperative to distinguish a more complex system of nomenclature to differentiate one individual from another. The associated arms are recorded in Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884.

This unusual surname recorded in the spellings of Davenport and Devenport, is of Anglo- Saxon origin, and is a locational name from 'Davenport' in Cheshire. Curiously 'Devonport' in Devon, does not seem to have produced surnames. Recorded as "Deneport" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Devennport" in the 1130 charters of the Abbey of Durham, the place is so called from situation on the river Dane. The river name is an ancient British (pre-Roman) one, "Dauen" or "Daan", related to the Middle Welsh dafn", meaning "a trickling stream". The second element "port" derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century word for a harbour or wharf. This is ultimately from the Latin "portus", of the same meaning. Locational surnames were originally given to the lord of the manor, or as a means of identification to those who left their place of origin to settle elsewhere. Early examples of the surname include: Ormus de Davenport in the Cheshire rolls of 1166, and Richard de Daveneport in the Staffordshire charters of 1203. In 1555, one John Davenport, of Henbury, was noted in the Wills Records at Cheshire. A family of the name whose seat is still Capesthorne Hall, near Macclesfield, claim descent from Vivian de Davenport (deceased circa 1257). A Coat of Arms granted to the Davenport family of Davenport, descended from Ormus de Davenport (above), is a silver shield with a chevron between three black crosses crosslet fitchee, the Crest being a man's head, couped at the shoulders and side head proper with a golden rope around the neck. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de Deveneport, which was dated 1162, in the "Pipe Rolls of Cheshire", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189.
from ancestry/com