Forewords

Summary

The Kenwright Name

Geographical Locations

The Coat Of Arms

Sources

Forewords

Foreword by John Kenwright Wearing (2025)

This is an update from 2025 - I've removed sensitive information from the last hundred years to protect living descendants, and a little light editing for ease of reading.

I also added a new diagram to the Summary section based on history, legend and mythology.

Foreword by John Kenwright (2001)

Though I am interested in our family history, I have found little left for me to do by the time my interest started. This is why I chose to expand our family tree abroad, mainly into America but also into Australia
I have used the Internet for my research, but the information I found was limited, I hope in making this website that my foreign cousins or fellow genealogist shall help me.
My email is john dot ag dot gmail dot com feel free to mail me with questions or information for me or my dad.


Foreword by Alan Kenwright (1995)

I have been tracing my family tree, with breaks, since I was sixteen. It has been a most enjoyable hobby and is one that will never reach a conclusion. But the time has come to tidy up the scraps of paper and to make a formal record of what has been discovered. I intend to distribute this record to any of the family who are interested and also to deposit a copy in any archives that will accept it!
I will continue to extend the tree as far as possible and might produce a supplement at some later date.
Any further information about the family would be most welcome.


Introduction to the family

There have been Kenwrights in South Lancashire since at least the mid thirteenth century. This is not to say that all the present families are descendants of these early Kenwrights but this is likely to be the case. Virtually all Kenwrights up to the nineteenth century worked on the land and are described as yeomen, husbandmen, and farmers with very few exceptions. It is assumed that all the Kenwrights in South Lancashire descend from a single individual who lived in the 14th /15th century or possibly earlier. This premise is based on the number of the family living now and takes account of the relatively few boys who lived to adulthood in previous generations.

Summary

Historical Tree

(Click to expand image)

This tree summarises our family tree, showing all those with the surname Kenwright or Kenwrick.
To simplify it I have only noted those that kept the family name.

Me and my father are at the bottom of the grey column - this column shows a direct lineage to the first known Kenwricks.
The bottom hundred years is blurry to protect the privacy of living people.

Notable individuals are highlighted - including those that emigrated.

Legend & Myth Tree

Just for fun, I looked at the purported ancestry of our probable namesake, Cynric.
It is an interesting mix of history, legend and mythology. I have colour coded it for clarity.

(Click to expand image)

Origin of the Name

Kenwright was spelt in many different ways in the past (see below).
It seems to derive from Kenrick or Kenwrick, which is (or was) a local name in Shropshire.

Kenrick derives from CYNRIC, who was King of Wessex in 560 A.D. and who was the common ancestor of all the Anglo-Saxon Kings of Wessex and later England.

 
CYNRIC is the Anglo Saxon version of his name, which translates: 
        cyn - race or tribe
        ric - dominion or power 
Therefore Cynric means bold ruler or royal ruler.

 
CHENRIC is the old British version.

 CYNWRIG is the Welsh version:
        cyn - chief
        (g)wr - man or hero

Paradigm

Earliest Mention

The earliest mention with a similar spelling: 
Marriage: Ryc' Kenwryght and Rathbone Hey 6 Feb. 1541 in Prescot Parish Registers.

The earliest mention with the same spelling: 
John Kenwright, churchwarden 1547 - 8 in Prescot Churchwardens Accounts

Geographical locations

In 1973/4, all the telephone directories in England were examined for Kenwrights and similar names. (See appendix.)
On the 31st March 1973, there were 2,123,062 telephone subscribers in the UK and the total number of households was 18,187,000 i.e. a ratio of 9:1.
The total number of people in the UK in 1973 was 55,798,000.
Therefore the average household was comprised of 3 persons.
Therefore multiply the number of telephone subscribers by 27 to find the total number of persons of a given name.

The name derivation is the same in all the above cases but it seems likely that the family has divided into three distinct and separate groups, probably a very long time ago (a thousand years or more?).
The main branch (the Kendricks) stayed in Wessex and during the Industrial Revolution many would migrate to the town i.e. Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
Before this time others could have gone further North to Merseyside and South to London.

The Kernick family (total 33) are centred in the West Country and South Wales, and are so small in number and so restricted in distribution that they probably descend from a single individual who moved to the West Country from the North in the 14th to 16th centuries.

The Kenwrights became distinct from the Kenricks, etc. in the 1500s and 1600s, although the name did not become finally fixed until the 1700's.

The Kenwrights and Kenwicks were one family (the names Kenwrick and Kenwright seemed to be used interchangeably depending upon the clerk who was writing the name) which initially were living in or near Prescot.

They spread from there settling in and near St. Helens and Farnworth with early (1600s) movement to Childwall and Huyton.
They were mainly described as yeomen, husbandmen and labourers (farmers?) but there were several shoemakers, a gunsmith, an auditor, a sexton, a schoolmaster, a malt maker, a woollen draper and others before the 19th century.

There is a branch of the Kenwright family in north Cheshire mainly in the Runcorn area. They have been in that area from 1700 at least and from Frodsham and Chester (Brewers Hall) earlier.
They were reasonably wealthy in 1700 and are strongly believed to be a branch from Lancashire.

All the Kenwrights recently (1999) contacted descend from the Lancashire Kenwrights.

The Coat of Arms

(click to expand thumbnail)

There are ten families of Kenrick listed in Burke's General Armory (1884) all with the same arms with one family in Lancashire. Presumably they are all fairly closely related.
They would seem to be offshoots of the Woore manor (Salop.) family who claim descent from David Kenric(k) who fought under the Black Prince at Crecy and Poitiers.

The Kenwrights of Eccleston House near Prescot would also seem to be connected to this family.

The Kenwright families as a whole have belonged to the yeoman/farmer class almost without exception from 1600 to the present day.
Of course, in the last few years, many have not gone into farming (only a small proportion of the population now work on the land).

Before 1650 many of the Kenwrights seem to have been well off but the money has passed into other families due to the Kenwright propensity for producing girls in three out of four births.
(this is an average - some families produced no boys whilst others had more equal families).

Also, in about 1600, Robert sold Eccleston House and his land in Halewood (presumably to the Earl of Derby) and bought the manor of Kings Norton in Northamptonshire from the Earl of Derby.
This meant that most of the Kenwright money left Lancashire!

Sources

All the parish registers in South East Lancashire (south of Preston and west of Warrington, but including Warrington) and the registers of parishes in north Cheshire around Runcorn and stretching to Warrington have been examined for Kenwrights, etc. from their inception up to 1837 or beyond.

Most, if not all, printed (and indexed) parish registers for Lancashire and Cheshire have been examined.

All the wills held in the Cheshire and Lancashire Record Offices have been examined from their inception up to 1820 or beyond for Kenwrights, etc.

The census returns, from 1841 to 1871, have been examined but not to the east of Prescot.
When this is done, it will help to fill in some of the gaps (it is known that some of the family moved in that direction).

The 1881 indexed census for Lancashire, Cheshire, Surrey and Warwickshire has also been examined.

In 1974, a questionnaire was sent to all the Kenwrights in southeast Lancashire and Runcorn telephone directories asking for any information about the family.
About one third replied, some with a lot of information that helped to fill in the last hundred years of the family.

In 1999, a letter was sent to selected Kenwrights whose addresses were found in various phone books (none in South Lancashire).
Over half replied which provided much information about the family in this century, especially those who moved from Lancashire during the last 100 years.

The graveyards in areas where Kenwrights had lived were examined but many graves never had a gravestone and those that have do not survive well.
The insides of relevant churches have been examined with no success except for Kenricks in Chester, (which was a separate family).

The International Genealogical Index (1991 version) and the VRI have been examined for Lancashire and Cheshire and has been very useful, but there are errors to be found in them.

Various other documents and books have been searched (see appendices).