WICKENDEN HISTORY

This section includes compilations of information about the origin of the Wickenden name, as well as legends, early historical records and genealogical research on individuals and branches of the Wickenden family. The authors (with publication dates) include Alfred Wickenden (1939), Homer Wickenden (1962), Ken Watson (2004), and Thomas Wickenden (2019).

Wickendorf, the name for a village associated with the Wicken, a clan of the tribe of Angles, is found in Poland, Austria, and Germany. Wickenburg, the name of a mountain associated with the Wicken is also found on the Continent in Germany and the Netherlands. This page traces the migration of the clan, along with other Germanic tribes up north near Angeln, then down to the Frankish Rhineland, across the Channel to Britain, and south to the Wicken den, deep in the Weald of Kent.

From our place in history, we seek to travel back in time, to find a pathway back to the Wicken den in the Weald of Kent. This article begins by proposing that we explore possible pathways, beginning with family trees and then linking those branches and trunks back to the their roots in Cowden. This article also reverses the process by mapping the growth and movement of the first Wickenden families, by decade and by century, until some of us began to depart England for distant shores.

Wickenden was a homestead in Cowden, Kent, England, mentioned in local church records. Like many other "den" names in Kent, it described a settlement made by the folk who drove their animals down from the south shore of the Thames to forage for acorns in the forest. From this Wicken den, the earliest Wickendens took their name.

The Hwicce were a prominent clan of the tribe of Angles. Some may have come to England with the early Saxons and Jutes and established the Wicken den. Others moved further West and established the Kingdom of Hwicce, which became part of Mercia and eventually the nation of England.

The Wicken may have been a clan or subtribe of the Angles, one of various Germanic Tribes. The Angles, their settlement of England, and the subsequent history of the Wicken (Hwicce) are referred to in various historical documents. What do these documents suggest and what is the likely involvement of the Wicken and the Wickendens in the major events of English history?[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Place-name evidence suggests that the Wicken were a clan of Angles who migrated across the Continent, the Channel, the County of Kent and the Southern Midlands of Britain to establish a Wicken den in Kent and the Kingdom of Hwicce in the Western Midlands.

Viewers will already have some reason, personal or professional, for exploring this website. However, other perspectives on Wickenden Family History that may be of interest include: Genes (DNA), Memes (Coats of Arms), Seams (Websites), Schemes (Family Trees), Themes (Mottoes) and Dreams (Stories). This page briefly touches on each analytical approach and suggests why and how it might be useful.