Hi
No, I'm not a descendant. My family name is unusual (less than 400 in the UK in 2002), so I'm involved in a one-name study. My best guess on the evidence at present is that there are two families with the name, one from Yorkshire probably descended from John, Fenton's man, who was steward for the Fenton family in Swillington, near Leeds, recorded in the poll tax records in 1379; the other descended from people who settled in Bedfordshire in the early 1500s, possibly Huguenot refugees (though the timings are a bit suspect). There may be only one family, but I have not found the links yet.
I am from the Bedfordshire line; I think the London family was from the Yorkshire line, though I haven't proved that yet. Certainly the family held property in Yorkshire, according to their wills. There was a John Fentiman, bricklayer, in York in 1723, who may be the John who was father of William and Isabella, but that is circumstantial evidence only.
By the way, the Fentiman Arms, as displayed outside the pub of that name in Fentiman Road, Vauxhall, aren't the Fentiman arms at all; they were appropriated from the KILLIGREW family, who were notable Devonshire sea-going people who included a famous lady pirate captain and a notable poetess. Isabella Fentiman married Captain George Augustus Killigrew, which did not transfer any right to the arms, but since the Killigrews are even thinner on the ground than Fentimans (68 in the UK in 2002), they seem not to have mounted an objection to the theft.
I'm happier transferring large amounts of data by e-mail than otherwise. Please send an e-mail to
roger.fentiman(AT-symbol)gmail.com for more.
Regards
Roger
