DECLARED “BOGUS”

Hokitika Guardian, 30 October 1933, Page 8

DECLARED “BOGUS”

MANY ENGLISH ANCESTRIES. NORMAN CONQUEST TRADITIONS. In an address before the anthropological section of the British Association , last month, Lord Raglan , dealt drastically with those families who cherish the belief that they have an unbroken an ( \ recorded ancestry back to the time of tile Norman Conquest. “There are in this country,” said Lord Raglan- “many families whose ‘traditions’ take them back to the time of the Norman Conquest, when their ancestors are alleged to have distinguished themselves either on the side of tlie Normans or of the Saxons. ■ It tan be said without fear on contradiction from those who have studied the subject that not one of these is a genuine tradition. All are the work of pedigree makers who have flourished from very early times, and there is not a word of truth in any of them. “No English family can trace a genuine descent to the Saxons, and though there are a few families with a genuine Norman descent, this in no case goes as far back as the 11th century. One of our oldest families is that of Wake, of which the present head is Sir Hereward Wake, thirteenth baronet. | The family ‘tradition’ is that it is ' descended in. the direct male l ne from the famous Saxon hero, Hereward the Wake. About 1360 the family of Wake, having attained to wealth and importance. thought itself entitled to a more high-sounding pedigree, and having discovered that a Saxon called Hereward had once owned a small part of the lordship of Bourne, decided to adopt tile gfieat Saxon hero as ancestor. For this purpose a pedigree was forged, conferring titles,- ancestors, and descendants upon the Hereward who lived at Bourne, and to make this pedigree more convincing there was conferred , upon the Saxon hero the hitherto un-heard-of cognomen of ‘the Wake.’ “Hereward was never called ‘the Wake’ till, he was adopted as ancestor by the Wake family about the middle •' of the 14th century ; the Wake family I has no traceable connection with Here- , ward or- any' other. Saxon ; and, • the I first Wake to be christened Hereward was born .in . 1851; ” 1 ' Commenting op this statement, Admiral Sir Drury St. Aubyn Wake said: “I have, never , been troubled by any statements about our family, and 1 should think that Lord Raglan was through his hat.” The Lancaster Herald, Air A. G. of the college of Heralds, said:’ “Lain afraid Lord Ranlah is talking father wildly. It is comlrion knowledge that many family trees have been forged-in the past, but, on the other hahd, many are genuine "Thbie are at ‘least a couple of dozen families who' can trace their descent to Norman da^S;-and a few still further back to Saxon times. Tile* College of Heralds have investigated the Wake pedigree with the'help of contemporary records, and: it is beyond doubt.”