Kingsman families in Essex

The Essex Kingsman line has a very long and fascinating history.  They were a wealthy family in the 1300s and branches of it continued such through the generations. 

OUTLINE TREE

There are unfortunately some breaks in the written records so some of the links shown here remain conjectural. As with all such trees the best that can sometimes be obtained is that the links fit all of the known facts - there are just not enough known facts to make them certain.

The last family group, that of Jasper Kingsman of Horndon-on-the-Hill, were very wealthy owning large estates around Horndon.  They adopted the blazon of the Kinnesman family of Northampton, identical in all aspects with the original. They may have had no genealogical basis to properly adopt these arms, although Jasper certainly believed that he did, and implied as much in his will. This will is fascinating itself in that Jasper had a serious falling out with his youngest and only surviving son, Peter, and went to huge lengths in his will to stop Peter from inheriting anything, leaving all of his large estate to one Josiah Kingsman, also of Essex.  This Josiah was a fairly distant cousin (4th cousin, once removed).

As this is a family of solicitors and a lot of money was involved, it is not surprising that Peter contested this, leaving a long and fascinating paper trail in Chancery Court.

Through this line part of the estates eventually passed to a Benjamin Kingsman (great nephew of Josiah).  It was this Benjamin who adopted the coat of arms shown above, derived from the original Kinnesman arms but the with colours altered, probably to distinguish himself from his Uncles family who continued using the original.

No male heirs to this family have been found in Essex later than the end of the 18th century.  However, it is possible that this family does live on via the line of Gideon Kingsman.  This is conjectural and based at the moment only on the unusual first name.  There is a line of Kingmans (no middle S) who appear in Wells, Somerset at the end of 17th century, all named Gideon for several generations.  There is also a Gideon Kingsman of this Essex line for whom no  records have been found apart from his mention in his father's will of 1624. This may be no more than a coincidence of names, but it makes an interesting theory.

This section contains records on 215 individuals, cross referenced to 5 sources.

Index Of Names

Section updated on 11 July 2009.