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This is some early historical information on the Gedney surname:
EARLY HISTORY
The name Gedney comes from the Old Norse, Gednaye. Literally this means "fish island" and sugests that the family came from an island off the coast of Scandinavia, probably Denmark which is closest to the east coast of England; the name still persists in Europe as Gedagne.
In the early centuries of the Christian era the Norsemen divided their time between sea-roving and fishing with emphasis placed heavily on the former as being more exciting and mor profitable. There is no doubt that the Geddanye made up some of the Viking bands which harried the coast of England repeatedly and over a considerable period of time. A reflection of the seriousness of similar raids is the fact that these words remained in the Litany of the Anglican Book of Common prayer until 1830: " from the fury of the Norsemen, good Lord deliver us."
For some years the raids were of the hit and run variety; but on some occasion, early in the 9th century, the Geddanye went raiding and did not return to home port. They stayed in Lincolnshire where the name was changed from Geddanye to Geddeneye, then to Gedeney and finally to Gedney.
EARLY OCCURRENCES OF THE NAME "GEDNEY"
The Domesday Book - GADENAI and GADENAY
This refers to the Manor of Gedney, a place, (Late 11th Century) not a family. No Gedney family name is indicated in the book. The use of the letter "A" in the phonetic spelling characteristic of the book; strongly suggests that the pronunciation of the name was originally with the "e" sounded as it still is in the word "they", still the prevailing Continental pronunciation of the letter. When the English people as a group began changing the sound of this letter to those now found in "bet" and "be", as they did about the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the sound of the name is found spelled phonetically as Gedney, Geedeney, or later, with almost an "i" sound as in "bit". Only the spellings Gedney and Gidney have survived, Gidney not appearing in any document known to this writer before before the late 16th or early 17th century.
While the many variant spellings create real problems for the genealogist, they do not seem to have disturbed the parties involved at the time, as dictionaries were scarce, teaching poor, and people tended to spell things the way they heard them. Several members of the family spelled their own name in various ways in signatures to different documents. Some started as Gedney and finished their lives as Gidney, while others started as Gidneys and have wound up as Gedneys. In one branch of Canadian group half of the boys spelled their name one way and half the other and yet corresponded freely with each other. In Salem court record the same clerk spelled John Gedney's name three different ways in the same record. Two members of the Orange County branch plainly signed their names as witnesses to a will as Gedney, but were recorded by the clerk of the Surrogate's Court as Gidneys. While the name on the will of Eleazer is Gedney, the man who carved his tombstone put it as Gidney. Today, with birth certificates, licenses and Social Security cards, such flexibility is no longer possible.
1273 AD - Harvey de Gedney - earliest recorde use as a family name. The two most likely suggestions for the origin of the name are that it is either Danish or Saxon. Basically it consists of the word Ged or Gedden meaning a particular type of fish (probably identical with the modern Pike of the region), and EY, EYE or AIT (all pronounced with the sound of "e" in They) signifying an island or islet. Several American family historians, finding these terms in the old Norse language have concluded that the name and hence the family must be Danish or Norse in origin. The rather elaborate descriptions of how the Danes arrived and settled the area and gave their name to be the place, however, appear to be based almost wholly on assumption. On the other hand several British authors who have made careful studies of the area and its linguistics find that the origin is, in their opinion Saxon, long antedating the Danish invasions. Wheeler, who has made the most exhaustive study of the South Lincolnshire Fenland and the history of the drainage, diking and habitation of the area, stresses the Saxon origin. A thorough linguistic study entitled "Lincolnshire and the Danes" does not indicate any evidence for the Danish origin but rather mentions Gedney as a Saxon word, indeed it finds few Danish place names in the area of the fenland. The fact is that the expression would be the same in either language as the first Nordic settlers of the Fenland, the Angle clan of the Saxon tribe, and numerous Frisians from north Netherlands, were close neighbors of the Danes or Jutes and also close linguistically having many words in common. The argument from the linguistic point of view could fit either opinion.
Historically, the weight of evidence inclines strongly toward the idea of Saxon origin. When the Angles and Frisians entered the Fenland they completely eliminated the original British Icumeni, so thoroughly that there are scarcely any place names of British origin in the area. At this time (450 AD) the sea extended far inland over south Lincolnshire with several points of higher land standing up above the tidewater or surrounded by salt marsh. One of those came to be known as Gedfish Island or Gedney. This marshy land has since been filled by extensive draining, diking and the delta deposition of the various streams until it is built well out beyond Gedney and is an excellent potato land. When the Danish invasions occurred in the 10th century, the higher lands of Lincolnshire and Norfolk were overrun, but the Saxons retreated into almost impassable fens and preserved their identity there. It is doubtful if the Danelaw ever did become general in the area, as the invaders seem to have concentrated on the higher land where communites were easier of access and more fruitful for exploitation. Even when the last of the Norse invasions, the Norman conquest of 1066 took place, this was about the last point of resistance of the Saxons, Hereward holding out there in the fens many years after the rest of England had been subdued, and the fenland remaining the least Normanized of any area in the main part of Britian. Only a few Danish placenames appearing in the whole of south Lincolnshire, the weight of the evidence would appear to incline strongly to the Saxon origin of the name.
In settling on a family name. some continuted their father's name (as Johnson), some took the name of their trade such as Smith, Cartwright, Mason, Farmer, etc. Most of the Smiths were probably not related to each other by descent. Others took the name of their town, as Jack London, and Abraham Lincoln. Some were named from personal aspects as Small, Grey, Black, etc. Most of the citizens who took a place name at first used a preposition, either the Norman de or the Saxon of, as in Wuilliam de Bracy and John of Gaunt, but for the most part these were eventually left out. In south Lincolnshire, some chose to be called after the name of the Manor of Gedney where they lived, although they may not have been related by blood or even race. THe earliest known such person is Harvey de Gedney in 1273. It would seem then that the place name was not named after the family, but the family, or group of families came to be named after the place. From the "Domesday Book" it is evident that the place name was there long before family names were in use.
THe first connectected lineage is one listed in the official "Visitation of Lincolnshire in 1564" and again in 1592. Here we find that Robert Gedney of Flyte (or Fleet) moved from Linconshire to County Norfolk and established the family there in 1372. The line is traced from 1372 through ten generations in this record.
The John Gedney, born in Norfolk in 1603 and emigrating to Salem in 1637 where he established the first Gedneys in America, was apparently of the eleventh generation of the Norfolk group. Since the living Gedneys and Gidneys are of the twelfth to fourteenth generation in this country, this would indicate that the family history covers some 25 generations in the 600 years from 1372 to the present.
For some two hundred years the John Gedney family seems to have been the only Gedney group in America. However, in the nineteenth century several other branches of the families came over, three from England, one from Scotland, and one by way of France. There is also one negro family bearing the name Gidney, taking their name from Captain John Gidney upon whose plantation in North Carolina they were living when it became necessary for them to take family names at the close of the Civil War.
THE GEDNEYS IN ENGLAND
There is a village named Gedney in Lincolnshire, described as "a small but pleasant" settlement, the principal feature being "a fine old parish church with 53 windows of the early Norman period." The founder of the villiage is reputed to have come from Norway about 920 AD
The earliest recorded Gedney in County Lincoln is Hervey de Gedney (1273). By 1372 some of the family are found in Norfolk. There are records of Simon de Gedeneye in Lynn: in 1452 a Gedney was Lord Mayor of Lynn: in 1462 Thomas Gedney of Bog Enderby, County Lincoln, settled in Lynn. Quite a few Gedneys had been in NOrfolk since 1409.
In the 15th century William Gedney married the heiress of Enderby of Bog Enderby; Andreas Gedney was Lord Mayro of Oxcomb. Fortunes of the family declined in the 16th century.
It is in County Norfolk that we find the first Gedney of whom we have documented information. He is John Gedney, born in Norwich in 1603. the year of the death of Queen Elizabeth I. He lived in Norwich until 1637 at which time emigrated to Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He died there in 1688, the year that James II died.
UNKNOWN NORFOLK GEDNEYS
This listing indicates Gedneys of uncertain or unknown family relations
1385 Philip de Gedney, Rector of Threkston
1385/6 John de Gedeney, Clerk of the Lord King
1402 John Gedeneye
1410 Simon Gedeney, Cook
1414 John de Gedeneye, chose to Norwich Council of 80
1416 Thomas Gedeneye, Westacre clerk
1452 Simon de Gedney, living in Lynn
A Gedney was Lord Mayor of Lynn in this year (possibly Simon?)
1475 John Gedney, Watlyngton, and Agnes, his wife.
Wills Andreas Gedney, Lord Mayor of Oxcomb
1487 Thomas Gedney, Norfolk
1508 Joan Geddeney, widow of Norwich
1536 William Gedney, of Potter Heigham
1560 Children of Andrewe Gedney: John Gardner, Elizabeth, Katherine
Children of Richard Gedney: George, Marie, Katherine
1561 Alice Keddeneye, of Potter Heigham, widow
1562 George Gedney, of Potter Heigham
1631 Jane Gedney of Bently, buried August 27
1629 January 22.- John Gedney, apprentices to John Lambe, worsted weaver
1645 August 18. -John Gedney, worsted weaver takes apprentice Henry Smith
1648 September 25. - James Gedny, apprenticed to Nathaniel Cossens, Worsted weaver
1664 July 26. - John Gedney, blacksmith, takes apprentice.
1670 May 15. - William Gedny apprenticed to Stephen Cooper, rough mason
1675 February 24.- William Gedny, rough mason, takes John Gedney, apprentice
1690 February 29. - James Gedny, worsted weaver, takes Henry Gresham, apprentice
1691 February 11. - James Gedny, hosier, takes Samuel Manige, apprentice
1697 June 21. - Joseph Gedney, apprenticed to John Lemmon, worsted weaver.
1701 January 16. - James Gedny, worsted weaver, takes James Goodwin, apprentice
1710 May 3.-- John Gedney, rough mason, takes Samuel Suffield, apprentice
1380 Thomas de Gedeneye took out administration for wife's estate
1372 Simon de Gedeneye, party to a fine in Lynn
1500 Frances Gedny, married
1409 Robert Gydney, party to a fine in Lynn
1683 November 22. - Ebenezer Gedney, son of James Gedney, buried
1684 James Gedney listed to pay poor tax
1693 February 10.- Mary Gedney buried
SUFFOLK GEDNEYS
1737 John Gedney of Elmswell married Martha Parish February 9.
1548 Margaret Gedney married John Parker
THE AMORIAL BEARING OF GEDNEY
The Gedney family is armigerous, meaning that there are coats of arms described in various armories and asribed to the Gedney name. The General Armory by Sir Bernard Burke lists four pertinent bearinings:
1. GEDNEY: (Enderby Lincoln) Argent two fishes in saltire azure. CREST: A bird on an oak plant proper. These are the arms displayed by Thomas Gedney of Bog Enderby who went to Norfolk and settled in Lynn in 1492.
2. GEDNEY: (Hudderly County Lincoln) Azure two lucies in saltire argent. CREST: Two lucies as in the arms.
3. GEDNEY (County Stafford) Or on a fess gules between three leopards' faces of the 2nd, three eagles displayed of the field. These arms are quartered elsewhere by Stamford of Rowley XCounty Stafford.
4. GEDNEY: (County Suffolk) Or three eagles displayed sable. CREST: An eagle displayed sable. These are the bearings carved on the family tomb of Bartholomew Gedney. The same device appears as the impression in wax as a seal used in 1698 by Susannah widow of John Gedney II and on the receipt of the heirs of Bartholomew.
On May 11, 1964 the arms of John Gedney of Norwich, County Norfolk 1603, and Salem, Massachusetts 1637 as used by Bartholomew Gedney, etc. were accepted for registration and have become part of the records of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
It is a safe assumption that this line of Gedneys considered themselves to be of the Suffolk branch rather than taht of County Lincoln.
There is no proof, but there is evidence in Rietstap's Armorial General to suggest that the name Geddanye did not disappear in Europe but is still extant as Gedagne bearing a crest which is identical with the charge on the shield of Gedney (Suffolk), namely "une sigle eploye de sable"
I hope this is helpful to some researchers
Deb Carpenter
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