Kenward
Lewes, Portslade
The growing ‘tree’ is actually growing on the fence of the house in Lewes that the Kenwards used to inhabit, so it is doubly appropriate in that it’s a real Kenward tree and it is also still growing - my Kenward line doesn’t go back very far though there are some tantalising possibilities.
The problem is there are a lot of Kenwards in Sussex - it appears to be their home base. I am sure the different families are all connected somehow, but I haven’t quite worked out the connections as yet, so am not quite sure which line to follow.
Links
Lewes
Portslade
Jobs with horses
Kenward
meaning and origins
There are two versions here - one lowly and one rather more important. The lowly one is a saxon occupation name - a cow keeper - kine ward. Sounds pretty right to me. But then I found this: “derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name Cyneweard. The name became "keneward" in Middle English, and is composed of the elements "cyne-", meaning "royal", with either "heard" meaning "hardy, brave, strong", or "weard", meaning "guardian, protector". The guardian/protector bit is the same anyway.
variations
Kennard, Kenwood
distribution in England and Wales
In 1891 they were indeed concentrated in Sussex - by far the most dense population of Kenwards, with Kent (just next door) the next. After that they are more evenly spread around the country. Even London doesn’t have a huge number of them.