The Clinch Family in Our Kentish Genealogy
There are approximately 1,988 people named Clinch in the UK. Approximately 31 out of every million people in the UK are named Clinch.
Origins
Clinch - An Anglo-Saxon surname, possibly derived from “the Olde English pre 7th Century "clenc", lump, hill. The same term seems also to have been used of a patch of dry raised ground in fenland surroundings, and the surname may be of topographical origin, from this sense. In some cases, the surname derives from a derivative of the Middle English "clench(en)", from the Olde English "clencian", to fix firmly, and would have been an occupational name for a maker or fixer of bolts and rivets. … The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugh Clinche, which was dated 1223, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Lincolnshire", during the reign of King Henry 111 (1216 - 1272).
Ron Hales Reed told me that our Clinch family tradition is that they originally came from Ireland, the family grew prosperous raising sheep in Kent's Chetney marshes in the North of Kent. Then a flood washed their flocks away.
- This story can be traced back to a farm labourer from Borden named George Clinch, who is remembered for his expertise grafting trees. He was raised by his grandfather Thomas Clinch (1779-after 1851).
- George Clinch told the story to his daughter Marianne (1877-1957).
- Marianne told her grandson Ron Hales Reed, one night in Barming during 2002.
- This there is a five century gap between the story and the events they describe.
There was a Clinch family among the 14th century families that settled in Ireland
- The name Clinch (or Clinse) enters Irish records, in the province of Leinster province, during the early 1300's. (Edward Mac Lysaght, THE SURNAMES OF IRELAND 1989 edition from London, p 46).
- Clinch is "a surname which was borne by an old Anglo-Irish family of the pale. the Clinches ranked among the gentry of Dublin and Meath at the end of the 16th century, (Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall )"
There was a great flood, around 1324, close to where records of in the area where our Clinch family appeared.
- There have been many floods in Kent's history.
- One of the worst brought an end to a boom in the wall trade. The cost of will tripped between 1280 and 1322. The resulting crash has been blamed on severe storms that flooded low lying areas, like the Chetney marshes, with sea water. The surviving flocks were devastated by drought and pestilence. In 1324, farms belonging to Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury, lost 4,685 of their 10,000 sheep. According F. W, Jessup, "Except on Romney Marsh, the flocks never recovered, nor did sheep rearing ever again reach its former importance or prosperity," (F W Jessup, A HISTORY OF KENT, edition of 1995, p 69)
- Records of the Clinch/Clench family start appearing, in a ten mile radius around Chetney marsh, go back to that era.
There are references to the Clenches in the Hundred of West Milton during the mid 14th century:
- William Clenche gave a “pasture" in Grain, Kent, to the prioress and nuns of Sheppey during the second year of Edward III (Jan. 25th 1328- Jan 24th 1329). Most of the other donors were from Minster-in-Sheppey andWilliam’s lands could have been from the same area.
- the Kent Lay Subsidy of 1334 mentions two Clench families in there Hundred of West Milton. The most extensive belonged to Laurence le Clench (2s. 4d) and a smaller holding was allowed to Thomas Clench (6d) - F. R. H Du Boulay editor, Medieval Kentish Society, Kent Archaeological Society, 1964, pp. 165, 166)
- On May 13, 1359, Thomas Clenche was one of the witnesses when Roger de Twydole,of Gillingham, granted All his lands, tenements, rents, farms, marshes, pastures, meadows in Gillingham to Richard Smelt of London.
By the 15th century, there are records from the Isle of Sheppy: The will of Joanne Clinch from 1468 (PCC17/1/65) and Thome Clinch from 1484 (PRC17/3/515).
Some of the information provided above probably relates to our lineage, but our genealogy really starts with the Thomas Clench who followed Cade off to London in 1450.