James Bly Research

Renaud de Wentworth was born about 1030 in either England, or Normandy, France, and died after 1066 in Stafford, Yorkshire, England.

Among all the ancient families of the British Empire, there is none whose claim to great antiquity is founded on a surer basis than that of the Wentworths.

Wentworth is an English locational name for people who come from Wentworth in Cambridge, Yorkshire and Sheffield. The place name 'Wentworth' itself is derived from the Old English place name 'Winteworde', itself derived from the Old English word 'wintra', which means 'a wood', and 'worth', which means 'a farm'. The surname thus means: "From a farm near the woods".

For more than eight hundred years the name has been identified with the history of England, through what ever political changes and convulsions it has passed. The earliest record of this name is in Domesday Book itself; and from that period to the present time, there is no difficulty in tracing an unbroken genealogical succession.

The number of modern English families that can boast of an origin so remote, and a descent so little defaced by bars sinister, is very small indeed: it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that they may be counted on one's fingers.

Like all other families, that of Wentworth has been subjected to great fluctuations, owning to the vast changes in the political construction of the country and to other causes. Its representatives have been at times the possessors of enormous wealth and at others reduced to comparative poverty.

Some of them have lost their heads upon the scaffold as political criminals, whom succeeding generations have held in reverence as patriots and martyrs. But from first to last, there has never been a time when the name has not occupied a conspicuous place in the annals of England, nor one when the traceable antiquity of the family has been for a moment doubted.

The fact that the titles anciently borne by different members of the family have disappeared from the modern peerages, except as borne by those who have succeeded through the female lines, does not militate against this statement.

Of the first few generations little or nothing is known beyond the bare names, but the descent as given has the authority of all the early genealogists, and was accepted, and is still deemed genuine by the College of Arms. As the pedigree has thus stood the test of centuries, it is not likely that any further information will ever be obtained respecting the family during the period embracing the 11th, 12th, 13th,and 14th centuries.

It may be safely accepted that the first known mention of the family of Wentworth occurs in Domesday Book, and the pedigree may therefore commence thus:---

Reginald Wentworth, or, as written in Domesday Book, Rynold de Wynterwade, who was living at the time of the Norman Conquest, A.D. 1066. As at that time there were no actual surnames, he was simply Reginald of Wentworth. In other words, he was the possessor in Saxon times of the lordship of Wentworth, in the Wapentake of Strafford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Yorkshire consists of three division, known as the North,East, and West Ridings. Each Riding is subdivided into a number of Wapentakes or Hundreds, and it was in one of the latter that the lordship or manor of Wentworth was situated. Wentworth is in the parish of Wath-upon-Dearn, about nine miles from Sheffield, and thirteen from Doncaster. The fact that he is described in Domesday Book as the lord of Wentworth, sufficiently attests his position as one of the principal men of his neighborhood, even at this early period. nothing, however, is known of his family, except that he was succeeded by his son, Henry Wentworth.

[A Genealogical Memoir of the Wentworth Family of England, From Its Saxon Origin in the Eleventh Century to the Emigration of one of its Representatives to New England about the Year 1636, Joseph Lemuel Chester]

More About Rynold De Wynterwade: Date born 2: 1027, Of.Normandy, France. (Alternate data) Christening: Line of Norman, Conquest.

Children of Rynold De Wynterwade are:

+Henry (de Wynword) Wentworth, b. 1052, Of Wentworth, Yorkshire, England4662, d. date unknown.

See: Wentworth Village: http://www.wentworthvillage.net/ See: "Wentworth" as it appears in the Domesday Book - image in the "Media" Tab. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Alternate interpretation of the surname: Wentworth is a famous English locational surname. It originates from either Wentworth in Yorkshire and near to the city of Sheffield, or Wentworth in Cambridge, and near to the city of Ely. Both places may owe something to the Danish-Vikings of the pre 9th century, in that in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 they were both recorded as "Winteworde". According to the Dictionary of English Place Names this means not as might be expected, Winter's wood, from the Olde English personal name "Wintra" and "-worth", a wood, but the worp or thorp, a Danish word and meaning an outlying farm, (the modern thorp or thorpe), with wintra meaning winter, and hence a place which specifically provided shelter in winter, perhaps because it was low lying. The surname has had a long and usually distinguished history, originating it is said, for many nameholders, from Rynold de Wentworth of Yorkshire in the year 1013 and prior.

Modern Research: By looking at the Y-DNA genetic testing of the Wentworth males, many of the results place them in the I2b1 halo-group; this halo-group is commonly found in Germany. Thus, we can say with almost certainty that the early Wentworth family were of Saxon origin. Much of the research indicates that the Wentworths were in England prior to the Norman conquest.

Reginald was a Saxon at the time of the Norman Conquest.