The Waitaki Cunninghams

Cunningham is a Scottish: habitational name from a district in Ayrshire, first recorded in 1153 in the form Cunegan, a Celtic name of uncertain origin. The spellings in -ham, first recorded in 1180, and in -ynghame, first recorded in 1227, represent a gradual assimilation to the English place-name element -ingham. Irish: surname adopted from Scottish by bearers of Gaelic Ó Cuinneagáin ‘descendant of Cuinneagán’, a personal name from a double diminutive of the Old Irish personal name Conn meaning ‘leader’, ‘chief’.

Similar surnames:

Ellingham, Ingham, Birmingham, Cookingham, Dunning, Bingham, Canning

Our family goes back to West Lothian and Renfrewshire and Cunninghamhead in Ayrshire. Robert Dick and Jane Gray wcame to NZ from Culross, pictured above, where Robert was a stonemason of some note. This was in 1862 aboard the Robert Henderson.

The Stonemason Dicks

The name is both Scottish and English from a short form of Richard. Although found in every part of Britain, the form Dick is especially common in Scotland, and it was from there, in the 17th century, that the surname was taken to northern Ireland. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from Middle High German dic(ke) ‘thick’, ‘strong’, ‘stout’, or in the case of the Jewish name from modern German dick ‘fat’ or Yiddish dik. German: topographic name for someone who lived by a thicket or patch of thick undergrowth, from Middle High German dicke, a special use of dic(ke) ‘thick’. North German: from a short form of a Germanic personal name Theodicho, formed with theud ‘people’, ‘race’.

The Dick family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920. The most Dick families were found in the USA in 1880. In 1891 there were 370 Dick families living in London. This was about 25% of all the recorded Dick’s in the UK. London had the highest population of Dick families in 1891.
12% in Lancashire
10% in Northumberland
5% in Cheshire

The Dick family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920. The most Dick families were found in the USA in 1880. In 1841 there were 801 Dick families living in Lanarkshire. This was about 20% of all the recorded Dick’s in Scotland. Lanarkshire had the highest population of Dick families in 1841. This was the location of our family line.

The most Dick families were found in the USA in 1880.

In 1881 there were 1,529 Dick families living in Lanarkshire. This was about 38% of all the recorded Dick’s in Scotland. Lanarkshire had the highest population of Dick families in 1881.

Our family was begun by Robert Dick and Jane Gray who came to NZ from Culross, pictured above, where Robert was a stonemason of some note. This was in 1862 aboard the Robert Henderson.

The Whare Flat Havards

The name is Welsh: of uncertain origin. It is believed by some to be a habitational name from Hereford, while others favor a Norman origin, from the port of Le Havre.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press

Similar surnames: Harvard, Savard, Hard, Howard, Hamar, Hansard, Savary, Agard, Harari

Interestingly our family came from Wales going back to the mid 17th century. The two oldest ancestors identified to date were John Havard born in 1601 at Fawnhope with Fawleye Hereford England; along with his wife Anna Markle born 1616 in Hereford and died at Knighton, Radnorshire, Wales. They were the 10th great grandparents of the Sargison brothers.

The Moss Family

An English and Welsh name derived from the personal name Moss, a Middle English vernacular form of the Biblical name Moses. English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived by a peat bog, Middle English, Old English mos, or a habitational name from a place named with this word. (It was not until later that the vocabulary word came to denote the class of plants characteristic of a peat-bog habitat, under the influence of the related Old Norse word mosi.) Americanized form of Moses or some other like-sounding Jewish surname. Irish (Ulster): part translation of Gaelic Ó Maolmhóna ‘descendant of Maolmhóna’, a personal name composed of the elements maol ‘servant’, ‘tonsured one’, ‘devotee’ + a second element which was assumed to be móin (genitive móna) ‘moorland’, ‘peat bog’.

The Moss family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920. The most Moss families were found in the UK in 1891 with 4,200 Moss families living in Lancashire. This was about 23% of all the recorded Moss’s in the UK. Lancashire had the highest population of Moss families in 1891. That included Mary Clapham Moss’s family who were largely weavers.

Whare Flat Jollys

Robert arrived on 27 October 1875 at Port Chalmers aboard the Auckland. He was listed as a machine maker. John was clearly in Dunedin 1870 when his son, Robert James Jolly, was born.Your Content Goes Here

Two of Robert and Mary’s sons, John and Robert, born in 1847 and 1850 respectively, emigrated to New Zealand.

In the photo above Mary Hannah Havard is on the left with her daughter May Elizabeth Jolly and in turn her daughter Mavis Doreen Dick (in the middle) on the occasion of the latter’s 21stour Content Goes Here

The Rylances

Another authority describes it as being
“English: topographic name for someone who lived near a piece of land where rye was grown, from Old English ryge ‘rye’ + land ‘land’. adm Norwegian: habitational name from any of three farmsteads in Vestlandet so named from an unexplained first element + land ‘land’, ‘farm’. OV. Rare as a Swedish name – 6 in Goteborg, probably imported from Norway Probably an altered spelling of Dutch Reiland.
Source:

A further variant has it as a dialectally transposed locational name “of the Rylands” from two different places: Rylands is in West Houghton, County Lancashire, and Rylands in the parish of Wilmslow, Cheshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon pre 8th century “rhy” or “rhee” – a water course or stream and “lands” – the lands adjoining the stream. The name changed from Rylands to Rylance and inevitably to Roylance. Today there are five spelling variations: Ryland(s), Roylance, Rylance and Rawlence.

So there are some common threads which come down to it appearing first in Lincolnshire. Actually the Rylances held a family seat from very early times and were granted lands by Duke William of Normandy, their liege Lord, for their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D There was also a Lancashire presence. The first recorded spelling of the family name is apparently that of Robert del Ruylondes, of West Haughton, which was dated 1327, in the “Rylands of the Rylands within West Houghton, County Lancashire” by J.P. Rylands, during the reign of King Edward 111, known as “The Father of the Navy” 1327 – 1377.

Our family lineage goes back to Lancashire. In the 19th century spinning/weaving, cotton and varnish making were the key family occupations. Our family did not come to NZ until the beginnings of the 20th centure.

The Waiputai (Blueskin) Sargisons

Recorded variously as Serjeantson, Sarginson, Sergison, and Sargison, this is a patronymic English surname of some antiquity. It was originally occupational for a sergent, an early Middle English word of a servant of some status within a royal or noble household. The surname was probably used in the general sense at irst of a servant of higher rank than the ‘downstairs’ staff, but one that later developed various specialised meanings. These included a tenant who held the rank by service on behalf of the local lord of the manor. As such he would have been below the rank of a knight or a sheriff, but was a junior officer of the law charged with enforcing judgements of a court or tribunal, in other words, an early policeman. There has always been great variety in the spellings of this name as shown in the examples above. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Serganton of Yorkshire in the Poll Tax rolls of theat County in 1379, whilst somewhat later Robert Sarginson, was christened on January 4th, 1600 at St. Dunstans in the East, Stepney. This was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st = (sic)of England and known as “Good Queen Bess”, 1558 – 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to “develop” often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Sargison families moved over time. The name was found in the USA, the UK, and Scotland between 1880 and 1920. The most Sargison families were found in the UK in 1891. In 1891 there were 37 Sargison families living in Yorkshire. This was about 38% of all the recorded Sargison’s in the UK. Yorkshire had the highest population of Sargison families in 1891.

Our family began with the arrival of Henry Griffin Sargison and his brother in 1862 from Parsons Drove, Cambridgeshire.

Introducing the main families