Plant (or Plonte), as a hereditary surname in England, can be traced back at least to around 1370 in east Cheshire. It seems possible that it arrived there with the migration of the de Warenne affinity from East Anglia where the Plaunte name dates back, at least as a by-name, to 1262. Though the surname survived mostly around east Cheshire, there is also explicit evidence that the name was hereditary near de Warenne lands near Bath in Somerset by 1329, where it had been since c1280 when William Longspée's family were holding the subsequent de Warenne lordship of Charlton - the name Plenty is now clustered here and it likely derives from the earlier spelling Plente which may have been related to Plonte. Possible links to the name Plante in western France are tenuous, and the Y-DNA evidence indicates that the French-Canadian Plante family is not genetically related to the English Plant family.
Some facets of the Plant name...
- The DNA evidence indicates that the English Plant name is a single-ancestor surname.
- Possible explanation of the medieval distribution in England.
- Modern distribution of Plant-like names in France.
- Early settlers and distribution in the USA for the names Plant, Plantz, and Plantt.
- Early settlers in Canada called Plante and DuPlante.
In east Cheshire, in the Macclesfield court rolls (1349-1391), there is mention of panage of pigs for Honde Plonte at Lymme (adjoining the de Warenne seat at Poynton). Nearby at Rainow, there is mention of three generations of moderately wealthy, free tenants Ranulph Plont, John Plont snr, and John Plont jnr: clearly, the Plant name was by then hereditary. |
Coinciding with the de Warenne removal from East Anglia to east Cheshire, there is a 1352 complaint against 31 people with 26 different surnames for the removal of goods from de Warenne land in north Norfolk; and, seven of the surnames (or by-names) are found shortly after around Macclesfield in east Cheshire: Plont, Halle, Kent, Knyght, Lovell, Nichol, and Batiller (or Bataille). This suggests that the Plants may have arrived in east Cheshire with the de Warennes though the Y-DNA evidence has not proved that the East Anglian Plants were genetically related to the main Plant family of east Cheshire and north Staffordshire. |
In medieval times, the earliest known evidence for the Plant name in England is around Kent and Oxford in 1219 (spelling Plente) and around East Anglia by 1262 (spellings Plente and Plaunte), before the earliest known evidence for the name in east Cheshire (spellings Plonte and Plant) by the later 14th century. Though the name's 13th century origins were quite widely spread, it is associated in extant records with for example the general region around Norfolk. It seems that the name in the mid 14th century formed two main clusters:-
- secondary cluster:
- across the Wash from Norfolk around Ingoldmels in east Lincolnshire, from c1340; and,
- primary cluster:
- in east Cheshire, from c1360.
Even by 1380, there is evidence for the Plont name at Leek at Staffordshire's most northerly tip just to the south of east Cheshire. By early modern times, there is evidence of the Plant name further south into north Staffordshire (Staffordshire in 1532-3 and 1666).
A distribution map of pre-1700 Plants (as recorded in the 1984 IGI) shows the primary cluster in Cheshire and Staffordshire, as well as the secondary cluster in Lincolnshire. The IGI data, for 50 year intervals between 1600 and 1850, also suggests an early migration from Cheshire into Staffordshire, as displayed more fully in:-
- changing numbers in key UK counties between 1601 and 1850
- maps of the changing Plant distribution from 1601 to 1881.
Subsequently, by around the times of the Industrial Revolution, the secondary Plant cluster in Lincolnshire had diminished. For the primary cluster, it seems that there was a migration from the rural areas of east Cheshire and north Staffordshire, to such nearby industrial centres as Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton (both in Staffordshire), as well as to Manchester (Lancashire), Birmingham, Sheffield (south Yorkshire), and London.
Studies of the more recent distribution of the name in the UK show it to be smeared out around Staffordshire, with some migration to other places besides:-
- distribution of 1842-6 Deaths,
- distribution in 1881 UK Census (particularly reliable data), and
- modern UK distribution of Plants.
Plant Family History Group Homepage