The main Plant family in England, can be traced back fairly safely
to around 1380 in east Cheshire. Models for earlier origins to the
name can be considered in terms of two broad possibilities:
One simple interpretation of the Plant surname is that an early name form de la Planta might mean from la Plant in the Alps. There is no DNA evidence to support this however. The available DNA evidence indicates that the Plant surname identifies an unusually large male-line single family. Tentatively, this can be explained within a model of two intermingling cultures around the main Plant homeland: one with emphasis on primogeniture, with associated rules about the legitimacy of the male heir; and, the other more akin to the freer marital arrangements of the Welsh, in which polygyny was permissible and inheritance could pass to all sons including `illegitimate' ones. One might accordingly consider the Welsh meaning `children' of plant, which has a Celtic pronunciation cland, in keeping with possible ideas for a large male-line family or `clan'.
An interplay of two intermingling cultures, in the main fourteenth-century Plant homeland, is evident in the contemporary literature...
The context of the main Plant homeland is exemplified by French courtly chivalry invading more local customs. The parish of Leek is said to derive its name from the Welsh (llech) for `slab', `stone', or `rock' (sometimes confused with Old Scandinavian Loekr meaning brook) though its distinctive rocks are now called The Roaches (French), presumably because of the invading French culture.
In the early fourteenth-century illustration alongside, a courtly Knight delivers a lady from a wild-man (French tradition).
Celtic tradition is personified by the Green Knight of the main Plant homeland, which was astride the border between east Cheshire and north Staffordshire in the north-west midlands of England. In the late fourteenth-century epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight challenges Gawain to a beheading contest and arranges for his temptation (Celtic traditions) to test his chivalry (French tradition).
In the late fourteenth-century illustration alongside, Sir Bertilak's wife tries to tempt Sir Gawain.
Though the Plant surname survived mostly around Leek, near the Cheshire-Staffordshire border, there is explicit evidence that the name was hereditary near Bolingbroke in south Lincolnshire by 1279, and 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 might derive from an earlier spelling plente which may or may not have been associated with the early spelling Plonte.
Possible links between the main English Plant family and the surviving name Plante in western France are tenuous. In particular, the Y-DNA evidence indicates that the French-Canadian Plante family is not genetically related down intact male lines to the English Plant family though it is not clear whether the discontinuity arose before or after the formation of the Plant(e) name(s).
Some facets of the Plant name...
- The DNA evidence indicates that the English Plant name belongs mostly to an abnormally large single family, suggesting that the name might be a single-ancestor surname (with some mismatching descent through female links).
- Possible explanation of the medieval distribution in England in connection with the de Warennes.
- 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 in its main homeland. |
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 might 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 a `Plant-like' 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 fourteenth century. Though the name's earliest known origins in England were quite widely spread around thirteenth-century East Anglia, it's heritably is first known in south-east Lincolnshire. It seems that the name by the later fourteenth century formed two main clusters:-
- secondary cluster:
- astride the Wash from Norfolk to around Ingoldmels in east Lincolnshire; and,
- primary cluster:
- in east Cheshire and north Staffordshire.
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 furher south 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.
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