VINEYARD / WINYARD FAMILY HISTORY

Overview of previous research

Research commissioned by Barry Preddle in the 1990's established the Vineyard / Winyard line back to the the 1671 baptism of John Vinyard (son of Edward and Sarah Vinyard) in Covehithe, the 1675 baptism of his younger brother Edward Winyard in South Cove (which appears to name Edward senior's father as Robert), and the 1682 death of another brother James in Reydon and his subsequent burial at South Cove. A contemporary of the younger Edward was the Michael Viniard who married in Sibton in 1697, and it seems likely that the two lines are connected. Edward junior later moved with his parents to Frostenden where he subsequently brought up his own children.

A number of the parishes in our area of interest are covered by the IGI, including Frostenden (1538-1813), Wrentham (1602-1875), South Cove (1538-1812), Covehithe (1574-1876), Benacre (1727-1875), Reydon (1712-1876), Brampton (1739-1875) and Bramfield (1539-1875). In addition, several of the available early registers have been searched for Vineyards, including Uggeshall (from 1558), Sotherton (1558) and Southwold (1602, including Winyard). There are also a number of parishes where the registers only begin after 1670 and so can shed no light on the earlier origins, including Wangford (1678 baptisms, 1696 marriages, searched) and Blythburgh (1690 marriages for Vineyard), and the following not searched for the families - Easton Bavents (1727), Blyford (1695), Wenhaston (1687) and Dunwich (1672). There are a number of additional local parishes with early registers which would probably be fruitful to review, including Stoven (1653), Henstead (1539), Sotterley (1557), Walberswick (1656), Thorington (1561), Sibton (1557), Yoxford (1559), Darsham (1536), and Westleton (1545). A transcript of Wrentham monumental inscriptions was also checked. Finally, Boyd's Marriage Index for Suffolk was checked (for Vineyard only, 1676-1725). Currently unconnected early entries include John s/o Michael & Christian Vineyarde (bap 5 Dec 1624, Wrentham) and Richard Vinyard (servant of Sir John Rous Bart, buried 12 May 1679 Wangford).

Suffolk will indices were searched for 1444-1857 (Vineyard only) yielding early wills for Alice Vynyard (1558 Lowestoft) and John Vinyard/Vyniarde (1625 Gorleston, north of Lowestoft).

The 1525 and 1568 lay subsidies for Suffolk (which have been transcribed, indexed, and published) were also searched for all variants of the names. The 1524 subsidy included 12 Venour, Venyour and Vener, which may represent an unconnected name such as Viner, but no Vineyard, Winyard or near variants. The pattern in 1568 was similar, with 6 Venyor, Venier, Venyer and Venyor and one Wyard, mostly in Wangford hundred.

A range of manorial records survive for the Manor of North Hales with Cove (and later South Cove) covering the period from 1386, and are held at Ipswich Record Office, but these have not been searched.

This page was last updated 28 April 2003