This family is my Mother’s father Ronald John Punchard (known to us grandchildren as Gramps) and his paternal line…
As part of my new layout for this blog, I am going to start each branch with an overview of the name, it’s origins and other peoples research where available.
Our Punchard family comes from Norfolk, sometimes wondering into Suffolk.
The name of Punchard appears first in England on the Roll of Battle Abbey, Holinshed, spells it Punchardoun, Duchesne and Stow as Punchardon and on the Dives Roll (the names are therefore merely those of Normans holding land in England in 1086, many of whom may have fought at Hastings) it is found as Pontchardon. This last form is the nearest to Pontcardon, a village close to Neuffla in Normandy where the family was noted in the 9th and 10th Centuries. Arthur Folkard is inclined to look for the origin in the name beyond that of the Norman town where it is first recorded and to see in it the relic of an office, rather than a locality. If so, its first intention was on of great importance – no less than the Keeper (warden) of the Bridge, as ‘pontifex’ means ‘the builder of the bridge’, so ‘ponte-chardon’ means its guardian’
This is from the “Guild of One name Studies” section on Punchard http://one-name.org/name_profile/punchard/
Study writer goes on to give : The original Norman name was de Punchardon and this contracted over the centuries to Punchardon, then Punchard. Variations mainly occuring due to dialect pronunciations being recorded in Church Registers and Index:
Puncher, Puncherd, Purnchard, Punshard , Ponchard
Also of interest, from the same site, confirms quite a small family,:
Name frequency: Between 1837 and 2001 there have been 1444 entries in the GRO Birth Index and between 1837 and 200 there have been 850 marriages in the GRO Marriage Index.
There is a village in Devon called Heanton Punchardon, it is situated directly east-southeast of the village of Braunton, in North Devon. The parish lies on the north bank of the estuary of the River Taw , but so far I have found no connection to the Devon Punchards.
The earliest Punchard found to date is William Punchard was born in 1610 in Hedenham, Norfolk. He married Lydia Tower on 20 June 1632 in his hometown. They had nine children in 16 years. He died in 1701 in his hometown at the impressive age of 91.
To put William’s life in perspective:
King James I – was king of Scotland until 1603, when he became the first Stuart king of England as well, creating the kingdom of Great Britain. (James Charles Stuart; b.19 June 1566 – d. 27 March 1625). James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII.
Publication of the King James Bible was in 1611, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England .
not just any family 